I just realized that it’s been a couple of days since our last post. A lot has gone on since then! We arrived on Monday and did the architectural boat tour of downtown Chicago on Tuesday. Wednesday morning, I began my engine room check down, topping off fluids and looking over everything. That's when I discovered a smoking hot (literally) battery and another one that was warm. A warm or worse, a hot battery, is a sign of a bad battery and a fire and / or explosion hazard. This began a system check of what electric things could be shut down to relieve power draw and / or how to isolate the worst battery without sacrificing vital electrical functions. In other words, our battery issues were similar to the one on the Apollo 13 mission! Thus began a day long effort to 1) isolate the battery 2) find replacement batteries, 3) find a service crew to deliver the batteries and install / remove the old batteries. Our boat carries eight batteries; three batteries are dedicated for the engines and generator; five are dedicated for the “house”, powering all 12v power and providing power for the inverter to convert 12v DC into 110v AC power. It was the “house bank” that was affected with the two hot batteries.

Fortunately, our boating network came through and provided instructions on how to disable the worst battery while only losing function to the 12v lighting system, the engine room electric hatch, and the vacuum pump for the toilets. I was able to find and contact Skyway Yacht Works to locate replacement batteries and to arrange for delivery and installation on Thursday. So, knowing the service crew from Skyway could show up any time after noon, we re-provisioned in the morning. We went to a nearby grocery named Mariano’s - a Kroger owned stored that had the look of a local grocer and somewhat similar to a Whole Foods. The concept was exceptionally well done. Again, fortunately, the yacht club has courtesy transportation, so we were able to get a ride to and from the grocery.

Skyway came by Thursday and installed the batteries around 1530 hrs and by 1630 hrs everything was running and functioning properly! However, we lost two days of sightseeing - bummer! Needless to say, it is important to check the engine room!

After sleeping through another choppy night in the harbor and a couple of tremendous thunderstorms, today we plotted out our day tomorrow, refueled the boat and pumped out. We’re planning on departing around 0730 hrs and entering the Chicago River about 0800. It’s about 30 miles to Joliet, IL and 42 miles to the marina where we have made reservations. Local intel is scarce so it’s anybody’s guess as to how long it might take. Estimates range from 3 hours (mine) to 6-8 hours (according to folks here at the yacht club). We’ll let you know!

Meanwhile, we’ve enjoyed some good dinners. First night was French, second was here at the club, then Chicago deep dish pizza - incredible! last night fish, and tonight - a gourmet Mexican restaurant near Mariano’s.

Our location here has been outstanding, so walkable! We will leave knowing we didn’t do or see all we had wanted but boat safety is a higher priority. Temps have been summer like, nearly 90’! Today has cooled a bit - in the lower 80’s. Low tonight in the upper 50’s.

And now we enter the river system! Goodbye to blue water, hello to brown water!! See you in Joliet or so.