After passing through the last lock on the Illinois River, there weren’t many good places to stop before Chicago, so we decided to go for a night run. There was no current and by dusk we were past the section where commercial traffic was a problem. It turned out to be a lot of fun to pass through the city at night and see the lights. We went through the last lock around 10pm and anchored inside the breakwall in Lake Michigan. In the morning, we pulled into a marina right next to the Navy Pier and we spent a week seeing the sights in Chicago.
We left mid morning when the north wind, that had been blowing for days, finally calmed down. There were a lot of left over swells, but we had a reasonably comfortable ride. After 110 miles in Lake Michigan, we anchored in Muskegon which ended up being our home for the next 8 months. We called it our mastquest. The first thing we did when docked at Torresen Marine was to take a walk to the storage building to see our shiny new mast, that was waiting for us.
Night view of the skyline from the Chicago River
Going through the last lock into Lake Michigan
View from our anchorage inside the breakwall in Chicago
Tourist stuff
Heading out onto the big lake for the first time.
Leaving Chicago behind
A tired hitch hiker
We anchored here late at night and woke up to this view
Mastquest achieved!!!
On the shores of Lake Michigan
Offically done for the season. The staff at Torresen Marine was top notch. They pulled over with the crane and we were ashore 30 minutes later. We left St. Paul on September 15th. 1100 miles later this was taken on October 23rd. We made it!
