On the Illinois river-Chicago to Grafton

We are enjoying a sunny day in Grafton and are able to tell you some highlights from our trip down the Illinois River. The river -herons ,egrets, white pelicans and also bald eagles. Besides birds we dealt with many barges with tows pushing up to 12 barges at a time and  8 locks and many bridges.

 Back to our Sunday the 18th in Chicago. We found an OPC church gattering downtown Chicago and were thankful to worship with fellow believers, a very cosmopolitan group. It was a church plant in it's 2nd stage, the stage between starting and institution. Elissa and Ryan brought us back to the boat and said their farewells after sharing lunch with us.The architectural tour , Shedd's aquarium and  popular Navy Pier were our highlights in beautiful Chicago.

 Early Monday a.m. we left our marina to go to our first lock[ a small one] at the top of the river, from here we made our way through the heart of the city. We had a short wait for a railroad bridge to go up so we tied up , just moved on time to let the boat taxi  pull into  it's parking spot. oops!

Our 2nd lock ,'Lockport' was a 39 foot drop . The lock master was very friendly and helpful. We were glad we vere the only boat locking through since this was our first real lock. we tied up to a 'bollard 'a round pole that goes own with the boat.

tree lined Illinois River

The sign for the fish barrier.

leaving the lock

a photo of bridge and bardge/tow.

 Shortly before this lock we went  through' electric fish barrier' . this is to stop the asian carp from making their way into the great lakes. -thank you US coast guard..

We made our way on to the first community called Jolliet and were able to tie up to the town dock. After taking a walk downtown Jolliet we returned to our dock and discovered 2 black  wooden ships  the Nina and the Pinta with their masts down too. These are 2 reproductions of C. Columbus' boats used in the movie 1492 and now they go to towns along the rivers and  offer tours with a fee.

The next morning the Nina and Pinta left in a fog , we waited until 9:30 , and left in clear sunshiny day.We had 3 locks on our trip to Ottawa ,Illinois.Locked through the last 2 locks with the '2' ships.Now Ottawa also offered free towndockage and according to our charts and the local boatersas we were approaching the depth should be okay but a big but. we were to discover the river had gone down about 2 feet since the area had had a very dry summer. we nicely were stopped be silted in mud..A friendly boater made a call. Soon a police officer arrived  and helped by calling the rescue squad to help pull us out. They thought we could still dock at the docks but ended up pulling us out a 2nd time. After that they said we will call  a marina near here and see if they could take us. Tomorrow I will tell about the friendly people at Heritage marina and Ottawa.Here are some pictures of our rescue.

Journey from Holland Mi to Waukegan Il and Chicago

Our final view of Holland Mi

 On Monday, Sept. 12 we backed out of our slip in Holland with Adam and Lydia waving us on. I have to add that on Sunday we were able to worship in Holland at Gateway Community Church. Rev. John Aukema is pastor there.John was our oldest son's Malcolm's friend at DACS, the Christian school they both attended in Laurel. We left early since we had to make the big crossing of Lake Michigan to Waukegan to have our mast taken down at Larsen's marina.The trip went well. We met up with 2 Lake freighters as we crossed the shipping lanes. One was a white Lafarge ship 'Infinity' pushed by a tug.

Lafarge freighter crossing our course

Moving our boom for shipping in Waukegan Il

 In Waukegan we met our Swedish friends and friends from 'Another Dawn'.Their  masts had been taken down that morning. The next day they helped us take our sails down.It was very providential, they had been shown an easy way of folding the sails by draping it over the boom .The next day we moved our boat over to the wall where the equipment and team were ready to take down the boom and the mast.

Adriana 1 in Chicago

 On Thursday morning a mastless boat motored over big waves 40 miles south to Chicago. We were happy to get within the breakwaters and work our way into DuSable marina in heart of the big city. We were also very excited because we would be seeing Ryan and Elissa and Jacob that p.m.

Chicago skyline

At Riva's Restaurant at Navy Pier

Architectural tour in Chicago

We will tell more about our great experiences in Chicago in the next blog.'Til next time.

Adam and Lydia at the lighthouse .Holland Mi

"Another Dawn" at Muskegon harbour

Sculpture at Ludington harbour

The view of Frankfort harbour

Dunes along Sleeping Bear Park

Shawnie logging

Fish town - Leland, Mi

From Charlevoix to Holland, MI

Hi Folks , yes, we are back. Thanks to enough  connection points on WiFi and Adam and Lydia's help we are now able to update you from these beautiful shores of Lake Michigan -eastern shores.. From Charlevoix we went to a little marina in Leland also known as 'Fish Town' with the fishing shanties turned into the neatest little boutiques and shops.From there we travelled south along a coastland of high sand dunes ,up to 400 feet in some places,rolling treed hills and inlets . Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore Park was the name of these shorelines.We arrived in Frankfort on Thursday. Another amazing part of God's creation! In the evenings we found ourselves walking down to the beach to watch the sunsets and many others appreciating the same beaches and water and skies. And hundred's of fishing boats.It's a huge sport here.It was such a pretty scene at night with a ribbon of red and white lights of fishings boats returning to port.


We met a couple from Sweden who were currently doing the loop.They have so much to tell too.
 We had wanted to leave early Saturday morning but with rain and a thunder storm plus some  waste tank issues we decided to stay an extra day .It was providential for us too-- we met two fellow sailboat[er]s on 'Another Dawn'.These sailors are sending their masts down on the same truck ours is going on. Bill had been on line with them and now we met them. They were as excited as we were .We shared some time with them and the swedish couple. This couple also decided to have their mast sent with ours.
 Leaving Frankfort we sailed to Luddington. We had strong winds and big waves. It was a good sail but were glad to get to our destination. We enjoyed the beautiful waterfront  in this place.All these ports are on their own little lake connected to Lake Michigan by a channel [protected by breakwater walls]
 From Luddington we made our way to Muskegon. Again many fishermen everywhere.One fisherman called 'Hey, Adriana this is a combat zone--Where are your downriggers?] We found the people so friendly everywhere we went.
Muskegon is the homeport of the man who coordinated the trucking for the 5 masts going together to Mobile, Alabama. When we were hunting for our slip all of a sudden I heard my name called--'over here'. This had to be Jim Osborne this coordinator. He was very helpful.Thank you Jim!! We had a tour around on our dingy.Later in the day we had a small reunion on Adriana of the Swedes, the couple on 'Another Dawn' and Jim.
 Thursday a.m. we woke up early and excited . We were on our way to Holland ,Michigan where we would meet Adam and Lydia on Friday. We rented a car for Friday so we could get provisions and go to West Marine to pick up an aerial to make our Wifi work better, so we could do this update.
About 5:30p.m. our kids arrived. We are so excited .for many reasons.After settling in we went out for dinner right here at a great restaurant at this marina.
 Saturday morning is Farmers Market in downtown Holland. .It was amazing to see so much fresh produce.We stalked up, big time and had fun. From there we went to the downtown stores . Again we were impessed. It is a flourishing city and we enjoyed the stores and the people very much. After a lunch of fresh corn, bread and salad we walked out to the lighthouse and took in so much again. We are relaxing together in the cockpit  and time to say goodbye for now. Here are some pictures.