Most active 4th I can remember

[HaveADay]

This weekend on the water in Chicago included more activity than I think I can ever remember during a weekend holiday or otherwise.

Friday was quiet enough, but Saturday got going pretty quickly. First was the utterly routine jet ski in distress, two people managed to sink their jet ski about 1/4 mile from North Avenue beach. Just as that was winding down numerous reports came in of a boat on fire in the play pen (the playpen is the most active anchorage in the city just south of Oak Street beach).

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Boat-on-Lake-Michigan-Catches-Fire-Near-Navy-Pier-311644721.html

Followed not 15 minutes later by a guy making a mayday call. That call turned out to be a head laceration, so the fire department rapid response boat that had just finished dousing the rather sizable fire on a 40ish foot sport-fish made their way over for a medical run.

That evening we watched the fireworks from just south of Navy Pier, shortly after the fireworks ended we saw several police and coast guard boats flying towards a spot about a mile off of Monroe Harbor. Turns out a 20 foot Scarab sunk in a matter of a couple of minutes. They got everyone off and towed the 1.5 feet of the bow that was poking up above the water in.

Sunday night's highlight was the moron who stole a boat out of Monroe Harbor, pulled into Burnham, where my slip is, and hit five or six boats, then tried to flee only to be caught by the police...

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150707/south-loop/drunken-man-steals-burnham-harbor-boat-crashes-into-5-others-prosecutors

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things but I think those were the big ones. How was your fourth?

Ben

 

[GeeBee]

I got to say, the fireworks display in Chicago, yes I was there, stank. Many people commented how poor it was. We have a better display on Lake Lanier.

 

[j-d]

We had high probability of thunderstorms but the preliminaries, launch, and after turned out OK. Large crowds ashore and a goodly number of boats. No on-water incidents that I saw or heard of. Display (Jacksonville FL) was a good two-barge 12-minute show.

 

[Golfman25]

quote:

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Originally posted by GeeBee

I got to say, the fireworks display in Chicago, yes I was there, stank. Many people commented how poor it was. We have a better display on Lake Lanier.

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Unfortunately Chicago has become a war zone. They cancelled its real fireworks show years ago when it could no longer control the violence.

The show you saw was put on by the Navy Pier and they so similar shows Wednesdays and Saturdays all summer.

 

[rawidman]

We don't take our boat to the shows but we can see several in the distance from our marina. Part of the entertainment is when the boaters all return and try to put their boats on the trailers at the adjacent public ramp.

It started raining in the early evening and continued so even though the fireworks shows went on as planned, very few boats left the boat ramp.