The fog, the rain, and the windy city

Wednesday, 28 August – Michigan City

Dense fog, 73 degrees. Kept waiting for the fog to lift. Never did. So we stayed in port and biked to the lighthouse museum where we learned a bit of local history about cruise ships that used to come to Michigan City from
Chicago. Although two blocks inland, this was the original position of the lighthouse, before they filled in the land around it for the power plant, park, and marina.

We also stopped at the Shoreline Brewery, sampling the beers they were particularly proud of – quite tasty. And, since it was also a restaurant, we tried the smoked salmon and latkes – yum. We biked to a
huge outlet mall with every brand name store imaginable. Hardly anyone was there. We peeked into several stores, took advantage of special sales, but had to stop peddling when a security officer told us we were not allowed to bike on the plazas, so we went back to the boat for happy hour.

Thursday, 29 August – Michigan City, IN to Chicago, IL - 45 mi., 3524 cum mi.

Dense fog again, 73 degrees. Weather report said the fog would lift by 9 AM which is an hour later than we were used to, since we crossed into Central Daylight Time when we entered Indiana. And it looked like the fog was lifting when we could see the bottom of the power plant and the sun struggled to shine through.

We fueled up and headed out the harbor. Not a half hour out, we ran into dense fog. And it stayed with us all the way to Chicago. Radar on and horn blasting every two minutes, we proceeded, since it was foggy on the way back as well. We figured the fog would lift eventually, and we would greet the sun and visibility. Well, it did not. In fact, the fog got denser as we approached Chicago. And we ran out of compressed air, so we had no horn.  We saw a large vessel approaching on the radar, and we heard his foghorn, so we hailed him on the VHF, hoping he saw us. A sailing vessel also hailed him, saying he heard the horn but could not see him. The American Spirit responded. He said he had a picture of both of us on his radar and we should maintain our course and speed. We could see his image on the radar screen passing behind us, but the fog was too dense to see any of the boats. The waypoint we set at the entrance to Monroe harbor got us to the breakwater wall which we followed into DuSable Harbor Marina. While we could not see land, we did have about 100 ft visibility, enough to find our slip and a dock hand waiting to help us with our lines.

The Chicago skyline was not visible until much later. But what a nice skyline it was. Tall buildings on one side, an amusement park on the other. Our neighbor, who was sewing canvas on a large worktable he set up on his covered party deck, did the loop 20 years ago and had some tales to tell. We discovered Mariano’s – a great Italian market where we stocked up on fresh produce, fish, bread, as well as frozen foods, and it was a short walk across the park with fountains and flowers. We phoned other loopers to see where they were on their journeys, looking forward to seeing them again. And we had a well-deserved drink (or two) over fresh salmon we caught at the market.

Friday, 30 August – Chicago

Bright sunny day – yay! – a little warm, but no fog. Found the problem with

the air horn – a bad in-line fuse holder in the power line to the air compressor. Replacing that yielded the familiar sound of the tank filling with air. And the horn worked. Charli wanted to visit Wrigley Field and see a baseball game. The Cubs were playing the Phillys.  At the ticket office, after a brew at Cubby Bear's, we asked for seats in
the shade. Nice man sold us seats behind home plate at a senior discount.Wrigley Field was named after the chewing gum mogul who used to own the team. It will celebrate its 100 ^th birthday next year. We were surprised to see bleachers built on the rooftops of buildings across the street from the field. Called Wrigleyville Rooftops, they provide a clear (although distant) view to left and right field. There was some controversy at first, since the rooftop guys were charging admission which upset the Cubs. After some legal wrestling, the rooftop
guys agreed to give the Cubs a percentage of their take, so now they coexist in peace. The Cubs took an early lead, but the Phillys caught up and won 6-5. We got home just as a severe thunderstorm and hail warning was issued. We watched the sky darken, the lightning flash. We secured the boat with extra lines, covered the flybridge helm and seats and waited for it to pass. In an hour it was over. We enjoyed a delightful dinner with Dave and Jan (Dawn Treader) who live just north of Chicago. They put their boat in dry, heated storage and hope to leisurely explore Lake Michigan next summer.

Saturday, 31 August
It rained most of the morning, but the afternoon cleared into a nice day. We took a bike ride and ran some errands to the UPS Store, West Marine, and AT&T Store. Michigan Ave was filled with people for the “Michigan Ave shopping experience,”  shopping, wandering, and watching the street performers.There is a very nice Lakefront Path for bikers and runners. It was quite congested near the Navy Pier – a popular tourist destination, with an amusement park and many restaurants. The AGLCA Chicago Harbor Hosts  Woody and Ellen hosted a dinner for loopers in the area. The view from their 15  ^th floor condo was spectacular.

And dinner was very Chicago – deep dish pizza and Italian beef sandwiches aux jous - delicious. What’s a better way to meet some new loopers than over a glass of wine? We got home in time to catch the Saturday night fireworks off the Navy Pier.

Sunday, 1 September

Nice day, 84 degrees. A flotsam cleaner machine worked its way through the empty slips to pick up seaweed and crap floating on the water.

We had the pleasure of spending the day with dear friends Don and Betty and their son Chris’ family – lovely bride Christine and sons Bradley and Ben. We gave them a tour of our boat and took them on
a short cruise down the shore and back.

We cruised past McCormick Place, Soldiers Field, the Museum of Natural History, the former city airport, Grant park fountain and several  marinas.  Lots of cruisers and sailboats were out on  the lake.

We enjoyed the best lunch we ever had at a Chinese restaurant with live blues music (really), on the waterfront in Chicago.