Port Washington crews continued cleaning up from the flash floods today. Thankfully the morning was sunny with a nice stiff breeze to assist in the drying. Our walk retraced most of our route from yesterday, with a few variations. The riprap buffering the mainland from Lake Michigan's waves was covered in vegetation, and downed trees still dotted the shore. The scalloped walkway out to the Breakwater Lighthouse had also collected masses of debris. Walking up the street that had been closed yesterday for mudslide cleanup, a large rootball and a thin coating of mud still remained.
The car shown in yesterday's photo submerged in the condo parking lot, was loaded on a rollback. The creek running behind the property was still swollen and raging. As we circled around the condominium, the first car had been pulled from the underground garage. We overheard the workers saying there were three more to come out, but they were buried in mud and it would be slow going.
We located the path of the mudslide, the apple tree at its edge, and a trail of apples leading to the harbor. By this time we had seen enough muddy mess and started checking out new places. We climbed this "stairway to heaven" up to St. Mary's Catholic Church which sits proudly on the town's highest hill and was built in 1881 out of local limestone. We circled back through town and stopped at Rotary Park and the Commercial Fisherman's Memorial. From the park, the steeple of St. Mary's emerges majestically from the treeline.
We had planned to stop in at the local museum, but it was closed because of flood damage. We stopped in at a large retailer next door and the salesperson explained that they also had sustained flood damage, but had completed cleanup yesterday. By 11:00 we were back on Crossroads and I had reclaimed my spot of Fiberglass Beach, book in hand. The sun was warm and it was almost perfect. Ninety minutes later, the fog began to roll in and the temperature plummeted.
A check of the radar showed the storms were not far behind. I retreated to the pilothouse for a bit more reading (I knocked out 150 pages -- a very good day), and a little dozing as the rain continued for a few hours. By 5:00 it had stopped and we put on our heavy duty foul weather jackets and ventured out to a restaurant next door to the marina. It was full of locals, which is always a good sign, and we had a nice meal. As we walked back to Crossroads, the fog was settling in for the evening. Fingers crossed that it will be gone in the morning.
The wave forecast on Lake Michigan for tomorrow still looks good. Our plan is to make it down to Racine.
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