Great Loop Date: 09.15.2010 (Wednesday): Chicago, Chicago…

Day 34: 778.0 total miles (today: 58.1 miles in 8 hours at 9 mph)
Port #13 – Columbia Yacht Club, Chicago, IL

Chicago, Chicago

That toddlin' town

Chicago, Chicago

I'll show you around, I love it

Bet your bottom dollar

You'll lose the blues

In Chicago, Chicago

The town that Billy Sunday

Could not shut down

On State Street, that great street

I just wanna say

They do things

They don't do on Broadway, say

They have the time

The time or their life

I saw a man

He danced with his wife

In Chicago, my home town

That's what Todd and I started singing Tuesday night, the night before we left St. Joe.  We'd been humming it pretty much all day.  We knew we would be pointing OB southwest across L. Michigan Wednesday morning.  FINALLY we could put L. Michigan behind us!
 
Wednesday morning we were up at 5AM.  I had the water tanks filled, Charlie fed and walked, the fenders off and stored, and all extra lines off and hung by 6:30AM.  Todd, likewise, had the course plotted, the electronics up and running, our running lights on and the engines started by 6:45AM.  NOAA and all our other weather resources said the waves would be 1 to 2 feet growing to 2 to 4 feet by afternoon out of the southeast.  That would put them on our starboard stern quarter and act as a 'push' to our destination.  NOAA also said we would be coming into Chicago in 1 to 2 foot waves out of the northwest.
 

Sunrise and St. Joe in the rear view mirror.  Note the waves aren't that big yet.

We left St. Joe as the sun began peeking over the horizon.  The waves were 1 footers as we left.  It felt like the beginning of a comfortable ride.  Todd and I were excited as we heard Ed on Sea Estate mention he had spotted the Sears Tower in his binoculars.  By golly, there it was and we were about 45 miles away from it!  It reminded me of our two trips driving back to Colorado with our boating friends from Columbus to go snow skiing.  We always had a prize waiting for the first person who spotted the Rockies.  This was just that exciting!
 
I've been trying to work on our blog while we were underway because we have been so busy in every port.  True to nature, I worked on the blog all the way across L. Michigan.  However, the lake began to dish out bigger and bigger waves on the stern quarter making typing and holding the computer on the table more difficult as the hours passed.  By the 6th hour of our journey and as the Chicago skyline grew from one building to a city before us, I could hear the engines as the props came close to cavitating.
 
It had turned into another very uncomfortable ride...but I got most of my blog into St. Joe/Benton Harbor typed.  I couldn't work online for most of the journey.  We were out of range of the cell towers.  When I got tired of working in the Word document, I'd go to the bridge, try to keep from being tossed overboard and take pictures of our running mates (Sea Estate and N II Wishin) and finally Chicago, as it grew before us.

NII Wishin making her way in the 3 to 4 foot rollers.

Sea Estate making her way in the same waves.

Chicago was smoggy and hazy as we came into the outer harbor.  The weather had warmed and become somewhat muggy.  The forecast for Thursday was for incoming storms so this was definitely the warm period before the front.



Hazy Chicago skyline.



The skyline cleared as we came closer.  Columbia Yacht Club is the white spot dead center.



Navy Pier. The first of two breakwalls appears in this picture with the waves breaking.

First of two breakwalls as we enter Chicago Harbor.



Second Breakwall.  The closer we got the bigger Columbia Yacht Club's ship became!  Can you tell I'm having fun?

 We had made reservations at the Columbia Yacht Club.  The club is housed in a 372-foot Canadian icebreaker and ferryboat.  Club members crewed 'Abby' from Pictou, Nova Scotia to Chicago, April 5-14, 1983. Originally christened the Abegweit, this ship is the largest privately owned yacht ever brought through the St. Lawrence Seaway. 45 Members, 15 Kings Point mariners and 6 Canadian seamen who had worked aboard when the vessel was owned by the Canadian National Railways sailed her to Chicago.

The wooden pier in the background makes the third breakwall at the Columbia Yacht Club.

The dockmaster brought us into a big wooden slip.  He had first encouraged us to take the long wall next to the Abby, where the 50 amp service was located.  We were concerned that it might be exposed to the wash inside of the open harbor so he moved us into a more protected slip with only 30 Amp service.  Luckily we have a 'splitter' that allows us to connect to to 30 Amp circuits and step up the 50 Amp to run our AC (electric, non-battery) power.

Our slip at Columbia Yacht Club. Look at the view!

The dockmaster and his assistants were very attentive and helpful.  We knew we'd made the right choice.  Chicago is a big city.  Reports from other Loopers had not been positive about other marinas in the area.  The folks that had moved to DuSauble seemed happy however they are paying much more than we are at CYC.
 
Once we were completely secured and the dockmaster had left us to relax in the setting, we took a look around.  Oh my goodness...we look out on the north end of Grant Park, the high rises and I-94 in the distance.  As we look to our south, we see the rest of the park, the skyline of the older Chicago hotels on S. Michigan Ave. and finally the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum and the Adler Aquarium.  The whole scene is breathtaking!



OB at her slip.  Monroe Moorings are behind.  The Art Institute, Soldier Field, Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum are in the background .

 Todd and I decided it was time to check out the yacht club, have a beer and decide what we wanted to do with the rest of the day.  Coming into Central Time has given us an extra hour to our afternoon.  We were excited to see Chicago from a different perspective.  Our last two trips here were to run the Chicago Marathon and, although we saw the city, our concentration was on the road and not our surroundings.
 
The yacht club is amazing.  The whole interior of the ship has been remodeled.  The lower deck is still open bay.  The tracks are still in place from the carferry days but have been cemented over.  Other yacht club flags hang across the bay in a criss-crossing path.  We saw many a familiar burgee there.  I wished I had brought some extra Bay Point burgees to add ours to the mix.
 
The second floor is more elaborate with dark varnished and well polished woods, shiny tile floors, well polished brass fixtures and a baby grand piano sitting in the middle of the ballroom.  To the left was a quaint bar that was comfortable, clean and appointed with the same woods and brass.  A half dozen folks sat around the bar visiting.
 
After a well deserved beer, we went across the ballroom to check out the restaurant and menu.  It too was very well appointed and clean.  The menu had a nice diversity in dishes and was affordably priced.  The prices were not reflective of downtown Chicago restaurants.  YAY!  WHAT A FIND!!!
 
It was still early and we knew our Looper mates had chosen to stay at DuSauble.  We wanted to see how they were doing.  DuSauble is right next to the yacht club.  It is a big marina but we easily found Sea Estate, N II Wishin as well as Qs End from Windsor, ON, CA.  We had anticipated catching up with Tom and Linda as they were about a week ahead of us the whole trip.  We had met them at AGLCAs rendezvous in Joe Wheeler State Park last fall.
 
While checking out the mast stepping going on on Sea Estate, I was looking up and not down as we walked down the finger dock alongside.  A large stepping tool was laying on the dock.  I hadn't noticed it and ran my right foot into it full force.  My little toe was in great pain and already turning black and blue.  Not a good thing when visiting a city where walking is our prime mode of transportation.

First Boat Related Injury (BRI) in a long time...and this one is a good one!

We visited with Tom and Linda on their boat for a while.  It was fun to hear about their adventure so far and compare notes.  They plan to leave with their little armada of Loopers on Thursday (today, as I type this, although the weather hasn't been cooperative this morning!).
 
Tom was heading out to Segway the southside, Linda was going for Chinese dinner with the girls, our Looper mates were getting happy hour underway...and we were exhausted.  We went back to the yacht club and had a magnificent dinner on the outside dining area overlooking the marina and skyline.  We were both happy to retire to the boat, surf for awhile and go to bed.

Sunset reflected from the clouds in the east on the buildings west of our boat.

The wind came up during the night and we rocked quite a bit giving us a little more disturbed sleep.  Both of us now have a cold and are feeling this side of miserable.  We very nearly welcomed the rainy day we've had today so we could just sit in our misery, try to find a distributor to replace our water pump and give Todd time to search out a bug that has occurred with his laptop wireless connection.
 
Oh yeah, Charlie has welcomed the slow day as well!

Charlie stretching out with a little TV after a long day in the waves....which he still hates!

We will stay here another two or three days, leaving Saturday or Sunday morning to start our trek down the rivers.  I'll post more with pictures during our stay.