Waking up at dawn has its advantages. We did get to see a blue moon that will not be back for several years. A second full moon in the month of July.
Scott and I decided that a dawn departure was in order to beat those pesky SSW and W winds. At 5:00 am today we got up and were on our way, first south to get around the peninsula, and then west. Our first encounter with Lake Michigan was brisk westerlies that met us as soon as we left the secure harbour of Round Lake in Charlevois. We continued along a southwest path and past South Fox Island and North Manitou Island where 300 foot sand dunes were. No way were we stopping with 8-10 ft waves. Instead of driving at 28 mph we were down to 12 mph or lower. The waves were doable but coming from the west and then SW and then NW created what I refer to as the soup bowl. You know when you stir your soup one way and then the other and back again and then put in the cracker. Well, the cracker was us. Just trying to find our way to the other side. The trip across would be a little over an hour in good weather. It took us 6 hours. 6 hours of pounding in and around and then around again. The weather stations, at least 3 we listened to, had different outcomes for the day. If we put them all together they were still wrong. They should have called us when they said they had 2 -4 foot waves at the buoy. More like 8-10 ft waves. Aiden slept through it all.
We listened to the weather the entire way over hoping that we would hear better news. The weather was changing as much as we were rocking. By the time we were on the west side in Wisconsin there was a small craft warning. We didn’t care cause the waves were nothing compared to what we just did for 6 hours. We pushed Conductance up to 25 and headed south. Our goal was Sturgeon Bay, WI , which didn’t sit comfortably with me being we lost both props in Sturgeon Cove north of Little Current Ontario. Anyway, we got there on half a tank of gas so we continued at 25 mph to Manitowoc, WI where we got the diesel fill up. We were thinking of staying but with Sheboygan, WI only an hour away and it was just after 3:00.
We hit a time zone bump in the middle of Lake Michigan and gained an hour because of it. So we pushed on. After getting in for the night in Sheboygan, WI with a 12 hour day under our belt we decided that dinner out was in order. So we were off in Low Voltage to a “canal” off the harbour where the city has done a fantastic job of making the waterfront gorgeous. Shopping, restaurants, anything you want is there. We didn’t make it into the city but that is a short block away. Scott and Aiden took a walk after dinner and I’m here too tired to care. This marina offers everything, even a pool for those wishing to soak for awhile or spend a couple days here. One of the nicest marinas we have seen on this trip.
It is our goal to make it just west of Chicago tomorrow so that we can spend a bit of Saturday there and part of Sunday cruising through the canals of Chicago on our first leg of the Illinois River heading south.
