Hey Gang,
Friday night was our first adventure anchoring on the trip so far. Hard to believe that we could go 2 months without anchoring. The trips from Chicago to Joliet & Joliet to Ottawa, alerted us that we needed to reduce our miles traveled per day due to the delays at the locks. Otherwise our intended days of 5-6 hours turned into 9-10 hours, and very tired Loopers. You would not think that you could get so tired driving a boat, but you do !
The trip from Ottawa to Henry Illinois was filled with Locks, Fishin’ Boats, Duck Hunting Blinds, Nice Scenery, and a beautiful night time Anchorage.
The trip Friday was our first time docking at the “Mooring Cells” outside of the locks. We had previously been idling outside of the locks waiting for them to open and allow entry. This creates fatigue attempting to keep the boat in one area with the wind & current pushing the boat around. The lockmaster at Starved Rock Lock indicated that they were having trouble with a northbound tow in the lock, and the wait would be over an hour. So we and other Loopers tied to the mooring cells.
As we moved past the lock, the scenery became filled with Fishin’ Boats & home made Duck Blinds.
The scenery was again very cool.
Was Columbus correct, it looks like we are going to fall off the ledge ahead.
We arrived at the Anchorage about 5pm Friday night. It was a place recommended by Active Captain. It was just past the north tip of “Henry Island”, just off of the primary sailing line of the Illinois River shown in white.
Our fist anchorage was AWESOME.
Not so incredibly beautiful, but very serene.
The setting was very quiet, all you could hear were crickets chirping & fish jumping. Nellie saw a deer on the shoreline, Mike missed it.
gettinlooped2017.com 
Beautiful pics
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