Patience October 2, 2008

We said goodbye to Heritage Harbor, a nice marina with a stalled land development community three miles above Ottawa, and headed 35 miles to Hennepin, a small town with grain elevators and barges/pushers. Only one Lock today (thank goodness) nine miles down at Starved Rock. We started off early before our tandam partner Linda and Jack in Cynthia Faye. When we got within a few miles of the Lock, we slowed down to idle to wait for Cynthia Faye. We followed the barge/pusher Tony Pepper into the holding area.


Perhaps you can imagine that a boat this long would not fit into a Lock and needed to be divided!








Three and one half hours later we left the lock. Now that is a record and not the kind we wanted to make. First a very large barge came up. It had been separted to get it into the lock. We watched them drag half out and then pushed the second half out and hooked them together. That took over an hour and a half. As it headed northward, the waiting barge entered the lock. We hoped that there would be room for us. No way. We watched it go down. Then another barge come up. In the mean time another south bound barge had arrived. I don't know who was looking out for us but at that point (3 hours), we were told to enter the lock. We think the barge captain gave his okay for us to go before him. We left through a very small hole at the bottom end of the lock and a waiting northbound barge. We were so happy to get that Lock behind us!









The next 25 miles Catrina chugged along at 8 to 9 miles an hour thanks to a good current. An hour and a half out we passed the first barge that had left the Lock 3 hours before us!







Today there was an increased amount of water in the river. Trees stood along the banks in water. Fields along the river were covered with water. We were concerned that the free docks at Hennepin might have been washed away. As we motored, we watched carefully for floating logs and limbs. This is supposed to prepare Debbie for the Mississippi!





Finally, at four we reached Hennepin and found the floating docks intact. Workers were grading the shore adjacent to the docks. It was our suspicion that the water level had finally descended to the point that grading was possible. Today Debbie learned how to moor in a strong current and how to motor with autopilot on a curvy river.




Hennepin is a one block town. It has a Laundry, Hardware Store, Restaurant/Bar. Three blocks inland is the Courthouse with a Children's play area in the front yard and a Post Office across the street. We had one of our best dinners in the Restaurant with Soup, Salad, Main Course (three meats, pototoes, vegetables and spagetti) and Pudding and Fruit dessert all for $10 each. Jack was looking for home cooking and he sure found it!




The one drawback to this free dockage were the barges that came in for a few hours to leave garbage and restock. Their wake would rock our boat and sometimes pullng our disc off the satellite enough to cancel what the Vice Presidental Candidates were saying!











This Pusher's company Florida Marine Transport. We passed it earlier in the day and then it stopped by during the night to restock!


























































Above is the Florida Marine Transport that we passed earlier in the day. The Pusher came into Hennepin to Restock right next to us!