A 100 mile day: Dubuque to Davenport / East Moline, IL

Foggy departure from Dubuque

Like every other morning so far, the day started off in a fog - meteorlogically speaking! Thinking the fog would burn off quickly, "B Team" left dock at 7AM since they had quite a few L&Ds and bridges to navigate in order to make East Moline, IL for the evening. Brett instructed Bob and Colin on proper technique including sounding Late Date's horn every 2 minutes. It let up by 8AM but total distance? Only 2 miles!  Per Colin, "It scared the crap out of me". Great. 

Late Date Wake

River Town

Despite all that, leaving early and traveling when others did not, permitted them to get to L&D 11 and 12 ahead of a couple of tows (barges) and this saves considerable time.   They navigated 4 L&Ds and 4 RR bridges. Their biggest delay was L&D 13 where they waited about 1 hr. The River continues to move rapidly and is still 5-8 feet above normal September levels.  

 Late Date is a 36-ft sedan bridge and puts up a 3-4 ft wake. The crew must be careful to not cause problems for small crafts, docks and barges pulled by "tows" as river tug boat captains prefer to be called. 

Brett took over captain duties in a couple of spots secondary to currents in/out of locks but otherwise Bob continues to do most of the piloting. 

We have tried to post some videos but are having some technical issues which we hope to resolve tonight. The sights and sounds are interesting!