Crowley’s is on the Calumet River, with a sizable port operation inland. I never tire of watching the ships come through. This Laker went by traveling backwards unassisted.
Earlier we had another back in, with tugs fore and aft. Pretty cool.
In between ships and barge traffic we bring yachts in and land them at our docks. Most come from the Chicago harbors 7-15 miles away.
About 600 of them go into heated storage.
Pretty cool place.
I’m at Crowley’s for a couple of weeks helping out with the haul out. This is in Chicago, where they close down the harbors on Oct 31 and the several thousand boats that summer there head for the storage yards. We put hundreds of boats into indoor heated storage here, and most of them arrive in late October.
I love hanging around busy yards. In addition to storage customers we also have a steady stream of loopers here, sailboats that stop in to have us drop the mast. In many cases we wrap them and have them shipped to Mobile to rejoin the boat there.
This looper started their trip in Germany. Very nice boat. They were here for a couple of days getting their rig down and secure on deck.
There is always an interesting and changing assortment of boats in the staging area. I never get tired of looking at different designs. Interesting juxtaposition here with a 1d35 next to a Westsail 32.
And when I don’t have one of my boats here I take up residence on one of the boats ashore. There are always lots of choices. The Bristol 39 I’m staying on this week is very comfortable.
That boat on the left is a Pearson Countess motorsailer. I’ve always liked the look of the boat, and keep thinking it would be fun to restore and rehab this boat. But what then? Deep draft vs power boat is a big disadvantage. Not sure what I’d do with it…
Boating Adventures 