Arrival in Chicago

Sunday, May 21, 2023 -- We think of this as the first official day of our cruise, even if we only traveled three miles between two marinas in downtown Chicago. But we were on Craunological II and we were on the Great Lakes so it should count. 

Capt. Dan showed up with the boat at the Burnham Harbor Marina on the near south side lakefront (18th St. South) late morning, which was as planned. Meanwhile we went to the 11am choral eucharist at St. James Episcopal Cathedral on the near north side (corner of Huron St. and Wabash Ave.), which was lovely, then had brunch at a hipster joint called Yardbird, then Ubered to the marina. Dan had told us to stick with our plans when we spoke in the morning and just meet him at the marina, so that is what we did. When we arrived the boat was in the water and all ready to go. We spent about an hour stowing the gear that we had hastily loaded aboard back in Naples and then off we went for a 20-minute ride up to DuSable Harbor Marina, which was within walking distance of our hotel. Here is the view we had of the Chicago skyline during our brief ride. It was a beautiful sunny spring day with a light breeze and temps in the low 70s.

Unfortunately, the Captain picked up some sort of virus over the weekend and was really whacked out by day's end, so we just had room service for dinner and went to bed early. We figured we could clean the boat later -- and she needs it. We also decided that we would move up our departure by a day (from Tuesday to Monday) so that we could make it to Saugatuck, Michigan before the wind shifted to blowing hard out of the north on Wednesday, which would make for a rough ride. So the plan now is New Buffalo, Michigan on Monday, then Saugatuck on Tuesday, with a layover day there on Wednesday to clean the boat and do some provisioning. The first mate is trying to keep her distance so as not to catch the crud, but that is difficult in such tight quarters. We both wish her luck!

Both of the marinas we were in today are run by the Chicago Parks Dept. and were surprisingly quite nice (except for the goose poop everywhere). The Burnham Harbor Marina is named after Daniel Burnham, the lead architect for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1892-93 (we were reminded of this by our son the architect), and DuSable Harbor Marina is named after Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, about whom little is known except that he was of African descent and is recognized as "the first permanent non-indigenous settler of what would later become Chicago" (per our friend Wikipedia).