Day 52 – Home Sweet Home Port
We are back in our home slip. The weather prediction was for increasingly nasty weather as the day and week progressed. After sharing dinner with Jill, Jay and Mary (Jeanne wasn’t feeling well) at La Josie (quite good), Jeanne and I decided to wake up at 2:00 am and head north to avoid the lousy weather (see radar below). We pushed off around 3:15.
We chose to stay inside the Chicago breakwater to enjoy as much calm water as possible. Between Jeanne and I there is a lot of experience (City Boy, CPD Lifeguard, Bears Season Ticket Holder and Captain) we felt that was a safe choice. Jeanne actually sailed through a packed Playpen with no motor back in the Chicago Fest days. I know exactly how the breakwater looked. Jeanne however was more nervous and since it was very dark, there was concern. No problem, we went by the well marked (by a green light) South end of the breakwater. Proceeded by the well marked Chicago Harbor red and green light (east exit), veered to the port into the “Playpen” where we exited through the Coast Guard approved and well marked (repeat red and green lights) north exit. Unlike some other boats recently in the news. I could see what the problem was for a inexperienced or inebriated Captain was. There is a white light marking the bend in the breakwater. If you had little experience or understanding of “aids to navigation” you might think “oh there is the opening”. There is no test for captaining a boat. At this point you may be asking, what does being a Bear fan have to do with it. Well every home game for over 40 years. we drive south and north on Lake Shore Drive to get to the games. I get to see the breakwater on those trips.
That was fun!
Notice my emphasis on the colors. Any Captain worth their salt knows that only red and green mark entrances and exits. “Red, right, returning” and all that.
Then the fun began, waves and wind in significant darkness. You really can’t tell what’s coming. Well around 5:30 we got first light. (See below). The pictures are all blurry because my fancy iPhone wanted to hold the phone steady. Not possible with a rocking boat.
We put up the mainsail and rev’ed the motor to 2500 RPMs, hitting 6.5 knots of boat speed. Since a sail boat has a narrow pointy hull it is possible to find a semi-comfortable angle to the waves. This helped make the ride more tolerable, but Jeanne (in her words) was “sick as a dog”. It was a combination of a bad reaction to Pizza’s in New Buffalo, lack of sleep and high wave action. A pillow and a sleeping bag helped and she found some relief. Actually taking a nap for awhile.
We made it to Waukegan in 5 1/2 hours. Pretty fast. Many thanks to the auto-pilot. Got into our slip. Saw some friends and packed up some stuff before the storm hit.
So a successful and some what exciting was day.
