Back to Selkie

We are back. We had a fun and thankfully uneventful break from Selkie while we were waiting for the Illinois Locks to open.

Because of some issues with the recommissioning of one of the locks, the American Great Loop Cruising Association (AGLCA) asked all the boats to delay their departure by five days, so we pushed our arrival back into Chicago out five days.

We kept our departure from Lake Tahoe the same, leaving Reno after a one week stay.

We also made a quick dash to San Francisco so Libbie could sail in the race she cofounded, the Red Bra Regatta. Watching women-only crews sail well was a lot of fun, and the party after wasn’t bad either.

We also made a stop in Napa one night to see friends there before heading back to Tahoe to finish getting the house ready.

It was good to catch up with everybody in Tahoe. Getting the cabin ready for another 700 inch winter was less fun but that is the price you pay in paradise!

Thanks to our neighbors (who apparently missed us for some strange reason) we saw a concert by our favorite two piece band, Ike and Martin the last night at our favorite brewery, Alibi Aleworks under a beautiful full moon.

It was a reminder of why we love Tahoe as much as we do.

Our five day delay down the Illinois River meant that we added five days to our stay in Austin, Texas where our children live.

We rotated between their two homes and had a wonderful time.

We even had time time to take a formal family picture session (one of our grandsons demonstrated how close the apple falls from the tree with his antics).

We had a great time getting to know our granddaughter, and seeing our grandsons.

Whenever we get together, it’s a time for socializing, cooking, cleaning, watching the kids play and just having fellowship.

We also saw our two older grandsons play in their sports. The oldest had a home run two weeks in a row. He’s seven, and it’s probably more due to fielding errors by the other team, but he’s also a really fast guy and he did well.

We were happy to be there to watch it.

We flew from Austin to Chicago O’Hare and had a very smooth flight.

Libbie’s sister picked us up and drove us to Selkie.

It did feel weird to fly 2+ hours and land in the same time zone.

Libbie’s sister was really kind enough to go ahead and buy a bunch of provisions for us. She stopped at Trader Joe’s, and a few other places, and even froze the protein that she bought for us.

We’re going to eat well these next couple of weeks.

She also gave us a cool gift by having a picture of Annapolis’s Ego Alley framed. It really adds to the boat!

We got Selkie ready to depart the next day.

I called an old college buddy (actually he and his wife are both college buddies of mine).

We had previously arranged to meet on Friday (the Thirteenth) but because of nasty weather coming in we were changing our plans. We asked if they could meet us a few days early.

Luckily, despite their very busy social schedule they shoehorned us in, and we had an awesome evening together.

It was great to catch up.

Wednesday proved to be a beautiful day, but the weather coming in the following 4 days looked like anything but, so it seemed we made the right call.

We got up to make an 8 hour run to Calumet Harbor and the Little Calumet River entrance.

On the way there, we poked our nose into the harbor by the Chicago River to see what it was like.

We noticed something in the air floating down to the water. Turns out, some 3 year old boy has a birthday party and the balloons got away. We did our good deed and pulled it from the water.

It was a beautiful day in downtown Chicago.

Someday, we’ll park a boat in a marina there and enjoy the city from the lake.

Leaving Chicago, it was a one hour run to the entrance to the Calumet River.

This marked our exit from the Great Lakes… and just like that we were on the river system.

It felt a little sad to leave Lake Michigan and her sister lakes. We’ve missed a lot of places that we would have loved to check out but just did not have the time.

Doing this Loop, even in two years does not leave much time for dawdling.

Maybe that’s why the record for the most loops is 33 so far…whoever has done that must still be finding new places to visit.

I do think the Loop is fun but some records are not meant to be broken.

We entered the Calumet River, ducked under some low bridges, and locked through the Obrien Lock. It was a good refresher for us for the days to come.

We proceeded to Marine Services, a working marina with not much else other than docks and boat storage services. That was ok as we were going back to Lib’s sister’s house for a few days until the day before we are scheduled to run to Joliet.

The weather is not cooperating, though. Waves are forecast to peak at 9 feet with a period of 10 seconds this coming weekend.

That’s deadly weather.

Based on boats that have gone before us, the transit through the Illinois River Locks has been mostly uneventful.

I hope our little flotilla has a similar experience when we leave next Thursday!