Holy jumpin Carp

The sky was blue,without a cloud around 8o'clock in the morning when we called the lockmaster at Starved Rock Lock. He said hold off for an hour before leaving Ottawa and since he was about an hour down stream that meant it would be around ten before we could get locked down. We went for a little walkabout in downtown Ottawa. We grabbed some breakfast and got back down to the ROTARY dock in time to set sail. Nothing of note happened. We went through the lock unscathed except for Jim who temporarily tied the line they heave to you to hold you close to the lock wall to his boat. As the water level went down Jim's boat took on an unhealthy lean. He had to leap forward and unsheath his trusty sailor's knife slicing the unwanted appendage. I think he should send some money to the Army Corps of Engineers to buy a new rope.

After leaving the lock I stepped it up a bit to get around a barge. I must have stepped it up a little too much or something plugged my water intake because the sound of my exhaust took on a much different sound. No water was circulating through the motor! My alarm sounded and I shut her off. There we were,dead in the water in the middle of the Illinois River at three o'clock in the rain. I had to call on my life support team "Selah" who turned back and hooked on to me and started to tow me down the river. After a little jerking around we finally agreed on how to do this without me running into them. We did this for only a few moments and the Ninja carp we had heard about started jumping all around the boat. Quite a spectacle, I never thought that I would see this actually happen. I guess the boat frightens them and they start jumping in all directions as you pass over a school. This went on for a while but we couldn't get them to jump at the same time as Cheryl snapped a picture so you will have to take my word for it.

Yesterday's Dream overheard about our dilemma and called to see how they could help. Everything seemed to be under control. Steve and Linda went ahead to Henry's Harbour Marina to make arrangements for our arrival. They called back to say they had a number of hands on the dock to help.

Thanks for all of the people that make up the Surona support team.

As we got closer to this next marina I tied on beside Jim and he brought me right in to the dock just like he had been doing it all his life. So here we are, Selah tied to the dock with me hitching a ride, rafted, waiting to see if we can get some parts tomorrow. For some reason just a few random remarks pertaining to "trawler trash" some time in my distant past has prompted these people to take multiple pictures of my unfortunate dillema. They seem to be enjoying this and something tells me I will be reminded of this for some time. What turns people mean like that?