Today was a a day of modern marvels as we left lake Michigan and entered the river on our way to Joliet. To prepare for the day, Owen lowered our antenna and removed our anchor light to prepare for the height restrictions under the bridges.

Our first “first” of the day was the lock on the way out of Lake Michigan. We were the only boat waiting– Sunday morning at 7 am is a good time to go, apparently. The lock was simple: life jackets on, fenders out, pick a side, grab a rope hanging from the side of the lock. We waited as water left the chamber, then the gates opened, the horn sounded, and we were done with lock #1. We pulled over close to Navy Pier to pull in our fenders so we could devote our full attention to our ride through downtown.

Again, Sunday morning before 8 am seems to be a good time for this sort of adventure. We saw one other boat and two kayakers as we cruised slowly through downtown. We took roughly 9,347 pictures.

We were pretty confident of our boat’s air draft. To measure before we left home, Owen hung a dock line from a boat hook from the highest point of our boat. I marked where the line got the water, and we measured the line. Our height is 16’7″. The lowest bridge height is 17′. Plenty of room! (Your mileage, of course, may vary. Do not rely on our measurements.)

We loved our cruise through the city. It was so quiet, and the sun reflected perfectly off the buildings. It was a completely different vibe from our evening architecture cruise, which showcased the city in a more vibrant way.

Near the end of the city, we had to call to open a bridge. The guides and a sign indicate to call them on channel 13 or 16, but definitely use channel 16, as they don’t seem to monitor Channel 13. That old bridge was up for us in less than 5 minutes.

Shortly after that, we entered the enticingly named Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal, into which lots of things of varying degrees of cleanliness seemed to flow. We had to dodge a couple tows.

Eventually, we came to our second lock at Lockport. Again, we were the only boat there. We called the lockmaster on channel 14, and he said he would have it ready for us. He told us to go to the second spot on our port side. Life jackets on, fenders on the rub rails, and gloves on, we were ready. The lockmaster met us outside and helped us make sure we had our line over the bollard, then we were on our way down a lot of feet (40?)

After Lockport, we pulled into Joliet, swung around, and set up on the Joliet lock wall. Owen put the antenna and anchor light back up. We plugged into 30 amp power and settled in for the night. The weather had turned icky, and the rain made for a dreary evening.