We woke up to fog, in fog, and couldn't figure out what was going on. I anticipated Barry's phone alarm going off at 6:30. At 7:00 I finally woke him up, and, borrowing from an old Eddie Murphy comedy routine, asked "Baby, what time is it?" His Pixel had determined that we were in Wisconsin, my iPhone had not. (I was told that I did not have automatic time zone selected.) After a few moments of confusion, we realized we should now to be operating on Central Time and proceeded to synch up all of our clocks. That issue settled, we raised anchor and headed back out into the fog, repeating the morning routine of the past few days. New this morning was the presence of fish traps along the way. The skinny little flags were difficult to spot in the fog and we swerved around a few of them at a shorter distance than we would have liked. I remember crab pot floats as being a lot easier to see.
We had a relatively short run to Sturgeon Bay, where our plan is to wait out a passing storm. The weather radar showed greens, yellows, and reds to the south of us all morning, but it has yet to move over us as predicted. The fog eventually burned off as made our approach into Sturgeon Bay and we got a decent view of the Sherwood Point Lighthouse off to the west. We met the Chicago Fireboat tour vessel as it was departing the maritime museum for its noon cruise. The boat was built in Sturgeon Bay back in 1937 to specifications that would allow for it to pass under the many low bridges in Chicago.
We then encountered a few annoyances that rank right up there with the spiders. First were these three kayaks that decided they'd like to cross our path in the narrow channel. They were much like Canada geese that cross the road in front of you -- you really just want to plow them over, but civility kicks in and you slow to a near stop to let the little goofs pass safely.
The other was within the narrow channel as we were passing a northbound sailboat. We two were playing nicely together, each hugging the respective outer channel margins marked by the buoys. Out of nowhere came this go-fast boat right down the middle between us, kicking up a huge wake that tossed us around. It did more damage to the sailboat who buried the rail and took a massive amount of water into their open forward hatch. I grabbed the camera to try to get the power boat's name, but alas, there was none on the transom. Luckily we were within a few hundred feet of our destination and my thoughts turned to readying fenders and lines for docking. We turned into Harbor Club Marina just before the Michigan Street Bridge.
The local mallard ladies came over to welcome us. We had lunch and then walked across the street to the Door County Maritime Museum for the rest of the afternoon. We toured the nicely restored Tug John Purves, a 1919 Great Lakes tugboat that served in the Caribbean, Bering Sea, and Great Lakes before it was retired here in Sturgeon Bay by the local Roen Steamship Company. The museum had a nice collection of exhibits inside as well. We learned that Marine Travelift was started here in 1954 and is still producing the mobile boat hoists just across the waterway.
Custom stained glass artwork accented the atrium stairwell and other exhibits included maritime paintings and photography, and areas dedicated to lighthouses, shipwrecks, and diving.
We will stay here tomorrow, explore the area, and wait for the waves on Lake Michigan to calm down.
Which album does that Eddie Murphy line come from?
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