We awoke to pouring rain, but we had arranged with some other boaters the night before that one of the party would call the Starved Rock Lock at 6am and see whether we could all get through the lock 14 miles down the river. The lock master informed that if we came down at 730am, he'd let us through. We left as the rain continued and got to the lock, but had to wait another hour - but did get through.

Because we could travel quickly, more quickly than the other trawler-type boats that locked through with us, we sped up and coasted down the Illinois River. In most of the tight narrow spots we did not have competition with any tugs/barges, so we were able to keep up at a speed of 27+ mph for the 60 or so miles down to Peoria from the lock. At long last we arrived at Peoria Lake - a very wide but mostly shallow expanse of the Illinois River - but had to keep within the narrow dredged channel. Without much problem, we entered the tiny marina of the Illinois Valley Yacht & Canoe Club (IVY Club) - the depths were a disconcerting 4 or so feet deep and we stirred up much mud. The problem with most of the stops on the Illinois River was shallow water - and this was one of the few that could accommodate a boat with our draft.

The marina was surrounded on three sides by high levee type walls that protected from any wakes coming in from the river - on the land side a large club house looked out on the cove. Because of the rain, we decided not to venture out and had dinner in the IVY Clubhouse - it was German night - and the club was packed. My guess is that they had far more members than members that had boats, but they all seemed to enjoy each others company. We planned to stay an extra day in Peoria to see the downtown sights!