Day 213-219: Launch!

CHICAGO, IL USA


Well it all finally worked out.  I called off the launch last week, hopped a bus back to Chicago and waited. I was right.
The wind kicked up.  It rained all day, everyday, and was freezing cold.  The small craft advisory changed to a gale warning, and no one wanted to be outside.  I enjoyed the extended time off and used it to my advantage....while staying indoors.
Wednesday night was Jessie's birthday and her mom and sister were in town.  We met up with them and went out to dinner on Michigan Ave. at a place called Bandera.  It was a nice restaurant.  Afterwards, we went down to the dualing piano bar, Howl at the moon.  It was such a cool place!  There were about five people rotating through the pianos, and every now and then they played drums and guitar with it as well.  By the end of the night all five members played of the instruments including harmonica, fiddle, and trumpet.  What a talented group of people!

Thursday morning I got up and caught a cab to the red-line train stop and took a 40 minute ride to the grey hound station on the south side of chicago.  My first mate, Clint, and I once again got on the bus and traveled back to Holland, MI where we then caught another 30 minute cab ride up to Grand Haven.  It makes for a really long day of traveling to say the least.  This time around everything ran very smoothly.  The boat went in the water on time, the fuel truck finally got back with me and scheduled a fuel up right at the launch well, the cab was waiting for us in Holland, and the buses were actually running on time.  We fired the engines, took an oil sample, checked the serviced transmissions and went through our checklist.  I serviced all of the racors, and made sure we still held fuel pressure afterwards.  We got both generators up and running despite a manual charge needing to be placed on one of the set of batteries.  The AC units fired up without a glitch, and everything was running smoothly.
We decided to go lay up on the wall in Grand Haven as it would get us past one bridge and save about 30 minutes on the river.

Friday came about as early as it could.  0330 (EST) my alarm went off.  I was already laying in bed wide awake anticipating the extreme wake up time.  It was pitch black and as soon as I opened my hatch the cold, damp Michigan air went right to the bones.  There wasn't a single sound, other than the hum of the generator.  Some stars were out but it was mostly cloudy and there wasn't a breath of wind.  The lights on the pier lit up the water and set the runway for open waters.  We fired the engines and began to motor in to the dark.
About three miles offshore we hit fog.  We hit the kind of fog that tales are told from in the Bermuda triangle.  We hit a fog that makes you wonder if you are in fact about to fall off the edge of the earth.  The black sky was now enhanced with a white blanket.  The fog horn was turned on and the radar tuned in even more.  10 knots, 96 nautical miles......ETA 1230 (CST) to Chicago.  Twilight broke about 0620 but didn't make a bit of difference.  We could barely see the water as it disappeared under the bow.  The fog had us in its grip.  For the next 90 miles we saw nothing but white, and heard nothing but our engines and the fog horn.  Drifting off to sleep is no issue as your eyes strain in to the white cloak waiting for a giant freighter to somehow miss the radar and pop out of no where.  Nothing...tick, tock, tick, tock....nothing.  A constant watch proved for a safe arrival to Chicago and until we were 500 feet from the harbor entrance we had no idea that it was even there.  We never saw a building, and hardly saw a boat.  It wasn't until we were one mile away that a 30 ft. sea ray presented itself as a faint white shadow on a white background.  It was creepy as the image went passed.

The owner greeted us at the dock and after a short briefing and a story or two, we went to lunch at the Burnham harbor yacht club.  It was great to be back for another summer and I look forward to the already large to do list that I have created for myself.  The weather has started on a very bad note up here in Chicago, but I am hopeful that it improves.  May is looking like there is no hope, but lets keep our fingers crossed!

Bonita Out (I typed Sound Waves again!!!...that is going to take some time!)