Sept. 11, 2016: Days 355 and 356 - The Bowl

Miles cruised 91, fuel purchased $722, fuel purchased 300 gallons, slip fee $75, daily high temperature 67°f,

On Friday night we went to the Sister Bay Bowl for dinner. The Bowl is called the Bowl because it is also the local bowling alley. Friday night was perch night and the perch were delicious. Our waitress was a fourth generation family member of the owners.

On Saturday we awoke to the sound of waves crashing over the break wall and hitting our boat. The wind was howling and it was pouring rain. We are the in right place which is safely tied up at the Sister Bay Marina. The wind is blowing at least 35 mph with higher gust to 50 mph. Waves on Green Bay are rolling in at 4′- 6′. There is a slight surge in the harbor but it is just a gentle rocking – so far.

We saw someone on a jet ski riding in the harbor. We thought he might be going out to play on the waves but he went to the ramp to haul it out.

You can see the wind gusts hit 50 mph at 10 am.

The call of Al Johnson’s restaurant was strong. Priscilla and I had lunch there. The Swedish pancakes with lingonberries and Swedish meatballs were fantastic.

We were visited for sundowners by Molly and Bo from Lake Bluff and Bo’s son Chris and his wife Wendy. Wendy is Canadian and they live in Toronto. The waves were crashing against the break wall and splashing everyone that tried to reach our boat. The interval between the waves is only 3 seconds so it is not possible to time your passage. Just go.

Bo, Wendy, Chris and Molly

We stopped at four restaurants in Sister Bay but they all had 30 minute wait times or more. So we went back to the Bowl and were seated immediately. Tonight’s specials were prime rib and strip steak.

After the storm a rainbow appeared over Sister Bay.

Looking ahead to our final week we need to plan our itinerary. We will be in Milwaukee on Friday night our last night of our Loop adventure. Milwaukee is 50 miles from Waukegan. We could spend Sunday in Fish Creek, Monday in Egg Harbor, Tuesday in Sturgeon Bay, Wednesday in Manitowoc and Thursday in Sheboygan. The weather will determine our schedule and the fact that if we stay another day in Sister Bay the slip fee is reduced 50%.

The weather has determined our schedule. It will be blowy again for two days starting Sunday night. We passed by Fish Creek, Egg Harbor and Sturgeon Bay and decided to get out of Green Bay and into Lake Michigan and get to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. From Manitowoc to Waukegan is 117 miles. We could easily be home in one day from here.

We departed Sister Bay at 9:00 am and cruised 30 miles to the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal that connects Green Bay to Lake Michigan. The canal is 9 miles long and has three bridges. The cruising guide lists them as 14′, 15′ and 42 feet. The first bridge opens on the hour and half hour. The second bridge that is only 100 yards away opens at 15 and 45 past the hour. So we had to wait in the small space between the bridges for the second bridge to open. However, Priscilla noticed the height marker on the bridge indicated a clearance of 24′. We only need 18′ to clear the bridge. At that point it was only 5 minutes until the bridge opened so we waited. We arrived in Manitowoc at 2:30 pm and fueled up and pumped out. This is the last time we will have to buy fuel on this trip. We are safe and secure in slip E 41. Monday is forecast to very blowy so we will most likely spend two days here. There is a maritime museum nearby that we have visited several times.

The US Coast Guard station on the east end of the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal.

Bonus photo

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day.

” I kept moving along the deck, backward forward,
until the waves ripped the sides from her keel and left it
bare, and they snapped the mast from its socket; it shattered
against the keel, but there was a leather backstay
still hanging upon it. I took it and used it to lash
the keel and the mast together, and sitting astride them
I was carried along on the waves by the furious winds.”

Homer, The Odyssey

Homer (Ancient Greek) is best known as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. He was believed by the ancient Greeks to have been the first and greatest of the epic poets. Author of the first known literature of Europe, he is central to the Western canon.

When he lived, as well as whether he lived at all, is unknown. Herodotus estimates that Homer lived no more than 400 years before his own time, which would place him at around 850 BCE or later. Pseudo-Herodotus estimates that he was born 622 years before Xerxes I placed a pontoon bridge over the Hellespont in 480 BCE, which would place him at 1102 BCE, 168 years after the fall of Troy in 1270 BCE. These two end points are 252 years apart, representative of the differences in dates given by the other sources.