Theme Day: Night

Today is Theme Day on City Daily Photo. The theme, chosen by vote of the CDP participants is "Night".

This theme day has been a bit of a NIGHTmare.

It's not like I didn't have any night pictures.

• That one of the moon over the sailboats would have been good ... if I hadn't posted it back in the beginning of July.

• Any of the ones from the movies in the park (Sunset Blvd. and Duck Soup) would have worked quite well ... if I hadn't posted them in the last two weeks.

• The Bug Zapper one was at night and would have fit the theme ... if I hadn't posted it earlier this week.

Like this black-crowned NIGHT heron, I'm scratching my head and wondering what I was thinking posting those night scenes already. It's not like I haven't known the theme was Night since July 2. Duh!

So here is my Night photo.
That's not an anchor light on the top of the sail boat mast, it's the moon.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants - all of whom saved their good Night Shots for the Theme Day!

Scenes from the Start of the Chicago to Mackinac Race

The 101st Chicago to Mackinac race started on Saturday July 18. At 333 miles, it is the "longest annual freshwater distance race". According to the website, 337 boats are participating this year and 260 of those are getting tracked by GPS. I think they start getting to Mackinac Island Michigan on Monday, but it seems they haven't had a lot of wind.

(Click on the photo collage to enlarge it)

Catching the Moon

These two sailboat masts seemed, to me, to have captured the moon. The July Full Moon has many names:

• Full Buck Moon (since this is the month that new antlers on male deer start to appear)
• Full Thunder Moon (since this month has a lot of thunderstorms)
• Summer Moon
• Hay Moon
• Hungry Ghost Moon
• Crane Moon
• Ripe Corn Moon
• Mead Moon
• Moon of Claiming

One additional name for it is the Rose Moon. Pretty appropriate in this case since the light clouds give this moon a pink hue.


P.S. At 4:05 (and 6 seconds) today, it was 04:05:06 07/08/09.

Morning in Monroe Harbor

Monroe Harbor is filling up with its summer residents.

Lining the Locks

The sailboat runs are getting larger as the weather gets warmer. (Hmmm. Thursday it was 77 degrees; today it is 54 degrees.) Let me rephrase that: "The sailboat runs are getting larger as we get further into the month of May."

Today's run was 22 boats - a pretty good number. After the boats get through all the bridges, there is one last step: going through the Chicago Locks.

(Click the Photo for a Larger view)

The locks keep Lake Michigan from draining into the DesPlaines and Mississippi Rivers (remember, the Chicago River was reversed in the 1800s - an official engineering marvel). It is a neat experience to go through the locks - either in your own boat or on one of the architecture/sightseeing cruise boats. There are rules about the order that boats enter and leave the locks. Everyone must wear a life jacket (but you should anyway on Lake Michigan). You have to hold on to ropes that hang along the sides of the lock's canal in order to secure your boat during the one-to-four foot water surges that occur when the locks open.

In this picture, the boats are lining up along the walls waiting for the Lake Michigan side to open so they can get on with their sailing. These are hardy sailors because it's pretty chilly and windy on the lake today.

Preparing for Class

The Columbia Yacht Club has a sailing
school - Sail Columbia - for children and adults.
Looks like they were setting up for a class or a practice session.
It was certainly a nice day for a sail.

First Bridge Run of the Season

Another sign of Spring in Chicago is the twice-weekly bridge run. Along the Chicago River, the bridges are raised to allow sailboats to get to the harbors from the boat storage yards. Saturday was the first run for 2009. The number of boats will increase through the Spring, but there were only about ten boats in this "parade". These are the hardy sailors who brave the fluctuating temperatures (Saturday it was 73 degrees and sunny; today, Sunday, it is 50, foggy and rainy) to be the first ones in the harbors. (Yeah, it really is worth it.)

Although I think they tested the Lake Shore Drive bridge, shown here, earlier this month, they must not have been able to test the Michigan Avenue bridge. It was stuck for over an hour on Saturday afternoon.