September 9, 2012 Day 121 Joliet, IL Total miles to date: 2471.6
Well this was quite the
day! We were not sure if we would leave
our marina in Chicago and go to a different one, or if we would go to Joliet
which was about 58 miles away. The big
concern was Lake Michigan with a forecast of 3-4’ waves – been there, done
that. By the time we left, it was after
8:30, but we made the decision to go to Joliet. That meant venturing out into
Lake Michigan for almost 2 hours before entering the Calumet River. Lake
Michigan did not disappoint the forecaster – the waves were three feet at first
then increased to five feet, and we experienced a great deal of rolling because
of the direction of the wind. We found
things on the floor that have never fallen before! Fortunately, nothing was
broken, no one got seasick, and we survived.
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| Entering the Calumet River |
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| One of many bridges |
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| Industry here! |
We left our marina with its
towering buildings and beautiful parks nearby, and people out walking, jogging,
or riding bikes and segways, and we entered a very industrial river system with
coal, steel, grain, and more all ready to be loaded onto barges and pushed up
or down river by the towboats. We were on the Calumet River, the Cal Sag Channel,
the Chicago Sanitary Shipping Canal, and the DesPlaines River today. We finally realized that since it was Sunday
we were seeing very little commercial boat traffic. We did go through two locks today. We entered
the first one as soon as we arrived, but waited about 45 minutes for the second
one. In the first lock we just floated in the middle without tying up, but tied
up to a floating bollard in the second lock which lowered us 40 feet. We also entered the area of the Fish Barrier
which puts electrical currents into the water to prevent the Asian Carp from
entering Lake Michigan. We will see these fish soon enough on the Illinois
River! We went under many bridges and
had already taken our radar and antennas down so we could get under them. (We
could not get low enough for the bridges on the Chicago River, or we would have
gone that way).
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| More industry |
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| Train over the river! |
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This tow boat went right by us pushing a barge after we were
docked on the wall in Joliet. We will see many of them! |
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Keeping the Asian Carp out of
Chicago and Lake Michigan |
By 5:30 we arrived in Joliet
and were immediately greeted by two Looper boats Northern Spirit (Toronto) and Tango (Montreal) who helped us with our lines. Then we were greeted by local AGLCA Harbor Hosts,
Dale and Brenda Karlson, who stopped by to welcome us to Joliet and answer any
questions we had. It was very nice to meet
friendly people after our long and tiring day!
We had some wine, had a late dinner on board, and watched
the Broncos-Steelers football game.
We have decided to spend
two nights here on the wall at Joliet. It is free, and we have 30 amps for power, and we have free wifi!
We need to get some work done on the boat and also figure out our schedule
for the next few weeks so we can get ready for more company in Kentucky.
Sometimes it is just better to stay put!
(We have many photos of our trip today and will try and get them posted
tomorrow.)
Happy Birthday to our son,
Bill!
