Monday August 14, 2017
We have prevailed
Underway at 0605 from Hoppies for a long eleven hours underway
getting to Grafton Harbor Marina in Grafton, IL on the first miles of the
Illinois River. Along the way we were
making mostly 5-plus MPH until we got into the Chain of Locks Canal after Lock
27 a while after we observed the Gateway Arch in all its splendor. This several mile long canal, open at the
north end to the Mississippi takes vessels around the impassable Chain of Rocks
rapids just to the north of downtown St Louis; so being stoppered at the bottom
by the lock, there is no current. As we
had been losing coolant from the engine for several days, and I thought I had
resolved the issue, I had been looking for an opportunity to pull the radiator
cap for a level check after several hours of running. Since there was no traffic in sight in either
direction, I coasted to a stop and stopped the engine, popped open the hatch
and pulled the radiator cap. Sure
enough, I needed to add a quart of so of distilled water. Done with that, I hit the starter button to a
resounding silence. What?! Mary who was not in favor of this evolution
from the get-go was to say the least not impressed. I popped down to check out the starter area
and was in the process of troubleshooting when I realized during one of my
trips out of the engine room that now we were drifting slowly toward the rocky
edge of the canal. Dropping the anchor
was a possibility, but then we would have been in the way of any towboats with
wide barge loads transiting the canal. I
knew there were none coming up from the lock, but now way off in the distance
to the north, I could see a tow coming down the canal. It was time to stop trouble shooting. I called back to the lock and told them we
were without power, and they immediately called to a Velda Taylor. Who? I
looked around and saw a small tug up the canal a ways working with some barges
and with binoculars was able to read its name, Velda Taylor. I figured the quick thinking lock master had
seized upon the only quickly available asset for help and sure enough, in a
minute she came back on the line and told me to shift to the working frequency
of the Taylor. They quickly untangled
themselves from whatever they were doing and ran down to us and took us
alongside and placed us alongside a nearby empty barge before getting back to
whatever they were doing. Now alone
again and secure, I grabbed the volt meter and prepared to do battle with the
reluctant starter and or its solenoid.
At some point I found myself over by the helm looking at the shut off
engine battery cutout switch. It is
located out of the line of easy vision, and since some modifications to the
battery cable runs to fix the earlier battery charging problem, has not been a
regular part of the engine start sequence.
It must be on to start the engine, but it does not have to remain on for
the engine to keep running. Apparently
after we got underway, I inadvertently hit the switch lever shutting it off while
reaching down to change over from shore to generator power when Mary wanted the
generator on to power the microwave to heat her coffee water – so it was all
her fault. Anyway, the switch now in the
proper position we were started and on our way in a twinkling with effusive
thanks to the Taylor and the lock master.
Next we exited the canal back into the Mississippi for another several
hours until we arrived at the Melvin Price Lock and Dam, which only delayed us
about 45 minutes. We then watched the land
on the Illinois side rise up to become tall tan limestone cliffs with a road
running along their bases. We finally
exited the Mississippi and ran another mile or two on the Illinois to arrive at
Grafton Harbor in the tiny tourist trap town of Grafton, IL clinging to the
river side at the foot of some steep hills at the north end of the bluffs we
had watched for miles. After all that,
the run as an hour less than I had originally estimated. We will be here several days while I get a
tech to come verify the correct installation of the new AIS transponder due in
here tomorrow by Fedex. There are also a
pair of generator glow plugs headed here, which should make starting the genny a
much quicker affair.
