Heritage Harbor → Peoria
October 13, 2026
Distance: ~68 nautical miles
Waterway / State: Illinois River — Illinois
Locks: 1 — Starved Rock | 6 total so far
Notable: A longer river day with increasing tow/barge traffic and much more VHF conversation with tow captains.
The Trip
Before leaving Heritage Harbor, we used the rental car to spend some time at Starved Rock State Park. We hiked to some of the overlooks and into one of the canyons, stopped for groceries on the way back, returned the car and got a ride back to the marina.
That evening we had dinner at Heritage Harbor, watched a beautiful sunset and met the crew from Edna’s Secret.
The next morning we left early for the Peoria Boat Club.
By now we were fully into the Illinois River, and the trip south was becoming much more about commercial river traffic than the wind and waves we had been thinking about on Lake Michigan.
We passed through Starved Rock Lock, our only lock of the day, and continued south toward Peoria.
The Experience
One of the most entertaining parts of the day turned out to be talking to the tow captains.
We were hailing towboats pretty regularly as we worked our way down the river:
“Towboat ___, this is pleasure craft Breaking Awave, over.”
Once they answered, we’d ask:
“Do you want us to pass you on your one or your two?”
The first time we did it, we still had to double-check that “the one” meant their port side. There are some boating lessons where getting it backward would just be embarrassing.
Getting it backward with a huge tow and several barges attached to it felt like something worth avoiding.
Once we got the language down, though, it was actually kind of fun. There was something satisfying about calling a tow, getting instructions directly from the captain and then working our little 37-foot boat around vessels that were enormously bigger and considerably less maneuverable than we were.
We may have felt a little more like real river boaters by the end of the day.
We eventually made our way into Peoria Boat Club, where another group of Loopers was already gathering around the docks.
We had originally planned to go out for barbecue, but someone pointed us toward an old Presbyterian church that had been converted into a brewery. We stopped thinking we would just have a drink, met Jamie and Denise from Stories and Dreams, and ended up staying for dinner.
When we got back to the marina, people were still gathered in the clubhouse for docktails, and that’s where we met the crew from Inspiration.
It was starting to feel like we were running into more and more of the same Loopers as everyone worked their way south.
At the Helm
The biggest new skill on this leg wasn’t locking.
It was talking to towboats.
On Lake Michigan, most of our attention had gone toward waves, weather and what the boat was doing underneath us. On the river, understanding the intentions of commercial traffic was becoming just as important.
The “one whistle / two whistle” terminology felt a little foreign at first, so we weren’t too proud to confirm which side was which before committing ourselves to a pass.
That little bit of radio communication made a huge difference. Instead of guessing what a tow captain wanted us to do, we could simply ask.
And when the other boat is pushing several barges and takes a very long time to change direction, asking seemed like a pretty good idea.
Today’s Route
[Nebo route visual]
Today in Pictures
[Heritage Harbor sunset, Starved Rock State Park overlooks and canyon, Breaking Awave underway on the Illinois River, Starved Rock Lock, towboats and barges, Peoria arrival, Peoria Boat Club, evening with other Loopers]