June 28 - Our first weekend on the boat in Chicago.  After enjoying a great sail earlier in the week, we spent time trying to organize and find out what all we had on the boat.  We are finding lots of spares, filters and pumps, and other items tucked deep into every possible nook on the boat.  We spent the nights anchored in Olive Park (Play Pen), and had a nice quiet evening til Saturday night we awoke to the sound of voices nearby at 3am.  Our initial thought was another boat getting too close, but when we looked about, seeing no boats in sight, but still hearing the voices, I went topside to inspect.  I was rather shocked to see two drunk guys sitting on our swim platform.  We were anchored about 150 yards off shore and was totally not expecting the company.  I let them know as much, and they were off quickly, but Jane convinced me to call 911 as we (yes, me too) were concerned they wouldn't make it back to shore.  Chicago police, fire & ambulance were on the scene quickly, but the naked swimmers/runners were off, and not to be caught/rescued.  We'll chalk this un-event up as a good learning experience - not sure I'd handle the same way if we were outside US waters, and we'll have to start thinking about sentry duty for the kids!

June 24 - A big day!!  We left Crowley's yacht yard on the calumet river at 7am headed to our 'Chicago home' at Monroe Harbor.  The whole family went along for the ride, and for our inagural run on Lake Michigan, it went as smoothly as it could go.  So far everything is working fine.  Hydraulics on the roller furling main and headsail are working, and the rig has been tuned by Crowley's.  Radar, GPS, Generator, Wind Instraments, Lights all seem to be in working order.  It was a short & smooth ride up to Monroe Harbor, and Grace (our autopilot) did most of the sailing.  From Crowleys, we went through 2 bridges that the kids liked to see open just for us, and passed an ocean freighter on the river.  After tying up to our mooring, Marc went to work, and Jane and the kids went home.  We all came back and had dinner on board.  We are still looking forward to our first sail on the lake, but it is a huge relief to finally have her on the water, and close by to start preparations, inventory, stocking, and sailing for the next 2 months!

June 23 - Monday.  Marc arrived early at Crowleys to meet the riggers who were stepping the mast.  Turns out, they were already on the job, and had the crane in place and the hoist ready to go.  We had 4 guys on the deck with the mast and one working the crane.  The mast at 52' in length is bigger and heavier than most on Lake Michigan, but went up fairly smoothly.  One of the riggers spent most of the day with Jane tuning the rig, while Marc worked on the hydraulics, and had to go to work (golf outing!).  Good thing we took lots of pictures in Seattle, as that helped to put Imagine back together correctly.  Turns out, Yacht Masters in Seattle did a great job labeling and packing everything.

June 20 - Friday.  Seems like every milestone is bigger and bigger!  But we are really excited about this one.  After a couple thousand miles on a truck, reassemling all the pieces from rigging on the mast to the hard dodger, lifelines, RADAR Post (thanks Rentners!) fixing the the generator, scraping every inch of the bottom, repairing a few items, and washing and waxing the hull we are Finally ready to get her in Chicago waters!  In typical Adams fashion when launching - it started to rain, but that wasn't going to dampen the mood!  We are taking a big step, and excited about finally getting to enjoy her a bit on our home waters of Lake Michigan.   Mark Lynch spent the day with Jane and Marc to help at Rentners and going up the Calumet river.  The river was unusually quiet and the locks opened immediately for us as we arrived.  Our trip to Crowleys to step the mast was uneventful (really when I think of it, I hope I can say that A LOT - Uneventful is a wonderful thing!) Uneventful, but took longer than expected.  We arrived too late to get the mast up, so we will keep the boat on the Calumet river over the weekend and step the mast on Monday.  In hindsight, probably a good thing - just getting the boat to that point was a lot of work, and we were tired.  So, Mark & Marc decided that it was Miller time and enjoyed a couple beers while waiting for a ride home.