Tuesday/Wednesday August 15/16, 2017
Seeing the country
Tuesday was spent wandering around the local countryside of Jersey
County, Illinois as we traveled 12 miles down beside the river on the road between
the steep bluffs and the water to Alton.
Why Alton, you say? Well, because
there is a quilt shop there, of course.
Our mode of transportation is the beast of a marina courtesy van, a
Dodge 3500 15-passenger job. It is quite
a climb for Mary to get in. From Alton,
after a most satisfying Steak and Shake meal we were off to Jerseyville to
visit the ever popular Wally World and a local grocery. The new AIS module and the new/used generator
glow plugs arrive by FEDEX. I immediately
installed the glow plugs, a short, easy job, and the generator now starts much
quicker. We had a so-so dinner at the
Oyster Bar Restaurant over the marina office/store.
Today, we got our visit early on from the DataTronics technician for
the purpose of installing the replacement AIS module. We unwrapped the box from the vendor
together, and I had him crawl into the flying bridge console to install it with
its six connections. In a few minutes,
we had an operating AIS, and he made no changes to my initial wiring. The tech told m that his company usually restricts itself to servicing US Coast Guard and commercial vessels and that the only reason he was sent was because his boss thought we were the Coast Guard buoy tender PATHFINDER which we passed in St Louis coming up here. Once he committed to sending a tech, he felt honor-bound to carry through with it despite discovering our true identity.
Next up, after Mary gets done with her shower and laundry, will be
another death defying trip in the beast to Jerseyville for some miscellaneous
errands.
The next dam we must pass through is the La Grange Dam 80 miles from here. Its lock is in poor repair and will be closed
daily from 6 AM to 5 PM for repairs vastly completing river transit for all
concerned. I called the lock tender
today and voiced my concerns. His
response was that the workers are taking a noon break and that was when they
were sending through the recreational vessels probably because locking smaller
vessels goes faster than the big tows and can be done during a lunch break. Our Current plan is for us the leave Grafton
here at mile 1 or 2 on the Illinois and to anchor at the 57-mile mark overnight
so that we can get underway in the morning for the easy 23-mile run to the lock
at mile 80 to arrive before noon. urrent is expected to be lots less than on the Mississippi.
