The weather has, of course, been a challenge in our progress down the west side of Lake Michigan, but we are still making good time so Kevin and Susan will not miss their flight out of Milwaukee on the 20th. Temperatures remain in the 60’s to a few days of 70’s and maybe an 80 day or two, but not many at all. While the rest of the country has been baking with record highs, we on the Great Lakes have had a rather cool summer season. I did not really expect this and did not bring a whole lot of colder weather clothing. But I am shopping in just about every port we are in. Like I’m gonna need that stuff when we get back to Florida.

After we left Menominee we spent one night in Sturgeon Bay, another place I went with my grandparents on their boat back in the day. Sturgeon Bay is a cut through the little finger that sticks up on the east side of Wisconsin separating Green Bay from Lake Michigan, in Door County. Door County is a quirky, quaint part of Wisconsin with lots of rich history, boating, shops, restaurants and bars. We were only there for one night, as we had a weather window that necessitated our move the next day to our next stop, Kewaunee, WI.

In Kewaunee we were on a seawall for the night. The weather for travel the next few days shortened our stay in Kewaunee to only the one day, but we did manage to tour a tug boat while there.

On the 10th we headed out for a 5 hour journey to Manitowoc, WI, on Lake Michigan. The trip to Manitowoc had some chop that was hitting us broadside due to winds coming from across the lake, so once I got us out of the harbor I turned driving over to the First Mate. He is much more adept, and patient than I am to the tacking back and forth across the swells, so he gets to drive and I sit in the back and hang on for dear life.

We were in Manitowoc for 4 days where we wandered the city and even toured a submarine and found the museum where a piece of the Russian satellite Sputnik crashed in the middle of the street in 1962. This area is big for malt manufacturing, which is used mostly in beer brewing, but is also used for many other things, my favorite being malted milk balls.

We left Manitowoc very early on the 13th heading to Port Washington, WI. Susan even took over he helm for a little while on the 6ish hour trip. She did a fantastic job, too.

Port Washington is a great little town where we spent 4 days, again due to weather, that I can see coming back and spending a season here…maybe? They have a street fair on Saturdays which was overflowing with some of the freshest vegetables AND that actually had flavor! We also found a fantastic meat market where we got beautiful steaks and real Wisconsin Bratwurst, that too had flavor, unlike the stuff from the supermarkets. Yesterday, there was music and beverages in the Beer Garden in the park just up a piece from the marina where we ate, drank, and listened to a really nice duo for a few hours.

We have gotten more information from the AGLCA (America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association) on the Chicago locks. The locks have been closed since June 1 for repairs and are supposed to open October 1, which has caused a log jam of boaters, both commercial and pleasure. Usually by this time of year a significant number of loopers, commercial traffic and other boat traffic would have already headed south through the locks and into the rivers. The AGLCA has been working very hard with the Army Corps of Engineers to coordinate the onslaught of 278 Looper boats heading down the Illinois River and through the locks once they open. The AGLCA has put boats into flotillas, depending on boat size, cruise speed and preference of travel dates, to get through the locks together to make it easier for boat captains, lock masters, marinas, seawalls, and other traffic during passage through this part of the journey south.

We have been attached to flotilla number 7, which contains 16 boats, and are scheduled to pass through the Joliet Lock on October 7th. It is reported that Looper boats will be the first traffic through the locks each morning, which means up and ready well before any kind of sunrise. The flotilla will stay intact through all 6 locks between Joliet and St. Louis, about 5 or 6 days. Once through the last lock the boats are free to travel as they wish. I’m sure this is going to be quite a cluster… I am very thankful we will have extra hands on board as we will be picking Bruce and Diane up in Chicago to travel with us to St. Louis. They had so much fun doing the Erie Canal Locks that they wanted to do the river locks as well. Might want to be very careful of what you wish for? But I know we will be very grateful for the additional hands on board for this adventure. We have no idea what is in store down the river but whatever it is, it will be interesting, at the very least.

We have another weather window tomorrow so we will be going to Milwaukee, only about 2 hours away. We will spend some more days with Kevin and Susan doing Milwaukee before having to say goodby to them. It’s been such a special treat and a blast having them travel along with us on some of this adventure, even though Kevin can’t seem to win any of the games we play. Wait a minute! Seems to me he has won most of the hands of Tripoley. Whatever…

Thanks for following along and keep touching back for more of the adventure. Love to all, Gina and Mike.