Peter and I left New Buffalo, Michigan from the Lake Michigan Yacht Club at 11:08 this morning. Colletta is following in the car and will meet us in Dolton, Illinois at Marine Services. We finally had everything loaded on the boat and it still floats. We headed 10 miles south to Michigan City, In for cheaper fuel. ( $ 3.89 vs $ 4.35 per gallon in New Buffalo). We topped off our tanks and departed across Lake Michigan for the mouth of the Calumet River 26 n.m. away. The newly installed AIS worked great. It picked up its first target in Michigan City the boat Hot Tomolly. He was in his slip but showed up. Yea we now know it works. As we pulled out of Michigan City Port Authority the chartplotter lit up with commercial traffic in the steel mills. Very Cool. We had a perfect fall day crossing. Minimal winds out of the east so hardly any wave action at all. As we approached the 95th Street break wall which protects the river entrance a number of AIS alarms went off. A large lake ore boat named Manistee was on a collision course with us. It was interesting but then got even more interesting when a second alarm went off. The AIS shows your collision point and then shows a half sinking boat. Nice touch. It was nice to be able to see the boat names on the AIS before the boat came into view so I could call them and ask their intentions. It was also nice coming up the river and knowing how many boats we would be encountering. We got under all the bridges without lowering the radar arch but we measured the boat before we left and it is 18 feet 6 inches to the top of the anchor light. Even knowing that I had Pete climb up on the hard top to eye ball the the bridges.
Got held up at the Thomas O' Brian Lock for an hour. Finally pulled into Marine
services at near dark. Much later then we expected. Colletta was there to help with the lines as we docked between 2 boats. She also brought pizza which makes her wife of the year. Then Tom Mirus and Peggy stopped in for pizza. Get dinner with good friends. Really appreciated that they drove over from Joliet to see us. Everything worked fine on the boat with the exception of the refrigerator didn't run on only 12 volts. There is a fuse on the frig I will have to check. Until then we keep the frig closed and run the generator a little more.
End of a long day pulling into Marine Services, Dolton, Illinois
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