Racine to Chicago to Hammond IND

Gale Warnings!

We finally left Racine on Thursday, September 4, 2025 to 3 foot following seas with a period of 5 or 6 seconds. This means it was large swells coming down lake Michigan from the Northeast. Since there were no white caps, we decided to push down the lake to Hammond, Indiana where we would be able to enter the Illinois river system. We made the 62 mile run in 7 hours. It was tiresome and we were glad to be off the lake in a marina. During the night NOAA and NWS called a gale warning out on Lake Michigan with 20 mile an hour winds with 50 mph gusts. Oh joy! Bev hates wind.

We are next door to a casino. Someone came in with their boat probably for dinner and then started to play Rap music from their boat. Arghh, at least they turned it down around 10. Nope, it was turned back up until 3 am when we heard an engine start and music head out of the harbor. Now, we did mention there were gale warnings.

The entrance to the Calumet River is 2.2 miles northwest of us so the wind waves should not be too big.

On Saturday morning, we checked the weather forecast and there were still Gale warnings until 10 am. Bev procrastinated and when checking after 10 am found that the warnings had dropped to small craft. After much discussion we decided to try getting off the dock as the wind was on our stern. The gusts kept pushing us onto the dock as Kevin was trying to reverse. Things were happening so fast and one of the fenders hooked up a piling causing the bow of the boat to twist towards the middle of the shared slip. Bev then called off leaving and Kevin while unhappy about staying another night listening to peoples’ stereos let Bev veto heading out. We called the marina and booked another night. We both want to get down the river system to the Mississippi as we have the appointment to get the bottom of the boat painted.