Saturday Night in Grafton, IL

2020-10-17 admin Comments 0 Comment

17-OCT-2020 Saturday – Sterling Island, Elsberry MO (~UMR mile 251) to Grafton Harbor, Grafton IL (IL WW mile 0) 29.7 nautical miles (~34.2 statute miles)

*Illinois Waterwater (IL WW)

38°58’04.7″N 90°26’19.7″W
38.967982, -90.438794
Elevation: 413 feet
Total Elevation Change: 20 feet

Locks (1)
Lock 25 – mile 241, Winfield, MO

States (2)
Illinois, Missouri

Good Morning!

This little anchorage was tagged as a hurricane hole. (aka place to shelter in high winds)

A “seaman’s eye” is one of the best navigational tools. We anchored where the depth marker is on the below chart. Chart read 0-1 feet and the depth finder briefly read 577 feet. The water depth was really about 8 feet.

It was a great little anchorage to escape the wind.

Along the Way

These would be normal houses in any Minnesota neighbor IF they didn’t have the legs.

Land owners. Not quite like cabins on one of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes.

Fruitl, IL Golden Eagle Ferry. It carries a maximum of 15 cars, 3×5. Ferries are still used in places where bridges are needed and local traffic is not busy enough to cost justify it.

WOO WOO!! Grafton IL! This is where we enter America’s Great Loop.

Looking at the day use marina from our end cap dock slip. This marina is hopping stop.

It takes a lot of wind to fly this flag. It’s 21 mph again today.

OMG. They beat us here. How did that happen???

First on the agenda after checking in was clean the boat. Dale swabbed the decks and I worked on the inside and bright work.

Long walk to our slip at the waaaaaay end.

Cool floaties

Saturday night in Grafton IL

The Loading Dock Bar. This bar would have been a ‘COVID-19 super spreader’ if not for the 21 mph wind. There was a huge wedding reception going on, about 5 bachelorette parties and 2 or 3 birthday parties.