8/5/22 - Joliet to Dusable Harbor, Chi Town

Erik was up his usual dark 30.  The rest of the crew were awoken by a cruiser coming up river creating a large wake and rocking the boat badly at 6am.  Calling ahead to Lockport Lock and Dam they informed us that they currently did not have any long delays but that could change.  We decided to take Riva up to the park at the top of the wall to give her a nice long walk (still feeling bad for having her stuck aboard for 15+ hours yesterday).   

Joliet is known as the ‘City of Limestone’ for all of the limestone it produced in the lte 19th century
The park had a pretty tiered limestone wall with many flowers

Canadian Loopers we joined on the wall 

We shoved off from the wall at 7:30 am and got to Lockport Lock which was only a few miles away to find that the boat that had rocked the boat going by at 6am was still waiting in the lock chamber for their lift up river.  

    Renee, the mathematician, was questioning the numbers

Also, our wall neighbors aboard ‘Moments’ were waiting in the chamber.  Our timing was great today and just as we pulled into the chamber the doors shut and we were lifted immediately.   This was not mentioned previously but we had been traveling on what is considered the Des Plaines River when we came out of the Brandon Road Lock fiasco last night.  Now, as we exited the Lockport Lock it has transitioned into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.   As the name implies, it is really nothing more than a large canal, generally pretty straight with limestone walls on either side.   It was still a very industrial area with many barges, fuel refineries, gravel pits and other industry.   The two boats pulled out ahead of us and were cruising at about 9-10 mph.  With the narrowness of the canal and the sheer rock walls a washing machine effect of rolly waves was created making it a very uncomfortable and challenging ride.  Finally, about 15 or more miles into the ride the one boat turned off onto the Cal-Sag channel.   The remaining boat in front of us, Moments, picked up their pace considerably so we slowed ours back down to 8 mph in order to fall far enough behind them to not have to deal with the rough ride.  

10 or 12 miles before entering downtown  Chicago there is an electric fence in the water to keep the Asian carp from getting into Lake Michigan 

Chicago Yacht Works
Where many Chicago boat owners store for the winter 
We’d never seen a sling lift on a crane 

As we were getting closer to downtown Chicago we had to wait for about 20 minutes for an Amtrak train to go by and for the railroad bridge to be lifted above our height.   After passing under the now lifted bridge the Chicago skyline came into clear view and we were excited to be entering the city.  

Approaching downtown 
Skyline in site 

More views as we enter the city

Renee being the photographer

The big black building with white “antennae” is the  Sears Tower, now called the Willis Tower

Getting even closer 

Water taxis along the river

Video of boating through downtown

This was by far the largest city we have ever boated in or through.  The recreational and tour boat traffic started to increase.  The views were spectacular and things continued to get busier and busier as we progressed the last couple of miles toward the Chicago Lock which would be our exiting point from the rivers and onto Lake Michigan.  

Lively riverfront in downtown with dozens of cafes 

Video in the Chicago Lock preparing to enter into The Great Lakes

We were locking up with 13 other boats 

And here we are!

The blue/green water of Lake Michigan was clean and clear and a welcome change from the muddy rivers we had been traveling.   Additionally, the water temps dropped from what had been low/mid 80’S all the way down to 65 degrees as we entered the Lake.   The variety of boats was now large, ranging from runabouts and cruisers to sailboats, large tour boats and even a tall ship.  The marina we had chosen, DuSable Harbor was less than a mile outside of the lock.   It was a very short, not very rough cruise out into the lake before we were quickly back behind the protection of the harbor wall idling back past hundreds of boats towards our assigned slip at the far inside end of the docks closest to the Navy Pier.   Comfortably in our slip we sat for a few minutes taking in the fabulous views that we had of both the lake and the Chicago skyline!   Wow!  

Chicago river front is essentially one huge park for miles with pretty flowers everywhere 

We took off on foot for what would end up being 9.9 miles of walking over the next 7 hours.  Our first stops were at Buckingham Fountain and Millennium Park.  

Fountain shot
It was HOT and we would have liked to have been  in the water 

We call it the big beam

Was skeptical on whether it was worth seeing
But
It turns out it was very cool

Another crazy bean shot from beneath it 

We then went to the Navy Pier.  We were all hungry and decided to go for an early dinner where we got our required deep dish pizza fix at Giordano’s where we stuffed our faces and STILL had lots leftover.   

Yum

Hot and with tired feet we went back to the marina and relaxed for a couple of hours before heading back out to the Navy Pier again to experience the night scene.   On the way over we stopped briefly in the park between the marina and the pier to listen to some live Latin Jazz.  

A beautiful night for a walk to the pier and a ride on the wheel

Music and entertainment in several of the neighboring parks to our marina 

Back at the Navy Pier the lights and ambiance of the night were nice.  Many people were milling around enjoying the beautiful evening.  We had been advised that purchasing a Groupon ‘City Pass’ for several activities would be our best deal to experience things.   Taking a nighttime ride on the Ferris wheel was in order for our first of three.   The views were cool, however, the AC in the particular car was apparently messed up creating a messy amount of condensation and moisture on the windows that certainly inhibited the great view we could have had.  The upside was that the workers at the Ferris wheel did not know how to properly accept our ‘city pass’ digitally and just let us on.  This said, we should still have three activities each to experience tomorrow on our passes.  

Round and round we went 

Back at the boat we were all pretty exhausted from the busy day.  Riva received a quick nightly walk before we got ourselves ready for bed.  It was a very full and fun day in Chicago; probably the most memorable day of this particular leg of our looping.   Life is good aboard Happy Destiny!  

Good night from 
Happy Destiny