Mastless
August 1
Happy
Birthday Hailey! Our granddaughter
turned 14 years today and I have loved every year of her life.
We are in Chicago
and so starts a new chapter in our journey, the river journey. We pulled into Hammond Marina, which is
actually just over the state line into Indiana.
Evidently Indiana owns a small part of Lake Michigan. This is the largest marina I have ever
seen. They must have 24 piers (not
finger docks), they were lettered A-X.
We met a fun
guy, Kevin from a Blue Water boat, (didn’t catch the name of the boat). Glad we did because he gave us a great
tip. There is a casino next to the
marina, called the Horseshoe and if you sign up for their free membership you
get a free buffet dinner. We had the
best dinner for the money at Horseshoe Casino.
Next morning
we traveled about 4 miles down the river to Crowleys Boat Yard. Crowleys is a full service boat yard and we
had our mast stepped there. Great
service and they packed our mast for shipment to Pensacola, FL, thanks Tim and Mark - great guys who know their rigging business. Mike and Lupa helped us sort through old sails for shipment home to Minnesota. We will pick the mast up in Pensacola where we are already scheduled for
some boat work (bottom job, new standing rigging, new sails and half tower to carrier our solar panels).
The Sea Hawk minus her mast.
Is it a tow? No, it's a freighter! We thought we would be seeing tows on the river, but no, the first big boat on the river is a laker!
Lesson Learned
August 2
Left
Crowleys, mast free, I guess we are now a motor vessel, haha. Went through our first two river locks, the
first was a 5 foot drop, the second which was Lockport was 41 feet. Lockport was full of floating debris and
after we left the lock noticed our engine was overheating. Bruce troubleshooted the problem on the way
but was unable to totally resolve the issue so we limped into Joliete and
stayed at the city dock. We knew it was
the intake somewhere so Bruce went through the intake looking for the blockage
which he finally found in the through hull fitting near the strainer by the engine which was blocked. This happened one more time when we went
through a thick patch of floating weeds.
We are learning to be more watchful of floating debris and to turn off
the engine off in locks that have a lot of debris.
41 foot drop at Lockport Lock.
41 foot drop at Lockport Lock.
New Friends
August 4
In Seneca,
Illinois we stayed at the Springbrook Marina.
Met some great people. Of them we
were impressed with a couple, Chuck and Diane on a trawler called `Bear’. They had somewhat recently completed a 5 year
circumnavigation on their 53 foot steel hulled sailing ketch. They shared some interesting and valuable
information with us and we had a pleasant dinner with them at Harper’s
Hideaway. Harper’s Hideaway is located
at the marina site and I highly recommend this restaurant, the food was
absolutely great and very reasonably priced.
This marina also let us use their courtesy vehicle to go into Seneca to
provision and do laundry.
August 8
Stayed at
the Illinois Valley Yacht and Canoe Club, near Peoria. I tried calling several times during the day
to find out where their fuel dock was located but no one was answering the
phone. After navigating another close
quarters marina we tied up to the fuel dock to find out they were closed on
Mondays and that was why no one answered the phone. We decided to stay overnight
and fuel up in the morning when they opened.
Being a keeled boat and as we tend to back to starboard it gets a little
dicey in small spaces. Things improved
quickly from that point. Sarah and Pam,
longtime members of the club welcomed us and showed us around and how to access
the laundry and showers. We spent a
pleasant afternoon having docktails with them and several other members. I also had a nice swim in their beautiful
pool. That night the club held their
annual party for the employees. We met
the harbor master and his wife, the office manager, and had a nice chat with
them. He offered to move us to a slip or
provide electric at the fuel dock and also made us feel very welcome. We had a great experience at the club and can
highly recommend this marina. They also
have a bar and restaurant onsite which, unfortunately were also closed on Mondays.
Just rolling down the river.
LaGrange Lock
August 9,
2017
Spent the
night at Tall Timbers Marina in Havana, Il.
Very nice marina, not a lot of slips and only gas, no diesel. We met up with Loopers, Buddy and Di from Lady Di
again, we first met them in St. Joseph, MI. Also Loopers, Chuck and Cindy of Neverland, and Gary and Kelly of Caribbean Soul. Had
a great afternoon having docktails and chatting. Gary and Kelly just recently purchased their
catamaran and were traveling in the opposite direction, upstream to go to their
homeport in Lorain, OH.
Darn, I really need to start getting pictures of some of our gatherings.
Work on the Lagrange Lock.
We passed over the wickets of the Lagrange Lock on Wednesday. The word at that time was the wickets were going back up on Thursday, August 10.
Darn, I really need to start getting pictures of some of our gatherings.
Work on the Lagrange Lock.
We passed over the wickets of the Lagrange Lock on Wednesday. The word at that time was the wickets were going back up on Thursday, August 10.
I am enjoying your blog. Be safe and continue to enjoy your "powerboat".
ReplyDeleteMaureen on Mocha
Thanks Maureen. Yes, the "powerboat", haha!
ReplyDelete