Fish On!

Day 119  | Kampsville to Grafton |  3.8 Hours  |  26 Miles

We were in no hurry to depart our quiet anchorage behind Willow Island knowing we had less than four hours of travel today. The anchor was pulled up and I was busy washing off the mud that had clung to it when we heard an awful banging sound. Our first thought was that we had something wrapped around our prop shaft. Since we were at anchor the most obvious culprit -- a stray dockline -- was quickly ruled out. Maybe we had snagged a limb or tree as they had been floating through the water during our entire stay. Barry stuck his head out the starboard pilothouse door and yelled back that we had a fish. It did not register with me at first what he was talking about, but as I came around the corner I saw a large Asian carp flopping around in our cockpit. It had jumped over our freeboard, more than three feet off the water, and was now my problem. OK, what to do?

After a brief discussion we decided simply picking it up and throwing it back over was the best option. I had only one glove on (my left) and it was fingerless, meant mainly to protect and support my wrist. I grabbed Barry's full-fingered right glove and put it on as I approached our intruder from the rear flank. On my first attempt to grab him he slipped from my grip as I was surprised at how heavy he was. On my second attempt I took hold of his tail in my right hand, supported the body with the left, and in one motion flung him back into the water. It took another half hour to clean up the crime scene of blood and stray scales. By the time I returned to the pilothouse, I was hot, sweaty, and smelled of fish. At least the view of the hills and their bald areas was pretty good.

In our planning session, no bridges reported to have less than 26-feet of clearance -- our height with the mast up. As we approached the Hardin Highway Lift Bridge, with a reported clearance of 27.4 feet, something just didn't feel right. We called the bridge tender to find current clearance was 21 feet. Woah ... time to slow down and wait for an opening. Good thing we checked. We passed the usual tugs with tows today. After several days in this area, we recognize most of the tugs and have seen them before as they make their daily trips up and down the Illinois River. The Ann Elise has become one of our favorites as we have altered her name to "analyze." Yes, tiny things become funny after 2,000 miles. Something that took us both by surprise was spotting the Stars and Bars on the shoreline flagpole. Knowing the sensitive nature of its presence back home, it just never occurred to us that we's see it flying on the shores of the Illinois River. Most of the day, however, was spent just watching the sun's reflection as Diamonds on the Water.

As we approached Grafton, we began to see more houses along the shore. All are built on stilts of some type to protect the structure from rising river levels. In this lower/southern section, the river waters are still running high and water laps at the base of the houses. We said our farewells to Felix as they passed us and continued on to Alton. We enjoyed spending the last several days with them.

The water became noticeably more agitated and muddy on the edge of Grafton. This small tributary is actually one of several junctures between the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. The official confluence is just beyond Grafton. When we tied up Crossroads, the temperature here was 90 degrees with a humidex (still my favorite Canadian word) of 94. I read for a while on the bow, then would come in and cool off. This was repeated for a span of about 200 pages. A walk around at dusk showed several slimy spots on the bow where the Asian carp have taken aim at us over the past week.

We will stay in Grafton for several days. We have a diver coming tomorrow morning to check out our zincs and the underside or Crossroads. We will then give her a good scrubbing, top to bottom. We still have no telephone service, but the marina has good wifi and for that we are thankful.