To Chicago via the "South Bend"

Twins left the St Joe city wall in the morning yesterday and headed out across the big lake (the “South Bend”) at 0730…waves built a bit as we crossed to the SW until a steady 2-4 foot sea took us to Chicago.

About 20 miles out the St Joe tower disappeared from the horizon at the same time the Chicago skyscrapers presented themselves. We could also see the Nuclear Power Plant in Michigan City to the south. An interesting cruise being out in the middle of Lake Michigan with no one on the radar! But at least we could see the Chicago Skyline growing ever larger. We crossed in front of a large southbound freighter just before Chicago spread out before us.

The Chicago Harbor Light welcomed us to the Outer Harbor about 1:30 and we tucked ourselves into the northeast corner of the harbor about a half mile northeast of Navy Pier and a mile west of the shoreline drive. The panoramic view of Chicago was incredible!

Anchorage was difficult with two big grass balls on the CQR anchor/chain….but the Bruce/line held on the first drop. We floated around for the day as the NE winds calmed down and became light and variable. Beautiful sunny day in the mid 70’s. A lot of boat traffic….commercial sightseeing boats, pleasure craft, a large clipper ship, a go-fast thrill ride, sailboats, casino boats…..plenty of rock and roll from the wakes as the day progressed. Then at night it seemed to get even busier with lots of boats…on one side we had a small pleasure craft with lots of kids, on the other side was a huge boat having a serious party as a small go-fast boat stopped to exchange passengers!

Anyway, it was all worth it as we were rewarded with a huge fireworks display! After, all the boats disappeared and we had the whole anchorage to ourselves….calm for the evening. What a night time skyline from the water! And a great sunrise too.

Possible showers and some thunderstorms today! We hope to get the canvas down so we can head though downtown tomorrow morning.