Day 64 - Sun 31 Jul 2016
Moored – Fish Creek, WI

[photo: just one of many attractive stores on Main Street]

The wind pushed ripples (small waves) into our large anchorage all night, but they were not enough to cause any discomfort. It had actually cooled off enough inside the boat that I went to sleep in the berth right away. Diane awoke well rested after several nights. I got up in the middle of the night specifically to gaze at the magnificent heavens. There was no moon visible and despite a few lights shore, the stars blazed brightly. The Milky Way was also very prominent, but I did not see any northern lights.

Stepping onto the deck about 0600, I noticed many thousands of tiny whitish bugs covering almost every surface. The spiders onboard that have successfully eluded me had been busy again making their webs and they were liberally coated with these and other bugs. It really is something how dirty these insects and arachnids can make a boat.

We had a leisurely early morning and then weighed anchor at 0700 for the 3.5 hour run S in Green Bay to the town of Fish Creek. Once S of Washington Island, all the land we saw to our W was part of the Door Peninsula and reachable by automobile. That means that our ports will be full of not only boaters, but people vacationing by car.

The sailors we met at Rock Island were kind enough to offer their mooring in the Fish Creek harbor and we found it with ease. Our lunch consisted of a bit of various leftovers we had. Most boat refrigerators do not keep quite as cold as a home unit and it is best not to have things sit in there too long.

Before I got the dinghy down, I simply had to try to get most of the nasty bugs off the boat. Step one used a soft brush to sweep the bugs off the cabin, and then multiple buckets of water (lowered and raised from the deck with a rope) to try to flush them off the deck. It was only marginally successful. A thorough cleaning will be needed at the next marina on Mon.

With the dinghy down, we tied up on the shore next to the boat ramp and started our jaunt. First, walking along the waterfront and then coming to a seeming dead-end, we finally came across a local who said in response to our question that, yes, there was a lot more to see in town. Two blocks up on Main Street, it was one boutique, restaurant, and gift shop after another on both sides. We walked quite a way and checked out most of the stores without purchasing anything.

Crossing over and then coming back on the other side, we found the market and then The Barrel Room, where we sampled spreads (they also had olive oils, cheeses, and fudge that we ignored). We bought a hot pepper spread, a few local-brewed craft beers, and a small bottle of local-distilled rye, made with Wisconsin-grown rye grain. When I tried it later, I was very disappointed; it had not been aged long enough or well enough.

That brought us back to Diva Di by mid-afternoon for some relaxation and rest. On this last day of Jul, we have been out 64 days (33% of our estimated duration), have traveled about 36% of our estimated distance, and spent only 25% of our budget. A lot of the reason for being so much under budget is limiting our marina stays and eating very sparingly in restaurants.

Two young grandparents, with their grandchild, were leaving their Catalina 350 on the mooring next to us. They were intrigued with our boat and were considering one like it in the next several years as they migrate away from sailing. We invited them aboard for a tour and gave them our card to contact us later. They’ll even be in our home town long before us when they visit friends who live there in Oct.

We relished our supper of chicken fajitas that I had mostly prepared while we were underway with Diane at the helm. It gave me something to do, and with the breeze flowing through the boat due to our motion, the boat stayed cool. Cooking all that while on the mooring in today’s heat and light breeze would have been uncomfortable. I also want to share that I made a faux sour cream by adding white vinegar and a little water to some cream cheese and mixed it well; it was surprisingly good.

After supper, Diane was content to relax in her lounging attire, while I took the dinghy around for a slow ride around the harbor. It was really busy with this being a weekend. I hoisted the dinghy and Diane gave me a shower at the stern (with my bathing trunks on, of course). I soaked a shirt with water and sat on the flybridge to let the dying breeze cool me down. Over the hour, I had to re-wet my shirt several times.

We both enjoyed the contrast of having a touristy town full of stuff to look at for a change. I am sure Diane enjoyed the window shopping a lot more than I did, but it was still nice to get off the boat and walk around. The only downside to today was that the light wind kept our boat beam-to the wakes that kept rolling in from the outer harbor. These catamarans can take a tiny beam wave action and amplify it uncomfortably. When I chose this spot, I was considering wave action from wind and not wakes caused by other boats.

Tomorrow, we have reservations for two nights at a marina in Sturgeon Bay. We’ll need to do laundry, some major provisioning, and a serious boat cleaning. I may also change the oil in one or both engines. We’ll be looking for good weather to cross the lake back the Michigan side to finish our tour of the lake on our way to Chicago.