Wednesday, September 2, 2009

So much for a better night’s rest! It was certainly quieter; however, the waves beat us up so badly we all had difficulty sleeping. We spoiled Lucy by allowing her to sleep at the foot of our bed, but the poor thing would have been a wreck otherwise! The wind and waves laid down shortly before sunrise and we were able to “sleep in” until 7:30 am. The smog seemed to be especially thick this morning and the smells not so good. We were now eager to leave the area and head downriver so at 10:30 am we pulled anchor and proceeded to Chicago Harbor. Our first stop was at the DuSable Harbor Marina where we stayed with Dan and Julie and the boys, but this time it was just a stop at the pumpout dock. We both took quick showers on the boat and then topped off the water tanks before heading toward the lock on the Chicago River at Navy Pier.

What a glorious day to tour downtown Chicago by river! We cleared the lock at 3:15 pm and continued through the city enjoying the scenery and sunshine. We were reminded of our trip to Venice in 2007 with the buildings and bridges along the canal. Many cruisers choose to bypass the route through the city and take the Calumet River to the Illinois River; however, in our minds that would be like going to Venice and skipping the gondola ride!

After passing through the downtown area, we found ourselves in an industrial zone with lots of pipeline companies, rock and gravel companies, scrap metal companies and other familiar river businesses. The barges weren’t as large as on the Mississippi River, but they took up their share of the available space leaving it up to any boat meeting or overtaking a barge to navigate around. At 6 pm we were at mile 312.2 on the Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal (mileage began at the Chicago lock at mile 326). We found a safe anchorage just downstream of a railroad bridge where any barge traffic had to pass under the bridge on the opposite side of the channel. There were many trains that passed overhead going both directions, but we were so tired by now, that we both slept quite well until about 2 am. Maureen had some trouble sleeping after that due to the train traffic. The barge traffic seemed to come to a stop during the night but picked up again early in the morning.