After the Cal-Sag joined the Des Plaines River we continued on through industrial areas.  There is an abandoned railroad bridge along the river which is fixed, and which limits the heights of boats doing the Great Loop like us.  There is no way around this bridge.  At normal pool level it has 19’7” clearance, and it is pictured below.  On this day the pool level was about 8” lower than datum, so we had a little over 20 feet, plenty for our 17’8” air draft.

After passing the fixed bridge we came to an electric fish barrier.  This was built several years ago, and is intended to keep the invasive Asian Carp from entering the Great Lakes.  It appears to be effective as they have not been reported there to date.  The sign shown below is at the start of the barrier.

Late in the afternoon we came to a lock at Lockport, Illinois.  We called the lock and were told there would be a three hour wait, so we found a wall that we could tie to and waited there.  About on schedule the lock was ready for us, and we proceeded down there.  A tow of 15 barges (3 by 5) was coming through the lock as shown below.  This type of tow is too big to fit in the lock chamber all at once, so it is “cut” into two sections.  The first nine barges are separated and pulled into the lock using a cable system.  This is then locked up and pulled out by the cable system.  The lock operators pulled it out far enough for us to go around the barges and into the lock chamber as shown in the photos.  Then, after we locked down as shown in the last photo, we exited the lock and went around the rest of the tow.  After we were out of the way the rest of the tow was locked up and rejoined the first nine barges.

We proceeded (now in the dark) to a free wall in Joliet where we tied up for the night.  There was free power available.  Historically this was a rough area, but the city of Joliet has cleaned up the area.

9/16/2019

I will break this day into two posts because of the length.  Guess I’m a little too wordy at times.

Today we departed Hammond and entered the inland rivers through the Calumet River, also known as the Cal-Sag canal.  We will be in the rivers until at least early December.  To prepare for a low, fixed bridge we lowered our radar arch and other antennas.  This is shown in the photo below.

We delayed our start this morning due to fog on Lake Michigan.  We finally got a safe start, but sure wished we had the radar available.  It was not, of course, since the arch was down.

The history of these rivers is interesting.  The Chicago River originally flowed from the north side of the city through downtown and into Lake Michigan.  In 1885 an extreme weather event threatened the city’s water supply, so construction was started on a canal to divert storm water.  This was later modified to become the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, effectively flowing backwards from Lake Michigan to the Des Plaines River, accomplished by a lock system at the mouth of the river on Lake Michigan.  This lock raised the river level and caused it to flow backwards through the canal.  This carried sewage from the city down to the Mississippi River, and then down to New Orleans.  We can’t go on this route because the bridges in downtown Chicago are about 17 feet clearance, too low for us.

The Calumet-Saganashkee Channel, more commonly known as the Cal-Sag, was a new canal opened in 1922 primarily for wastewater flowage into the Des Plaines River.  It is more commonly used today for barge traffic, and it joins the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal west of the city.  We can go on this route because the bridges are high enough for us, though we have to call a few to have them opened.

We entered the Cal-Sag and went through industrial areas.  There are many barges moored along the sides carrying scrap metal, aggregate, coal and salt.  Morton’s Salt has a plant here, and there were a number of barges holding and transferring salt.  The photos below show the bleak landscape in this area, made more so by the low clouds and fog/haze conditions.

When we got to the lock on the Cal-Sag we found three boats with friends on board, Cat-N-Dogs, One Eyed Dog and On Missions.  They had waited a couple hours for the lock to be available, and we arrived just in time to lock through with them.  From this lock we will be going downriver until we turn to go up the Ohio.  Just after the lock we met our first small tow, a tug pushing four barges.  These will be a common sight in the coming weeks.

9/12-15/2019

We hoped to leave Kenosha on the morning of September 12, but the weather forecast was for high winds and large waves for the next two days.  Thus we decided to stay another couple days.

Kenosha was formerly a major automobile manufacturing center, first building Nash, then Hudson, Rambler and finally American Motors (AMC).  These marques were all lost when AMC went out of business in the mid-1980’s.  The former manufacturing plant was demolished, and the downtown has experienced a renaissance over the last 15-20 years.  Kenosha is now a bedroom community for commuters to Chicago and Milwaukee, and the rejuvenated downtown is a delightful place.  The public areas are attractive as you can see below, and they have implemented an electric trolley system as part of their public transit.  I did not manage to get a photo of the trolleys but they were originally put in service in Toronto in the early 1950’s.

While we were in Kenosha we observed several mink along the shoreline.  They are territorial, and when I was out for a walk one day I saw a small one intrude into the territory of a larger animal.  The large one had a strong bite onto the back or tail of the smaller who was squealing quite loudly.  The first two photos below show the struggle between them with the pair of minks right in the center of the photo.  The smaller one finally got away and ran squealing down the sidewalk oblivious to any people that were there.  I had to jump out of his way or he would have run into me.  The last photo below shows the larger mink sitting on the edge of the sidewalk, and you can see the footprints from the smaller mink as he ran away.

On September 14 we finally decided the weather looked good, and made a transit down the rest of Lake Michigan to Hammond, IN.  Along the way we passed downtown Chicago which is in the photo below.  We had to dodge sailboats which were everywhere that day.

Hammond is adjacent to the industrial city of Gary, which is not a desirable place to be.  Hammond has a casino, and the marina there has about 900 slips.  It is huge.  Walking from our boat to the office takes about 20 minutes, and we are walking on docks for over a quarter mile.  The photo below shows the main dock at night.

We discovered along the way to Hammond that we have rainwater leaking into the forward head.  We will stay two days to find the source of the leak, and to put our radar arch down for the first day’s travel on the rivers.  More about that in the next post.

9/9-11/2019

On Monday we departed Manitowoc to move to Port Washington.  The weather was marginal for much of the trip, and we had four foot waves for a while.  That wasn’t fun, but we expected these.

The locks on the Illinois River, south of Chicago, have announced a closure for maintenance work from September 21 through October 5.  No boats will be permitted to pass during those dates, and the commercial barge traffic will have priority after the locks are reopened.  A schedule is the worst thing to have on a boat trip, but we are pushing a (very) little to get through those locks before the closure.

Port Washington is an interesting town.  It has a large power plant in the harbor that has warm water discharge into the lake.  This discharge attracts spawning salmon and lake trout, so the fishing is supposedly very good.  While there we saw many people fishing from the jetties, kayaks and fishing boats all throughout the marina and around the harbor.  We also saw some people catch large fish, probably in the 15-20 pound range.  The downtown is really well kept, and we enjoyed a bike ride along the local bike trail.  The view up Main Street (maybe not the right name) is shown below.

As we were coming into Port Washington we saw a small boat with several people fishing just outside the harbor.  The two photos below show the boat when it is in a wave bottom, and then on a wave top.  This looks really dangerous, but it really isn’t too bad.  By the way, these waves were about 1-2 feet only.

We sat in Port Washington for a second day to wait out predicted weather.  It was foggy, but the sea conditions weren’t as bad as we expected.

On Wednesday we departed Port Washington and moved to Kenosha.  We thought we might stop at Racine but the conditions were good, so we pressed on.  This gives us a shorter trip into Chicago when we can travel again.

Along the way we passed Milwaukee while we were about three miles offshore.  The view of the city wasn’t spectacular owing to the marine haze.

We are in a new marina in Kenosha, and plan to go to Hammond, Indiana (south of Chicago) tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

 

9/7-8/2019

On September 7 we finally departed Green Bay.  We were both away from the boat for a few days to visit friends and check on our dirt house.  It felt good to be moving again.

Green Bay is primarily an industrial port with very a long and well-marked entry channel.  You can see in the photo below the number of markers and the outermost lighthouse.  I think there are three lighthouses on the channel, none of them manned.  This view covers several miles of the channel.

We first went to the town of Sturgeon Bay.  This is in the center of Door County, and is a natural channel from Green Bay out to Lake Michigan.  There is major shipbuilding in this town and a number of bridges that must be opened for transit.  The entry into the town, and the shipyard, are shown below.  I thought it strange that you lock through one bridge and then have to wait for 15 minutes in a spot about 100 yards across for the next bridge to open.  I mentioned this to locals, and they agreed it was strange.  The photos below show the view fore and aft of the boat while waiting in this spot.  Thankfully the winds weren’t overwhelming or they could have blown us into the downwind bridge if we weren’t paying attention.

After departing Sturgeon Bay we moved to Manitowoc, another town on the Wisconsin shoreline.  This town also has a shipbuilding history, and built 28 submarines during World War II.  One of the submarines built there is on display in the harbor, and offers tours through the local maritime museum.  Unfortunately we didn’t have time for the tour.  Photos of the submarine are below.  After construction the submarines were transported on a floating drydock through Chicago, and down the rivers to New Orleans for final assembly and launching.  That is part of the route we plan to take.

Tomorrow we will continue down the Wisconsin coast, and hope to stop at Port Washington.

8/27/2019

On the same day that I went on the stadium tour at Lambeau I also visited the Packer Hall of Fame.  A very impressive place, both for the things I have in the photos below but also for the displays of old and modern football equipment, artifacts on the history of professional football, old uniforms, and so on.  I could have spent hours there, and for this post I chose to focus on just a few items.

The first photos below show the history of the Packer uniforms.  These evolved from the days of sponsorship by the Indian Packing Company through to some pads and leather helmets, then face masks, to today’s version of the uniforms.  While these photos aren’t real compelling in this format I found this to be a really interesting display.

One of the really unique artifacts is the Ed Thorp Trophy which is pictured below.  Beginning in 1934 the NFL awarded this trophy to the champions of the league.  It was a traveling trophy, much like the Stanley Cup, and in some years the winning team was also awarded a permanent trophy.  The records are not well preserved, and the teams may have had to acquire their own permanent trophy.  For years this trophy was lost.

At the end of the 1967 season the Packers received this trophy along with the AFL-NFL championship trophy now known as the Vince Lombardi trophy (named, of course, after a great Packers coach).  It was thought to have been awarded to the Baltimore Colts in 1968 (who then lost to Joe Namath and the Jets) and to the Minnesota Vikings in 1969 (who then lost to the KC Chiefs).  Since the Vikings should have been the last recipients of the trophy, and it was lost for years, they were rumored to be under an Ed Thorp Trophy curse for losing the trophy, four Super Bowls and another 6 NFC championships.  Now that the trophy has been found we can conclude they were not under this curse, though there must be another curse still pending to explain their losing ways.

This trophy was in the possession of the Packers Hall of Fame, and was believed to be one of the permanent trophies.  About two years ago someone found an old press photo of the original trophy and it was realized this trophy was the original but was missing the base.  That base was found in the archives, and so the trophy is now back in one piece and is on display.

The photo below shows the display in the championship trophy room of the four Super Bowl trophies.  It is a really impressive display.

This room also has a display of the permanent Ed Thorp trophies, some of which are recent reproductions.  The Packers have 8 of these trophies as you can see in the photo below, more than any other team.  You may know that the Packers have won the world championship 13 times, also more than any other team.

If you do the math something doesn’t add up though.  4 Super Bowls and 8 Ed Thorp trophies don’t add to 13.  Remember though that the first three world championships won by the Packers were in 1929-31, before the Ed Thorp Trophy was awarded.  Plus in the years 1966-67 the Packers won both the Ed Thorp Trophy and the Vince Lombardi Trophy (though it wasn’t called that until 1970), so when it all is calculated the number of championship trophies is accurate.

I’ll continue to bore you with more Packers stuff in the next blog post.

8/24-27/2019

On Saturday, 8/24, we departed Menominee and moved down Green Bay (the body of water) to Green Bay (the city).  We are in a marina at the mouth of the Fox River, the primary commercial waterway through the city.  Large commercial ships use this river and the bay to transport bulk cargo and chemicals, so the entrance is wide, deep and well marked.

The photos below show our approach to the Fox River entrance, and the marina where we are staying.  I wish I could say this is an attractive entrance, but it isn’t.  It is, however, a working industrial area.  That is an important factor in supporting the industries in the city.

Green Bay is best known for its NFL franchise, the Green Bay Packers.  I went on a tour of the stadium, Lambeau Field, and Packer Hall of Fame, each of which were interesting in their own right.  I chose to break this discussion into two separate blog posts to make it more readable.  This first post will discuss the stadium and tour, and the second post the Hall of Fame.

Lambeau Field was first opened in 1957 to replace the older City Stadium.  It has been renovated and expanded several times since first opening, with the greatest change occurring when the Atrium was built in the years 2000-2003.  This turned the stadium into a multiple use facility that hosts four or five events each day.  On the day I was at the stadium there was a major blood drive in process as well as three different corporate meetings.

I went on a tour of the stadium.  This included visits to the alumni luxury box, a walk through the bowels of the stadium, exiting the stadium through the player tunnel onto the field, and good access to the south end zone.

The player tunnel photos are shown below.  This is a long tunnel from the dressing room out onto the field.  In the first photo the door onto the field is closed, and at the base of the door is a small strip of concrete.  This concrete was dug up from the old player tunnel and moved to this spot when the building was renovated.  The plaque in the second photo is just above the concrete strip.  The tour guide said this plaque is mentioned by many players as a real motivation for their play on the field.  I saw the strip of concrete again during the pregame photos a couple nights after this tour.

The stadium itself is shaped like a bowl as you can see in the photos below.  Without exception, the seats are metal benches affording about 12 inches for each visitor.  The field is real grass which is mowed weekly throughout the season.  The lines and markings are painted anew each week, with 150 gallons of paint being required for this.  The day I visited was a couple days before a home game, and you can see some of the lines are starting to be painted this day.

Finally we spent some time in the south end zone.  The photo below shows the spot where the Lambeau Leap started.  On Dec 26, 1993 LeRoy Butler (Packers safety) had scored a defensive touchdown, pointed to a fan in this spot, and jumped into the stands.  It remains one of the traditions at Lambeau.

8/22-23/2019

On Thursday, 8/22, we departed Northport and moved across Lake Michigan.  We stopped first at Washington Island, and then on 8/23 we moved on to Menominee, Michigan.  This town is in Green Bay (the body of water), and is on the border between Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan.

The transit across Lake Michigan first had some large head seas as we reached the mouth of Grand Traverse Bay, but these settled down as predicted for the crossing.  It is about 60 nautical miles in a straight line, and other than an autopilot hiccup it was uneventful.  Because of the long trip we left Northport at first light and were treated to a beautiful sunrise on the water.

The trip across the lake doesn’t afford much scenery.  The waves all pretty much look the same except that some are bigger than others.

After crossing the lake we stopped at Washington Island.  This is an island off the tip of Door County.  While there we rented electric bikes to try a different brand.  These were a disappointment, and we are glad we ordered as we did.  The island was pretty much like central Wisconsin with many farms and extensive agriculture.

After spending one night we moved on to Menominee.  This town is across the river from Marinette which is known for shipbuilding.  It has the feel of a former industrial center that is trying to revitalize it’s downtown.  There were many impressive buildings downtown, most originally built about 125 years ago.  Some are in disrepair, and others are being renovated.  The citizens here are really trying to make it work.

Tomorrow we will move on to Green Bay (the town).

8/18-22/2019

We departed St Ignace late in the morning on 8/18 and moved west under the Mackinac Bridge.  After transiting into the very northern part of Lake Michigan we turned south along the eastern shore of the lake to reach the town of Petoskey.  This was a very unpleasant trip.  After spending two nights there we moved to Northport which is in the northwestern part of Grand Traverse Bay.  Here we will wait out weather until we can make a safe and uneventful crossing of Lake Michigan.

The trip from St Ignace started out well with predictions of 10 knot winds and 1 foot waves.  The weather was predicted to build to 15 knot winds and 2 foot waves later in the day, but these are within our normal limits.  After passing an area known as “the straits” we continued on towards Petoskey.  Weathermen are sometimes wrong, and they were this day as the winds built to 30 knots and seas were 5-6 feet.  We got an uncomfortable but not an unsafe ride.  Our flags were shredded or torn from their mounts but otherwise we sustained no damage.  That is the worst weather we have ever experienced, and it is a record we don’t need to break.

We came to Petoskey because of an electric bike store in town.  We have been thinking about better ground transportation, and this seems to be a good choice for us.  After we arrived we discovered there was also a shop that rented a different model bike than we were planning to try, so we rented a pair for four hours.  26 miles later, and without fatigue, we were sold.  This model, from a company called Rad Bikes, was significantly less cost than what we intended to look at, and it seemed to meet our needs perfectly.  Even riding up steep hills was a breeze as the electric motor really did the work.  We enjoyed the ride along the shore of Lake Michigan as you can see in the photos below.  So the bikes are on order and should be delivered to Green Bay, WI late next week while we will be there.

On 8/20 we moved on to Northport.  This is a town about 8 miles inside Grand Traverse Bay with a long boating history.  It is a small town with a good grocery, brewery, bakery and a couple decent restaurants.  We don’t need much more than that.  Oh…really friendly people too.

We plan to move across Lake Michigan on 8/22 if the weather predictions are still good in the morning.  This is a 60 mile open water transit, so we want to be sure the weather conditions are acceptable.

8/13-17/2019

We left the Government Bay anchorage this morning and continued along the south shore of the UP to the town of St Ignace.  This is at the north end of the Mackinac Bridge (pronounced like ‘Mackinaw’), and as such is a gateway to the UP.  While here we enjoyed a visit from Eric, Marilou’s brother, and his girlfriend Ramona.

With Eric and Ramona aboard we cruised out onto Lake Huron and passed under the Mackinac Bridge into Lake Michigan.  This bridge, shown below, is five miles long and is the third longest suspension bridge in the world.  It is impressive.

After our foray into Lake Michigan we cruised back into Lake Huron and circled Mackinac Island.  The weather was a little chilly, but the ride was very enjoyable.  We are very much enjoying their visit.

We had made reservations at Mackinac Island, and went there after cruising around the island.  It is an interesting pace, and was the site of Mackinac Fort established in 1780.  This is shown in the photo below.

Excepting emergency vehicles, the island allows only bicycles and horse drawn transportation.  The photos below show sights along the main street in town.  I was surprised to see a UPS employee delivering Amazon packages from a horse drawn cart on the street as shown in the first photo.

We intended to stay here two nights, but the waves coming in the harbor entrance and the ferry wakes made it an uncomfortable spot.  After staying for just one night we bailed out and went back to St Ignace.  We’re still having a great time.