09-04-09 Ottawa, IL Heritage Harbor Marina

We made no attempt to get up early and get underway from Spring Brook Marina as the next stop is to be Heritage Harbor, a mere 10 miles away. Spring Brook is the 33rd largest marina in the US and is the dealer for Marquis, Carver, Sea Ray, and other models. The yard is huge. The river was pretty as we left.

We passed through the Marseilles Lock. This one was interesting in that the fall was 23 feet and the lock supplied lines to hold on while you went down. Luckily, we arrived just in time to go through, as some boats wait hours to go through. Keep in mind that recreational vessels have the lowest priority to go through the lock, with commercial the highest priority. Sometime, it takes a tow boat 2 hours to go through the lock. This was lock 78 on the trip, with about 40 more to go.

We locked through with a large catamaran. We found that we had met the people on it in Little Current. It is a 44 ft Endeavour and would be a dream boat to do the loop or to live aboard.

We arrived at Heritage Harbor about 1130. This will one day be a great development with houses, condos, etc., but for now, just the marina is complete. The marina is great, nice floating docks; pump out at each slip, very high speed wifi, and restaurant on site. It is managed by a man, Capt Moe, who did the loop in 2004-2005. The charge for loopers is only $1.25 per foot. The marina supplies a courtesy car since the town is about 4 miles away. We went to Wal-Mart and stocked up.

Several of our friends arrived later in the day, having been through the carpal tunnel and paying the $600. More will arrive tomorrow, as most of us wait out the Labor Day weekend. The marina is to have a huge picnic with live music on Sunday Night. We can’t wait.

We heard a strange clicking sound on the dock. It turned out to be a fish eating the algae and scum off the floating dock. He was sideways, working his way down the dock, eating away and making the noise.

Since this is a new month, some of you will be interested in statistics. These can be found on the www.betsyrick.com webpage under the Log Book Tab on the left side of the page. Just look at the top of page 1.