
"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, quite so fine as messing, simply messing about in boats."
Today was a big day! After riding out a gale in Chicago's DuSable Harbor for an otherwise pleasant long weekend, we braved 2-4 foot seas for the short distance to the Chicago Lock and entered the habitat of Ratty, the water vole, and his pals from Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows. Entering the Lock to float through the canyons of downtown Chicago provided a thrill like no other. The pictures barely do it justice but you'll get the flavor. Wow. Our hearts tickled our throats as we entered and exited the lock and committed ourselves not only to getting through Chicago, completing our first three locks. and learning to navigate the Army Corps of Engineers river system, but, in reality, also to trusting the inland river system will spit us safely out in Mobile sometime before the autumn is over.
Jackie kept track of the bridges and checked each one off as we went under it. Katahdin's air draft is 13' 9" and all but one of the bridges was high enough for us to sneak under without having to open. The lowest other spans were 17' and we held our breaths as we went under the first couple of those. It felt like we had mere inches to spare. And, the 11' bridge which is supposed to always be open except when a train comes was, of course, down. And, no train. After waiting 15 or 20 minutes the Admiral ordered the Captain to call Amtrak. Admiral's always being right, that call did the trick and 15 minutes or so later we were on our way again.
Leaving the City behind, we entered America's industrial heartland. Tugs and barges plied the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and the DesPlaines River hauling heavy cargos like coal, sand, gravel, mulch, benzene, oil and more. And though there were occasional short undeveloped stretches, industrial facilities with docks for tugs and barges lined the banks. Sadly, a lot of this infrastructure has badly decayed--some to the point of being left to just fall in the river. That said, we saw lots of kingfishers, ducks, great blue heron, white egrets, even some swans and more.
For those who don't know the story, Chicago built the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal for two reasons--ostensibly to enable commercial navigation from the City to the Gulf but, perhaps more importantly, to send its sewage to the Missippi rather than have it fester on its shore of Lake Michigan. Today, they even have an electrified stretch of the canal--in theory to prevent invasive species of fish from trespassing, though our son-in-law, John Henry, says its really to spice up the effluent for the folks downstream.
We learned a lot today and gained some confidence. We transited three locks--mostly without incident; we passed tugs and barges and learned to communicate with them. We managed to know where we were every step of the way. We arrived at our destination in mid afternoon with plenty of daylight; we didn't run aground and we didn't fall off--all great things!
After great dinners out in Chicago, we're eating on board tonight--a much needed respite and I'm happy to say cocktail hour is almost here. Cheating though; it will be leftovers from dinner at Gibson's last night. Jackie and I have finally learned to split a salad, split an entre', and split a dessert if we feel like a splurge. We still bring home leftovers enough for another meal. No wonder so many Americans are on the heavy side!
Enjoy the pics; comment; ask questions. Let us know what you'd like to hear about in future blogs

The Sales Force Tower--Just Downstream from Trump

Decaying Infrastructure Needing a Lot of Maintenance. And, I wouldn't look up to carefully at a lot of the bridges we went under.

Spicy Sewage or An Invasive Species Death Trap--You Decide! Either Way, the Seagulls, Herons, and Egrets Loved Feasting on the Crispy Fish

Just A Lot of This. Fascinating.

And, Some Really Pretty Stretches. Kingfishers Dominated This One.

The Admiral Spells the Captain.

Waiting for the Chicago Lock to Fill So We Could Enter

Gotta Love The Heartland--We Saw More Grain Elevators Today Than We've Seen in a Lifetime!

Tying Up In the Chicago Lock

Leaving the Chicago Lock

He's Everywhere

This is From NEBO But You Can Follow Us on marinetraffic.com. Just Search for Katahdin (US). Three Vessels Pop Up. We're the Pleasure Vessel--Of Course!
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Hi Chuck, I love reading your blog. It looks like you and Jackie are getting it all figured out. Your adventure will be so exciting! Can’t wait to see more. Stay safe out there. All the best, Jackie and Kevin
Looks like an interesting trip! Have fun🙂
Definitely can see why it was a big day. A lot to learn and a lot to navigate. Interesting and fun. I have MVKatahdin.com bookmarked and have created a free marinetraffic.com account with one vessel in my fleet. Ready to follow along!