Part 2.
So we unhooked from Grebe's dock on Tuesday, Sept. 18th at 0810. through the North Branch back downtown, down the South Branch to the Sanitary and Ship Canal which was joined by the Des Plaines River just above Joliet and into Joliet where we died up at the sea wall in the Will-Joliet Park at 1700. (42 river miles) We were met by Jay and Peter and happily so, as this is in a rather questionable part of town I was told. Peter had a brother-in-law on the police force and it was requested that the squads drop by during the night to check on us, which they did. Part of the terror came this first day as we had to negotiate through the barge marshaling yards near Lemont. They are very intimidating, being so big. Had to pass through two with 30' clearance between them, and I'm 13'6 wide. Scared to death - almost! Cleared our 2nd lock at Lockport (first one was coming out of the lake ages ago) with no problems. The dock people furnished mooring lines. Drop of 38.3'.
Due to sloppy docking at Will-Joliet I damage the toe rail at the #1 stantion, port side. Still have a lot to learn, apparently.
Sept. 19th we departed Will-Joliet at 0638, and passed through the Brandon Locks at 0732. A drop of 34'. Used the same mooring line arrangement as at Lockport.
Things were going reasonably well, when at day mark 274, just at the bend in the river opposite Dresden Heights, a tow with barges came around the bend. Camilla suggest I give it full throttle to ensure we would not be drawn off line while traversing the tow's wake. As I did this, a propeller shat collar broke, just aft of the thrust bearing. This, of course, was serious as the result is a loss of prop thrust. As luck or my guardian angels would have it, ( I lean toward the latter) we were able to coast into a mooring at the Harborside Marina, were we secured by tying up to a small dock and some trees on shore. The marina sent out a small pontoon tow boat to haul us into a better berth. While they were doing this, I was trying to help with the auxiliary OB to little effect. They tog the speed up too much coming in and we damaged the toe rail again in the same area. Not used to towing such a heavy craft, I guess. Camilla who was ashore, had quite a discussion with the dock hand about casting off a mooring line which she had secured, all the while we are majestically gliding towards a fiberglass cabin cruiser. I had visions of sawing same in half unless we got Tookey stopped! Camilla finally prevailed and got us secured just in time.
This was the only marina on the river with a complete machine shop, lathe, milling machine, etc. Wayne, the machinist turned out a new shaft collar from shaft stock and attached it to the intermediate shaft. We stayed overnight and after installing the shaft we took off on Friday, Sept. 21st. Also, my guardian angels again arranged for Peter Collins to show up with two friends from his marina which was about a mile away, to give the and install a whip antenna so we could use our larger radio, as the hand held was giving us some trouble in holding the transmit button in. Of was an ex-navy man whose specialty was electronics. Talk about friends in need!
So we press on - we pass through the Dresden Lock at 0900, past Morris, IL., through the Marseilles Lock at 1413 arriving at the Starved Rock Marina at 1630. Lovely Place.
More fun to follow. Part 3
