Windy City

We stayed in Grand Haven for 2 days. On the 2nd day it was rainy and cold and the place was deserted. I had the worst night in the boat at Grand Haven, the boat rocked and bounced around all night long. 

We went on to South Haven, MI for a night and the next day we traveled across to The Hammond Marina in Hammond, IN, also crossing into the Central Time zone. The crossing took over 10 hours. 

The marina is situated alongside a rail yard and near the Indiana/Illinois state line, a heavily industrialized area.The docks were long and the marina is part of the Horseshoe Casino. 

Horseshoe Casino

We had to wait out several storms - we had high winds and thunderstorms that passed through and so we stayed at Hammond for several days.

Chicago skyline from marina

The day we left we headed a very short distance to the Calumet River (Illinois) and took it to the O’Brien Lock and then entered Calumet-Saganashkee, better known as the Cal-Sag Channel. The 16 mile channel brought us to the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, a second lock and then we got on the Des Plaines River to Joilet. We saw barge after barge. 

We passed through the electric barrier set up to prevent the invasive asian carp from entering Lake Michigan.

The 2nd lock was over 45 feet. 

   Our group plus other looper boats stayed on the Joilet city wall that night. 

We had a 2 hour wait to get into the first lock this morning due to barge traffic. Commercial traffic has priority. Today we’re heading 45 miles to Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa, IL.

Russ & Elaine (blue boat)and John waiting in today's first lock