Sept. 15, 2016: Days 359 and 360 - Fear Knot

Miles cruised 25, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $84, daily high temperature 72°f

We spent two days in Port Washington. The highlight of Port Washington is a Duluth Trading store. They feature shirts and t-shirts that eliminate plumbers crack by adding three extra inches to the shirt tail.

Changing Latitudes at the dock in Port Washington

We had cocktails at Beanies in Port Washington. Instead of bar stools they have swings. It was $5.00 margarita night.

On Thursday afternoon we cruised to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to stay at the McKinley Marina. I wonder if there are plans to change the name from McKinley Marina to Denali Marina (like they did with the mountain in Alaska). I am on leave of absence from the Waukegan Yacht Club so we cannot stay at the Milwaukee Yacht Club. My WYC membership card is over a year old.

On Friday night we will have docktails with Andy’s brother Lonnie and his wife Connie. They live in Waukesha which is near Milwaukee. We had hoped to also meet up with Gene Schnagl and his wife Kathy. They own the boat Fear Knot and wrote a book about the Great Loop. Gene made a presentation on the Great Loop at the Waukegan Yacht Club a few years ago. Unfortunately, Gene is out of town. Maybe next time. Gene’s boat is on a dock near us.

Fear Knot – A confidence guide for America’s Great Loop Adventure.

I agree with the theme of Gene’s book, it is spot on. After 360 days on the Loop the only thing to fear is that someday this Loop trip is going to end. A Loop cruise of 6,400 miles is just a series on 30 – 100 mile day trips. We plan our month long itineraries so we know generally where we are going and when. But each day we review that days cruise in detail. The night before each cruise I plot the course using Navionics on my iPad. I look at every inch of the next days route and identify any thin water and hazardous areas we might encounter. We have no surprises. We call ahead to the marina we want to stay at. Usualy we call a day or two ahead but some locations such as Key West we booked 8 months in advance. Security was never an issue. There is always chatter on the Looper forum about carrying guns on your boat. That would be a big problem in the Bahamas and Canada. We never had a moment where we felt threatened or uncomfortable. We did carry a can of wasp and hornet spray that shoots 20 feet. Loopers have suggested that you can repel boarders by spraying them with with wasp and hornet spray. The only thing we ever repelled were spiders.

We are 47 miles from Waukegan. We will cross our wake at 1:00 pm on Saturday, September 17. Two days to go. Changing Latitudes will be in slip S10-14.

Bonus photo

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day.

“Hang the expense!
Put another pea in the soup!”

HW Tilman

Major Harold William “Bill” Tilman, (14 February 1898–1977) was an English mountaineer and explorer, renowned for his Himalayan climbs and sailing voyages. On his last voyage in 1977, in his eightieth year, Tilman was invited to ship as crew in En Avant with mountaineers sailing to the South Atlantic to climb Smith Island. The expedition was led, and the boat skippered, by the youthful Simon Richardson. He and his crew aboard the old, converted steel tug made it successfully and without incident to Rio de Janeiro. Thereafter, en route to the Falkland Islands, they disappeared without trace – it was presumed the ship had foundered with all hands.