Day 66 - Tue 2 Aug 2016
Docked – Sturgeon Bay, WI

[photo: another one from the C dock party area. I was not in a photo-taking mood today]

I don’t know if it could be considered a temporary lack in situational awareness, or just how comfortable a boat can be, that I often wake up having to think about where we are (location), how we are situated (anchored, moored, or docked), and whether we have a preferred time schedule for departure that day. This morning it took a few seconds and then it was, “oh yeah, we are docked at a Sturgeon Bay marina; I have some chores to do, but we aren’t leaving today.”

While the boat was not dirty after yesterday’s thorough scrubbing, it was littered with dead bugs. The hose took care of them all quickly enough and then it was time for a thorough cleaning of the windows. We may not have any appreciable salt in the water, but we sure get a lot of hard spots. We worked together and within an hour had them as clean as reasonably possible and a fresh coat of RainX on them to help shed water during rain.

I continued the maintenance theme by checking the water levels in the batteries and then tackling removal of the malfunctioning chartplotter on the flybridge. I expected it to be a challenge and was surprised that it was very easy. The much harder part was loading it into the backpack, getting my bike off the boat, and pedaling uphill for 1.5 miles to the Pack and Ship Store. It should get to the repair shop in FL by Fri and once it is repaired (assuming it is economically repairable), I will determine where to ship it back to us.

If this happened while we were home and not going anywhere soon, I might have bit the bullet and upgraded all the navigation electronics, but it is a big job and not one I want to tackle, or pay to have someone else do, while we are in the middle of this long cruise. I could argue that the likely hefty repair bill will be wasted once I make the upgrade, but I may not do that for several years. Along the way, I did get to see a portion of the town on the other side of the waterway and it looked pretty neat. Our stop here, however, was all about getting things done on the boat that needed doing and not about sight-seeing.

Back at Diva Di, it was late morning. I packed my shower stuff and clean clothes and we headed up to the marina lounge. I have to call myself out for telling Diane yesterday as I returned from the shower that I had not needed to bring a towel because they supplied them. Well, when she went up, she realized that the white, terry cloth things stacked in the bin were bath mats to use on the floor of the shower area. What do I know; they looked like towels to me.

After showering, (and, by the way, using two bath mats for my towel) we walked straight to the little corner bar called the Grey Stone Castle that had been recommended by several locals. The bartender/server apologized to Diane that her wine glass was filled almost to the brim because he was ‘killing’ the last of the bottle. She forgave him!

Her breaded local perch sandwich was good, but my prime rib sandwich on Texas toast (their signature sandwich) was awesome. She wanted a side dish to share and was talked into the fresh, hand-breaded onion rings. These things looked like a quarter onion each! We could only eat half of it, as could I with my sandwich. That place was a neat, local find, and as our fifth restaurant meal since we left 66 days ago, it was near the top. Did I mention a large, cold craft draft beer was only $2.50 and Diane’s wine was $3?

Diane volunteered to take the leftovers and gear back to the boat while I went directly to the pool with my book. It felt great after the exertion of the morning in the hot sun with little breeze. Surprisingly, there were very few people there. Diane joined me at the pool with refreshing beverages and we enjoyed almost two hours there.

Diane skipped supper and chose to snack, while I finished my prime rib sandwich from lunch. Afterwards, Diane went up to shower while I went back to the pool with a new book. We miss our pool at home and this one was quite a delight, but noisier than home, of course.

We will be leaving here tomorrow with an empty holding tank and plenty of provisions, but I am deliberately not taking on any fuel so as to keep the stern lighter. For a trip of over 70nm, we may want to run fast for much of it, and less weight aft will help with that.