FOG Horns and an Invisible Ship!

We had planned on leaving East Chicago, IN, at 8a but FOG kept us at the dock for nearly two hours.  Finally the fog lifted a bit and a weak sun came out.  It was bright enough at our dock to drop our lines and depart.

We moved slowly out into the Lake.  Once we were on our way with our course set the FOG joined us again!  What an eerie feeling to be moving through that white stuff.  Plus we had rollers (large unbreaking waves) coming at our quarter beam (from the front port side of the boat) making us roll.  However, we felt safe with our radar on showing what other boats might be around us.   We saw a few little ones, fishing boats not far from land.. guess they wanted to stay close in the fog.  And it was kind of interesting finding them first on radar and then actually seeing them as we went toward our Chicago, IL, destination.

Here is what the fog looked like from the Bridge. 

THEN we saw a large ship on the radar and it was moving toward us on the same course!  Walter change our course to give this ship plenty of room but not knowing for sure where she was, was intimidating to me!  THEN we heard a loud blast of her fog horn!!! WAY too close for my liking....The Captain gave a blast of our horn to answer this ship.  Checking the radar ….. we should be far enough out of this ship's path.  We sat there and stared hard into the fog.. surely she was getting closer to us.. WHY couldn't we see her?!  We saw NOTHING!  We never did see this large ship but at last we heard another blast of her fog horn from a more distant place... whew!

The fog had lifted from the water 2.5 hours later when we entered the Chicago Marina.  So we had no problem finding our assigned slip..... and did it by ourselves since this marina does not monitor the radio.  But I was disappointed that we couldn't see the sky line to take a photo...only the lower portion of all the buildings could be seen as the fog had completely engulfed the city.

Our friends from Ohio were due in by 3p so we had time to tie up, scrub the decks down, hook up the water and shore power and find a Subway for a quick lunch and a short tour of a lovely park nearby the Marina.

We were so excited to have our very first visitors, Larry & Cherie

Here Larry takes a turn at piloting Miss gg.

After chatting for a while we took off walking to the Navy Pier which is a big attraction here.  To get there we took the bike and walking road over the Chicago River... risking our lives as fast bikers whirled by us!

By dusk the fog had lifted and the night lights of downtown were beginning to shine.

Here is the Ferris Wheel at the Navy Pier lit up with a moving light show at night.  We might... maybe.... return and ride it while we are here … but it is very high!

I walked out to the end of our pier to get this photo...we seem to be surrounded by part of this city... such tall buildings!

Cherie really loves this city and will be a great tour guide tomorrow as we go exploring....