Today is the big day. We are departing Harborside Marina and heading to DuSable Marina on Lake Michigan in downtown Chicago. Ever since we left Mobile, Alabama we have been headed toward Lake Michigan, which is the highest point on our trip. Yes, we did go down a bit on the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers, but overall we ended up about 577 feet above sea level. Our trip today is 55.5 miles, and we have three locks and 68 bridges on the route. We took a few minutes last night before going to dinner to lower the radar mast so we can clear most of the bridges tomorrow. Fortunately, with the radar mast down our vertical clearance is less than 16.5 feet so only two railroad bridges will have to be opened for us if they are not already up. Otherwise this could so turn into a multiday trip.
So, here we departed at 5:45 am with high hopes for a smooth transit of the locks and bridges. To be clear the Admiral and I had high hopes while Lucky in the photo at the right had her usual look that seems to say "are we there yet?" Well, we cannot all be excited... I should also point out that this look also signals that she is happily settled into her kennel, and you would risk getting snapped at if you tried to move her. After all, a girl has to have her beauty sleep, which in her case is likely to last all morning long.
Most of the photos today will concentrate on the final 20 miles or so of the approach into Chicago, which is where the vast majority of the bridges are located. The Brandon Road Lock was probably the most spectacular show of any of the locks so far on this year's journey on the Great Loop. It all began with the lock being emptied for us to enter. The outflow was so strong that the turbulence resulted in jets of water shooting at least 12 feet up into the air. The outflow in any lock creates enough turbulence that I keep Lucky Us back further from the lock than is required. We are at best going at idle speed to maintain our position, which is greatly complicated when the turbulence reaches our position further down stream. In this case Lucky Us actually began to move back at 1.4 mph in the turbulence due to the outflow as measured on the chartplotter.
The show continued after we entered the lock and tied onto the wall, and then they began to fill the lock. It turns out that the gate valves on the fill pipes were not working. In order to fill the lock, they actually lowered the upstream gates vertically downward to allow water to enter. This created a waterfall over the top of the partially lowered gates (photo at right). A second, smaller waterfall was also created as the water went over the sill at the bottom of the upper channel. All of the turbulence created a large amount of foam that also went over the lower waterfall in huge chunks. The water here is cleaner than it was in years past, but the young attendant standing on the lock wall next to us joked that if they accidentally fall into the water that they have to go to the hospital for at least 15 shots to prevent diseases. At least I hope that he was joking...
About 20 miles south of the city the channel splits into the CalSag canal that heads more east to Calumet where it enters the lake, and the Chicago River (or Chicago Sanitary Canal) which heads through downtown Chicago where it enters Lake Michigan. They have a nicely landscaped park at this junction with these decorative waterfalls (photo at left). Of course, the effect would be nicer without the inevitable foam... However, the aeration does help to kill most of the bacteria in the water so the falls are more than just decorative.
The actual channel is a man made cut that is lined with huge limestone blocks that were precision fit presumably by skilled stone masons. The channel is narrow as shown in the photo at the right. The tow boat Eileen C pushing a tow that is three barges wide (about 105 feet wide) as it passes two barges moored on the channel wall (about 70 feet wide). thus the channel cannot be much more than 200 feet wide. We had to follow the Eileen C until she reached an area with no barges moored on the opposite wall. Then she very kindly stopped to give us room to pass her. If traffic had been heavier, we could have been forced to follow her for many miles...
Another interesting sight involving Eileen C was getting the opportunity to watch her pass under a low bridge. Tow boats here are limited by many fixed and bascule bridges. Even the ones that open are so numerous that waiting for each one would severely limit marine traffic. The pilot house/bridge on Eileen C moves up and down on a system of 4 hydraulic pistons. The photo at the left shows her passing under a low bridge. Where is the pilot house? It is in the down position that severely limits the pilots visibility if it is down for more than a very short period of time.
The next photo (also at the left) shows the pilot house coming up as the tow boat has just barely passed under the bridge. At this point the pilot house has raised up by nearly 10 feet, and the pilot now has good but still somewhat limited visibility forward.
The boat is now entirely clear of the bridge, and the pilot house continues to rise up (photo at left). The pilot house in the photo is more or less in the fully up position, and you can see that it definitely would have hit the bridge. The entire process of one cycle either up or down probably takes no more than 30 seconds (?). However, during part of that interval, the pilot is blind toward the direction of travel. Remember that the channel is very narrow, and the entire tow is "literally" scraping along its starboard side so they can hardly get "lost" during the interval where the pilot is blinded...
By this point we are on the outer part of the city of Chicago proper. We have been seeing planes flying in and out of Midway Airport for some miles, but there has been almost no residential housing along the canal proper until now. The photo at the right shows an interesting, new condo complex, which is a sign of much more to come. We have just passed a huge Amtrak rail yard, which serves much of the commuter traffic to the suburbs. There was also a large FedEx terminal, so we are definitely getting "close". Close? I should say so since all we have to do is to start looking "up".
However, we do have one more potential "road block" before reaching the downtown area. There is an Amtrak bridge for commuter trains that does not open during the morning or evening rush hours. Rather than ask for permission and risk a quick denial, the Admiral called the bridge to find out what hours they actually were totally closed. Several tows also called about the same time. I guess that if you ask nicely they can actually find a few minutes where the can lift the bridge. Anyway, we were told to hang out for 10 or 20 minutes and they would try to squeeze us in. The photo at the left is looking back after we had cleared, and I was able to relax just a bit. It turned out that we arrived at the same time as the 2 tows, and we did slow down but never stopped as we slipped through between the tows.
Chicago is a leading center in the World for architecture on all scales (i.e. from skyscrapers to furniture), such as I.M. Pei and firms like Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. They have designed several of the tallest buildings in the world, including the John Hancock Center (1969, second tallest in the world when built), Willis Tower (1973, tallest in the world for over twenty years, aka the Sears Tower), and Burj Khalifa (2010, current world's tallest building). The photo at the right shows a number of sky scrapers, including the Willis or Sears Tower. At this point we are in for a series of 25 bridges that connect up the downtown area across the river. These bridges all still open, and they are opened only at select times on weekends in the Spring and Fall. This allows boaters to get their boats off of Lake Michigan and down the river for Winter storage and vice versa. It is these same bridges that are seen in so many commercials, TV shows and movies as well as being an iconic part of Chicago.
Another sure sign that we are in the downtown area is the abundance of tour boats and water taxis that are cruising (and sometimes racing) past us. This "tour boat" is actually a small barge that is pushed by a small tug, but the boats can get quite elegant as well. In addition to the standard tours with magnificent sights, there are a variety of specialized tours, especially architectural tours that are also very popular. You can probably tell by the heavy pedestrian traffic on the bridge that it is just after 5:00 pm, and the daily commute home is on full bore. It looks almost serene in the "still" photo, but it was a lot more chaotic with bikes, jogger and walkers of all speeds. By comparison, the traffic on the water was pretty light...
...and then suddenly we are through downtown, and the view ahead really opens up as we approach Lake Michigan. We are waiting for boats to exit the Chicago Lock so that we can go out into Lake Michigan and "officially" begin our summer adventure n the Great Lakes... By now I was getting really excited, and after some frantic waving from the skipper of another boat, I woke up and moved over to our port as per the rules to allow the boats to exit. Just to make my error worse, they do not talk to boats on the radio at this lock, but rather they make all announcements over a loud speaker for all the world to hear about my mistake. Oh well, I really did not care at this point!
DuSable marina is only about 100 yards to the right (i.e. south) of this photo, and in between is this old US Coast Guard Station that now houses Chicago Fire and Police boats. This is one of 2 large fire boats that are stationed here. It is a rather low, squat looking boat, but remember that it has to go under all of the same bridges when going on a call. We have to go out into the harbor and way around to enter at the more protected southern end of the marina. However, the view remains superb when looking back at the Chicago skyline from the lake side.
The photo at the right is one last look at Chicago for today, but stay tuned as we will get many more excellent views tomorrow...
Since we spent so much time in Chicago the
last time we came through and the weather window for traveling this week is
small, we only plan a single night here before moving on up the west side of the lake to Racine, Wisconsin. Lucky and I will be staying on Lucky Us while the Admiral goes to a nephew's wedding, and oh yes, I almost forgot (ha, ha) that she will get to see Bob (son), Jill (daughter-in-law) along with Sarah, Will and Katie (Grandkids). Yes, I am just a "little" jealous.
I hope that you were listening carefully today so that you could have heard the loud WHOOP! as we entered Lake Michigan to begin our Summer on the Great Lakes.
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