Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal

Monday, September 01, 2014

By consensus of the Looper captains, we are staying in Chicago for an extra day to wait for a better weather day.  The early morning forecast says a front is coming through and it is windy and threatening to rain. I wanted to post a couple of pictures I didn’t get to post before.

Aqua building -
this photo just doesn't do it justice
 

Aqua is a fairly new 82 story residential skyscraper designed by Jeanne Gang. It won skyscraper of the year award in 2009 and is the tallest building in Chicago which was designed by a woman. Each balcony is different which gives it a wavy or watery look and is much more impressive when looked from down below.

We took the double decker trolley tour which passed by lots of old and new buildings. We learned that Chicago is often called the second city because most of it was destroyed by the great fire in 1871. Only a few original building survived including the water tower building and several churches.

One day we had lunch at the Columbia Yacht Club, right next to the marina. The club is housed in an old ship which was brought in from Canada. We were able to get in because they have a reciprocal agreement with other yacht clubs including the MTOA (Motor Trawlers Owners Assn.). We were glad to go aboard and see the walnut woodwork and layout of the boat. Not much has changed since it was a passenger ferry.

 

Columbia Yacht Club at the lake front walk
 

Info on the Columbia boat
 

Our last night in Chicago we got together with a few of the Loopers who were
still there. From left, Roger from TA TA and Ann & Ken from Charis
 

Mary from TA TA, Jan from Adagio and Roger as we plan our next day's travels
 

Tuesday, Sept 2, 2014

Tuesday was a beautiful day to start our cruise south from Chicago along the river system. We would start on the Chicago River which we would enter from a small lock just dropping us three feet, and as we leave Chicago we enter the Sanitary and Ship Canal. To make it easier to explain I am inserting a brief explanation from the internet:

"This channel runs 28 miles between Damen Avenue and Lockport, linking the South Branch of the Chicago River to the Des Plaines River. With the construction of a series of locks, the Sanitary and Ship Canal permanently reversed the flow of the Chicago River in 1900. The canal was designed both as a transportation route and a means to improve water quality by sending Chicago's sewage south into the Illinois River instead of into Lake Michigan." 

We were told on one of our tours that the river was so polluted that one reason that the Chicago fire spread so rapidly is that the river caught on fire! It is much cleaner now.

As we approached the Chicago Lock we were in front of Navy Pier
 

TA TA in front of us as we enter the Chicago Lock
 

Getting ready to leave the lock - we put down our mast the day before so
we could fit under the many16' to 18' bridges
 

We would go under over 40 bridges in a 5 mile stretch
 



Some parts were really beautiful
 

We had a slight delay as we waited for the Amtrak bridge to raise
 

This shovel picked up a load of sand from the barge, swung counter clockwise
dropped the sand on land and kept swinging for another load
round and round in a circle
 

One of many tows we met on the canal
 

We finally reached the Lockport Lock and a 2x3 barge was getting ready to
pull in. It was two barges wide and three long. We were pleased when the
tow driver agreed to let us lock down with him and we tied up to the barge
instead of the wall. John gives a thumbs up!    Photo by K. Shanley
 

Charis was tied up behind us and the tow for the barges pulled in behind as
we started the 40 foot drop to the river below.
 

We went through the electronic fish barrier with no problems because they weren't working on it that day and reached our destination of Joliet, Il. We tied up on the town wall with several other looper boats and all introduced ourselves. It was fairly late by the time we got settled and had dinner and we went to bed listening to more tows and barges go through on the river  - they work 24 hours a day. 

Captain’s Log: September 2, 2014

Departed: DuSable Marina, Chicago, IL 8:50 a.m.
Engine hours: 6.7 hr. – 36.05 nautical miles
Actual hours:89 hr.  25 min
Arrived: Joliet, IL town wall 5:15
Wx: sunny, winds 5-10 kt. SW. All went well.