Our First Post

O God, thy Sea is so great and my boat so small

September 14, 2022, Chicago Yacht Club, Chicago IL:  We have reached another milestone on our journey and arrived in Chicago Il Tuesday morning. We are very happy to have the huge body of water, i.e., LAKE MICHIGAN, behind us. Do not get me wrong it is a beautiful lake, an amazing pristine lake shore, just very challenging. I have gained a ton of respect for this massive beast, and we treated her with great respect and reverence. We are just happy to have only 10 miles to go to get onto the Calumet River which is what we will take to join the Illinois River. Due to our height 17’ 6” we are unable to pass through downtown Chicago which is restricted to 17’ 3” and due to heavy rains, this week the pools are up (meaning less clearance) so the clearance is too close for comfort.

 

Chicago is another major milestone for us. We are now through the Hudson River, Erie Canal, Thousand Islands, Trent Severn Waterway, Georgian Bay, The North Channel, Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, eight states and are now headed into the Inland Rivers. We have covered 1916 miles, have traveled 58 days in 94 calendar days, and have put 276 hours on our engines and have purchased 876 gallons of diesel fuel and have a full tank which is 330 gallons. We are approximately 25% through The Great Loop from both from a distance (total 7000 miles) and calendar (one calendar year) standpoint. 

Our next leg “The Inland Rivers” is 1300 miles to the Gulf of Mexico, therefore for us, that will be Mobile Alabama from Chicago. We would like to cover this in a month and be in Mobile by late October. In fact, we want to be in Colorado for Halloween to see our family. We will be back from Maine on September 24^th and begin our trek south on the rivers by 25^th. Four of the rivers will be favorable currents, so with that push we should be able to do 45-50 miles a day. Our next adventure will include the following rivers: The Calumet, The Illinois, The Ohio, The Mississippi, and the Tennessee (Ten Tom Waterway). We would like to take the Cumberland River to Nashville if time allows us to take that side trip in, its high on our wish list.

So let me review our week to date:

 

 September 10, Travel Day # 55 Milwaukee WI to Winthrop Harbor Il.: Total Distance Traveled: 45 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 6.5 Hours. We spent two nights in Milwaukee and headed out at 7:30 AM and Her Idea lead the way again south with three loopers following us. It was a beautiful day; waves were very low, and the wind was light. It was one of the payoffs of crossing to the Wisconsin side of the lake. We arrived before 1 PM. The day was so perfect for traveling our three buddy boats continued down to Waukegan which was ten miles further south. We were very excited and committed to Winthrop Harbor because PJ and Suzy Carroll were picking us up for a night “off the boat” and hanging out with them. We got the boat squared away as the forecast was for a major rain event that evening and all the next day.

PJ and Suzy picked us up we showed them the boat and off we went for a great 24 hours “off the boat “which was only the second time since we left Maine. Tracie Carroll (PJ brother) son Shea was visiting with his girlfriend Hayley, whom I had never met, and they were wonderful. Shea also hooked us up with watching live Patriots football and so I owe him a huge shout out, he is saving our bacon, details not to be released! At any rate the six of us went out for an amazing sushi dinner and had a great night, rain held off and we were able to eat outdoors in downtown Lake Forrest. We went back to the house and chatted for many hours and had a great evening. We slept in a bed and being on the second floor there was NO rocking, we both slept great.

The highlight was the next day PJ and Suzy’s two (out of three, Courtney lives in Denver) children who now are the backbone of Carroll Seating, (Third Generation Hussey Dealership) Meredith (General Manager) and her Husband Michael (great guy) and Evan (Ace Sales guy) and his (expecting) wife Brittany, (2^nd grade schoolteacher, what a tough two years she’s had! wonderful woman) joined us for THE BEARS GAME (which The Bears won), and lunch. It was just a wonderful day hanging with great friends and their family, it gets no better than that.  I feel badly we did not get a picture of the lunch gang. After everyone left and we headed back to the boat and was able to stop and pick up some provisions. It was still raining when we said goodbye to PJ and Suzy, and it was a wonderful 24 hours off the boat, Thanks for hosting. Our rain gauge the next morning showed we received 3 “of rain. The boat was soaked, that is flood stage on Her Idea!

 

 

 

September 12, #56 Winthrop Harbor to Waukegan WI: Total Distance Traveled: 10 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 1.5 Hours. We were not planning to travel on Monday as the weather was forecasted to have very high waves. We kept an eye on the weather, wind and waves and decide to travel the ten miles south and hook up with the folks who had traveled down to Waukegan two days before. It turned out to be an OK morning to move and was only an hour and a voyage that would get us closer to Chicago which was our next leg. The waves were 2-3 feet so a bit lumpy, but it was a clear day, and the winds were down so it was a good travel day.

 

We got to Waukegan before noon and spent the afternoon cleaning the boat and trying to dry things out from all the rain the day before. There was nothing around the marina, so we never even left it for a walk which we normally do every day. We did catch up with up with our buddy boats who had traveled there two days before for Docktails at 5 (big surprise I know) and it was fun catching up. They were all planning to spend another night in Waukegan before going to Chicago and we were planning to travel to Chicago the next morning which we did.  We cooked out on the grill had dinner aboard and finished watching Mankind (Netflix) which we have been bingeing, a decent show a bit farfetched, but we enjoyed it.  

 No Pictures that day 

September 13 Travel Day #57, Waukegan Il. To Chicago IL.: Total Distance Traveled: 38 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 6 Hours. We were so very excited to head to Chicago we got up in the dark and got all our stuff ready for the last major leg across Lake Michigan. Well, she did have the final say, it was a miserable 5-hour ride. The visibility was great (most Important) the wind was behind us; however, the waves were 4-5 feet and every 2 seconds on the port beam. Bottom line it just tossed us around, like being in a blender. The mighty Lake wanted to make her statement and she did! We were so committed to get to Chicago we just sucked it up and rode it out. One advantage of this leg is we were only 2-3 miles offshore so we could always run into a harbor if it got really bad. We had three bailout location on the trip to Chicago, but did not have to use them, we were determined.

We had two days in Chicago and LOVED them both. The folks who do not like pictures are not going to be happy with this post cause I am probably going to overshare. We stayed at the Chicago Yacht Club, which is world famous yacht club and hosts major sailing events, it is the REAL DEAL. The Mackinac Race is their signature event, and I would say its one of the top five yacht clubs in the country: Arundel YC, New York YC, San Diego YC, Corinthian YC, and Chicago YC!

We went on the Chicago River Architectural Tour as tourist as Her Idea is too tall to go thru the downtown and I’m not sure I would see anything as it’s a very busy river with traffic from tour boats, jet skis, canoes, kayaks, so we sat back let the captain do the driving and enjoyed the beautiful buildings downtown. It was a most enjoyable morning.

 

Sure makes for an easy target, when you have tall buildings as marks

Navy Pier

 

Cindy's Rooftop 

View from Her Idea

Merchandise Mart

Inside Chicago Yacht Club 

September 15, Travel Day # 58, Chicago IL to Dolton IL: Total Distance Traveled: 29 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 4 Hours: We had a wonderful dinner at The Chicago Yacht Club Wednesday evening and figured we would stay right at the club and not have to walk home in the dark. Brenda my brother Chuck’s fiancé had come for drinks on board and so it was fun to show her the boat and catch up. We only had a short distance to travel Thursday so we were able to enjoy a beautiful night at the Yacht Club on the patio overlooking Lake Michigan.  It was a great night.

Dinner 

Since we had a short day planned to the Marina, we were leaving the boat (30 Miles) we decided on a late start and did not leave the dock until 9:30 for Dolton. That also allowed us to let the fog burn off which was very thick at 8 AM. The wind was light, but the waves built all morning. The good news is we had them on the stern so we rode them south. We made a two-mile detour to fill with diesel fuel before we started down The Rivers, at Hammonds Marina and Casino. Diesel fuel was $5.05 which was a dollar less than downtown Chicago and the two marinas that I called on Calumet River, so it was well worth the detour. One Dollar a gallon (we bought 130 gallons) is a great savings, happy to go two miles out of our way.  

Once we filled up, we were back aboard and headed down the Calumet River at noontime. So, we were now officially off Lake Michigan and into The Rivers, with a full tank of fuel and water trying to make Her Idea as heavy as possible so we would reduce our overall height. 330 gallons of fuel (2650 pounds) and 120 gallons of water (850 pounds) so 1.75 tons of additional weight is meaningful, keeps us lower in the water.  Being seventeen’ 6” high and we had 3- 18’ bridges to go under and the water has been high meaning the normal 18 feet of clearance could be less. I checked with the bridge tender, and they all agreed to raise the bridge and I felt a lot better doing so. We had a total of twelve bridges to get under, three had to lift, and one lock in the 9-mile journey down the Calumet. This was our first lock since August 5^th.

 

We had our first two encounters with Barges and neither Captain talked to us, and that was concerning. We are under the impression if you hail them, they will tell you which side to pass on. Hopefully it will get better as we learn more about the process. We also went through our first large lock; this was 1,000 feet long and one hundred feet wide. The locks we have done before are much smaller and do not have commercial traffic, maybe 250 feet long and 40 feet wide.   We were lucky in our first lock that we were the only boat in the chamber, so it was an easy passage.

 We arrived at the Marina early afternoon and settled in as we are planning to leave the boat for 8 days while we go back to Maine Friday for a week.

One last look at Chicago 

Entering The Inland Rivers

It sure did turn industrial quickly 

Entering the Lock

Floating in the chamber as the doors open

So, no blog next week, I am on holiday and I am sure no one wants to hear me explain about the chores we must do when we get home. Hope you all have a wonderful two weeks.

Fair Winds