Saturday 090515– in Michigan City, Illinois

Weather/Sea   Thunderstorms, Cloudy, wind 20to50, temp 70to 80

   Captain - John C. Kwak crew Chuck Livingston

We are presently in Michigan City Port Authority Harbor, Illinois, this city is south of the state line between the states of  Michigan and Illinois. A nice harbor with lots to see and do but today we are locked in due to heavy thunderstorms transiting the area.  We had up to 50 knot gusts in the marina. We are next to a very tall power plant smoke stack which is the lightening catcher for the area. They only charge $1.00/ft so $44/day for Dutchess and we are staying here 3 days. On Monday Labor Day we will go to Growley Yacht Yard in Chicago on the Calumet River. On Tuesday Growley will unstep the mast and get it ready to ship by truck to Mobile Bay Alabama at a charge of $440 plus $88 to load it on the truck. The trucking costs $450, they bundle a number of masts on one flatbed truck. I have to take all the stays and shrouds off the mast and other parts that might get damaged on the truck trip. I will also repair the windlass at Growley’s, it will be needed on the rivers where you anchor out frequently.

Dutchess came here by way of Holland MI and South Haven MI.  The trip from Muskegon to Holland took 6hrs 23minutes. The trip from Holland to South Haven took 4hrs 43 minutes  .

 I expected a lot more from Holland, I thought it was more Dutch than what I found, and of course most of the immigrants arrived in late 1800. Except for a “Dutch Village” tourist area which we only saw from the car almost nothing was recognizable as Dutch. I went to the Library to find out if there were any Dutch speakers but they did not know of any. I asked for Dutch books and they directed me to the foreign books isle which had 50’ of Spanish books and 2’ of Dutch books times do change!

 In the Dutch books there was a book on the Province of Utrecht where my home town SOEST (where I was born in 1941) is located and it contained a small description and some pictures, which I showed to Chuck. I had gotten the slip for 3 days but decided to leave after 2. During our stay there Chuck’s 2 brothers and family came down and visited the boat and we all went out to dinner in Holland at a Brew Pub. I had planned to go into Crescent Marina but found out it was closed and being converted to condominiums. We wound up in Eldean Shipyard at a cost of $66 per day for 2 days. There is no Municipal harbor in the Holland area they are all private.

In South Haven we were in South Haven Marina run by DNR, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, at a cost of $67 per day and we stayed 3 days. On the first day Ross Pollard ,who had stayed on the boat for a week,  showed up. He and Crick Haltom share a McGregor sailboat which is kept here and we went out for an evening sail on the McGregor from 6pm to 10pm very nice. On the third day Ross came again with his three children 5yr Asa, 7yr Margaret, and 13 yr Anika, a nice family. They  went to the beach and swam in Lake Michigan. Then Chuck made dinner for all of us in the boat. The kids liked the boat. Then there was a concert in the small park next to the marina and we all sat there until 8pm.  

I am still looking for crew to go down the Rivers from Chicago, please spread the word. I plan to wait in Hammond Marina Chicago until a crew shows up.