Hammond, IN Blues

August 4, 2024

Kathy's 50th high school reunion was a great time and we enjoyed our trip to Minneapolis, followed by four days in Pittsburgh. The boat did well in the Hammond Marina while we were away. We were not, however, in a hurry to return to Hammond as this may be one of the least interesting and least attractive marinas on the entire loop. It is industrial scale with about 1000 slips and incredibly long distances between the docks and the Marina office. In Chicago fashion, the marina and shoreside are isolated by highways and railroads. There was no walkable town or commercial district, and the Marina essentially had no services, no restaurant, no bar, etc. It is adjacent to a truly sad casino, which reeks of stale cigarette smoke and has as its only redeeming feature a takeout hamburger counter. We decided to enjoy a little extra time in Minneapolis and Pittsburgh rather than to literally sit in a marina in postindustrial Indiana.

Our goals in Hammond, however were fairly mundane. We needed to take down the canvas bimini tops on the flybridge and the radar arch to prepare for our journey down the Calumet River and Sanitary Canal to pass under the much discussed fixed 19 foot, 4 inch railroad bridge in Calumet, the lowest non-bypassable bridge in a 6000 mile journey. If a looper can't pass under this bridge, then the only option is to turn around go back up the Great Lakes, through Canada, and down the coast to Florida. This always causes some anxiety among bloopers with tall boats. We had two workers from Crowley yacht yard help us with his task and everything went quite well. However, after they departed, our generator failed its test start. As we can't go down the rivers without a functioning generator, it appears in our stay in Hammond will be prolonged. DRAT.