AquaFennatic Great Loop Blog: Chicago IL to Joliet IL

Sep 10^th – It started out as a rainy cool morning with moderate winds which cleared up as the day progressed. We’re a little sore this morning from all of the walking we did yesterday. We’ve been trying to get a hold of West Marine to get parts that they are holding for us, however their phone has been out of order for the last couple of days. We contacted a Chicago AGLCA Harbor Host, Ken Purcell, to find out if we would be wise to bike over to West Marine and he responded there were no good transportation options and offered to drive us. We didn’t expect this however we took him up on his offer since we needed the parts to get our AIS system working on our chartplotter. We had a great discussion with Ken and he dropped us off at Gino’s East Pizza on the way back so we could get our deep dish pizza and before he left us we invited him back to our boat in the afternoon for some cold ones. After we ate the Exxxcellent deep dish pizza we walked back to the boat along the lake front trail to drop off our parts and then went for another walk into Chicago to see the Chicago Museum Campus that includes the Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum and Soldier Field which is the home of the Chicago Bears NFL team. Once we got back to the boat we were in great need of ice cold beers to quench our thirst. I then had to prepare the boat for our trip through Chicago tomorrow by taking down our flag, anchor light and VHF antenna to ensure we can get under the lowest bridge. We expect it will be a long day tomorrow since we must travel about 40 miles at a snails pace through a river system with many obstacles including a lock, bridges, electronic fish barrier, tows, etc. As I’m writing this Blog entry we are being entertained by the Chicago Yacht Club which is housed in an old Canadian Ice Breaker vessel. I assume that it’s their year end party since they are all dressed to the 9’s and at the moment the DJ is playing some great dance music. And just when I thought the blog entry was complete I was startled by a bang which was the start of one of the largest fireworks displays that we have ever seen and we had the best seat in the house! Apparently Navy Pier has fireworks to music twice a week on Saturday and on Wednesday and we were lucky enough to be here to see it.

Sep 11^th – It was a sunny comfortable day with light winds. We traveled through the middle of Chicago by boat, which was an amazing experience, and continued on the River system to Joliet IL. It was a long day since we had to travel at a slow pace through a couple of locks, many bridges and past multiple tows. Once we arrived at Joilet we met Loopers Jim and Cindy from “The Journey”. I installed the NMEA 2000 components for my Lowrance devices today hoping that I could get my AIS display working on my chartplotter, however no luck thus I’ll have to make a call to Lowrance Technical support tomorrow to see if they are able to help. The inverter is still acting up thus I may bypass it tomorrow or the next day depending on our travel plans. I don’t mind delaying it however there’s a risk that I won’t be able to get our shore power to work if the inverter decides to quit. This trip definitely keeps you on your toes!

Sep 12^th – It was a sunny and beautiful day. We decided to stay at the free dock in Joliet IL so I can work on the boat. First I called Xantrex for support on my inverter and then I bypassed the inverter and everything is working well. Our friend Dave from Manana that completed the Great Loop recently has been following our blog and saw that we had inverter issues ... he gave us some great information that will save us a bunch of $! Thanks for the advice Dave ... all the work that goes into the blog is paying off. I wasn’t so lucky with the AIS issue on my chartplotter. After an extremely long call and many tests the Navionics support people said I need to send my chartplotter in for repair however it’s my main source of navigation information thus it’s not possible at the moment. When they found out I was from Canada then they said they couldn’t help me and I’d have to contact Lowrance support in Canada. After I completed my jobs for the day we decided to walk in to Joliet to do a little shopping. Once we got back we relaxed since we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow as we go through more locks and bridges down the river.