John & Mary were so tired once they got to Chicago they wanted me to give everyone an update on the day. When they first got up it was quite foggy and I could hear many discussion on if we should leave or not. Finally the decision was made to head to North Point Marina. As we left I noticed my new friend Salt and Sand was sound asleep at the end of the dock as I passed her. It was foggy but my radar was working well and there was very few other boats out.
The fog lifted somewhat as we passed Milwaukee but returned some near Racine. All along the water was very flat and Captain John kept my speed down in order to conserve some diesel. We were going about 6 knots but getting 5 mpg. After John and Mary had lunch and listened to the weather for tomorrow they decided that it might make sense to kick it up a bit and go for Chicago today. We were about 15 miles away from North Point where we had to stop to get me some new fenders so the mean docks wouldn’t scratch my beautiful sides. So Captain John pushed the throttle all the way forward and I started to guzzle down the diesel, mmm was it good and we were nearly doing 14 mph.
Once we got to North Point you should have seen John and Mary go, they already had the bikes put together and as soon at my lines were tied they were off. In no time they were back all hot and sweaty but with three nice new fenders and a few other supplies. We were back on the Lake in less that an hour. And they still let me have all the diesel I wanted, it was sure good.
John called ahead and confirmed the slip assignment and got the gate and bath codes. We made the run from North Point in about 3 ½ hours, Man I sure liked all the diesel Captain John gave me. Due to the haze we couldn’t see Chicago until we were about 10 miles away. The sun was just dipping behind the buildings and I heard John and Mary talking about neat it looked Mary said she could even smell the Chicago pizza while John remarked about smelling Starbucks coffee. We pulled into the protected area North of Navy Pier and saw a huge private yacht, it had a 20’ wood Chris Craft tucked up on one of it’s side decks. On the run down John had set up the new fenders and they got them in position for me. We then took a slow cruise past Navy Pier around another breakwater an into DuSable Harbor. As we were looking for our fairway Mary shouted there it is and John couldn’t believe it was so narrow. On the way to our slip Mary asked some guys on a sailboat for some help with the lines. They were very nice and gave us a hand tying up.
Once were secure John gave me a quick rinse and promised me he would give me a good going over in the morning and clean off all the soot from all the diesel I had been drinking. I did hear John and Mary say that while it was a long 12 hour day they were quite happy to be in Chicago on schedule so they would have the time to get me ready for the Open Boats that were planned. I’m sure in the next few days they will add some pictures of the day to the blog. This was fun maybe they will let me write one of these blog things again soon.
Good Night,
1 comment:
Thanks, Passport for the update, you lucky boat going fast and drinking the diesel! I am sure it was fun to see the skyline and dock in Chicago, wish we could have been in town with you for the weekend. Tell Captain and First Mate that their Utah Crew loves them a bunch!
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