Milwaukee to Racine - Sept. 25th

I awoke this morning to the city noise of car traffic as people were heading to work. This was a different sound for we recently retired folks who have been staying in more rural locations. For most of our trip, we have been awakened by geese and ducks blowing reveille. They are starting their migration south just like us.
The McKinley Marina is a marina city with 655 slips and the harbor has an additional 250 private moorings. We explored the Milwaukee lakeshore which is dotted with hi-rise condos and office buildings as well as the wonderful Milwaukee Museum famed for the Brise Soleil architectural sculpture which opens with wings and appears to fly or sail. A city park with trails and bridges connects this with the War Memorial, Miller Pavilion, and Discovery World.
We left port at 11:30 as we were only planning on going to Racine about 25 miles south. We had NE wind at 10 kts with a 1 foot chop making this the calmest day yet. We arrived at 2:30 which left plenty of time to spend lots of money at the West Marine store in town for “things we absolutely need”. We have Direct TV but rather a fussy antenna that means one of us has to shout up to the person on the flybridge, “Honey, a little to the left.” What is great about being in a city with a digital TV is that we can use the rabbit ears for pretty good reception. We are not TV people but it was nice to catch some of the Fall lineup.

Sheboygen to Milwaukee - Sept. 24

Up at 6 am for another long walk along the beautiful Sheboygan lakeshore. The rising sun is orange hot and it is already 67 degrees. Even at this early hour and late into the night, the harbor is lined with people fishing from the docks, small boats and fishing charter boats. I am told by one Captain that the salmon fishing is great on the WI rivers leading to Lake Michigan as the older fish swim upriver to spawn. I have seen 3 foot salmon leaping out of the water teasing all to catch it.
We left port at 8:30 am with the plan to go to Milwaukee 54 miles away. We had light S winds with gentle 2-3 foot gentle rollers for a change. We checked into the McKinley Marina and got diesel fuel for $4.21/ gal which even had a bonus of a free pump-out. Since there are larger grocery stores here, we decided to defrost the fridge so that we could load up. We walked about 1 ½ miles to the Pick ‘n Save and had to take a taxi back with all the loot. For the past 3 weeks, we have only gone out to eat 2x, bought fresh fish twice and basically lived off our provisions which are stacked in every nook and cranny as well as in the 18x27” fridge with a 12x12” freezer.
After a very late dinner, we were still able to sit up on the flybridge and enjoy the cityscape and harbor lights on this mild autumn night.

Sheboygan

Up at 6am for a long walk along the lakeshore trails to Deland and North Point parks. Sunrise over the 4 foot waves crashing on the beach was awesome and it is nice to get this perspective before venturing out into it. Small craft advisory posted at 9:30am so we decided to stay put and enjoy a relaxing summery day.
Sheboygan is a former shipbuilding, manufacturing and fishing hub that has reinvented itself into a tourist destination. It boasts a 10 million dollar harbor redevelopment with a super marina, trail system complete with exercise stations as well as boardwalks, shops and the Blue Harbor Resort along the Sheboygan River. We took a dinghy ride along the river and had a picnic upstream.
We are not in a real hurry to get to the river systems of the Chicago, Illinois and Mississippi as they are still flooded and there are scores of Loopers stranded and unable to move south due to the high waters. Parts of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers have been closed to recreational boaters. A special elist group spreadsheet was created by Jan Kromer of AGLCA to help coordinate a more organized transit for all Loopers along the rivers. We are now part of this but are the very last Loopers and will hold in Chicago until the flooding subsides.

Boaters idle on swollen rivers in Ike's aftermath
By JIM SUHRThe Associated PressTuesday, September 23, 2008; 4:11 AM
ST. LOUIS -- Ron Gumm has made the best of 10 days spent with his apartment-like boat docked near here _ taking in museums, scenic drives, eateries and, of course, the Gateway Arch _ but he was eager to head down the Mississippi River.
If only he could.
Rivers swollen by this month's torrential remnants of Hurricane Ike continued idling the North Carolina retiree and other boaters making "The Great Loop," a generally yearlong circumnavigation of eastern North America that takes them into Canada and eventually south to the Gulf Coast for the winter.
Dozens of boats _ many part of the nine-year-old America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association _ remained stalled Monday along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, unable to pass stretches of inland waterways the Coast Guard began closing to recreational traffic last week because of debris and unsafe currents.
Midwest runoff from Hurricane Ike was still feeding the swollen rivers, said Lt. Chuck Mellor of the Coast Guard's St. Louis office. "Even though the rains aren't here anymore, the river's still high," he said. "And it's taking several days to lower itself."
Mellor's advice to Gumm and other so-called "Loopers": Sit tight and be patient.
"It's going to go on probably for the rest of this week," Mellor said. "It's really hard to guess because the river changes daily."
The Coast Guard cited Ike's runoff in banning recreational traffic from at least 75 miles of the Upper Mississippi River from Chester, Ill., southeast of St. Louis, to near Granite City, Ill., a St. Louis suburb. Two hundred miles of the Illinois River _ stretching near Milton in western Illinois to the north-central part of the state _ was closed to casual boaters Monday.
Caught in between are about four dozen members of the Great Loop association unable to resume their trek to an eventual Oct. 20-23 reunion at an Alabama state park.
Near Ottawa, Ill., southwest of Chicago, 15 "loopers" have called the Heritage Harbor Marina home in recent days, unable to get any farther down the Illinois River. As many as 11 more boaters were planning to stop there this week until the river gets the green light, marina consultant John Mobley said.
"Everybody's just staging, getting ready to move downstream," said Mobley, who took the loop tour in 2004-05 and is known to the now-stranded guests as "Captain Moe." "I know exactly what they're going through and what makes them happy."
What makes them happy are things like courtesy cars that shuttle the self-professed "river rats" to grocery or liquor stores. The marina has Wi-Fi, not to mention a 65-foot dinner boat that hosts 5 o'clock cocktails and Jimmy Buffett tunes.
Gumm has made do during the forced impasse, taking time to clean his 38-foot trawler dubbed "Etcetera" _ a vessel with all the accoutrements of good living, including a kitchen, full bathroom, living room and bedroom. Heating and air conditioning? It's got that, too.
"We've fixed things that have needed to be fixed for a long time," Gumm said, more than four months into the voyage he and his wife launched from their hometown of Wilmington, N.C. They plan to spend the winter and much of next year in the Tennessee Valley _ an area they couldn't see during their maiden attempt at the loop three years ago, when Hurricane Katrina savaged the Gulf Coast and deluged the Midwest.
"Right now, we can't get past St. Louis," Gumm said from his boat, still docked at a marina just north of St. Louis in Alton, Ill., and biding his time. He knows he doesn't have much choice.
"When you get on a boat, if you're not patient, you get in trouble."

Kewaunee to Sheboygan - September 22

Up at 6am to see if it’s a go for Two Rivers or to push further south to Sheboygan. SE wind of 10-15 kts with 2-4 foot seas so it will be more of a beam sea. Lake Michigan is always churning and although the prevailing winds for September are usually westerly, we have not seen this in a week. We have learned to batten down everything for these roller coaster rides.
At Rawley Point, we decided to push through to Sheboygan and so glad that we did. The Harbor Centre Marina is a premier facility with a spacious lounge, pool and hot tub as well as multi-tiered decks which give a great view of the entire lakeshore. After a bouncy day, it was great to relax in the pools and stargaze from the highest deck.

Kewaunee, WIsconsin

We want to thank Kathy of the Salmon Harbor Marina, the paramedics of Kewaunee Fire Dept and the staff of Aurora Bay Medical Center for their help with Bob’s medical emergency. We signed on for an adventure and are definitely having the full spectrum. It really helped to have such caring and competent people to help us through and we really appreciated their efforts.
We had a more leisurely day on Sunday, September 21st as we waited to see how Bob was feeling and for Lake Michigan to calm down. We went to the lighthouse, took a long walk on Lakeshore Drive and sampled the pregame frenzy for the Packer/Cowboy game tonight. Since we no longer live in MN and have not really moved to Denver, our loyalty can be bought with beer and cheese curds—Go Packers!!!!!!

Tale of the Precious Stone

At 1 a.m. on International Pirate Day, 9/19/08, Bob woke up with a stabbing pain on the left side of his lower back as if he had been stabbed by the sword of Captain Jack Sparrow or strangled by the tentacles of Davy Jones. 911 was hailed and he was transported via ambulance to the Aurora Bay Medical Center in Green Bay. He was met there by an ER pirate crew who looked like they had just stepped off the Black Pearl. It was suspected that he was holding treasure…..stones, that is, precious kidney stones. The pirate crew wanted them bad so they strapped him to a gurney and buzzed him with their special treasure locator (CT). The treasure map told them that it would be a while so they chained him with an ID bracelet, put him in the hole and waited for the booty they wanted. After 2 days, he cooperated and was freed. Let’s hope there is not a sequel.

Northport to Frankfort to Wisconsin

Wind and waves calmed down so at 10 AM we started off to Frankfort, about 69 Miles south. Winds were about 15 from the north so we had an extra push arriving at Frankfort by 5:30. Bob worked on the AIS receiver (installation manual was wrong on what wires go where) at Northport and was overjoyed that it worked. AIS receives data over a boat radio from commercial ships then it is displayed on the moving map GPS plotter. This helps to make sure you stay out of their way.

We also have had problems with the autopilot keeping course when waves were more than a foot or so. An error said the compass was not connected. Bob rechecked that and it seemed okay, but at the same time, removed the GPS wires to the autopilot that can do some fancy waypoint navigation. Now the autopilot is working even in following seas.

As we passed Manitou Island, we heard an ore boat call the Coast Guard to report they sighted an overturned 14’ fishing boat and nothing else. Wind and waves were still 2-3’ in the early morning; probably too much for a boat of that size. For the next 5 hours, the radio was busy with the CG helicopter and rescue boats looking for potential survivors. They certainly were thorough. When we docked at Frankfort, they were still searching. A later Google search for news came up empty. Hopefully it was just a boat that broke loose from a dock.

Frankfort harbor was filled with fishing boats of all sizes. Many of them did not return until well after dark. We called ahead to the marina as we knew it would be closed when we got in. They were very nice in providing the bathroom combination in return for our credit card number. After docking, we strolled along the beachfront which was a nice way to end the day.

Crossing Lake Michigan to Kewaunee (Surfing USA)

The forecast was for 10-15 with 1-3’ waves so at 6:50AM we departed for the most feared leg of the trip – 68 miles across the lake out of sight of land for about 4 hours. It was still dark when we left but just beautiful. The moon was still full near the western horizon and with the navigational lights and other boat lights, the effect was magical.

We almost immediately started off with 2’ waves as the wind had been blowing all night from the east at about 10 knots. As we continued across waves built to about 4’ with winds at about 15. We were getting a little extra speed from the waves but the real thrill came when the occasional 6’ came and we surfed with it at 11 knots! It felt like the boat was almost out of control but the autopilot did an excellent job of anticipating movement and kept us straight on course the whole way. We averaged about 8 Knots (9.2 mph).

When we pulled in to Kewaunee at 2:15 (1:15 Central) our Log indicated 600 nautical miles or about 684 statute miles for our trip so far.