Calumet River

Day 2
244 miles

Did I mention this trip was going to be an adventure?  Oh boy - our second day confirmed it.
For us, the Loop really didn't begin until we traveled the the 35 miles on Thursday from Michigan City to the Calumet River, just south of Chicago.  Having a boat on Lake Michigan, the run on the first day to another port is a normal thing.  But entering the inland river system made us realize we are really doing this.

Being on a boat is like staying at a Holiday Inn Express.  I feel smarter already.  I may apply for my journeyman electrician's license when this is done.  Before leaving Michigan City, we were trying to get one of the newly installed electronic devices up and running.  It isn't essential to making the trip, but will make navigating easier.  Greg was instructing me on cutting, stripping, and splicing electrical wires.

We left Michigan City at 11:30 and entered the Calumet River at 1:30 after passing the flames from the steel mills in Burns Harbor, IN.    Just before the mouth of the river, we put True North into neutral to manually put down two antennas that, when up, wouldn't allow us to pass under many of the fixed bridges on the route.  Being the smallest person on the boat, I drew the short straw to go up  through the hatch on top of the boat to do this.  I said, "Don't you think we should have practiced this before we left?"  Mike and Greg replied, "We did, just not with you!"  So I stood on Mike's shoulders and up I went.  There was little breeze, and it wasn't wavy - you have to be thankful for the little things - and the antennas got lowered.

At the first drawbridge, we saw a barge coming from the other direction.  We were excited that the bridge was up for it and hoped to get through it after the barge passed us.  Barges go 6 mph (slow) and the bridge must have been up for quite a while to let it through because when we hailed the bridge master on Channel 16, he said we would have to wait as he was going to lower the bridge to let the backed up vehicle traffic go.  We waited for over 20 minutes before the bridge opened up.

Then came our first lock - the Thomas O'Brien.  Again, you have to contact the lock master (Channel 14, we learned, after getting no response on Channel 16).  He said they were working on the wall of the lock and it would be about 30 minutes before we could enter.  This time we went over to a sea wall and tied up instead of idling in the middle.  My electrical apprenticeship continued during this
time, which included crawling into a cubby hole behind the dash to connect wires.  (that smallest person on the boat thing again).  But in the end, we have a working AIS.

Our apprehension over locking was eased with this first one as we were the only vessel in the lock (no barges) and it only dropped 3 ft.  To give you an idea of what's ahead, Ludington is at an elevation of 780 ft.  Mobile, Alabama, where we will enter the Gulf, is 0, so between our start and the Gulf, we will have to drop (through locks) that many feet!

After the lock, we got behind a large barge that was going our direction, but in reverse.  The captain of the H. Lee White radioed us to say there was a little space at that point if we wanted to go by him.  We asked which side would he like us to pass him on (inland river etiquette) and he said "Port".  Now, this is the question of the day - if a boat is going in reverse, which side is his port side?  Fortunately, Greg knew because Mike and I would have went on the other side!

We had our "hold our breath" moment not far down the river.  From day one of the planning of this trip, we knew there was a fixed railroad bridge at a height of 19.7 ft.  All the other fixed bridges are higher or the drawbridges will open for you.  If you can't clear this RR bridge, you literally cannot do the loop.  Before getting to this one, we went under a 22 ft bridge that would have opened if we requested it, but the thought was, "If we can't get under this one, we certainly can't get under the fixed one."  At the RR bridge, we listened for a scraping sound that never came.  You also have to be thankful for the big things.  (Some people doing the loop go through downtown Chicago, which would be fun and scenic, but they have a fixed bridge at 17 ft, which is impossible for us.)

Much of the Calumet River is a no wake zone and at one point we realized we had only gone 9 miles in 3 hours.  But we get great fuel mileage at that speed!  The scenery was at first very industrial - there is a whole world of commerce on the banks of rivers that we rarely see.  Then for several miles it was just trees.  We went from the Calumet into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which was much more narrow and more barges.  In the canal we passed over an electrical barrier that prevents Asian carp from heading upstream.  From there we went into the Illinois River.

Now for the good news/bad news part.  The good news is that we handled the rivers, including the locks and bridges and had a really great first day.  The bad news is getting a late start out of Michigan City, and then the hold-ups at the first bridge and lock made us break our rule of not traveling after dark.  Too much debris (we saw a dead deer at one point!) and hard to tie up, especially in an unknown place.  There are no marinas or anchorages after a certain point and we were pass those.  We entered the Lockport Lock in darkness.  Again we were the only vessel in the lock, which dropped us 40 ft.
The lock master told us the drawbridge ahead was having mechanical issues and would not open.  We knew we could not get under it closed.  We radioed the bridge master to check the status and see if he knew of any place we could tie up safely for the night.  He said there was an old barge wall before the bridge.  We decided to tie up and spend the night there.  It was tricky, navigating by a hand-held spotlight.  I wish I could have gotten pictures but we were all too busy.  The wall was covered in vegetation and trees.  We just got all secure when the bridge master radioed that the bridge was open and he would keep it open if we could get there soon. Untying and getting off the wall was just as hard as getting in and in our haste we hit a rock.  We are still able to run, but not above 10 or 12 mph or we get a vibration.  It is a prop, and hopefully just needs repaired and not replaced.  With the bridge open, we tied up at the free wall in Joliet at 11 pm.  A police officer saw us coming and ran up to catch our line.  There were 6 other boats at the wall and we got the last spot.  It has free electric service.  All the boats were Loopers - 3 sailboats traveling together and 3 powerboats.  We didn't get a chance to talk due to the late hour.

So mostly a really great day with a little bit of a bummer ending.

Chicago skyline

Entrance into Calumet River

Lowering the antennas

Into the Calumet.  An example of barge traffic on left

We are low man on the totem pole

For our Harbor View friends.  A reminder of what a marina could look like!

On the Calumet, after the industrial section

Mike holding on in the Lockport Lock