Hammond, IL to Dolton, IN - A Shorter Day Than Planned

Not that anything was cut short, just that the Captain made an arithmetic error and our leg on Monday was only 12.6 miles instead of the 25 that was planned.

It is just as well because we hung around quite a long time waiting for the Captain's doctor to call back from New York regarding his recent blood pressure spike.  At some point he decided to go and let the call catch up with him when it could.

We moved over to the fuel dock, took on diesel and used the pump out to deposit the contents of Dutchess' ??? holding tanks.  We hung a left past the breakwater into the harbor and were on our way about 3 miles North to the opening of the Calumet River into Lake Michigan 

There's not much that can be said about this phase except that the scenery was darkly industrial mixed with occasional boat yards (notably Crowley's).

It only took about 2 1/2 hours from push off at Hammond to being on the dock in Dolton, IL at a small harbor facility called Marine Services.

Looking in the Waterway Guide, I noticed that they supposedly had a courtesy car.  The guy behind the desk was pleasant but seemed to be confused and overwhelmed by any question I could ask him.  Luckily, after being told that it wasn't available since it was also used by staff for errands, a mechanic came through the door with keys in hand to a nice big GMC club cab and I had my ride into the supermarket.

Chuck came along for the ride and we picked up a few basics including some frozen vegetables.  When we got back I cooked our evening meal of sauteed onions, american fries, green  beans and a can of spam.

The three of us devoured every last scrap!

We met a few other boaters who were partying on three or four boats accompanied by lost of very loud music, barbecue and plenty of booze.  While we declined joining the party, we did find out that most of the boat owners there were either Chicago cops, Cook County Sheriff staff or Chicago firemen.

Very nice group of guys!

Since we have a TV screen and DVD player, we decided to watch the first of the Horatio Hornblower movies.  The Captain and Chuck were delighted with the movie and we plan on watching the others soon.