Day 2 - The party crashers

We are on our way to Manitowoc from Port Washington. This is a 45 mile trip. It is another day of glassy seas. Not a sail in sight. We are cruising at 9 kts again today. The water temperature is 58*f and the air temperature is 68*f. The fog is quite thick so we turned on the radar. We could see several fishing boats around us and some other small dots. The dots turned out to be fish net buoys. The radar is working well.

Port Washington has a good marina. We met up with our Jeaneau friends at the local saloon and shared a beer and a few tales. One couple is Rick (not the singer from the 1960’s) and Nancy Nelson on Tres Bien and Bob and Joi Dick on Intuition. Bob and Joi are thinking about following in our wake on the Great Loop trip. Prior to meeting up with them we went to the Duluth Trading store. This store specializes in work clothes. They are most famous for extra long t-shirts to combat plumbers crack and work pants that are the opposite of a cheap hotel with no ballroom.

We did crash the Jeaneau owners party in the marina pavilion near our boat. We arrived fashionably late so we would not be first in the buffett line. We knew the host, Jim Malick from Larsen Marine and he invited us to join the party. We spoke to an ex Navy captain that had retired many years ago and took his sailboat on the Caribbean 1500 delivery from the Chesapeake to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. About 400 miles from his destination his wooden mast failed. He had to beg for fuel from other cruisers and from a passing freighter to be able to motor all with the way to the BVI. He had three crew onboard. When they reached the BVI the crew checked into a hotel and never went back to the boat. It took the captain 11 months to get a new aluminum mast for his boat and continue his Caribbean cruise. His current boat is named Respite.

With the lake being so flat we are thinking about crossing to the Michigan side soon. We will check the weather and charts tonight and perhaps cross to Frankfurt, Michigan tomorrow.

I bought some teriyaki beef jerky at the butcher shop for $20.00 per pound. We shall see how it compares to the “worlds best” beef jerky that I bought in Rogers City last October during the boat delivery from Lake Ontario.

The boat continues to operate perfectly. No new first world problems to discuss.

This photo shows the flat seas and the Waukegan Yacht Club and Great Lakes Cruising Club burgees. We need a knob for the top of our flag staff.

image