Being away from home, all while staying home.

We're often asked if we take the boat out.  Since we live on it some people assume that the boat never moves, it's permanently tied to the dock.  Some people wonder if we go to Michigan every weekend.  Some people don't think we can go anywhere since they don't realize the Chicago River (or the Great Lakes for that matter) go anywhere.  Some people, we swear multiple people have asked this, ask if we take it to Europe/ the Caribbean/ California a lot.  Sure, we'd love to take it to the Greek Islands, but the only Greek Islands we visit are located on Halsted St. in Chicago.  We often feel bad when we say we took the boat out only nine times last summer.  So many people use their boats every week or many times per week, like some neighbors we have at River City.  A middle aged couple we've never met takes their boat out almost every night!  The two of them go out for a short river cruise and are often back 45-90 minutes later.  We love that, but their 24 foot cabin cruiser is a bit easier to handle than Cygnet.  So we decided this weekend we'd go out and stay out - at least for a few days.

Beautiful City

Saturday we had a party to go to near our favorite spot to sit on Lake Michigan.  We decided we'd take Cygnet instead of Uber.  With a friend, we pulled out of River City, through the river and lock, and down the lakeshore to an area near the Museum of Science & Industry in Hyde Park.  We anchored in what is normal a very calm spot we call the swimspot and waited.  Once we were absolutely sure the anchor was holding we took our party gear and swam ashore, carrying our cooler, towels, and a few other necessities with us.  From there it was a short walk to the party.  We hung out with old friends and had a great time and could watch Cygnet from the shore.  After a while we went back to Cygnet, but the East winds were blowing pretty hard and the swimspot had gotten choppy.  We all made it back to Cygnet without dropping our valuables in the water however Kevin did swallow a bit of the lake.

Cygnet IS in this picture from Promontory Point in Chicago

Don't drop it!

We took a short cruise, and went to visit friends who dock in another harbor in Chicago that evening. Originally we planned to anchor out all weekend at the swimspot but the winds and waves made it no fun.  The next day we met some friends and family at 31st St. harbor for a day out on the lake.  We had three boys between 11-16 and other guests who wanted to swim so we decided to try the swimspot again.  The waves were 2-4 footers, not conducive to happy boating, and the swimspot was choppy as hell.  A couple of the boys got in the water with Colette and our friends but one of the boys was feeling downright miserable in the conditions.  After a bit of swimming we decided to take Cygnet back to the safety of the harbor and hang out there for a bit.  Our sick passenger was thankful and began feeling better as we entered the safety of the breakwater.

Colette and company try the new Hobie Mirage Eclipse at 31st St. Harbor

After that crew left in the evening a couple friends joined us and we hung out and listened to a lakefront concert near where we were staying.  We got to see people lighting off fireworks all around us on a fair and beautiful night.

Monday July 4th we had a fairly relaxed morning, did some cleaning, and headed up to Montrose Harbor where we docked and went to a party thrown by Freedom Boat Club at the Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club.  Pulling into the slip was a bit of a challenge but with the help of guys already at the dock we got her into a slip sized a bit too small for Cygnet.  She fit, but just barely.  We met some great people at the dock and at the yacht club and had a great time.  Since Montrose Harbor is surrounded by park and sticks out in the lake it is a very popular spot for private fireworks displays.  All around us were fireworks as small as Roman Candles & sparklers and as big as the professional sized boomers.

Sunset over 31st St. Harbor

Sunset over Montrose Harbor

Since we didn't want the staycation to end we stayed not only Monday but Tuesday night at Montrose.  On Wednesday we pulled out of there, swung by Navy Pier to pick up friends at the new touch and go dock, and went through the lock just in time for the fireworks.  When the fireworks ended we floated back to River City and were happy to be at our home base - well, with the exception of the wobbly dock which made Colette take a tumble and fall in the water!  

It was such a great thing for Cygnet to stay out on the lake for the weekend, she ran great and took the big waves in stride.  Being in a different place while still being at home is a very interesting experience.  Certainly anyone with an RV can experience this too but it's pretty rare for people to live in an RV year round.  The only hitch we had was leaving the 30-50 amp power adapter at River City so the first night at Montrose we had no shore power.  We grabbed it from RC and took it to Montrose Tuesday night and had steaming hot water and ice the next morning.  We even managed to naturally defrost the freezer, a task we'd been delaying for a year!

Sunset over the Loop

So Water We Thinking about our weekend out?  We had a great time, made just slightly less comfortable by an East wind.  We definitely plan to do this again soon, in fact we have a trip planned to go to Michigan in September.  We highly recommend traveling without leaving the house.

Colette and Emily as we headed out Saturday

Swinging past Navy Pier on the way home Wednesday