Migrating South with the flocks of white pelicans...beautiful!!! Sept 19-24

We know it's time to head south as we have been following the white pelicans since the Brandon lock as they migrate to warmer climate.  They are very beautiful as they flock, but it is very hard to get a close view of them. 

I stole this pic from a website....too hard to get one but if you zoom in on the one above you will see the flock.

Travel days 5-9 took us to Spring Brook Marina in Seneca, Heritage Harbor in Ottawa (very nice facility...stayed a couple days), Illinois Valley Yacht Club in East Peoria (very welcoming club members and a nice facility), the Lodgston Tug Service barge in Beardstown (yes, just a working barge full of cables and pipes along the river's edge with no electricity or other facilities....but as they say, any port in a storm), and finally to the Alton Marina where we did catch up to our friends on JimKat. 
Sunrise departure

My turn to lead.

Foggy pass.

Ivy Club

 

  Apparently the Marine Traffic website is tracking us pretty well as a number of folks have emailed us and referenced tracking us there.  It will not always work as class B AIS (pleasure craft) is tracked on land by volunteers (not mandatory like class A commercial vessels) but I guess we can't hide!!  Unless we go stealth and leave it off!  But it is really nice to have to communicate to tows.  In fact one even called me by boat name he got off the AIS feed his electronics, to get a traffic report for pleasure vessels around the next curve from him.  So it really is a nice tool/safety device to have.
A pass on the one whistle.

We really cranked it up on day 9 and covered 104 miles!  We had a nice push from the river current and travelled close to 17 knots a good portion of the trip to Alton which is a great stop.  Everything floats.  Pool, buildings, etc.  Note the height of the pilings for the docks!

We rented a car and went to the Arch in St Louis one day.  Took the ride to the top of the arch.  What a view!  Had a great lunch on the garden level at the Four Seasons before returning to the marina.  Then a grocery run to Schnucks (very nice store) and some laundry duties.
The ride up

View from the top

Nice restaurant view too

 

Another day our friends Jim and Kathy (JimKat) offered to drive us to Grafton for a short visit.  We had passed that marina on our way to Alton and remarked that it looked like a cute town.  And we remarked that "you can't stop everywhere" so we were excited to get to see it.  But.....the morning engine room check getting ready for tomorrow's departure found a quart of oil in the drip pan on the port side and coolant down as well.  So we called CAT for service and Tim showed up a few hours later to diagnose.  The oil leak was the Walker Air-Sep crankcase ventilation system.  The fitting on the bottom had been bent over (my assessment is this happened during all the work done by CAT over the winter) and was leaking some of the oil it was supposed to return to the oil pan.  So Tim straightened, added sealant and reinstalled.  The coolant pressure test suggested the system is OK.  But the couple quarts of coolant went somewhere so I will just have to continue to watch it.  Hopefully the oil samples taken will confirm no issue in a few days.  So we should be good to go tomorrow.....a few BOAT dollars later that is.  We only have 45 miles (and two locks) to go tomorrow.

The next few days will be challenging with three nights of anchoring due to no facilities along this portion of the trip.  Hopefully we do not get windy nights.  So no posts... and likely no AIS tracking of where we are for all you stalkers either!! :-)