4th of July weekend River update.
Current River temperature still a sizzling 84°.
The location of the fireworks has been moved to the Jefferson Street bridge. This is the bridge by Riverview ice house with the arches.
The restrictions zone and time has been updated today.
Starting from 7:30 p.m. until midnight the river is no wake from the Auburn Street bridge to the dam July 4th.
Starting at 8:00 p.m. no boats will be allowed south of the south end of the Lombardi club docks.
They will be doing a lot of ground effect cakes off of the bridge so there has to be a safety zone.
I did ask if they will be doing the waterfall of Sparks like they did 25 years ago when they were in that location.
I guess safety regulations have changed a little bit over the years and they will not be doing that this year.
Any boats that are South of the safety zone will be escorted back upstream towards the Lombardi club after 8:00 p.m.
If you have a slip at prairie Street you will be allowed to sit on your boat but you cannot leave the dock after 8:00 p.m.
The ski Bronx have a show starting at 7:00 p.m. and as a courtesy it is always a no-wake zone at their show site.
Boats heading south should be at no wake and traveling close to the West River Bank on the country club side of the river in the ski Bronx show site area.
If you don’t want to battle traffic downtown, Rockford country club does an amazing show of fireworks for boats to anchor and watch.
You can also park on the beach after the ski show and have restrooms and a concession stand at your disposal.
The band three good men will be playing out on the patio at the Rockford country club so you will have music to listen to in that area.
The south side of the Auburn Street bridge has all the lights working.
The Rock bar North of Auburn Street where spring Creek dumps in has been well lit this year for safety.
They’re always seems to be a boat stuck on there after the fireworks.
There are seven flashing red lights and over 15 color changing lights marking the area.
The Rock River homeowners association has done everything we can to make that hazard visible at night for anyone using the river.
The south side of Riverside bridge also has marking lights this year.
South of bridge Street on the west side of the river has always been shallow halfway out into the river and the homeowners association paid to have poles with shallow signs and flashing red lights installed this week.
Edgerton has turned off our water again as usual which affects the rock aqua jays ski team in Janesville and ski Bronx show sites.
They really don’t care about us and only care about putting an extra inch of water in lake koshkonong for the bars and restaurants.
Hoping to put some pressure on them with Wisconsin DNR to get that to change in the next month or so.
This means the river is at 4.5 ft at Latham which is about 6 in above drought level.
The Sandbar north of Latham bridge on the west side has three danger buoys installed to remind boaters to stay to the middle or east side.
The back the Blue boat parade is Saturday July 5th starting at the ski Bronx /Rockford country club area and heading south at 2:00 p.m. sharp.
Boats usually start gathering about 1:30 waiting for the shotgun start.
Boats will be traveling at no wake and in a line that we hope is over 100 boats strong down the west side to the State Street bridge and then turning around and heading back north.
Please fall in line behind the sheriff’s boat.
I’m sure many of us have relatives coming into town for the holiday weekend.
The rockness monster also has a relative that came into town this week.
You will find her just south of the ski Bronx area by The pedestrian bridge along the east Bank of the river.
The number one concern this weekend is for everybody to boat safely.
With the warm weather I’m sure there will be many kids being pulled around on tubes.
I can’t emphasize enough the law of having an orange flag visible on your boat when someone is behind your boat being towed.
Flags are available on my dock North Riverside bridge for $10.
It is the honor system so please put the money underneath the orange cone.
I was shocked to see a very nice blue boat pull-up last weekend take a flag and not deposit the $10.
You need to get the suction cup wet and I usually put it on an inside window in case it was to fall off it stays in the boat.
When you see one of those flags flying please be extra vigilant for skiers that could be in the water.
Look forward to seeing hundreds of families out enjoying Winnebago county’s greatest asset, our beautiful Rock River this beautiful 3-day holiday weekend.
Have a great time and make it back to the dock safe and sound.