Day 7 – September 26 – Quiver Island Anchorage

The cold front arrived during the night and it was a crisp clear sunny morning as we left the IVY Club with fellow Loopers Restless Wind. We first met Restless Wind when they stayed over at P dock in Burnham Harbor in Chicago after having started their journey from Wisconsin. We made our way through Peoria and arrived at the Peoria lock to be informed that we would have a 2.5 hour wait. There is no place to tie off at this lock, so it was anchor time. I must confess that anchor (or “being on the hook”) training was the one area that Mark and I did not practice as much as maybe we should have before we left Chicago, but hey how hard can it be?...Seriously, we have anchored before – it is just that we could have practiced more to better acquaint ourselves with the new equipment on this boat.
Let me back up a little here and tell the story about the electric windlass (motor that raises and lowers the anchor) that lives on this Lolligag. When we had the old Lolligag we did not have a windlass (electric or otherwise) – we just had the wench (me) who had to hoist the anchor manually. Most of the time that was okay, it is just that at times the anchor was really hard to dislodge and I had a hard time raising it. Also when we would anchor in Lake Michigan we would often use as much as 300 feet of anchor rode (rope) and hauling in that much wet, slimy, icky line is not my idea of a good time. SO, when it came time to put together the wish list for the new boat, I INSISTED that we have a windless. I would have a settled for a manual windlass – where the wench actually uses a winch – but an electric one was my first choice. Luckily, for me (and subsequently Captain Mark) the new Lolligag came equipped with a very nice electric windlass.

So now we are at the Peoria lock and I go out to lower the anchor. It won’t move. I step on the pedal and it still won’t move. Captain Mark says “Oh, I forgot to give you this “thing” to turn the spokes manually to get the anchor going at little bit before you use the foot pedal”. So I go into the helm, get the handle like thingy and put it on one of the spokes of the windlass. I roll the anchor forward a little bit but the chain still will not budge. I step on the pedal, the anchor starts to lower and the handle like thingy literally flies off the front of the boat and splashes into the water. I just stood there and watched it sink…I turned to Mark to try to convince him that the handle like thingy just wanted to escape and that I could not prevent it from fleeing once it had the chance…Captain Mark did not buy my story, but he just laughed as I tried to wiggle my way out of just being careless. While we were waiting, I actually had Internet and cellular service, so I ordered another handle like thingy – in fact I ordered two more because I am sure that I will probably drop another one into the water before our journey is finished.

Now they say that things happen in a set of threes and today proved that theorem for us. I was still obsessing about having lost the handle like thingy so that when we entered the lock (finally) I forgot to lower the mid-ship fender. We scraped the lock wall slightly but luckily it was a small nudge on the rub-rail and no mark or scratch was made to the boat. Now I am batting two for two in the error department and I am beginning to wonder what terrible thing I can do next to mess up this day…


We head downriver with fellow Loopers Knot Home and Restless Wind with the plan that Knot Home would head to a marina while Restless Wind and we anchored out at Quiver Island. I was really excited about anchoring out because it just seemed to like a cool thing to do and it was totally free. I do like stopping at marinas but they can be really expensive night after night, so the idea of saving some money appealed to the cheapskate side of me. About 4p we arrived at the spot in the river where we would turn back upstream to go in behind Quiver Island. Very slowly Mark made the turn and almost immediately we watched as the water level below us dropped to less than 2 feet. Our boat draws (the measurement of the water below the boat) about 42 inches, so 2 feet of water means we were in big do-do, BIG TIME. Cool heads prevailed and we quickly determined that the bow (front) of the boat was lodged but that the stern (back) of the boat was free and was in about 5 feet of water. So Mark decided to use the dinghy to see if he could pull us backward off the sandbar. It is about this time that our problems really began in earnest…First of all our worst mistake at this point was that Mark forgot to put on his headphones when he got into the dinghy. I could not hear him or his instructions which frustrated us both and added to the stress of getting us unstuck. His efforts to pull the boat backward were not successful and we did not budge at all. So he decided to take the dinghy to the front of the boat and try pushing us back. I was at the helm and VERY SLOWLY put the boat in reverse, neutral, reverse, neutral, reverse as Mark used the power of the dinghy motor to push us backward. It was difficult for me to tell if we were moving due to the current in the river but slowly but surely we made our way off the sandbar. Just about this time Restless Wind came around the bend in the river and stayed with us until we were certain that we were free, which we were at this point. Now to add more drama to this event, a tug boat pushing six barges was coming by us at this time. The barges themselves do not cause a troublesome wake but the tug creates a churning wake and we knew that Mark needed to get back onto the boat or at least tie the dinghy securely to our boat until the waters calmed. Mark got back onto the Lolligag just in the nick of time.

As I raised the dinghy back in place I was finally able to take my heart out of my throat and let my stomach calm down. I think what scared me the most was not getting stuck but the fact that Mark and I were not able to communicate effectively and I did not know what he was planning to do. After we successfully anchored in the proper spot, we discussed what happened and we both agreed that NO MATTER WHAT, neither of us go outside the boat without our headphones on from now on – no exceptions!



We invited Paul and Emy from Restless Wind over for dinner. Their company and friendship greatly calmed us down. As the evening became darker and the night sounds began to prevail, I came to realize what a wonderful experience it was to “be on the hook”. The bright full moon and dark sky full of stars filled me with wistful and dreamy thoughts.


Waking up the next morning put all my fears of the previous day to rest.
Mist had formed on the river and the setting was like in a movie with an almost surreal feel to it. How can anything so beautiful, calm and scenic every be a problem?



Hours on the water: 8.25 hours
Nautical miles traveled: 43
Number of locks: 1
Time spent waiting at locks: 2.5 hours
Tomorrow's Destination: Railroad Bridge Anchorage
We are listening to: Three to Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich
Lesson for the day: Headphones are required!
Obligatory knitting report: Mittens for Wunder Kids