Village of Hennepin!

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's)

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 159 - September 6, 2017

Today was actually a pretty good day, although it got off to a little bit of a rocky start at the Marseilles Lock! Our destination for the day was the Village of Hennepin free dock, about 40 miles down the river, with two locks between us and our destination.

We left Spring Brook Marina about 8:00 a.m. this morning, and got to the Marseilles Lock about 8:20 a.m. There were no other boats there. When we called the lock master, he told us they had to fill the chamber and that would take about 45 minutes. After an hour, the lock master called us and said they were having some difficulties, and if we saw the gates opening, it would only be a test, but he would call us when everything was ready for us to enter the lock. Finally, he called and told us to enter the lock. We got in and tied to a floating bollard. We heard the lock staff going back and forth on the VHF. Question: "Do you have power?" Answer: "No." Question: "Do you have power?" Answer" "Yes." Anyway, finally they got the lock valves open and we started going down! The whole locking process took about an hour and a half, and we had only gone a couple of miles since leaving the Spring Brook Marina!

The river current is really helping us, both in terms of speed and economy. We still are not a "fast" boat, but the difference between 6.5 mph and 8 mph is noticeable, and according to the Navman fuel flow meter, we are only sipping the fuel. I'm not sure how far it was, but it was about 11:30 a.m. when we got to the Starving Rock Lock. As we were approaching, two tows were coming out, and the lock master told us to come right in! We are getting much better at getting our line around the floating bollard, holding Daydream in tight, and getting the line off the floating bollard when the horn blows to signal it is OK to exit the lock! 

It was easy cruising down the river. We passed several tows going the opposite direction, and once again passed Cody Boyd going the same direction. We now know the name of each tug we encounter thanks to the AIS, and we always try to contact them on the VHF to coordinate passing. Mostly they respond and are very polite. A couple of tugs did not respond, which caused us to wonder if our VHF was working, but of course it was. One captain asked us not to pass for a bit, since there were some tight curves he had to negotiate, but then suggested that if we could pass outside the main channel with a shallow draft, that is, on the wrong side of the channel markers, that would be OK. We did that, and at one point the depth was down to four feet, but we got by the tow just fine!

Even with the hour and a half delay at Marseilles, we arrived at the Village of Hennepin about 3:00 p.m., and got into a slip at the free dock. There is no power or water here, but there are trash bins and a restroom! The big City of Joliet with a population of nearly 150,00 could not put a public restroom in their showcase Bicentennial Park, and the little Village of Hennepin, population 692, has a public restroom! To be precise as possible, Hennepin has a grocery / hardware store, a marine supply store, a bank, a post office, a laundromat, and three taverns! Everything a boater could want!

Daydream at Village of Hennepin free dock

Our first order of business was to head up to the laundromat, the marine supply store, and the grocery store. After we got the clothes in the washing machine, we headed down to the marine supply store. We have been in desperate need of more fenders since our disastrous night in St. Joseph on Lake Michigan. They had a good supply of Taylor Made fenders, and the gal started telling me about the lifetime warranty, and how we could take the Taylor Made fenders to any Taylor Made retailer if they ever failed to hold air. We originally had six Taylor Made fenders of 2005 vintage but had lost three somewhere along the line. I went back down to the boat and brought our three remaining Taylor Made fenders in, since none of them can be properly inflated any longer. They replaced them for no charge, just exactly as advertised! We bought three more, since we figured we had good use for them. The replacements were smaller than our original fenders, but that was OK. We now have four large black fenders, and six smaller black fenders. Patty went to the grocery store while I headed back down to the dock to rig our fender boards on both sides with the new fenders.

Our friend C-Brat friend Harvey has astutely observed that the way I had fastened the cords to the fender boards with the cords through holes in the 2x4s left the cords subject to chafing when the boards were against the concrete wall of a lock or free wall. I checked, and sure enough, the chafing had already compromised some of the cords. So I drilled new holes in the rubber dock fenders that are on the back sides of the fender boards and attached the cords there so they would not rub against the concrete walls. I then hung four of the new fenders behind the fender boards, two on each side, so we should be well fendered whichever wall the lock master sends us to!

New method of attaching cord to fender board to avoid chaffing, thanks Harvey!

Starboard fender board rigged with new fenders

Back on Daydream for our sundowners, we saw some large birds on the shore next to the dock. We are curious what they are, we thought perhaps turkey vultures or something, but if anybody knows, please tell us!

Can you identify this bird?

The tows just keep coming by our dock here, we think they run 24/7, but they run pretty slow and do not seem to throw a big wake. In fact, the biggest wake we have taken here was from a little fishing boat that took off out of here like a bat out of Hell!

Tomorrow on to Peoria! There are no locks tomorrow, and it should be an easy run!