Henry Harbor and the abandoned lock

8-26-24

We tied up in an old river lock abandoned in the 1920's to shelter from a ferocious thunderstorm (See the video below).

We departed Heritage Harbour early and alone to move just 25 miles south for a jumping off point to the lower Illinois river and several days of expected anchorage. There are very few facilities for larger boats along this stretch of the river, even more so now that the river water levels are so low. Our intended destination, Illinois Valley Yacht Club in Peoria, did not have enough water for us to access its docks. That was pretty disappointing, but fortunately, we found an alternative in Henry, Illinois. There is a small marina there that includes an abandoned lock first built in the 1800s and removed from use in 1929. The channel remains with 9 to 10 feet of water even at low River levels and while the wall was somewhat rough and deteriorated, it provided a pretty snug haven with easy access to the river. The lady who runs the marina was there to catch our lines. She had a sign on her trailer which also advertised canvas repair and agreed to fix the gusset on one of our minis which had ripped and heavy wind. She accomplished this quickly and returned the Bimini to us. With the charge for one night stay the canvas repair and a T-shirt from the Marina was about $100.

A great view.

Not the most inviting location

Our initial plan was to stay only one night and press on, but the weather called for Strong thunderstorms with lots of lightning and we decided to stay a second night. This turned out to be a very good decision, given the strength of the storm and the brief but strong winds which accompanied it. See the video which is NOT time lapse.

Then it was time to move on, and we slipped our lines early in the morning to head to the first of our two planned anchorages behind quaver Island.