Flying Fish

The next stage of our journey takes us down to the Gulf Coast via the Illinois, Upper Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. Along the Illinois we have stopped in the small towns of Joliet, Ottawa, Beardstown and Grafton. We visited the Old City Hall of Beardstown and Lloyd sat in the judge’s seat in the courtroom where Abe Lincoln practiced as a Lawyer in the late 1850s. Lloyd also tried the bunks for size in the jailhouse in the basement. He preferred the upstairs accommodation more.

At the end of our day in Beardstown we moved on as we only had 22 miles to the next anchorage. It was busy on the water and we had to negotiate a lot of barge traffic. It was dark when we pulled into McGee Creek. As we edged forward into the creek we startled the fish and a 25inch long Asian Carp leapt out of the water and straight into the pilothouse where it flapped wildly. Alice screamed and jumped onto the dashboard. John filletted the fish on the spot. When the excitement had died down and Alice had managed to get off the chart table, we re-set the anchor for the night. We needed to get further out of the main channel of the Illinois River before a 15 barge tow came our way at midnight.

Our next day was just as eventful. When John pulled over to photograph an historic paddle steamer, the carp started jumping on to the boat again. They are really big fish. They flap and jump, leaving blood and scales all over the deck and walls. They are too fat to slip back out through the scuppers so I have to catch them in order to throw them overboard. Having now had to deal with a dozen carp, we are over this form of fishing and no longer have any interest in eating the fillets already in the chilly bin.

Lake Michigan

We joined the Navy to see the sea, but what did we see...

We saw Lake Michigan...

and it was beautiful.

Extreme Weather Forecasts, Small Craft Advisories, High Wind Warnings and Hazardous Weather Alerts are all VHF radio messages that get our attention. They encourage us to hurry along to the next safe harbour. There is no need to be out on the water when the wind is gusting at 25 knots and the waves are five to eight feet high.

We had concerns about Lake Michigan which is over 300 miles long and 100 miles wide but found that the weather settled in the later part of August. We had glorious conditions as we motored down the lake. It was Chuck, the Customs man at Drummond Island who said that it is a wonderful sight to see the Great Lakes 'lie down' and this is exactly what Michigan did for us.

We capped off our Michigan adventures with ten days at Monroe Harbour in downtown Chicago. The music festivals, shows, museums, public scultpure, art and architecture are amazing. Chicago was another highlight in our year of travels.