We completed America's Great Loop Route Cruise today!!! Nonchalance is home in our marina, tied up safe and plugged in. I'll be sleeping in my own bed tonight (I'll probably be wondering why it isn't gently rocking).

Paul and I crossed the last 9 miles of open Lake Michigan in 3 to 4 ft. waves. That bounces some and kicks up spray, but it's not uncomfortable. Once we were inside the calm waters behind the Calumet breakwater, Paul ran the boat around for 45 minutes while I went up to the flybridge to fold down the hinged radar arch so we could clear a 19 ft. bridge.

Running the first 5 miles of the Calumet River is always interesting because it has large lake freighters tied up to the commercial piers. Paul is trying to master Kathy's trick of looping and tying off dock lines in a neat bundle, now that we're in calm waters and passing a freighter.

The whole trip today was through very commercial areas. Here, the Arthur M Anderson (no relation to the consultant, Geoff) has it's 150 ft. coal unloading conveyor hung out over the river while a 3 story coal loader on the dock fills up the ship's holds with coal. We went right under that conveyor.

On the other side of the channel the "Algo Marine" was unloading mountains of salt for Chicago's next winter.

After you go under the first fixed bridge, there are no more freighters, just dozens of barges. When the channel gets tight, sometimes your stuck between a barge with a million pounds of coal and the rock walls of the channel. There was actually about 8 ft. of space on both sides of Nonchalance in this picture, but you sure hope that barge captain doesn't veer over any.

Low bridge.. Everybody down! At 19 ft. 1 inch, this bridge at mile 300 of the Illinois Waterway is the lowest fixed bridge on the entire Great Loop Route. We made it under by about a foot. Standing on the flybridge, we could reach up and touch the bridge as we went under.

Paul took his turn at the wheel every now and then and even fixed lunch.

We passed this marina near Chicago with gas prices at $4.49. Ouch! I filled up Nonchalance with diesel in Benton Harbor at $2.81.

We also passed the area where they have put an electric charge in the water to try to keep invasive Asian carp and bighead carp from migrating up the rivers into the Great Lakes. So far, they have been successful.

We were very lucky with the locks, waiting only about 10 minutes at two and fifteen minutes at a third lock. We also beat the Joliet rush hour bridge closings by about 5 minutes, saving an hour of waiting time above Joliet.

We arrived at Harborside Marina, safe and sound at 6 PM today. We left this marina last October going South on the river and we returned today from the North. The only way to do that, is via Key West and New York City. Wow!

It's an adventure, not a vacation. I longed to have Kathy complete it with us, but she was first mate and Admiral for all but the last 6 days of cruising. Her mom is doing well and Kathy will be coming home soon. Sometime she'll have to sort out her large collection of seashells from this trip. It was really one great trip, and an experience we'll never forget.

A nice tour Day in Chicago today.

My daughter, Ann, and her friends Ian, Margaret, Mark, Rebecca and Brett came down for a little harbor cruise, and they brought good munchies for lunch.

We cruised out past the Chicago skyline and around the Adler Planetarium and Navy Pier and the Oak Street Beach. It's a Sunday, so the harbors were full of boaters, but there's plenty of room out here. Chicago really does have a beautiful skyline.

This afternoon, my sister, Beth, and her husband, Paul, came down to Nonchalance. We went out and cruised the lakefront again and then came back and had appetizers and dinner on the aft deck. Paul is staying over to crew for me on the last cruising day of the trip.

I'm in Chicago, lovely Chicago!

Here's the Great Loop Route map with our red line going all the way back to Chicago. There's only a teeny little line between Chicago and Wilmington, IL that I have yet to color in red. I'll do that Monday.

Today, we cruised straight across Lake Michigan, cutting the South end off by coming directly to Chicago. Lake Michigan was just like glass. There are a few little ripples in the picture above, but they weren't big enough to even feel any waves. It was a very nice, easy day cruising. I just got a bearing for Chicago, set that in my autopilot heading, turned on the engines synchronizer, turned on the alarms that watch engine oil pressure, engine temps, bilge water levels and fire sensors, and then didn't have to touch anything at all for the next 5 hours across the lake. Daisy and I were just alert passengers for the trip (actually, Daisy wasn't really alert much... she slept a lot).

Very soon after leaving Benton Harbor, there was nothing but lake in sight for all 360 degrees. The front view is two pictures above and the aft view is this picture. At 10 knots, Nonchalance makes a significant disturbance in the still waters. Benton Harbor has long gone out of sight behind us. There's something about being out of the sight of land that's exciting... like you're challenging the elements in some small way. However, the "elements" were extremely friendly today.

After a couple of hours had passed, Chicago started coming into hazy view as a small dot on the horizon. In the picture above, it looks like a small dark streak on the horizon just to the right of the bow. My heading to the harbor is just to the left of the Chicago skyline. Maybe you can't even see it here, but it becomes visible here at 20 miles out on a day like today.

Then, it gets bigger.

...and bigger. Wow.. this is getting exciting!

...and bigger. That's Navy Pier with the green dome down near the water in the middle of the picture. Chicago really does have a beautiful skyline.
In Burnham Harbor, the downtown skyline view is straight off the bow.
And Soldier Field is off the port side. Very Nice! The sun will set behind Soldier Field tonight. That part of the building in the middle that has Greek columns, like the Parthenon, is the old, original Soldier Field. That huge glass hotel looking thing surrounding it is the new "update" to Soldier Field. It's the only structure I know of that had it's registry revoked from the National Registry of Historic Places. They say it looks like some giant space ship just landed on top of Soldier Field.

It's kind'a pretty at night though!

And so was the Navy Pier fireworks.

I'm in Benton Harbor, MI, just 60 miles across Lake Michigan from Chicago!

It was another day of less than one foot waves. Really a perfect cruising day. Halfway through the day, Roger and Cheryl Keast, boaters from our Illinois marina, called. They were out on Lake Michigan going to Saugatuck, MI for the weekend. He passed right by Benton Harbor about an hour after I came into the harbor. It makes me feel like I'm in home territory now. Just 2 more cruising days to complete the Great Loop Route! I wish Kathy were here too. BTW - her mom's doing well and is in a regular room at the hospital, waiting to go home.

When I arrived at the Benton Harbor channel into Lake Michigan, I was surprised by the water color difference of the St. Joseph River water emptying out into the lake. Yes, I know that Midwest rivers flow through farmlands and pick up soil and fertilizer runoff. It's just surprising to see the difference between the sparkling clean Great Lakes water (zebra mussels influence)and the rivers.

I walked into downtown Saint Joseph, MI which is the town on the same side of the river as my marina. It's the "sister city" of Benton Harbor. It's a cute little tourist town, complete with Kilwins fudge shops and lots of restaurants, ice cream stores and art galleries. No sense posting a picture of the town. If you've read my blog, you've seen a dozen of them.

Tomorrow's wave forecast is for 1 to 2 ft. waves again, so I'm going straight across Lake Michigan to Chicago. I'll have to stay on a mooring ball at Monroe Harbor because it's the weekend and all the slips at Burnham Harbor are taken. They said dogs are allowed to ride the little harbor water taxi to shore, so we should be OK on a mooring and it's a really great location, right in the city at Millennium Park. My sister, Beth and her husband, Paul, are coming down Sunday and Paul will crew with me down the Illinois River, through the locks to our marina.

I cruised from Pentwater to Grand Haven, MI today. It's really not as much fun cruising without Kathy... nobody to share the experience with. And Daisy mostly just sleeps on the sofa until we get into port. When the engines start idling up the channels when we arrive, she always walks out on deck to see.

There were sailboat races in the harbor at Pentwater, MI when I went out to walk Daisy this morning.... very picturesque in the early morning light!

Then, we cruised down Lake Michigan in completely flat water all day. Hardly even a wave in sight.

In fact, with the morning haze, the sky and water seemed to meld into one scene with no horizon for a while. The forecast is for 2 more days of 1 to 2 ft. waves, so I'll probably go to Benton Harbor, MI tomorrow and then across to Chicago on Saturday.

We passed lots more giant sand dunes, including these interesting bare sand dunes near Little Sable Point. The two little dots near the top of the big dune are full size SUVs out 4-wheeling on the sand dunes. The first one made it over the top but the second one kept sliding back down sideways and had to go around the right side where it's not so steep.

Grand Haven is a deep water port for the Great Lakes. This is one of the dry cement freighters, about 600 ft. long. They can't turn around here, I'm told that they have to back out into the lake to turn.

About 10 PM tonight. a 70 ft. cruiser came in to the dock. I had gone under the 25 ft. bridge to get to this marina slowly, with my antennas down, watching the height from my flybridge. The 70 footer had misread his charts and thought the bridge was 35 ft. and went under and broke off all 4 of his antenna masts and his anchor light mast. Ouch! Of course, back in the Oswego Canal, I broke one of my antenna masts on a structure overhanging a lock, so I know how it feels.

Happy Birthday Kathy!

She's in Dallas and I have 2 birthday cards for her here on the boat. I called to wish her a happy birthday, but I can't play happy birthday on her keyboard, so I couldn't get Daisy to join in. Daisy loves to howl along with that one song on the piano. Kathy's Mom is recovering from her surgery, but Kathy will stay to help out when she gets home. I'm in Pentwater, MI about 60 miles South of Frankfort where we were yesterday.

The Eastern shore of Lake Michigan is still all sand dunes, but they're smaller here than at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. These are 50 to 100 ft. dunes instead of 200 to 300 ft. dunes farther North. Notice the waves in this picture too. We cruised South with a 15 knot North wind on our tail all day. The morning was all long 3 to 4 foot swells and with the stabilizers on and planing the boat we were literally surfing sometimes! I usually plane at about 15 knots, but in these long swells going our direction, we'd go 12.5 knots "climbing up the backside" of the wave and then 17 knots down the front side. The fast ride on the front of the wave lasted about twice as long as the climb up the back. In the afternoon, after we rounded Big Sable Point, we were somewhat in the lee of the point and came in in 1 to 2 ft. swells.

This is Big Sable Point Light. It's on a sandy point of land sticking out into the lake all by itself, which makes it rather picturesque. Note the small waves here too, this is on South side of Big Sable Point. Daisy and I just cruised on the flybridge in complete comfort with temps in the high 70s and a nice 5 knot breeze (because we were doing 10 knots downwind in a 15 knot wind). Very nice.

Serious air horns!

The boat next to us in the marina is a 65 ft. Huxley, from the 1950s. Huxley was a company that built PT boats during WWII, and they continued with the hull as a cruiser in the 1950s. It's 65 ft long and rather narrow.

There is a cluster of 5 large airhorns mounted in front of the bridge. As he was coming in, the dock hands all made the "blow your horn" gesture and he did. WOW! Definitely louder than mine!

I'm in Frankfort, MI and Kathy's in Dallas with her Mom whom is recovering from bypass surgery. My prayers are with her today.

Daisy and I cruised from Traverse City to Frankfort, which is 80 miles by water, but would have been only 30 miles by land because we had to go 45 miles up Grand Traverse Bay before we could go back South to Frankfort. It was a beautiful cruising day with the morning cruising in flat water in the bay and the afternoon in 1 to 2 ft. waves on Lake Michigan. I felt guilty having such nice Lake Michigan cruising weather without Kathy.

You always see something unexpected. Today it was this flotilla of over 100 Mute Swans. I didn't know they gathered in such numbers, but here they were. They were out about 5 miles from land in about 150 ft. of water, just swimming around together. It's not courting season, so what's the deal? Just gregarious, I guess.

We went past Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park, where we visited 4 years ago when our son, Mike, worked as a Park Ranger there. Those sand dunes are hundreds of feet high and the park access is at the top. The rangers frequently have to go down to rescue somebody who slides down for fun and then doesn't have the stamina to get back up the slippery slope. Track & Field teams come here to build stamina by running up and down the slopes.

It really gets deep here. This 599 ft. is as deep as I have seen it for the entire trip. Even though we've been out in the Atlantic Ocean, we haven't been in any water deeper than 600 ft.

The wave forecast is for 1 to 2 ft. again tomorrow so I'll go on down to Pentwater, MI.

Oops! Cruise-us Interruptus!

While in Traverse City, Kathy got a call from Dallas that her mother needed bypass surgery, so she's going to Dallas today (Sunday). We checked flights from Traverse City to Ohare and they all cost $1,000 or more on one day's notice, so I just drove her home in our rental car. We only have our slip and the rental car through tomorrow (Monday), so Daisy and I are driving back to Traverse City, MI tomorrow (Monday) to continue running the boat down the East side of Lake Michigan. I'm confident that I can solo the boat OK as long as I'm just going from marina to marina where there are dock hands to catch a line when I come in. It just takes more fender and line preparation and a complete understanding of the docks and conditions before I try to dock the boat. Once I'm in open water, I can run it easily to the next town.

Kathy plans on coming back Saturday (her mother's surgery is Monday), but you know how these things go. Sometimes things change. Hopefully, she'll be back soon and can finish the trip with us as planned. Our prayers are with Norma and her family both tomorrow and as she recovers.

Daisy loved being home again. She has learned to be a good boat dog, but she's happier at home with an acre of grass and trees, squirrels and chipmunks to chase adn her own dog door to come and go as she pleases.

We're in Traverse City, MI at the far end of Grand Traverse Bay.

Yesterday we went under the Mackinac bridge in rain and 3 to 5 ft. waves. The forecast was for 2 to 4 ft. waves, but that extra foot makes a real difference particularly in the Straits of Mackinac (under the bridge) and going through Grey's Reef, which always seems to kick up bigger waves than elsewhere. Kathy really doesn't like heavy waves and she was sorry she said we should go out in it. I intentionally cut the inside of the huge marked channel corner to take a few miles off the the trip and stay out of the big shipping channel where 1,000 ft. freighters have to go. Going into 10 ft. deep water instead of 100 ft. deep doesn't seem like much of a big deal after the Trent Severn Canal System where the controlling depth is 7 ft. Then today, we went out in 2 to 4 ft. forecast again, and it was fine.

We stayed last night in the Petoskey, MI marina where we had planned to stay longer to visit some cruising friends (the Stones of "Loose Stones" live here), but the marina was full, so we went on to Traverse City. We'll stay inn Traverse for 4 days, get the Enterprise 1/2 price weekend car and go see the Stones by car and some wineries. Petosky has a very nice touristy downtown with lots of nice shops.

Traverse City is a tourist mecca in Michigan with a nice downtown right on the waterfront next to the municipal marina where we're staying. You can walk to the downtown, the farmer's market tomorrow, the free bands playing, an antique wood boat show, a free outdoor movie in the park on a gigantic blowup screen, etc. The view in other direction from our boat is Grand Traverse Bay. Very nice!

They also have a steam train ride around the downtown park next to the marina here.

John S. would love the train. I think it's a propane fired steamer and it can pull 50 people easily.

Here's the engine. It looks like a 4-4-2 John. It has a 3 pipe steam whistle that sounds like the big ones used to.

Hey - For you loop Blog fans that read this sequentially, my brother Jim just reminded me that I left out 2 days. So, I just added July 20 & 21 blog days that I had saved in my computer while we had no internet access. In my opinion, July 21st is worth seeing.

We're back in the USA today!

See the US flag on the martin's Point light? There were 3 nice lighthouses in the US waters of Lake Huron. We went from Thessalon, ON to St. Ignus, MI today, about 66 miles or so.

We passed 4 or 5 of these giant ore boats today on the Saint Mary's River which they take to get from Lake Superior to Lake Huron. Most of them seemed to be going East on Lake Huron, not under the bridge to Lake Michigan. Maybe they're going to Detroit?

We also passed Les Cheneaux Islands, where we went 2 years ago with Jay and Kay. They're very much like the North Channel, but the islands are absolutely covered with fancy summer homes instead of wilderness islands.

St. Ignus is right across from Macinac Island between, Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas.

We went past Macinac (above) and when we got into the marina at St. Ignus, we called US Customs to check into the United States. Customs told us they don't do any customs clearances in St. Ignus at all, so we had to fire up the boat again and go to Macinac Island where there is a videophone customs checkin point. In Canada, many town dock marinas had customs by phone. We checked into Canada a month ago in Brockville, ON on the St. Lawrence Seaway all by phone. I guess the USA is worried about terrorists checking in as they enter the country to make it easy for US citizens with passports, a US federal documented boat and a new prepaid 2007 US customs user fee decal. Luckily, it only took an hour to plane Nonchalance out to Macinac, check in and come back. Kathy figured that cost us about $50 in diesel fuel though.