Hi all,
On Wednesday we made the journey from Belmont Harbor to Canal Street Marina on the south branch of the Chicago River. We had to go through the lock at the head of the river and then be in position to pass through the 1st bridge at 9:30 AM. There were a total of ~ 15 sailboats on the trip. I lost track of how many bridges had to be lifted but guess that there were more than a dozen.
The city of Chicago organizes bridge lifts on Wednesday & Saturday mornings in the autumn to allow all of the sailboats – with masts in place – to head down the river to the marinas where the boats are lifted out of the water and stored on the hard over the Chicago winter. All of the harbors (which have maybe 4000+ slips) are closed from 1 Nov to 1 May each year and all boats – sail and power – have to be moved inland for storage.
I found two YouTube videos that were made of the runs a few years ago. Hope you find them interesting. Don’t know the videographers – but both did a good job.
Chicago Bridge Lift & Boat Run (autumn run in 2010 from Lake Michigan to marinas)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjt1lPe1NMc
Chicago Bridge Lift Spring 2012 (spring run in 2012 from Canal Street to Lake Michigan)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJhnaTKEPOU
Doug in Lakeview
1984 Beneteau First 38 – Hull #178
Belmont Harbor – Chicago
On Wednesday we made the journey from Belmont Harbor to Canal Street Marina on the south branch of the Chicago River. We had to go through the lock at the head of the river and then be in position to pass through the 1st bridge at 9:30 AM. There were a total of ~ 15 sailboats on the trip. I lost track of how many bridges had to be lifted but guess that there were more than a dozen.
The city of Chicago organizes bridge lifts on Wednesday & Saturday mornings in the autumn to allow all of the sailboats – with masts in place – to head down the river to the marinas where the boats are lifted out of the water and stored on the hard over the Chicago winter. All of the harbors (which have maybe 4000+ slips) are closed from 1 Nov to 1 May each year and all boats – sail and power – have to be moved inland for storage.
I found two YouTube videos that were made of the runs a few years ago. Hope you find them interesting. Don’t know the videographers – but both did a good job.
Chicago Bridge Lift & Boat Run (autumn run in 2010 from Lake Michigan to marinas)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjt1lPe1NMc
Chicago Bridge Lift Spring 2012 (spring run in 2012 from Canal Street to Lake Michigan)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJhnaTKEPOU
Doug in Lakeview
1984 Beneteau First 38 – Hull #178
Belmont Harbor – Chicago