On to Henry, Peoria and our first close call with a grounding.

September 24 through September 25 (Click on the images to see and scroll them in full size)

Bright and early we left for Henry, our destination for the night. Only one lock today and an anchorage behind Lower Henry Island. But as we pulled out of the harbor we had our first encounter with the dreaded Asian Carp. As we left the slip, I heard this horrendous banging and crashing from the back of the boat and Christine said we had an uninvited guest on board. An Asian Carp had jumped into the boat and REALLY wanted out. I grabbed him and tossed him back because I was kind of busy running the boat. But I vowed if we had another one they were going to get filleted and in my belly! We had one hit the side door of Patriot later that day and we were lucky the door was closed. Yes, Christine, by her own admission screamed like a little girl.

That night we anchored behind Lower Henry Island and were reminded of how critical Jeremy's briefing at Heritage Harbor was. We joined another boat in the anchorage and found out that they had grounded the day before on a sand bar that extended 1,000 feet to the south of the island that we knew about ONLY because of the Heritage Harbor briefing. This anchorage was one of the most beautiful and peaceful that I have ever been in. Just one of may that I am sure we will be experiencing of the next 11 months.

The Peoria docks that we were promised actually ended up being an abandon marina in downtown Peoria. After we got everyone tied up, our little group including crew of Cavu and Grand Plan. We walked to an Irish pub and hand an excellent meal. I have a thing for Shepherd's Pie and this was one of the best that I have had. At docktails that evening we planned out the next few LONG days of travel. In two days we would cover 140 miles of river.