Lake Michigan gets the last laugh.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Morning. Decisions.  Stay in South Haven another day or head to Chicago?  Since Chicago is such a milestone on this trip we were both anxious to be on our way.  I was thrilled when we got out of the   harbor and the lake was flat!!  The sun was shining and it was my perfect lake wish come true.  Not so fast.  An hour into the 7 hour trip a little fog rolled in.  I went up on the bow to help look out for Dave as he watched the radar.  Pretty soon it was so dense you couldn't see much past the bow of the boat.  O.K. fine.  How long can this last?  We drive in and out of fog with our cars in minutes don't we?  HA!  Lake Michigan got the last laugh.  We went through 6 hours of dense fog where maybe if you were lucky there was visibility 1/4 mile ahead.  High stress but still a flat lake so it could have been worse.  We saw a total of 4 boats all the way to East Chicago and one of them was a freighter that asked us on the radio to let him know his intentions so we could either pass in front of him or behind him.  We let him pass in front but we still never saw him!  Thank God for radar!

We arrived at the port (that we still could not see) and navigated in with the radar.  How in the heck do airline pilots do this???  We did it though and we were both happy that we accomplished this challenge incident free. 

East Chicago is actually in Indiana.  Smack in the blue collar, union card holding, rust belt.  Industrial land.  NOT a pretty little town but a very secure marina with a Raymarine tech that wee need to straighten out some issues with the auto pilot. Also about 1/4 the price of a marina in the city.  So, we are about 15 miles out of Chicago.  Just a short train ride in.  Archie, the Raymarine Tech is also commodore of the IHYC yacht club and he has graciously opened his yacht club to us which is, luckily, on the grounds.  I am using their internet right now as my Verizon Wi-Fi hot spot piece of crap device stopped working last week.  I spent about an hour on the phone trying to get it working with a tech I could hardly understand. He is convinced it is my 2 lap tops that are the problem and not Verizon.  I think not.  First stop home is to the Verizon store. 

We plan on going into Chicago tomorrow.  There is a jazz festival on the waterfront all weekend.  Love Chicago and the mid-western people.

I am a bit anxious to get home and have my little Carmen sleep over our house and also Lili and Cooper are coming to BA-TAAA-VI-A (that's how Lili said it when she was just learning how to talk).  Hey, indulge me here.  I am first and foremost a Grandma & Ganny!