Ports of Call (June 12, 2023)

Our 'shakeout voyage' to Chicago had us stopping several places on the west side of Lake Michigan: Sturgeon Bay, Sheboygan, Milwaukee and Waukegan, Illinois. As it turned out, we didn't make it to all those and we saw some other ports we had not planned on.

Sturgeon Bay was our first stop but it's already had its fair share of attention in The Happy Days. We'll definitely go back. THAT would be the perfect shakeout cruise coming out of winter storage, much more sensible than a crazy pants boondoggle to Chicago.

Once we got out of Green Bay, our next stop was Sheboygan. They have pretty nice marina there but we opted to dock on the river wall outside the marina. I was unable to resolve the maps and descriptions of the location so I called the marina for clarification well before we arrived. "It's on the north side of the river in front of the big yellow building with all the docks," chirped the helpful marina employee. As we were on the final approach to Sheboygan, doubt still nagged at me because I still couldn't make the satellite images jibe with the description. I made Jim call and ask again. "It's on your right, we'll have someone out there to help." Great, I thought. Can't miss it.

Upon clearing the entrance to the river and correctly identifying the marina, we began looking for the mooring spot on the river. There was a park on the north side but no place to tie up, beyond that a building, NOT yellow, with some docks in front of it that looked way too short for Perseverance. At this point I was running out of navigable river so I began to do slow pirouettes in midstream and radioed the marina. "You've gone too far," said the marina employee. "There should be someone waiting for you on the wall." Sure enough, on the next rotation we spied a girl in dark clothing kinda slouching on the SOUTH side of the river trying her best not to be seen. We tied up and I got in the city pickup truck with the invisible girl to go to the other side of the river and register. It seems like the person giving directions had never actually seen the tie up spot on the river wall or they were confused about which way was north.

We didn't get to see a whole lot of Sheboygan since we were just there overnight but my impression is that they've converted a whole lot of waterfront industrial property into condos overlooking the lake and river. It is much cuter and more touristy than when I visited in the past but there were still a couple of active commercial fishing boats on the river. There were several restaurants and shops we would have tried had our timing been better. Instead, we made a delicious pasta dinner on the boat and enjoyed strolling the riverwalk before turning in for the night.

Milwaukee has been a favorite destination as long as I can remember since my Aunt Erma and Uncle Paul lived there when I was a kid. The city has changed a lot in the last five decades but remains an interesting place to explore. The county marina is right down the hill from Brady Street, a trendy nightlife area so Hannah got busy on her phone and found us an Ethiopian restaurant we could walk to. Our boat was at the very end of F Dock which was full of very sociable locals who wanted to know all about our boat and where we were from. One woman asked where we were going for dinner. Hannah told her the name of the restaurant and asked if it was good. "Oh, very good!" was the answer, "if you like that kind of food." Fortunately, we do like that kind of food and dinner was excellent.

Our favorite discovery was the Oak Leaf non-motorized trail that has tendrils all through the City of Milwaukee and beyond. We followed a leg that went up the Milwaukee River. It's a well traveled former rail line, which is cool and shaded due to much of it being in a below grade cut. Every so often there is an exit where you can go up into the neighborhood and shop for stuff, like the bike lock you forgot to pack. The true delight on this excursion was finding a beer garden in a park right off the bike trail! What a lovely place to take a break.

Racine, Wisconsin was one stop that we didn't plan to make but since we were taking on water from our busted muffler it suddenly seemed like a good idea. Fortunately, Racine is home to Reefpointe Marina which has to be one of the larger outfits on the west side of the lake. It's fancy, with a swimming pool and a popular restaurant. It would be possible to hang out there all weekend and never see town but the night we arrived was a First Friday when the downtown comes to life with all sorts of entertainment and refreshments. For one night only the liquor laws are relaxed and EVERYONE on the street seems to be carrying a beer or cocktail. It was much quieter the next day when we ventured out in search of a hardware store. The town is a bit less shiny once you get away from the lakefront but we managed to find a very good lunch at an establishment up the river. Joey's Yardarm bills itself as a pub with a nautical theme but the vibe is more like a pretend dive bar where boaters hang out. The lobster BLT was excellent and they make a great Bloody Mary.

After getting our muffler repaired for the second time, we decided to deep six the Chicago trip and head back north. Waukegan will have to wait for another trip. (The woman at the marina was so nice, even though I had to cancel on her twice.) Leaving Racine we noted eerily smooth waters...also a fair amount of smoke in the atmosphere from Canadian wildfires. Another weird phenomenon we noted was huge swaths of pollen floating on the still surface of the lake. It looked like ice floes in places. We opted to take advantage of the calm seas and make the 12 hour cruise to Manitowoc.

Manitowoc is historically known for shipbuilding, specifically submarines which they built 28 of for WWII. You can visit the Cobia, one of the remaining examples of a Manitowoc built sub, at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum right on the riverfront. We didn't go inside this time but hope we get a chance to return and explore this town some more.

The other thing Manitowoc is known for is being the western terminus for the Badger coal-fired car ferry. Considering my history with ferries (The Juno in Sweden and the Karfi at Washington Island) I made sure to check the ferry schedule and did not leave the harbor until the Badger was safely in her berth.

We had planned a comparatively short 28 nautical mile cruise to Kewaunee that should take us roughly four hours to complete. Upon checking multiple weather sources I felt assured that we'd see a little wind but waves not more than a couple feet. What we actually got was 30 knot north winds and 5' waves. In those conditions we had trouble maintaining our stately 7 knot cruising speed so a 4 hour cruise turned into a 5 hour thrashing. The Perseverance could take it but it was a bit taxing on the crew. We had a cleanup job too, including putting our mattress back on its platform.

Kewaunee is a beautiful town situated on hills around the harbor. It's not a place you would end up unless you were going there. Years ago, as newlyweds, we did go there. At that time the Lake Michigan Car Ferry ran from Ludington, MI to Kewaunee, WI. It was very much a working boat as they still carried rail cars across the lake in addition to vehicles and passengers. Nowadays it's known primarily for sport fishery and the old ferry docks have been converted into a marina and fancy houses. Once again we chose to dock on the river wall. Auggie, the harbormaster, was there to greet us and even offered to run us to the grocery store in his truck.

Kewaunee is a friendly town but most of the action happens on weekends when the fishermen flood in. Even so, we had no trouble entertaining ourselves for a couple days seeing the sights. For one thing, Kewaunee has the world's largest grandfather clock. You can look it up. Its chimes can be heard all over town. Right next to the clock is the trailhead for the Ice Age trail. I biked it a few miles out to the county park and zoo. It was a nice ride, mostly along the river. The zoo didn't have much in the way of animals but it looks like they're working on a revitalization project. The zoo is built into an old limestone quarry which makes it visually interesting.

The other boat tied up at the river wall was the Tug Ludington which you can tour. This boat was built for service in WWII, towed to England, shuttled ammunition barges across the Channel on D-Day and spent its last 50 years or so working in the Great Lakes for the Army Corps of Engineers. Definitely worth a stop. We also ran into a friend working at the tug that we met on our first trip to Washington Island. Paul very kindly lent us his outboard motor so we could take our dinghy to Rock Island when it became clear that our outboard was not gonna go. That was also our introduction to the wonderful, generous community of boaters up in this neck of the woods.

I'm happy to report our return cruise was uneventful and we are docked in our home port of Escanaba a mere three weeks after leaving winter storage.

Naval Gazing

Ports of Call (June 12, 2023)

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