Ed’s Excellent Adventure

Did our first long distance sail this weekend.  Waukegan to Chicago and back.

My son-law's brother, Andy, and I Left Waukegan at 11:20 in the morning on Friday and arrived at Belmont Harbor in Chicago at 7:45pm.  The wind was coming directly from the direction in which we wanted to sail, so we had to do a lot of tacking.  The trip was taking a bit longer than I wanted, due to the tacking, so I ended up using the engine for a few hours to speed things up a bit.  We were able to sail again the last few hours.

 

Andy at the helm approaching Chicago

Belmont harbor’s docks are nice, the scenery was great, but the public toilet facilities are disgusting and parking is an issue. Sure glad we choose Waukegan Harbor as our home.

Belmont Harbor

On Saturday, my wife, 2 daughters, a niece and my niece’s boyfriend and I sailed down the Chicago lake front enjoying the beautiful skyline.  We had a crew change in the evening when everyone, but one of my daughters left for home and my brother came onboard.  The three of us had a very pleasant evening sail and got to see a pretty sunset and a rainbow over Navy Pier.

 

Chicago Lighthouse

Sailing past Navy Pier

Chicago Skyline

 

Rainbow over Navy Pier

 

Sun setting in the west

We returned to Belmont harbor for the stay Saturday night.

 

Belmont Harbor Saturday night

 On Sunday, my brother and I headed back to Waukegan.  We left at 11:00 am.  The winds were much more favorable so the trip was shorter.  With the winds at our back and following seas it was very relaxing.  We got back to Waukegan at 6:00pm.

Leaving Chicago and heading back to Waukegan

Along the way we did a couple projects.

I added labels to the switches for the new electric flush toilet

Switch labels for the electric flush toilet

 

My brother bought a couple “pool noodles” and installed them on the stern rail by the stern seats for comfort.
 

Making the stern seats more comfy

We installed line organizers that we had bought at the Strictly Sail boat show back in February.

 

First 3 line organizers installed on the port side

And my brother hooked up a “Bluetooth” system to the boat’s stereo radio so he could “jam tunes” from his phone.  The stereo is an older one with AM/FM radio and a cassette player.  He put together a system that connects his phone via Bluetooth to the cassette.  “Rock and roll baby”!

 

Line organizer installation complete and Bluetooth system install taking place

All in all it was a great way to spend a long weekend.