Racine, WI - Terminus of Voyage

Monday, October 11, 2010

042-44.040 N
087-46.680 W

Ahoy from the crew of the BlueJacket!

I'm quite remiss in writing, as it's been almost a month since my last log. We've been incredibly busy and this feels like the first chance that I've had to sit down and write. When I last wrote we were in Fish Creek, which is on Wisconsin's Green Bay. Unfortunately we were in a very unsettled weather pattern that didn't have an end in sight. That was in mid-September and the weather forecasters in northern WI kept reporting that had been almost a month since they had a day above the 60s. Where was the balmy September weather that I remembered? Well, we decided that we needed to make some miles before the snow flies! :-)

From Fish Creek we headed to Sturgeon Bay, which is a very deep bay half way down the Door Peninsula, which forms Green Bay. We actually had a nice sail there and the weather was pleasant, albeit cool. Sturgeon Bay is quite a large town with quite a bit of industry, including some large ship yards. The town is divided in half by the bay and we only got to see the northern half as the forecast had gale warnings a couple of days in the future and that didn't fit with our schedule. As a result we only spent a day in Sturgeon Bay and, after a desperately needed haircut, we headed out and passed through the canal that connects the bay to Lake Michigan.

We took advantage of low winds and flat seas and motored to Kewaunee, WI. There's not a lot going on in Kewaunee, but they have a very well protected marina with very friendly staff. I think that it's the first time that we've had a marina call us as we departed and wished us a safe passage. From Kewaunee we headed to Manitowoc, WI and we made it in before the forecasted gales arrived. Manitowoc was a much more interesting town with lots to see and do. However, our real purpose in stopping there was to rent a car so that we could drive to Milwaukee to help prepare and attend a surprise 40th anniversary party for my brother Larry and his wife Joan. Amazingly we pulled it off without them knowing. It was also my mother's 89th birthday and we also got to celebrate that with her, so it was a very special weekend.

Unfortunately the forecast had another 2 days of gale force winds arriving mid-week, so on Sunday morning we decided to head back to the boat and move to Port Washington one day ahead of schedule. Port Washington is another enjoyable town and home to Chris Lorentzen, who's one of my best childhood friends. We met up with him for dinner and later had a great meal at his house.

We had planned on having the boat hauled in Milwaukee, but after looking at the resources available there, we decided to head to Racine, which is about 20 miles S of Milwaukee. One of driving forces behind this entire trip was to get the boat to Milwaukee area, which is where I grew up and where many of my relatives live. My parents, who are 88 and 89, had never seen the boat, so I wanted them to be able to see it. I had envisioned taking them out for a sail on a beautiful fall day, with crisp blue skies and a nice wind out of the west, but mother nature had different ideas. Instead we had low clouds, occasional drizzle, southerly winds directly on the nose and a 3 foot swell on the beam. It was probably one of the worst days we'd seen on the trip. My mother, who's always claimed to get seasick, wisely didn't go, but I picked my father (Blaine) and brother (Larry) up at the South Shore Yacht Club and from there we made a 20 mile rolling trek to Racine, WI.

We pulled into Racine, which was the terminus of this leg of the journey. Over 4 months we had traveled almost 2000 miles, passing through 3 Great Lakes (and sticking our nose into Lake Superior) and 7 states. Both of us really enjoyed this trip, as it provided a unique way to see the country. Believe me, you get a very different view when you're traveling along the water at 8 MPH as opposed to 65 MPH on a highway. We met a lot of wonderful people and saw some beautiful sights.

Racine is a very nice town with a lot of boating resources. One of the really nice things is that most of the marinas are right near the downtown, which is full of shops and restaurants. It's clear that Racine has put a lot of money into redeveloping their downtown, and it shows. There's a tremendous amount of beautiful architecture in the area, but unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me when we were out and about as most of our stay there involved lots of work and not sight seeing.

We spent 12 days working hard at the Pugh marina getting BlueJacket ready to ship to San Diego via truck. In order to do this, the maximum height of the boat from the bottom of the keel to the highest point couldn't be more than 12'6". To achieve this, we had to remove the sails, mast, boom, dodger, radar mast, wind generator and mast, bow pulpit, dorads and lots of other items. These then had to be securely stowed for the 2200 mile ride. This is not an easy task...

I also had to replace the motor on the generator. I had ordered a new motor and was a bit surprised when it showed up un-painted. Painting it added a day to my schedule. After extracting the existing generator from its home under the companionway steps, we turned the cockpit into a shop where I swapped components between the motors. Of course this took longer than expected, so this job ended up taking 3+ days instead of the 1-2 that I had estimated...But now we have a generator that runs great and should be up for the forthcoming journey.

BlueJacket is scheduled to be picked in Racine on October 22nd and delivered to San Diego on the 28th. Sue and I will fly out there to meet the boat and then spend 10 days putting her back together. That's probably more than necessary, but I didn't want to short change our time. In March we'll return once again to sail down the Baja coast of Mexico and then we'll spend the rest of the winter/spring in the Sea of Cortez. Click here to see maps of the route.

I hope that people have enjoyed my logs covering this section of the trip. I enjoy writing them and hopefully it provided a unique view of a slice of America and Canada.

-- Geoff and Sue

P.S. I just booked a flight back to Milwaukee so that I can implement a repair on the rudder bearing. I realized that I could fly to Milwaukee, repair the bearing and paint the bottom for much less than it would cost to have this done in CA. I'll arrive Tuesday night and come back Saturday morning.

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For the cruiser:

A word of warning about WI marinas. They're WAY behind regarding Internet access. Many of them don't have their own access points and some of them that do charge up to $10/day for access. My guess is that they're just waiting to see if this Internet fad sticks around...

Sturgeon Bay, Stone Harbor Marina: Despite the name, the Stone Harbor marina has nothing to do with the Stone Harbor Resort which it sits in front of. It's run by Bay Marine. The statements on the Bay Marine web site that the resort has in indoor heated pool and fitness center are correct...you just can't use them! And the statement on the Stone Harbor Resort web site that they have a 21 slip marina is just wrong. It's all very misleading. However, the marina is well built and in good condition. The bathrooms could use some help. It's near downtown, so that's nice. It's also very shallow as we were touching bottom (5.5') in one of their deepest slips. Not to sound too negative, this is one of the nicest looking marinas we've been at in a while due to the resort's lanscaping. Dockage was $1.38/ft.

Kewaunee, Salmon Harbor Marina: The marina is extremely well protected from waves/surge, but it appears to be exposed to wind. The docks are in OK shape. The staff is extremely friendly and helpful.We spent 1.5 hours walking through town, and there wasn't much to see. Dockage was $1.30/ft.

Manitowoc Marina: The docks are in OK shape and the staff is friendly. The showers are bathrooms are very nicely maintained.There's a fair amount to see in town. Internet was $10/day and dockage was $1.25/ft.

Port Washington Marina: This is virtually a new marina as the facilities were recently rebuilt. The docks and bathrooms are supurb. The town is delightful with lots of nice shops and restuarants. Dockage was $1.25/ft.

Racine: There are lots of choices for marinas or boatyards. We chose Pugh marina as their pricing was straight forward compared with other yards. Note that you're close to Chicago, so pricing is much higher than further N. The fixed docks are older with lots of trip hazards. But as we're very self sufficient, we were able to do everything that we needed without issue. Dockage is $50/night.

Log ID: 1387