Next Crew Arrives and Move from Crowley Marine to Downtown Chicago

Thursday, August 8 2019

My next crew member, John Escobar, arrived on Tuesday, August 6.  I had spent the day on board readying the boat after its 1,000 mile truck journey.  Quite a bit of cleaning needed to be done and the mast with the radar, etc. had to be put up.

I still had a room at the Westin Hotel near the airport.  We 20/20 hindsight I would have chosen a hotel closer to downtown and Crawley's Marine, since it was an hour's drive between the two.   Still, the hotel was very nice.

On Wednesday, August 7 we did some food shopping and then went to the boat to get John settled in.  After returning the rental car to Enterprise we set off the hour or so run from Crawley's marine to Du Sable Harbor Marina.  Du Sable has a very nice breakwater, and we were assigned an end time (E31) which made it very easy to access. 



Looking for Du Sable Marina!

After securing at Du Sable Marina we checked in with Harbor Master, who gave me two packages they had been holding for us.  These were the local Waterway Guide and Quimby's guide that I ordered to help us plan our route.

We went out to explore some of Chicago.  Our marina is right in the heart of downtown and it was definitely an active area  We walked alongside the Chicago River, where we will be travelling in a few days at the official start of the Loop.   They had a fountain of water jetting across the river, which the folks on board tourist boats could use to help cool off with the warm evening.




There was also a memorial to submariners who had left from Chicago during the second world war.  A number of submarines were built in this area.




After dinner we returned to the boat and some more frustration with the electrical system, caused by user error this time.  Thankfully I figured out which switch I had not turned on, and we were ready for bed.   I was woken up by rain, thunder and lightning, but everything seemed secure with the boat the overhead hatches were closed, so I went back to bed.  Tomorrow we will explore more of Chicago.

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