We got up a 6am in the dark to prepare the boat to leave the IVY Club, and within minutes of first light, we left the marina ensuring not to hit roof of the covered part of the marina while at the same time staying in the channel so as to avoid grounding ourselves in the mud. Again, it was a bit of a gloomy morning and we made our way down to the Peoria Lock (down 10 feet) and had to wait only about 45 minutes before we were allowed through.

We were puzzled as to where to stay in the rest of the Illinois River after Peoria - all the marinas were silted in and too shallow for us. All that remained were a few anchorages behind islands in the river and a possibility of tying up to a tug service in Beardstown, where you might be woken up in the night to move if they needed the barge you were on. We decided to make for Grafton, Illinois - a distance of 168 miles from the IVY Club - just before the confluence of the Mississippi with the Illinois, if we were lucky at the LaGrange Lock. After several hours we made it to LaGrange Lock (down 10 feet) and got through again in less than an hour - and only had 80 miles to go. Luckily, there was not a tremendous amount of tug/barge traffic and we made good time.

Within 10 miles of Grafton however the skies became ominously dark to the north and it appeared that a thunderstorm was coming - and a very nasty one. Suddenly the VHF chirped into life, telling everyone to take cover and go to a low floor in a building, that a hail, 80 mph winds and other horribles were coming our way. Then it started to rain and hard, luckily with binoculars we could see if any debris or boats were in front of us and we made our way forward.

Finally we made it to the outside of Grafton Marina, but it was only with some difficulty that tied up to the gas dock with the wind and rain from the storm blowing us off to the shallows by the shore. Once tied up in our slip, we made for the marina restaurant which seemed to specialize in Cajun and New Orleans/Mississippi cuisine - a treat because it suddenly felt like we had arrived somewhere else - no longer in the Midwest, but in the cultural embrace of Mississippi delta.

Perhaps this was a bit of wishful thinking. Although there is plenty of catfish ahead on the rest of this river journey, we still have a huge chunk of the Midwest and the Deep South to go through.