Day 131 The Odyssey to Joliet

What a crazy day - where do I begin? Woke up to sun and calm seas so we headed down to Calumet River which runs through the industrial area of Chicago. This flows into the Chicago Sanitation and Shipping Canal. It was a wise choice to navigate this part of the journey on a Sunday when most of the barges and ships were idle. Since we got an early start, we had few encounters with tugs, barges and such. However, a couple of the boats that left the marina with after us had to do some maneuvering to get past some of the congested areas. Bridges are frequent on the river - we traversed 52 today. Some tall, some not so much. Some open, some fixed. We went under one before the first lock with inches to spare. We passed a couple of beautiful spillway waterfalls in park like settings. Encountered hundreds of seagulls sitting on the water - not sure what that company was pumping into the river. At mile 37, we entered the permanent electrical barrier where you cannot put any appendage in the water for fear of electrocution. The purpose of this area is to prevent the spread of invasive fish species. Well, we lived through all of that and things were going pretty much on schedule until we hit the second lock. At 2pm, we were 3 miles away from our destination for the night and this is where the craziness began. The lock master had to let 2 tugboats pushing 10 and 12 barges each go ahead of us and that took forever. Commercial traffic takes priority over pleasure craft.  He told us to tie up at the wall and wait. So we waited. . . and waited . . . and waited while 6 more boats joined us and we knew 2 more were enroute. As it was approaching 7pm, I decided to go start dinner and was resigned to spend the night there since yet another barge was entering the lock. Then suddenly John yells, "we're going!" The barge had granted us and the other 6 boats permission to join him in the lock. Then 2 more trawlers show up including our friends on Seawolf. After John dodged logs and garbage in the water, we were first and tied up to the barge which made for an easy 40' drop. They did all the work and we just dropped with them. Left the lock as dusk was approaching and had to raise 4 bridges in a row to get to the free city wall. One of the bridges wouldn't open with the rest so we got all bunched up. When we got through the last bridge, 9 boats were scrambling for a spot on the wall with a big current and no order. Three Canadian "angels", who were already on the wall, ran around tying off lines for everyone. I can't even describe the frenzied scene. It was harrowing, but all of us fit on the wall with inches to spare. By this time it was dark, finished cooking our dinner then celebrated our survival with Seawolf and some new friends on Free Bird. A long, exciting 13 hour day.