The trip down the river on the 14th and 15th has not been that pleasurable. Let me start by saying that when we are boating or sailing, weather is the number one thing to follow closely. The flooding on this part of the Illinois River is incredible. Water is well over the flood stage. That’s good because we’re less likely to run aground. Last Mango needs at least 4 1/2 feet to float without running aground. Also the high water makes the current run faster which helps lessen my fuel consumption (currently .46 gallons per hour @ 2400rpm). The downside of the high water is the amount of debris in the water makes it somewhat stressful to be motoring down the river. I told Karen it reminds me of the video game Frogger. Almost constantly having to dodge logs, tree branches and tires.
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| Tree branches and more. |
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| More Debris. |
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| More Pictures of Flooding. |
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| Flooded dam. We get to pass right over it without locking. Hurray! |
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| Picture Maury and Sandy from S/V Senior Moment took of us. |
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| Forgotten Carp photo. |
9/14 We spent the night at Beardstown tied up to a Logston Tug and Tow Service barge. It was a bumpy night but the people at Logston put us just downstream of a barge that shielded the hull of Last Mango from the flotsam. After sitting out morning storms we left Beardstown at noon and anchored just north of Buckhorn Island. Appears quiet and out of the way. Still no fish on the shrimp and I have no hotdogs. Should be in Grafton in the early afternoon if all goes well. Hopefully the Mississippi River will be open of pleasure craft soon.
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| Last Mango Tied up to Barge in Beardstown. |
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| Barge and Crane Preventing Debris from Hitting us. |
9/16 We arrived in Grafton shortly after 3pm after staying out of the way of several Tows. The debris was not nearly as bad as the past 2 days. Karen is very happy to be tied in a marina for a few days. The sun came out at 4pm and it got warm enough for shorts and tee shirts. We think we’ll spend a week here, rent a car and go to St. Louis.
9/17 We woke this morning after a restful nights sleep to sunshine. How nice it is to see the sun in the morning. Unfortunately that only lasted about an hour. Rain on and off all morning into the afternoon. Hope for sun tomorrow. Noticed the water is receding, I’m seeing more and more grass where there was just water yesterday. We noticed the bilge pump was cycling more than normal and tried tightening the shaft packing to no avail. I will purchase some packing while we’re out and install. While speaking with Loopers coming in today we heard a real anchoring horror story. While they were anchored last night a 14 inch log came floating down the river and caused their anchor to pull away. They were fortunate to drift between 2 other boats and not hit or damage anything. They stated the debris was bad but getting better.
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| Our Beautiful Buckhorn Island Anchorage. |
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| Last Mango Passing a Tow. Hard to Believe. |
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| Look at that speed. 9.3. Fastest yet. |
By the way just so everyone knows we don’t have cell service and haven’t for several days. Verizon has been pretty good except for the lower Illinois River. Also, my (John) cell number that I’ve had for years is no longer valid. Sorry, that phone was school district owned. Call on Karen’s line.
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