Chicago's Cess Pool

(Friday Aug 24 - Dist: 49.3 mi; Avg Speed: 7.7 mph;
        Locks: 2; LWT: 45 mins; TTT: 7:10 hrs)

I have introduced a couple of different statistics for the rivers: the number of locks traversed and the Lock Wait Time (LWT).  Both influence the travel day dramatically.  But so far so good.

There are two ways to enter the river systems; through downtown Chicago which is impressive but limited by vertical clearance and the Calumet River.  We have to take the latter and it is not pretty what-so-ever. 

  

The entrance here looks not bad, industrial, but not bad.   

Then you see many scrap metal places and lots of coal transfer points.  This goes on for miles. 

The water is dirty and has lots of garbage floating in it.  With the current drought the algae is flourishing.  Here are some disgusting views.  I bet Headquarters does not stop for a swim again for a very long time.

 

One must also take a deep breathe to get under all of the bridges.  We spoke to the first bridge attendant and we were borderline on vertical clearance.  The guaranteed clearance was 18' 4" and I figure that Q needs 18' 6".  The attendant said the water was down so we should be OK.  Hmmm!  Linda said no way.  We approached slowly with people looking on from the bridge towers and Linda watching from the front deck.  Nothing hit; whew.  That was the lowest bridge so we were good to go the rest of the way without requesting that each bridge be opened.  Judge for yourself, this is what Linda saw.

The other concern in this stretch is the number of barges and tows being shuffled around.  On this day we were fortunate; whenever we encountered one there was plenty of room to either pass or wait for him to turn.

This is where the Chicago's Sanitary and Ship Canal and the Calumet River meets up with the Illinois Waterway. 

The last issue in this section is the electrical fish barrier designed to stop the Asian Carp from getting into the Great Lakes.  Really a non event to cross this section of the canal.

After a long day we stopped along the free wall in Joliet, had a nice BBQ steak and met the Harbor Hosts from the area.  We are glad that the worst is behind us and that it only gets better from here on down... as long as there is enough water.

 

  

Winning and Losing in Hammond Indiana

(Wed Aug 22 - Dist: 40.4 mi;  Avg Speed: 10 mph;
        Seas: calm; TTT: 4:20 hrs)

The huge flat building behind us is actually a floating casino.  The three storey building was built on a barge evidently to get around some rules about gambling.  It is quite impressive but the rest of the area is much less so. 

I tried the Wayne method of earning some extra cash and it seemed to work for about 20 minutes.  My $1 investment in a penny machine got all the way up to $38 but... much to Linda's chagrin it was gone by the time we had to meet the others for dinner.  You can tell that we are not gamblers by our excitement, and disappointment, with $38.  I may have to try again.

On an even more depressing note, we are getting very concerned with the water levels on the rivers and in particular the Mississippi River.  There is not enough water in the usual anchorages to get off the river and spend the night.  This is especially true of the ole Miss' as one needs to spend at least 2 nights at anchor because there are no marinas in a 160 mile stretch.  Other marinas on the other rivers have insufficient depth to enter the harbors and many of their slips.  We are not sure what we are going to do if the situation gets worse.  We will keep you posted... in the meantime we will hope for rain.

We will be leaving our friends from "downunder" but we did get in one final barbie complete with shrimp and steaks and some "chardy".  Did you ever notice that the Aussie's take a lot of short cuts: "chardy" for Chardonnay; "Uni" for university, "Abos" for Aboriginals, etc.  It was fun and I do hope that we run together again.
 

Phred and Candy, there are floating homes then there are FLOATING HOMES.





The Casino only needs 10 feet of water.



Hammond is a rather large Marina.



Gooood Times in New Buffalo, MI

(Sat Aug 18 - Dist: 49.3 mi; Avg Speed: 9.6 mph;
        Seas: calm; TTT: 5:15 hrs)

It was a perfect day for travel on Lake Michigan... except for the fact that we were watching a couple of waterspouts in the distance.  The photo does not do it justice other than to show that it was a beautiful sunny day with this one cloud showing some rain and to fingers dipping down into the water.  We were watching this when the Coast Guard came on the air with the warning to all boaters.  For those not familiar with waterspouts, they are, in effect, tornado's on the water.  Needless to say Headquarters and us decided to run and make some distance between us and the system.  Other than that the cruise was great.

It was not easy to get into New Buffalo and I will not rant on and on about the inefficiencies and laziness of the staff at the Municipal Marina but thank goodness for our personal cruise director Chris from Bade Boomer.  She got the two boats in and the party started.  Chris and Bruce own a dockominium next door in a beautiful marina.  We were even treated to a great roast pig meal on our arrival.  Well done Chris.

From the luau we carried right in to happy hour and well into the night.  For the next two days we golfed in the day and "chatted" the evening away.  The folks from "downunder" are very keen competitors when it comes to their golf.  I offered to play Shirley match play straight up since her handicap is better than mine.  She almost insisted on giving me strokes but being the gentleman that I am, I politely refused.  They use the Stableford scoring system however for all or most of their matches.  Well, we did learn to count 3 points for a net bird, 2 for a par and 1 for a bogie.  It did not matter which system we used, I received my winner's drinks on both days.  To be fair Tony did do better than I on the first day but unfortunately we did not have a bet on.

We did have a special occasion, Happy Birthday Bruce.  It was another excuse, as if we needed any, to party. 

Again thanks to Chris and Bruce the four of us from Headquarters and Q's End borrowed their car and drove to St. Joseph to the big marine store there called Wolf's.  I was somewhat disappointed because they did not have any of the items on our list but we did manage to spend a pile of money anyway.  Between there and the grocery store we ligthened our pocket books a lot.

St. Joseph was a neat looking town with pirates on every corner.  The beach there also looked phenomenal.  Oh well maybe some other time.

For Lisa:

Under Attack in South Haven, MI

(Wed Aug 15 - Dist: 23.5 mi; Avg Speed: 8.4 mph;
        Seas: calm; TTT: 2:50 hrs)

As we were approaching the harbor breakwall this pirate ship opened cannon fire on us. Fortunately the crew was not battle seasoned and we successfully evaded their cannon balls and made it to the channel and eventually our marina.

'Twas a beautiful day and after doing some exploring by dinghy and a quick dip we joined our new friends on Headquarters  on the deck of this old river boat.  These new Loopers are catching on quickly.

That first day was the end of our nice weather.  Rain, hard at times, hit us the next morning but allowed for plenty of strolling through the downtown area in the afternoon and evening.  BUT... shades of our bad experiences in Grand Haven, came crashing through the harbor that night and well into the next day.  I adjusted lines 5 times throughout the night in an attempt to stop us from banging against the dock.  Finally, at 4 AM I succeeded but now Linda cannot get on the boat.  It is supposed to calm down later this evening so we should be good although one dock line for sure is ruined.

It is now past 6 PM and we spent most of the day in town or at the beach.  Good news, Linda is back on board and things are calming down somewhat.  The next few photos were taken an hour or so ago.  You can still see the rollers washing down the channel directly to our boat... well all of us really.  My neighbour and I had a good chat at about 3:30 AM this morning.

These last photos show how pretty South Haven is but it sure does not feel like it at all.

No worries though, after a tasty dinner at the Thirsty Perch and some nightcaps with live entertainment at the Black River Tavern, we rolled down the hill just past midnight and the bouncing had all but stopped.  



Saugatuck, MI

(Monday Aug 13 - Dist: 45.6 mi; Avg Speed: 9.8 mph;
        Seas: 2 feet; TTT: 5:00 hrs)

A neat photo op but somewhat unexpected from all of the weather forecasts that we referenced.  We were expecting light and variable winds with waves less than a foot.  The seas did look benign but the gentle 2 foot rollers were hitting us on the beam causing us to roll from side to side.  It was a two gravol trip.

The not predicted fog was patchy and low lying.  If you look hard you can just see the shiny new hard top of our travelling companions on Bade Boomer.  You may have to enlarge the photo to see it.  They kept going out of sight even though we were less than one half mile apart.

Things did not get much better when we arrived at the marina on Kalamazoo Lake.  We pulled into our finger dock but it was not as long as promised so we could not get off the boat.  When I tried to back in, despite getting assurances that the slip was deep enough, it was not.  We got stuck in the mud and still could not get off the boat.  Well they finally found another slip for us and we headed for Saugatuck which was across the lake from us.

The town was very nice with lots of shops, eating and drinking establishments, people and an excellent waterfront.  The businesses know that they have a gem of a town and charge accordingly.  Dockage rates at $3 per foot on the town side are double the rate of most marinas in Michigan.  Thus the reason we are across the small lake near the town of Douglas.  It is only a long par 5 across and there is a shuttle service which only costs 50 cents for seniors.  I even walked it once in about 20 minutes.

We met another boat from New Zealand named Headquarters.  They just started the Loop the day before.  They bought their Sea Ray in Holland and got as far as Saugatuck, about 14 miles, their first day.  Tony and Shirley are great: they joined the Bades and us at an outdoor patio on the water for 8 or so pitchers of beer.  Another couple who BBQ'd with us in Frankfort joined us a little later as well so don't jump to any snap conclusions about our little party.  Remember it is only American beer.

Well it was just more of the same for the two days; some strolling through the shops, some well deserved refreshments and a couple of good meals although Linda did regret the late night "key lime martini" that she had at the White House.  All in all a very good stop.

Muskegon, MI

(Sunday Aug 12 - Dist: 57.5 mi; Avg Speed: 10 mph;
        Seas: 1 ft; TTT: 4:45 hrs)

It was Sunday, the winds were quiet and boaters were out in full force.  These boaters in the channel between Lake Muskegon and Lake Michigan are in for a shock however.   Although the air and the smaller lake were warm, Lake Michigan was freezing.  I cannot explain it but two days earlier the surface temperature of the water was 72 degrees.  Today the Lake was 49 and I had on 4 layers of clothes.  We were freezing even with all of the canvas and windows up.

On the way in we passed the USS Silversides, a WWII submarine that is now a museum.  The interesting aspect of this museum and the retired Coast Guard Cutter, McLane, is that anyone can make reservations and live aboard for a night or two.  It might be fun for kids but I think that I will stick with Q.

Great Lakes Marina, which was recommended to us by some other Loopers, was a great find.  Loopers only pay $20 per night.  The town of Muskegon is not very close but we were not planning on going into town anyway.  The two packages which I had delivered here were waiting for me.  I can now fix the door handle to the head.  The internal mechanism broke and Forest, from my home marina, found a supplier in Florida.  It was not cheap at $88 but the door is like new.

Jim, the AGLCA Harbor Host here, was at the dock when we arrived and made sure that we had everything that we needed.  He offered to take us into town and answered all of our queations about the area.  We invited him to our Happy Hour and he brought a great box of chocolates which were made nearby.  Jim is hoping to start the Loop in 2 year's time and was keen to hear all of our stories.

Finally, here is the old and the new.  Getting from Michigan to Milwaukee and beyond is a pain because one has to go around the bottom of the Lake and through the city of Chicago.   The Milwaukee Clipper was built in 1904 and worked most of the Great Lakes as a passenger ferry capable of carrying 350 passengers.  In 1940 this steamship was converted to oil and began carrying both passengers and atuomobiles and was capable of doing 18 knots.

 

The new Lake Express was built in 2004 and is capable of doing 40 mph.  It is powered by four 3000 hp engines.  Talk about feeding the twins??  It is only 192 feet long and 57 feet wide.  It costs $82 per adult and $87 for a vehicle.  Pretty reasonable, I think, to get across the Lake in 2 1/2 hours.

 

Ludington MI, Fish Galore

(Wed Aug. 8 - Dist: 52 mi;  Avg Speed: 12.4 mph;
        Seas: 1-2 feet; TTT: 4:10 hrs)

After our relaxing stint in Frankfort we finally had a good travel day and a bunch of us headed for Ludington while others went to Manistee or Pentwater.  We are very pleased with our choice as the city of Ludington is very alive and interesting.  There are a number of excellent restaurants and bars.  The Mitten serves only Michigan beers and wine and between the Bades and ourselves we found a number of keepers. 

 My favourite was a dark beer, 8.5% alcohol, called "Dirty Bastard".  We have eaten on a roof top patio and had some excellent BBQ pork loin here on board with Loopers from Sojourner and Bade Boomer.

Fishing is very popular here and the Charters are bringing in huge catches.  Unfortunately, none of them are selling any of their catches.  We even considered going out to catch our own but... at $550 for 4 hours we decided to go to the store.  With all the fishing here I am surprised that there is no fresh fish store like in Frankfort, Leland and Mac City.  Darn.

We may be witnessing the end of an era.  As the only coal-fired steamship in operation in the United States, the S.S. Badger operates between Manitowoc Wisconsin and Ludington MI. 

We may be here a few days as storms are rolling through Michigan and most of Ontario.  Waves at this time are 11 feet in the center of the Lake and currently 6 feet climbing to 9 in our normal travel zone in shore.  Oh well, it is a fine place to hole up.