Day 32
Not enough sleep after dozing in the conference room while cloning drives, but me and the z-bike were on the Metra heading south by 9:00 am. When I peddled up the beach was clean, sunny and deserted. I was happy to see Hello World gently rocking at anchor protected from the south wind. I asked Jen at the life guard station about the water conditions in case there was an ecoli or medical waste situation. She was relaxed said she hadn’t heard of any problems. I asked her if the boat out there had been any trouble and told her it was mine and she said the staff had been keeping an eye on it. So cool. I thanked her and took some pictures of Hello World from the south pier, then set up the camera and made a movie of bringing her in. It wasn’t until 11:45 that we were launched and heading towards the breakwater. Tacking got us across the shipping lane, passing the lights and out into the open water. Several sails passed through ahead of us but the only one heading towards Chicago we left behind within an hour. Hello World’s a frisky boat. Our heading was 135-140, bringing us right past an odd little structure that said “restricted” and went beep. It had some dishes on it, looked like microwave to me.
I googled images of the Shed Aquarium so I could have some visuals to guide me in. I also checked and rechecked my charts to be sure I wasn’t totally confused. The skyscrapers of the city loomed large, we headed right at them. It was a perfect wind to get there, pushing the whole 8 miles north then providing plenty of power to get us west into the harbor mouth and through the chop. Looking for the O row (O for Oscar) and dropping sail after spotting it. Turns out I overshot and went to the Q row, but with a little vigorous if panicky paddling I was in the right row and hanging onto 29. I must have taken 45 minutes to tie my little anchor lines to the can in a sufficiently bulletproof configuration. I guess I was nervous. In the movie “When Worlds Collide”, the climactic scene is when the hastily constructed spaceship carrying the last survivors of earth attempts a landing on the new planet, out of fuel and coming in fast. The ship skids and bounces in the snow and when it finally stops, there’s a brief silence and then triumphant music – success! That music was playing in my head while I tied to the can. My very first broadcast on my Icom marine radio was to whistle up the harbor tender. I took the bike and a small bag with me. 6:30 pm.
Shaved and showered at the hostel and back to Flacos for enchildas and another burrito. A little more computing and then bed by 10:45 pm. Phew!
Hiding in the shade of the sail to keep from frying, he looks a little worried...
Chicago proper north
and south
Where in the world is Hello World?
Very low and stealthy. Two boats over from the red hull, foreground.