FREE BIRD IS NOW A POWER BOAT!

Well, big step today (no pun intended) for us.  We went down the Calumet River and had our mast pulled out.  Even going down this tiny piece of the river was interesting.  We saw a big ship and had to go through 3 bridges just to get to Skyway boat yard.  

And we even saw the Nina and the Pinta.  They were at a shipyard getting their masts pulled out too as they are heading down river and are expected to be in Memphis, TN about Sept. 25th.

Nina and Pinta

As far as our mast goes, I think it is the first time it has ever been parted from the boat.  Happy to report it all went off (or came out as the case may be) without a hitch.  

  

 

Headed back to Hammond Marina, got our heads (our bathrooms) pumped out and took on $82 worth of diesel fuel.  Now we are tied up securely and will drive home tomorrow to pick up our kitty crew member Molly.  We will be back here on Friday and are all ready to begin our journey down river on Sunday.

We won't be posting again for a few days as there will be nothing to report.  Have a great few days everyone!!!

BLOWING BY THE WINDY CITY

We have been very busy little sailors.  In Waukegan we took off our mainsail in preparation for taking our mast down.  Thought it would be a good idea to try to get that done.  Sunday morning was beautiful and while we did have to motor some, we sailed under genoa past the city of Chicago.  

And that takes a while!  It is such a different perspective from the water.  So nice, no traffic - although I would say we saw at least 200 sailboats.  There were different races taking place all over the bottom of the lake.  

 

Water Intake just off city

Passing by the Chicago skyline

Navy Pier

 Then it was off to Hammond, IN.  Not exactly the garden spot of Lake Michigan but we will be moored there for the next week.  We got our other sail off, folded it and called it a day.  Today is a big day on the calendar for us.  This morning we go down the Calumet River to get our mast pulled and turn Free Bird into a power boat.  There is a lot of prep work to do so I must sign off.  Hope it all goes well today.  At least the weather Gods are cooperating so far - yay!

FLOCKS OF FLIES, FOG AND FUNKY WEATHER

Sorry we didn't post yesterday, internet problems.  Yesterday got off to a strange start.  We woke to a temperature inside the boat of like 61 and when we walked outside it was almost 80.  The water temperature had dropped down to 55 and everything was sweating, actually dripping with water.  The walls inside the boat, the windows were totally steamed up, I tried to take a picture and my camera lens fogged so fast I couldn't get a shot of anything!  I mean we're talking 199% humidity!

You know it's not going to be a good day when you go down below and find your toothbrush in the toilet.   Literally!  Good thing I had a new one to take its' place.

Rain passed through and off we go from Port Washington.  Sailed right out of the harbor for about 3 hours.  Had everything from 7.4 knots to 3.5 and then up to 7.8 for awhile.  Got to Milwaukee, the wind died an and the flies came.  Lots of flies!  We had them in the cockpit with us but many were hanging out on our dinghy that we have named Marley.  

We were heading for Winthrop Harbor and thought we could make it.  Then the rains came, and came.  There were all to the South but the weather kept redeveloping and we decided to go into port at Racine.  Nice facility!  But it did rain and rain.  Glad we went in when we did.  After the rains quit, we headed into town and found a great Irish pub called Ivanhoe's and caught the end of the of the Brewers game.

Today we woke up to a whole new beautiful day.  Crystal clear!  I went to the Farmer's Market and John went to the boater's swap meet. We both came back with some treasures!  Then took off and had a great sail down to Waukegan South Harbor.  Nice big rolling waves, surfed all the way down!

My niece Anne and her husband Vince live nearby and came for dinner.  What a great way to end the day!  

They will be celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary in a couple days so we made a night of it.  Went to check out a band and have an after-dinner drink just up the road and here we are, finally catching up on our blog.     

Tomorrow we head past Chicago and to Hammond, IN where Free Bird will spend the next week while we have our mast pulled and go home and get our kitty Molly.  We are on schedule and looking forward to full moon tomorrow!

And yes, Mrs. Noonan's class did figure out the goose, it is a Greater White Fronted Goose. Way to go...now for the heron.  A hint, it's an immature heron.

STAYING PUT

Winds were up and storms started in the early morning hours so we stayed put today.  As mentioned yesterday, we saw this coming and thought a full day in port sounded like a good idea anyhow.

Wildlife sightings in the last 24 hours include 2 birds that if we have identified them correctly don't normally migrate through here.  We think we know what they are but thought we'd let Ms. Noonan's class try to identify them first.  There were these cool geese...

and a little heron...

To illustrate why we stuck around here today, I thought I'd try a little video.

It wasn't storms keeping us off the lake as much as the wind.  Here is a cool shot of John walking the beach into the fog through sand that was carved out by waves.

  

We met some fellow Loopers, Byron & Cynthia Miller on Bright Angel from Grand Haven, MI with their dog Toots.  Enjoyed a nice chat with them when we bumped into them at the wine store.  Hope to see more of them as we both head South.

We are heading out for dinner and to a pub for the Packer game.  GO PACK GO!

WE'RE BATS!!

We have lots of news today!  First of all, we have added a feature to the blog.  In the upper right hand corner you will see a box that says "follow by email".  If you enter your email address there and click submit, you should automatically be notified via email every time we make another post to the blog.  Thank you Phil for cluing me in on how to do this!

OK, well I better start by explaining today's title.  Yes, today John was getting ready to put out the genoa/jib (which is the head sail) and I heard him scream BAT!  I was down below cleaning and ran up to check it out.  Yep, another bat, 2 weeks after we had the last bat episode!!  It flew around and landed back on the boat again.  I ran down and got John's sailing gloves.  He put them on and he literally picked the bat up off the main sail cover and threw it off the boat.  Enough of bats, we hope that is the last encounter we have.

We left Sheboygan at 6:45.  We thought we'd make it as far as we could today and considered going to Milwaukee as the weather is supposed to turn ugly tomorrow.  As we neared the little town of Port Washington, it looked so inviting that we it gave us pause.  We really had wanted to stop there anyhow and with the wind and our position, we could sail right in.  After motoring so much some sailing sounded good so in to port we went.  

Docked about noon which would leave us the whole day to play.  Thought maybe some play time would be good.  This is supposed to be fun after all!

We have bikes that fold in half and they are really a great ride.  Took a great ride on the Ozaukee Interurban Trail which stretches 30 miles between Sheboygan and Milwaukee.  

I need to take a minute and answer a couple of questions that Ms. Noonan's 4th grade class had for us.  Ms. Noonan is otherwise known as my niece Susie and her class will be following our trip.  I am still trying to figure out if I can just reply to your comments but have to spend some time to figure that out so here are the answers to your questions.

1. We did go through the Sturgeon Bay ship canal and right out out into Lake Michigan.  Our marina was in that canal.  We sailed right by our house which is south of the canal.
2. When we motor, we can go faster but we usually run about 6 knots in order to conserve fuel and keep our engine happy.
3. When we sail we can go anywhere from 3 to 8 knots depending on how much wind there is, what direction the wind is coming from and what direction we want the boat to go.
FYI - A knot is equal to 1.151 miles.  For a neat explanation of what a knot is and where the term comes from, check out this link below.
http://www.onlineconversion.com/faq_07.htm

Time for docktails which means it is time for me to sign off.  We have paid for 2 nights here so we will share more of Port Washington with you tomorrow! MIKE AND KATHY, would love to have lunch with you tomorrow on your way through!

And for those of you wondering what our boat looks like, here's 3 pics of our boat.  It was a cleaning morning for me so I took a pic of our salon (living room), our cabin (bedroom)and our navigation station/tv.  I will continue to post pics of the boat so you can get a feel for where we are living.

OUR FIRST DAY ON THE WATER

After many rounds of good byes, we finally left our home port, Quarterdeck Marina in Sturgeon Bay this morning passing through the Bay View Bridge at 3:02 AM.  We wanted to get an early start to try to take advantage of the expected West winds.  We were able to sail for about 2-1/2 hours and then wind was no longer filling the sails and we were forced to motor.  Took in a beautiful sunrise over the great state of Michigan.  

I took a 1-1/2 hour nap (if you can call it that at 6:30 in the morning) and John continued making way down lake.  The water smoothed out to almost glass and we had a nice run all the way into Sheboygan arriving at 4PM.  Along the way we passed Rawley Point Lighthouse in Point Beach State Park.  This 113 foot tower is one of the largest and brightest on the Great Lakes.  It is visible up to 19 miles away.

Needless to say, we were very happy to get tied up to the dock.  Although we were dragging a bit, we walked up to the observation deck here at Harbor Centre Marina to take in the view.  John is taking in the hot tub and pool and then it's off to bed for us both for some much needed sleep!  Good night all!

  

WE'RE READY, THE WEATHER'S NOT!

It's official - we're flying the AGLCA, America's Great Loop Cruiser's Association burgee (flag for you landlubbers!) from our lines and we're ready to go.  BUT the weather is not cooperating.  We need to go either across the lake to Michigan or South and here is the today's forecast.  

848 AM CDT MON SEP 1 2014    REST OF TODAY  SOUTH WINDS 15 TO 25 KT BECOMING SOUTHWEST.  OCCASIONAL GUSTS TO 30 KT POSSIBLE. SHOWERS LIKELY WITH A CHANCE  OF THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON. WAVES 4 TO 6 FT OCCASIONALLY TO  8 FT.

Tomorrow looks to be much better so we are anticipating an early morning departure.  Given the weather forecast this week, we have decided to head down the Wisconsin coast with our first stop being either Sheboygan or Port Washington.