Author: tim.june.sndr@hotmail.com

As I sit down to write this post, I’m filled with mixed emotions. There are strange voices coming from our engine room and Tim is wandering around like a lost puppy with nothing to do but wring his hands.

Continue reading The Beginning of the End

Yes, we made it off the rivers in one piece, Subject to Change is safely tucked away and I’m siting here in my “Girl’s Room” to finish telling you the saga of the cruise down the rivers.

I left you when we dropped anchor for the night on the Ohio River. How many nights had we been cruising down the rivers? I couldn’t have told you then. We had long lost track of days and could only look one day ahead. By this time, we were beat. I don’t think we had ever slept so soundly while at anchor. In rereading the last post, I figured this was Night 15 of the rivers. It had been a series of long days and creative moorings but all with great company. We had met so many great people on this journey and for us, that’s one of the best parts of cruising. So we return to the trip with great cruising buddies, Ray and Lisa, aboard SCOUT.

A big “hmmmm” for us was how wide the Ohio River was at this point in comparison to the Mississippi we had just left. In thinking about it, I think I was able to make sense of it. When the Ohio joins the Mississippi, it is at the end of its journey that began in Pennsylvania. It has had 981 miles to collect its water and grow. It is at its max. Where the Mississippi meets the Ohio, she is only halfway through her journey. She has a long way to go before she reaches her full size in Louisiana.

We passed numerous anchorage fields for barges as we headed up the Ohio and with that comes a lot of working tows.

The main reason we chose to make the long run the day before and get a head start on the Ohio was because we had heard that there was a potential river closure ahead at the Olmsted lock. Boats that traversed this area the day before had to tie off on the lock wall because of blasting up river. The Olmsted lock was completed in 2018 and was built to replace two aging locks on the Ohio. The process of removing the old locks was continuing. We were told that the COE was closing the river to traffic at 10 am as the demolition proceeded and we wanted to lock through before it closed. A quick call to the lockmaster answered our concerns. It was a Saturday (duh! I couldn’t keep track of the day of the week for the life of me) and there was no blasting scheduled for the day. Also, we were told that we did not need to lock through. We were told to go over the wickets and just follow the regular navigation buoys. A huge sigh was heard from both Subject to Change and SCOUT.

With all the traffic on the river, we kept a close ear on Channels 16 and 13. Tow captains will announce on the radio where they are and when they expect to be crossing certain areas or entering narrow or restricted waters. Several times we heard an announcement by RocketShip. The captain announced that he was bringing the ship northbound on the Ohio and all concerned traffic should be alert. No big deal, we hear that kind of broadcast a lot on the rivers. But it seemed RocketShip was alerting quite frequently and, she was getting closer to us. Soon we found out why. Rocket Ship is not just any tow doing her work on the rivers, she is a 313’ cargo ship that actually carrries rockets. She hauls rockets from United Launch Alliance in Decatur, AL to Cape Canaveral, Fl and Vandenberg Space Forcebase, CA.

The RocketShip’s captain was as intrigued by us little guys as we were of him. He radioed us to ask if we were doing the loop, where did we start from, etc. and Tim quizzed him about his destination and cargo.

The slow slog up the Ohio was rewarded with two nights on the Paducah Town Dock. What a cool town and such a wonderful new dock. The dock is an oasis for us river cruisers. Yes, there are no bathrooms, showers, laundry facilities or fancy amenities. But my gosh, after all we’ve done, having a solid dock with power and water and fuel for those who need it, Paducah was heaven. This dock was finished in 2017 and was built to replace a dock that was torn away during a flood. This baby is solid and it will take a mighty big flood to float this dock off it’s piling.

The river walk area is surrounded by a wall that proudly displays the history of Paducah including documenting floods of the past.

A must see in Paducah is the quilt museum. Now come on, I know what you’re thinking. Get over your preconceptions, this ain’t our grandma’s quilting. These are works of art. Even the men had ravs about the beauty and craftsmanship of these pieces. Here’s a few of my favorites.

Of course no stop would be complete without a visit to a local brewery. This time Ray found Paducah Beer Werks at the old Greyhound station.

And to keep Paducah on the list of great stops along the river, there was plenty of street music, yum restaurants and bars to keep cruisers entertained.

Unbelievably, we even had movie night on the dock. Ray and Lisa carry the makings for a movie screen and projector. The show for the night- Captain Ron- of course.

After Nights 15 and 16 in Paducah, a big decision had to be made. We had only one more lock to transit this summer. The question was would we make it the Kentucky Lock or Lake Barkley Lock. Our destination either way was Green Turtle Bay but there were a few factors to consider in making this decision. If we chose Kentucky Lock, our cruising time on the Tennessee River would be shorter and with less current ( see the red line). But and this was the big BUT, the Kentucky lock is known for being very busy with commercial traffic and being on the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to locking, we could potentially wait hours before locking through.

If we go the northern route (follow the black line) on the Cumberland River, we have a much longer route and we would be going UP river with current against us. BUT, the Barkley Lock isn’t nearly as busy as the Kentucky Lock and pleasure boaters usually get right through. A lot of discussion was going on in Paducah as loopers weighed the odds. A sailboater decided to risk waiting at Kentucky Lock rather than fight the current in his slower boat. We, along with SCOUT and Soulmate opted to take the longer Cumberland River route, but easy lockage at Lake Barkley.

It was slow going for us, and we watched the progress of our sailboat buddy, Royal Coachman III as he tried his luck on the Tennessee River and Kentucky Dam. Royal Coachman III was already at his lock while we continued to struggle against the sometimes 5 knot current on the Cumberland.

We finally made it to Lake Barkley Lock and were invited to head on in. I checked on Royal Coachman and he was still waiting for the same treatment at Kentucky Lock.

In the end, we beat Royal Coachman to the dock by a short period of time. We spent more in fuel and engine hours and he had more finger twiddling time. I’m not sure who beat who.

As we pulled into Green Turtle Bay, I had a mix of feelings. This was it for us. I knew when we left Green Turtle we would leave on our own. No more buddy boats, no more docktails, no locks, no current, no long ass days. We’d be leaving Green Turtle and heading just a mere 2 hours down Kentucky Lake to Kenlake Marina and putting Subject to Change away for winter. While I was ready for a break and a change, I knew I would miss the cruising life, the crazy days and the friends made along the way. For some reason, I didn’t take any pictures at Green Turtle. I’m not sure why. I guess I wasn’t ready to document this ending. But…. To look ahead, I’m sure we will be here again next year as we begin another chapter with Subject to Change on the rivers.

Come back here some time in April as we cruise the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers.

Nights 10, 11, and 12 were spent in Alton, Illinois. Yes, Alton is just a couple hours down river from Grafton, but for most loopers it is a “must do” stop. For one, it is the last real marina we will see in days. It is also a major fuel stop for those needing to top off before making the next long haul. Luckily we are still sitting fine with the 300 gallons of diesel we took on in Milwaukee. Thanks you, Arthur DeFever for giving us such large fuel tanks. And lastly, we need every minute of daylight we can eek out of these end of summer days to get to our next stop.

We spent most of our time in Alton taking care of minor boat chores, relaxing, and eating and drinking with new friends. The rest of the time was spent talking with our new friends about the adventures ahead of us. What time do you plan to leave in the morning? Where are you stopping the first night? the second night? Where will you anchor if we get caught at a lock?

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On our morning of departure, Tim and I were up at 5. I called the Mel Price lock, that is just a couple miles down river, at 5:30 to be sure the group of us could get right through. “Come on down”, I was told. Our group of 9 boats headed out in the dawn light.

Once through the Mel Price lock, we focused our attention on the Chain of Rocks lock that was 15 miles down river. A major sense of unease hit us when that lockmaster said, “ I wish you called me before you left the dock.” While he was empty, he told us that planned dredging just beyond the lock was going to be blocking the channel and we may not be able to proceed for a few hours. While I waited on the phone, he called the dredge for details. The decision was made that they’d delay beginning work for us and the for a northbound passenger boat. Whew!

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Once in the lock, we “floated”. This means we did not have a bollard or line to hold to. The skipper had to maintain the boat’s position in the lock.

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I cannot tell you how great it felt to be through these two locks by 9am. We had watched so many other boaters have major delays here and we were all so grateful to have gotten through so quickly. I also have to say how polite and helpful every lockmaster and lock worker we have encountered has been. These guys were fantastic. The same kudos have to be given to the tow captains. We have been so impressed by their professionalism and willingness to share the waterways with us ‘Pleasure Craft”. They have made a challenging journey so much easier.

Having the locking finished for the day, our next focus was St. Louis, the iconic arch, dodging debris in the water, and the very busy commercial area.

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Barges, fuel dock, houses perched on the edge.

Our destination for the night 13 was Kaskaskia lock. We would not actually be locking through here, we would only be tying to the wall along with several other boats. It is known as a safe spot just off the Mississippi on the Kaskaskia River to spend the night. After a wake up call of 5 am, we were ready for it when we pulled in around 3:30. Unfortunately there was very little room at the inn for us. Only one spot was available and it would prove to be too tight of a fit. Assured that there was enough water for us, Tim did his best to get us got the solid concrete wall. There was no way our 5’draft was going to make it. Luckily the river bottom was mud and it sucked us in and held us in place against a much smaller boat that was on the wall. With all the jostling, pushing, yelling, bow and stern thrusting, and heart pounding that was going on, I failed to take any pictures. It was a very stressful ending to a very long day.

The next morning, Tim skillfully maneuvered the boat out after the rafted boats behind us left. With deep breaths and lots of cheering, we were off again by 6:30.

Once back on the Mississippi, we had a beautiful morning on the river awaiting us.

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After hearing of a potential delay on the Ohio due to blasting of the old Olmsted lock, we agreed with SCOUT to bypass several anchorages on the Mississippi and head up the Ohio 8 miles to MM 973. Now going against the current on the Ohio instead of with the current on the Mississippi, we dropped from a speed of 10+ mph to a mere 5.5 mph. This made our 8 mile run up the Ohio, a slow, pokey crawl. We arrived at our spot and dropped anchor just as the sun was dropping to our west.

I am leaving you here. Our run on the Mississippi is over! On to the Ohio as we continue our adventure south.

We said “goodby” to Milwaukee and made the short run down to Racine where we continued to question the weather gurus. We found after being caught in the rain so often in Milwaukee that we were wary of leaving the boat without our rain coats. We would not be caught unaware again. So while we did get out and explore a lot, we also kept a keen eye on lake conditions.

Lisa and I decided to take a long walk to see the Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings for SC Johnson Co. Unfortunately there were no tours that day, so we had to be satisfied with a peek through the fence. We

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Our plan was to stay 2 nights in Racine and then head to Kenosha for the holiday weekend. Lake Michigan didn’t like those plans. The weather began to deteriorate and we spent many hours looking at options. We would think there was an open window on the lake only to see it slammed shut. And other choices presented themselves that were enticing, but we weren’t urge anymore if we could trust that the weather would be as predicted and the predictions still weren’t great.

We delayed leaving Racine by one night to let the lake settle. We also abandoned the thought of going to Kenosha and chose to make a run straight to Chicago only to find that we could not get a slip in Chicago. So we had to continue on another 12 miles (1 + hrs) to Hammond.

Finally CHICAGO!

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We were very pleasantly surprised by Chicago. Being that I am not a big city kind of girl, I expected Chicago to be bustling, bossy and brash. Instead we found a friendly, welcoming city full of creative green spaces and areas just asking to be explored. We took an Architectural Boat tour along the Chicago River since we knew Subject to Change was too tall to travel under the Chicago bridges. The tour was excellent and gave us lots of history and interesting facts about the buildings in Chicago.

I am waaaaaaaay behind on the blog, so I’ll end this one here. Coming up- Heading south on the rivers.

Here’s a dump of more Chicago pics.

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For the first time in several days, we have decent internet. So today is the day for me to catchup on this blog.

We left Chicago, September 10, a day ahead of schedule to avoid some incoming weather on the Lake.

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We began our travel on the Calumet River, passing several industrial sites. The big pucker factor was the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Bridge with a fixed vertical height of 19.7 feet. This is the defining bridge for many loopers. If you cant make it under this guy, you can’t make it. We slowly slid under with about a foot to spare. Keep in mind, water levels are very low right now. If it were a year with high water levels, we could have been a foot too high.

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After an 11 hour day, night 1 was spent on the free wall in Joliet on the Illinois River.

Joliet does not hold a good reputation among loopers and while we had no problems that night, we have since heard stories from fellow loopers that keep that reputation alive. We talked to John, who we met in Chicago, who woke up the morning before only to find a dead body floating behind his dinghy. Upon calling 911, the responding cops weren’t too surprised. Seems they see this frequently. We also read about a group of loopers who woke up during the night to find someone untying boats from the wall. One boat was already floating loose in the river.

We were off the wall the next morning with a flotilla of about 10 others at 6:15. We had 3 locks to traverse this day and wanted to get a good start. When the first lock is relatively close to where we moor for the night, the plan is for someone in the group to call the lock master to see if he has any commercial vessels in the lock or waiting to lock and to let him know that we plan to lock through. Commercial vessels have priority over pleasure vessels such as ourselves. There’s no need to leave the dock at the crack of dawn only to wait hours to be locked through.

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The locks on the Illinois have floating bollards that we loop a line around and hold tightly as the water lowers. We have found that on the Illinois, the locks may only have 4, sometimes only 3 bollards to grab.

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To accommodate the large number of loopers wanting to go through at a time, we usually have to raft off to each other. With Subject to Change being one of the larger boats, we usually find we are the “Mother ship”, the one that grabs the bollard and then lets a line of other boats grab on.

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After a long wait at the Brandon Road Lock, our numbers had grown. We now had a group of 17 pleasure boats waiting for lockage. It was going to be a tight fit.

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At Marseilles Lock, we had to wait for this triple wide to restack his barges For his up river run. Locks on the Illinois can’t take in triple wide loads, so tows have to unstack the triples and take them thru in stages. Of course, this adds to our wait time.

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After a long 12 hours on the river, we tied up at Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa. We spent night 2 and 3 here resting up.

We left Ottawa at the dawn and continued down the Illinois River. We planned a relatively short run to Henry, Il.

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While many other loopers have the option to dock at marinas along the Illinois, we do not. Water levels are so low right now that we are unable to get into most of the marinas we pass. So, we have been getting creative when it comes to choosing places to tie up to for the night. Many loopers use an app called NEBO to create a track of their travels. It is the app I use for posting pictures showing our track to help you see where we are. This app allows other loopers to also see where you are. I have been using it to follow friends and to follow boats that also have deeper drafts to see where they spend the nights. It’s one way I found our spot for night 4 in Henry.

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We tied to an old lock wall that was used up until 1910. Yes, it was rustic and a bit unconventional, but it served its purpose and we had a wonderful, quiet night.

As we continued down river, we passed remnants of the past and flocks of white pelicans making their way south.

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After a short day, Night 5 found us just south of Peoria at Kuchie’s on the Water restaurant and bar. Unfortunately, Kuchie’s was closed that night, but the owner graciously told us to make ourselves at home and stay as long as we wanted.

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We couldn’t have asked for much nicer weather. The water was calm, days were warm, but the nights were cool enough for sleeping with windows open and just a fan. And most importantly, Maggie was happy that we provided her with grass to do her business on. Beardstown was our destination for night 6. Again, we had to bypass marinas and ended up at Logsdon Tug Service where for $1/ft you could tie to a old barge for the night, head into town for dinner and have somewhat decent WiFi.

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The wonderful weather continued to bless us, so we opted of make a long day of it and head to Grafton and a real marina for some major chill time.

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After another 12 hour run, we were thrilled to dredge our way into Grafton Marina. Even here, we were digging up mud to get into a slip. This was home for nights 7,8, and 9.

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Grafton has been called The Key West of the Midwest. It is a party town with lots of bars, restaurants, and live music. The perfect spot to regenerate, wash clothes, eat good food and enjoy new friends. Oh, and wash Asian Carp scales off the side of the boat.

As I write this, we have just spent our first night on the Mississippi and night 10 of the rivers at Alton Marina, just 2 hours down from Grafton. We will be here 3 nights as well. I’ll tell you about Alton when I write again.

The theme of today’s post is don’t believe what the weather people in Wisconsin tell you. They are just guessing and probably don’t have a clue. I’m sure they do the best they can, but the reality is that this big ol’ lake we’re on is in complete control and she can be as fickle as they come.

Let me take you back a couple weeks. We had a nice run south from Port Washington to Milwaukee. On arrival we pulled into the fuel dock for a pumpout and when Tim found out the current price for diesel, it was a no brainer that the time had come to fill up the tanks. 300 gallons later, we were on our way to our dock.

I have to be honest with you, I was not expecting much from Milwaukee. I’m not sure why, but I guess I pictured an older big city that was somewhat run down. After our first stroll into town, I felt I was right. We walked down Brady Street into an older section of town that reminded me of Baltimore and brought images of NOLA to Tim. It was lined with sad bars and was kinda dirty, just not a spot I’d want to walk through in the dark. Hoping to find something better, the next day we put the dink in the water and headed up the Milwaukee River.

It started off as a nice day, overcast, yes, but “the weather person” said we had only a slight chance of rain and if it did come, it would be around 4:30.

Heading up the river, condos and apartments lined the waterfront. Many of them were constructed in old warehouses, some were newer construction, but they added a warm feel to the riverside. I was really liking how the city kept a lot of its history by repurposing the old brick building.

As we neared this bridge, horns began to blow announcing that the bridge would be rising. No way that bridge was going to go up for us in our little dink, we figured somebody big must be coming. Tim decided we ought to wait before going under to see who was on the other side.

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Sure enough, glad we held back.

More views from the river.

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After an enjoyable cruise, it was time for lunch and a beer. As we ate, Tim did a radar check on the weather. To give the weather person credit, yes, storms were in the forecast, however they were not predicted until 4:30. Looking up at the dark sky and rolling clouds barreling between the rows of condos along the water, we thought otherwise. Tim had barely time to ask for the check when the clouds were upon us with a blast of wind. Unoccupied chairs began scooting across the deck and full ketchup bottles were tossed in the river as the full force of the storm hit. We ducked inside the restaurant with Maggie and the rest of the customers as we waited for calm. Back into the dink once the worst had passed, rain was still falling as we made our way on a now very choppy river. As we rounded the corner to leave the river and head out into the harbor, the chop became waves and then became rollers. Emergency boats were being called into action and we did not want to be the ones in need of them, so Tim turned our little craft around and we sought shelter at another restaurant along the river. Luckily the waitstaff took pity on the three drenched boaters and allowed us to wait out the rain and let the waters settle before we attempted to cross the harbor again.

The Milwaukee Munincipal Marina is huge, and we were happy to be placed on a T head, away from the crowd. This keeps Maggie quieter since she has fewer people to greet. Being on the end also allows for a bit of badly needed grooming. Both Maggie and Tim got a good trim by me.

Again, we decided to set off to explore Milwaukee. This time we chose to take the bikes. Of course we checked the weather and again the weather people said we were good to go. So off we went. Milwaukee has some of the most amazing bike trials. I am totally impressed as trails go off in many directions- North and south, along the lake, into town, to the beach, to the park. We chose a trail that runs north along the lake and then took a turn onto a more wooded trail. All was great until we again looked up at the sky. The sky and the radar weren’t telling us the same thing. Having learned our lesson well, we decided to head back to the boat. Sure enough, you know the rest of the story. As soon as we got onto the dock, the sky let loose and the winds began to blow. We were soaked to the bone by the time we got to the boat. Maggie and I dashed aboard while Tim laid the bike down on the dock to keep them from being tossed into the lake by the wind.

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I can’t have you thinking that we spent all of our time in Milwaukee avoiding storms. We had some beautiful days as well.

The day finally came that our dear, old friend, Lisa arrived. (As blog editor, Lisa is taking the opportunity to note here that she prefers the description “long-time friend” as opposed to the more accurate “old friend”…just sayin’!) Tim has known Lisa longer than he has known me and Lisa was a major factor in my getting together with Tim. We only had one day in Milwaukee with Lisa before we untied the lines and continued south to Racine. We decided a dinghy trip up the Milwaukee River was the best way to show her the city. Do I need to say more? Yes, rain was in the forecast, but in our defense, it wasn’t predicted to hit until later. Yes, this time we did bring rain jackets, but it didn’t keep us from getting drenched. There are many things in life that I am thankful for and the fact that I don’t melt has just topped my list.

We arrived in Manitowoc, Wi on 8/7 and were happy to be settled in before the storm. Afterwards we learned that Milwaukee had a major hit from the overnight winds and rain. Over 225,000 residents were left without power from what was called the largest storm in the history of the power company. Whew, that was a close one for us.

Manitowoc is the Badger’s Wisconsin port and we saw and heard her daily as she entered and exited the harbor.

We also visited the free Wisconsin Maritime Museum. While this wasn’t the most informative or interesting maritime museum we’ve been to, I was impressed by how kid friendly it was. As a former elementary grade teacher, I could envision bringing a large group of kids here and keeping them engaged and excited with all the hands on exhibits. We were also surprised to see an exhibit about The Great Loop. Hmmm, maybe we should give that a try.

While the museum was no charge, we did pay for a guided tour of the submarine. USS Cobia. The 312’ Cobia was launched from Connecticut in 1944 and saw plenty of action during WWII, including the sinking of a transport carrying 28 Japanese tanks.

Here’s a dump of some photos I took on the tour. A couple things to notice- look at how cozy some sailors were with their torpedo bunk mates. The sailors literally dropped their bunk down over the torpedos and snuggled in for the night. The bulkhead doors weren’t designed for big boys. Some found it a tight fit getting thru.

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The Cobia is propelled by her electric motors. When her batteries needed to be recharged, they had to surface. Once on the surface, the diesel generators could charge the batteries.

We stayed a day longer in Manitowoc than planned as we waited for weather to pass and then continued south on Lake Michigan to Sheboygan.

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Sheboygan is a much larger city than Manitowoc and we found lots to keep us occupied.

Just outside of the marina we found the remains of the Lottie Cooper.

The Lottie Cooper was built in Manitowoc in 1876, was 131’ long, 27’ wide and had 9’ of depth. She capsized off Sheboygan in an April gale in 1894. Her remains were found during the construction of the marina in1992.

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Sheboygan also has the best farmer’s market we have found so far this year. I was so excited to wander through and pick out fresh ears of corn, cauliflower, carrots, fingerling potatoes, and cucumber. I got all for only $20.

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One of the other highlights of Sheboygan was meeting several other loopers. Rick and Sue, The Fire Escape, live in Sheboygan and will be heading to their DeFever 44 in Brunswick, Ga. as the weather cools. In the meantime, they are amazing hosts to loopers who come to their hometown. Not only did they drive Tim to a grocery store and introduce us to friends, they took us on a driving tour of their city. We can now say that we were at Whistling Straits golf club in Koehler where the 2021 Ryder Cup is currently being held. Speaking of Kohler, did you know that Sheboygan is the home to the Kohler dynasty? Yes, Kohler as in toilets and sinks. The Kohler family has been in this area since the 1900’s. We wandered through their America Club which as built in 1918 as a residence for their immigrant employees. The America Club is now a high class hotel (I bet some of those Ryder Cup guys are staying there).

We also toured the Kohler Design Center, a museum that showcases current and past products made by Kohler.

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We enjoyed Sheboygan for it’s historic architecture, watching the charter fishing boats coming in loaded with the morning catch, the daily activities at the Sailing Club right behind our boat, the bar overlooking the marina and the great people we met there.

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Next stop- Port Washington

Port Washington is a much smaller city than Sheboygan and even with it’s nice, new marina, bigger is not always better. Once again, there were no slips available that could accommodate our length, so we were assigned a spot on a wall. For one of us, Maggie, this was great news. For her it means a very short walk to the grass so she can take care of business and she gets to meet and greet all the tourists and local walkers/joggers that cruise the walkway. For another crew member, it means he has a very long walk to the boater’s restroom to take care of business and it means we all have to listen to Maggie’s high pitched meet and greet. Ah, we take the good with the not so good.

Soon after our arrival, a late lunch was is order. Just a block from the marina we found the Fork and Tap had just what we needed- outside seating, shade, and cold beer. You know that we consider ourselves fairly frequent brewsters. But we have discovered that there’s a new way of filling a glass with beer. Maybe you already discovered this, but it was new to us. Instead of filling your glass from a tap, the beer is pushed into the glass from the bottom. Really! Filling from the bottom creates less foam. Hmmmm. I wonder if the person who invented this was on Shark Tank.

Here’s some shots from our wandering around Port Washington.

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After a few days, it was time to head south again. Time for the big city, Milwaukee.

We’ll be biding our time in Milwaukee for about 10days as we let summer draw to a close. Yes, we, like the rest of the country are running our AC full time. What a difference from when we were up on Lake Huron in Cheboygan. As we watch the temperatures soar in the Midwest, we are happy to have decided to hold off on the trip down the rivers. Meanwhile, we are anxiously awaiting our first boat guest in 2 years. Dear friend, Lisa, who joined us on our trip up the Rideau to Ottawa in 2019, will be flying in on the 31st. She better bring us fresh stories. Tim and I have heard enough of each other and desperately need some new ones

As forecasted, Lake Michigan finally settled down and gave us a pass to head south to Ludington.

As with so many other marinas in Michigan, our size was an issue at the Municipal Marina. Shorter boats were able to get a slip, we were offered a space on the wall. This wasn’t a big issue for us. We still had power and water, but it also put us along the walking path for locals and tourists. Maggie, being the greeter that she is, felt she needed to let us know about everyone walking past especially those who had a dog.

One of the things we have loved about towns in Michigan has been the pride people take in their communities. All of the towns have been adorned with welcoming flower baskets and gardens. Ludington is no exception. Here, volunteers plant 30,000 red, white and blue petunia along Ludington Avenue creating the Petunia Parade, thus inviting you to stroll from the lakeside through town.

Ludington is also home to the SS Badger, the last coal-fired passenger steamship in operation in the US. She makes a daily run from Ludington to Manitowoc, Wi and back ferrying passengers and vehicles. Every morning we hear her announce her departure from Ludington at 9am. She returns from Manitowoc at 7pm. One evening we joined many others for the return.

As she turns, she drops her anchor, using it to pivot as she backs into her mooring.

Lots of fishing going on here too.

I also decided that somebody was due a bath.

And of course, we had to check out the breweries.

We really enjoyed the few days we had in Ludington. Our Harbor Hosts, Rose and Dave were wonderful and we were able to spend some time with other loopers. Hopefully we’ll meet up with many of them as we head down the rivers.

Looming over us for days was the decision of when to cross over Lake Michigan. As we have learned, the Lake can be quite fickle as her moods swing. The forecast was leaning toward OK, not great, but OK to cross on Saturday, August 7 and we were leaning toward accepting it. However, there was also a forecast of a storm on the Wisconsin side. The math said at 8 mph for a 60 mi trip, we should be over in 7 1/2 hours. The storm was scheduled to hit around 4-5pm. There ain’t no speeding this slow, fat trawler up, so we either had to trust the weatherman that we could beat the storm or we had to forego this window and wait several days for another.

We chose to go for it. Off the wall around 7 am, we started out pretty good. We were all pretty chill. Somewhere past halfway, things got a bit rougher.

When we had a couple hours to go, the washing machine waves began in earnest. It was not the crossing we hoped for, but it could worse. That big green blob of a storm held off until 6 or so, well after we settled in.

Welcome to Wisconsin! We’re taking it slow as we head down and have time to kill. We made a decision early on that we didn’t want to hit the rivers until after Labor Day. I’ll tell you about Manitowoc and Sheboygan in my next post and then we’ll be off to Port Washington, Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha and lastly Chicago before we leave Lake Michigan.

We weren’t prepared to enjoy Manistee as much as we did. This small community isn’t on the “gotta do” list and I’d never even heard of it before we started looking for marina towns south of Frankfort; but it was well worth the stop and we were happy to get weathered in here.

We left Frankfort on Wednesday, July 28 taking advantage of a great weather day.

Manistee is located on the Manistee River and the marina docks line the river as you come in.

On our first day there, we noticed some commotion and people gathering. We heard horn blasts in the distance and asked a neighbor what was going on. We were told that the Calumet was on her way up river. Sure enough, here was this 604’ freighter slowly gliding up river and we had front row seats.

I’m not sure where she went, but up the river and in Manistee Lake is a Morton Salt factory, a cement factory, Martin Marietta Magnesia Chemical plant. Tim may have some input here. The impressive part for us is that in the morning when we were looking at AIS to find her location, she was already half way across Lake Michigan. Some time during the night she silently slinked past us and headed out takin care of business.

Highlights of the trip included dinghy riding along the river.

We would also walk to the beach to check the status of Lake Michigan. Most days we were perfectly content to be tied to a dock rather than rocking and rolling in the rough waters.

Manistee has several historic Victorian era homes to stroll by and admire. So we did that too.

The SS City of Milwaukee is moored in Manistee Lake and daily tours are given. So Tim and I took a dinghy ride over to learn about her and her side kick, USCGC Acacia.

S.S. City of Milwaukee is a Great Lakes train car ferry used to haul train cars across Lake Michigan from Milwaukee to Muskegon, Mi. She was built in 1930 to replace her predecessor that sunk during a gale in 1929 loosing all crew aboard. She was brought to this location in 2004.

She could hold 28-30 fully loaded rail cars

She has two triple-expansion steam engines.

Besides serving as a museum, The SS City of Milwaukee is also a bed and breakfast. Yup, you can sleep in one of these luxurious rooms and enjoy dining in the officer’s dining hall.

We really enjoyed our stay in Manistee and would recommend it to anyone traveling by boat or road. The only negative I can find is the brewery. Poor Maggie and Tim. The only outside area they had that was dog friendly was in the direct afternoon sun and that just doesn’t work for any of us. Can you believe we actually skipped one. Oh well, we’ll make up for it in Ludington.

The weather gods smiled on us and on our planned leave day of Monday, August 1, the water was once again smooth and inviting. Time to move south to Ludington.

Just a note- we have a “cross the lake” date. As of now, we are looking at Saturday, August 7 to cross over to Manitowoc, Wi. They only have room for us a couple nights and then we’re looking at going south to Sheboygan.

While waiting for the rain to stop in Drummond, I was able to snag a slip in Charlevoix for 2 nights. This lead to a complete change in plans. Instead of going north west to Sault St. Marie, we would head west and then south with one night in Les Cheneaux and 2 nights at Beaver Island. This would allow us to get into Charlevoix in the morning.

From Drummond, it was a near perfect day to be on Lake Huron.

We dropped the anchor in Marquette Bay and then enjoyed a dinghy ride to Hessel and shared the sunset with a group of kayakers.

The next morning we pulled anchor and glided out of the Les Cheneaux Islands for Beaver Island.

Again, the weatherman was right. We had a gentle breeze as we crossed into Lake Michigan to Beaver Island.

We dropped the hook our first night at Beaver and anchored amid about a dozen other boats. When we were here last, workers were finishing repairs on the north dock. This time, the north docks were full, and gas and diesel were being sold there. It’s nice to see improvements being made. We arrived on the final day of the Beaver Island Music Festival and were able to enjoy some Irish fiddle type music in town.

We had a little more wind as we made our crossing to Charlevoix. We were happy with the conditions, but I doubt the sailboats were. The Chicago to Mackinaw race began on the 17th, the day we were cruising from Marquette Bay to Beaver. The water was like glass for us. Perfect! Not so for these racers. As we passed several heading to Charlevoix, they were on day 3 of their race. That means 3 days with very little wind. Good for us means yuck for them.

The marina at Charlevoix is kinda like country club lane. Lots of big, fancy, $$$ boats. We didn’t realize it, but we were coming in at the beginning of Charlevoix’s Venetian Festival, a 4 day extravaganza complete with carnival rides, the crowning of Miss Venetian Festival, music in the park and fireworks. Unfortunately, our 2 day stay would end before the major events would start. But we anchored a couple nights in Lake Charlevoix and were able to dinghy in to experience some of the happenings.

With a forecast of rain and wind coming, we made a short trip through Lake Charlevoix to Boyne City and found a wall to tie to at Sommerville Yacht Club. No power or water, but a spot to hang to and grass for Maggie.

Just to say- Bigger is not always Better. Especially when it comes to trying to get a boat slip in Michigan. Now, we have nothing to complain about. We totally realize how lucky we are to be out cruising and living this wonderful life. But…. Just saying, finding a slip for a boat that is over 45’ is a major issue. I can’t tell you how many times I have gone on the Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources website that all Michigan DNR marinas use to book slips and found zero availability on line. Marinas will take phone calls for slips the “day of” at 8am. No guarantees you will get one. The frustrating thing is we go through all the hoops of trying to reserve on line, calling at 8 am the day of and being told “no availability” only to anchor in the harbor and see empty slips that never fill that night. Oh well, I just needed to get that of my chest.

So, saying all that, of course we couldn’t get a slip in Charlevoix or Boyne City and decided it was time to continue south. The forecast gave us two ehhhh days to travel, not real good, but not horrible. We decided to roll the dice and head out. Alarms were set to wake us up at 5am with a plan to untie by 6. Unfortunately, the forecast had deteriorated from the night before, but we decided to peek our head out into Lake Michigan and see what she really looked like.

Yeah, these pictures don’t really show much. So we continued out. As we entered the lake, the 3’ rollers started piling up and the white caps were clearly visible. The forecast was never nasty, and we could certainly handle what the lake was giving us, but it was definitely not enjoyable. With the waves coming at us from the west and hitting us on the beam (the side) of the boat, the rolling was uncomfortable. This would have been a super time to have stabilizers; which of course, we don’t have. We had hopes of making a very long run to Frankfort, but we kept a few contingencies in case the weather was not to our liking, and it was not. One was to turn in to Northport, another was to anchor at South Manitou Island.

Yesterday, with conditions worsening, we opted to go into Northport. Of course, no slips were available, so we anchored again. Weather watching being a constant for us, we knew we wanted to make a move and get on a dock for a few days. Forecasts were calling for a front to drop in from the north in a few days with winds up to 40 mph, laundry is piling up and the holding tank could use a dump. Again, we decided to wake up at 5 am and hope the forecast for Monday would improve and not worsen. Today is that Monday and at 5 am, Tim declared we were on. Conditions were much better and we’d make the long run to Frankfort. I had the anchor up before 6 and with luck, the good forecast is holding.

We were up at dawn and heading north before the sun had fully risen. After rounding the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula, we were again working our way south.

Even better, the phone call I made to Frankfort Municipal Marina paid off. They have a slip for us for the next two nights. That will get us through tomorrow’s storm. And after my previous whining, I was able to book 5 nights in Manistee. that should hold us for the next batch of nasty weather. Our eyes are peeled looking for a good weather window to make the slow dash across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin. Keep your fingers crossed for us.