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| Riva made lots of friends on her walks at the marina |
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| Sunrise over Lake Michigan from Chicago |
We awoke to heavy rains at 5:30 am. The heavy rains passed fairly quickly and cloudy skies with a breeze and on and off drizzle remained. The lake wind/wave forecast was not bad for the morning hours so we determined we would make it a ‘go’ day and stick with our planned voyage to Michigan City. We could have stayed longer in Chicago for sure but we were uncertain how many of our friends and family would respond favorably to a ‘go fund me’ request! 😂
Blueberry pancakes, bacon, and vege sausage were on the breakfast menu before preparing to depart. At 9am we had everything ready and charted a course to Hamm Marina, 16 miles east of Chicago, where we would stop and fuel up the tanks. Their gas was considerably cheaper than anywhere in Illinois. Out into Lake Michigan we ventured. The skies were very cloudy, darkest to the north and east. Unfortunately, we were headed in both those directions. Soon after departing the rain picked up from a light sprinkle to a heavy rain. That only lasted for an hour or so, however, part of that hour did include the time frame that we made it to Hammond Marina where we got good and soaked docking and fueling up. Who buys a boat and doesn’t expect to get wet anyhow?
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| Ominous skies as we departed But Look how smooth that lake looks! |
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| Saying good bye, for now, to the Windy City We learned on the boat tour last night why Chicago is called “The Windy City”….can you guess why? * |
Smooth seas for the first couple
of hours of the trip
Just a little wet
As we moved on from Hamm Marina toward Michigan City the rain lightened up considerably but the wave action picked up to a slightly uncomfortable and hard to maintain course chop. Nothing unmanageable though. Derek may have said differently…lol. He ended up doing great on his first bumpy ride with us and did NOT get sick :-). Dramamine is good stuff! By early afternoon we had traveled 46 miles and pulled into the Michigan City Harbor. The city was hosting the last day of boat races just outside of the harbor and along the beach shoreline. Lots of noise from the mega HP boats racing around the buoys off shore. By 1:30 pm, with it still raining and wind blowing, we were sliding gracefully into our slip. Erik wasn’t nervous at all that he’d have another fiasco of a windy entrance. **
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| One of many go fast boats at the park and on the water |
The rain continued for another 4-5 hours so we had a pretty relaxed afternoon of naps, reading, doing some laundry and eating up most of the many leftovers from the fridge. By about 6pm the rain finally subsided enough that we all took a nice walk to go out to the old lighthouse. Love the lighthouses!
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| Lighthouse There is also a lighthouse museum here next to the marina Unfortunately it was closed for the race weekend |
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| Lighthouse guard flamingo Thinking Habitat for Humanity should get some of these for their homes! |
We all, including Riva even though there were technically no dogs allowed on the beach, strolled back in the beach. Riva got in the lake first and swam her little heart out. We only got wet up to our calves. The water was not as cold as we had expected it to be; the water temp gauge on the boat had been reading about 76 degrees (much better than the 65 it was reading as we exited the river into the lake a couple days ago). The remainder of the evening included showering all of the sand off Riva, plus ourselves, and relaxing around the boat.
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| Michigan City Beach. |
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| Tried to catch Derek in the beach washroom with his foot up in the sink washing sand off Missed it! That guys flexible! |
Our last voyage for this years adventure will be a 35 mile jaunt across and over to St Joseph MI (a new state for us to touch!). It is up in the air now as to whether we will do that tomorrow or possibly wait a couple days here for fairer weather and kinder lake conditions. We will evaluate forecasts and lake conditions in the morning and the navigator (Renee) will make the call to ‘Go’ or ‘No Go’.
* it was coined in 1890 in reference to Chicago’s bloviating residents and politicians, who were deemed to be “full of hot air.”
**ok….he may have been just a little nervous
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