WEEK #6, ACROSS THE LAKE

      The long day crossing Lake Michigan has us both tired. Not so much from the physical exercise, but from being in the bright sun on the water. The two hands at the Sturgeon Bay Yacht Harbor are quite concientious in tying up SummerTime. And the owner of the marina, Dan, comes by to greet and welcome us. And tell us of some of the sites and restaurants in the area. We eventually get the power cord out, and the boat connected to shore power. And we settle in for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
        Saturday brings a new day. We kind of lounge after breakfast before heading to the bath house for showers. This marina has a laundry room with commercial size washers and dryers. After getting cleaned up, we walk out to Scaturo's, one of the places Dan mentioned. I get a "Door County" burger, the first burger I have had in weeks. Barbara gets a chicken salad wrap. Our sandwiches are great, and service is excellent also. The real reason for coming to this place though, is its bakery on the other side of the building. After our lunch, we go to the bakery. There is no choice as the cash register for the restaurant is on the bakery counter. We buy goods to take with us for later, and Monday breakfast. We walk down the hill through town to the Door County Maritime museum, stopping at some shops along the way. It is a wonderful little museum about the contributions that Sturgeon Bay has made to Commercial Shipping and the military. Ships of various kinds were built here during the second world war. And the two ship building companies still in town continue to build and repair ships. When we leave the museum, we go back up  the street into the town shops district. In the Glass Artisans shop, Barbara saw a lighthouse made from different wood pieces that she wants. They are still open, so we buy it, and the shop owner wraps it for our walk back to SummerTime. He tells us that the light at the end of the breakwater has been bought by an individual to be converted into a cottage. After more talk on light houses, we leave G&G glass and head to SummerTime. Barbara reads while I work on downloading photos and our blog.

LIGHT AND CATWALK TO IT

      We awake on Sunday morning, and Barb does the usual Sunday morning chore of making homemade biscuits. We get dressed and walk to church back in town. The two Lutheran churches are the closest Protestant ones to us at 7/10 of a mile. We choose the ECLA one whose service is later. For once, we are there on time though our walk was 25min.
       The forecast is true. After church the wind is picking up. We relax for the rest of the day. On Monday the winds are definitely too high. They are out of the south, steady near 20, with higher gusts. It is sunny. I borrow one of the complimentary bikes from the marina and take a ride to Target and then to West Marine. I pick up a few grocery staples at Target, and continue on to West Marine. I got some wiring terminals and 3/8" braided rope. I put them in the basket of the bike and return to the boat. I do some small chores for the balance of the day. On Tuesday we get up, and the wind is less. We watch a downeast style boat leave the Yacht Club next door, and after listening to the weather, decide we will leave also. We fill the water tank, fuel the boat (67.9gals), and take advantage of a free holding tank pump out as we stayed at the marina. We leave the dock about 9:55, and as we get near the breakwaters, I see the rollers coming in through the opening. We go through the sea wall opening, and immediately the bow drops in almost up to the rubrail. And the next wave is about the same. The weather report says seas of 2-4', and these are all 4' plus. We turn around as soon as there is room, and return to Sturgeon Bay Yacht Harbor. There is no need to beat ourselves up for 26miles. We tie the boat back up, and pay for another night's dockage. After lunch, Barbara and I walk back to Marchant's Meat Market. We go with the intent of buying meat (which we did), but they also had some fresh local produce. We bought a cabbage and a large, field ripe tomato. Scaturo's is only two doors down, and we go back into their bakery and buy some cookies and sweet rolls. We walk back to the boat, with our groceries in a backpack on my back. The marina has a picnic area with gas grills for the boaters there. And we grill the two nice steaks we bought at the meat market. They are wonderful. On Wednesday, some more boats with AGLCA flags show up. They are coming out of Green Bay which has sort of been protected from the high winds. "Easy Pace" with Mike and Kathy ties up next to us. And Chuck and Sue from "Somewhere in Time" walk over from the next marina. Two other boats with AGLCA burgees tie to the wall at the yacht club behind us. And we find out there are other "Loopers" in the area. We all chat, and I go back to doing minor chores on SummerTime. I change the two fuel filters actually on the Perkins engine. They are dated from when I changed them back in Buffalo in June, 2013. So now SummerTime is ready to go with a full fuel tank, full water tank, and an empty holding tank.

BARGE I THINK WE SAW ON THE CUYAHOGA RIVER IN JUNE.

In the evening I sit down to work on the blog. As there are problems (ongoing) with the computer allowing internal connections to the aircard (cellular in W10 parlance) I decide to do an update to Windows 10. I have beat AT&T up several times, changed some settings in AV, and fingers for the internal connection issues are pointing to Bill Gates and company. So I sign in to get a W10 update. The blue box which shows up says the install of the updates may require the computer to stop and start several times. After the second stop, the screen turns black. I can only get the screen to go between black, and black with Lenovo on it. I call the GeekSquad help desk. I have Laura, and she and I go through several things, but we can not get rid of the black screen. She tells me it is covered by my warranty, to carry the laptop to a store as there is nothing that can be done over the phone. So blogging is slowed. The ACER we have been keeping as backup has its problems also. As it is a W-Vista machine, and is not powerful enough for W10, Gates and company are no longer supporting it. It runs slow.
          Thursday dawns sunny, and Somewhere in Time leaves out as we are headed to Manitowoc together; buddy boating as "Loopers" call it. The "less than 2' seas" are not as bad as last Tuesday, or what Michigan was calling less than 2'. The ride is almost comfortable.

NICE PUBLIC BEACH at TWO RIVERS, JUST BEFORE MANITOWOC

We get to Manitowoc after about 7 hr of running time. We are met by the USCG doing inspections on boats entering the harbor. They have us stop, and they lash their boat to ours, and hold both boats in position. Barbara gives them the requested tour. She bonded with the one, as he had a southern accent. Talking to him, she finds our he is from Pinehurst, NC, and did his first duty at Southport, NC, which is just across the Cape Fear River from Carolina Beach, Barb's home waters. We get a passing inspection. Barbara is getting better at knowing where things are to show the "coasties" when requested. They inspected four of the 6 "Loopers" that arrived that evening. It is an attractive little city. There are other loopers there. While checking in at the ships store, I see that they have some sailing equipment. I manage to purchase the two double blocks (Harkens) that I thought I was going to have to order (Ronstan). Back at SummerTime, I rig them up, and I now can get the dinghy on board by myself. We go to the Harbor View with other Loopers for dinner. I get up on Friday morning, and ask the marina if they will take my used fuel filters. They do, they have a special place to stage them to drain, along with other waste materials. This is the nicest marina with amenities I can remember seeing since we brought the boat up. We get ready, and at a little after 9am, we shove off towards our next stop, Port Washington, buddy boating with Somewhere in Time again.
      Port Washington turns out to be a nice little city. It is also a fishing port. There are a lot of charter boats in the harbor waiting to take people out for a big salmon or trout. About dinner time, a large cloud passes over and dumps rain on us. We walk up to the ice cream parlor on the water we saw as we docked. It is closed, not even 7pm. They are part of the deli, and only open till 3 each day. I take out my smart phone, and use "Google Maps" to find an ice cream parlor. We walk to The Chocolate Chisel and get our cone fix. They also have custom chocolates in a display case. Their shapes and flavors make us think. Barbara and I spend Saturday shopping in the downtown area. We buy meats at Bernie's Meats". There is a good selection, including a dried sausage which we buy some pieces of for snacking on later. The afternoon is spent walking around town in assorted shops. It rains again late in the evening, and we get photos of a beautiful rainbow that arches over the harbor. A nice finish to a wonderful week, where we traveled two days, met new friends, and saw new sites.

BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW OVER PORT WASHINGTON