Day 89

Sturgeon Bay, WI - Kewaunee, WI

Start 8:15 AM
End 11:40 AM
Underway 3:25 Hours
Distance 26 miles
Total Miles on Trip 1656
Av Speed 7.6 knots
Weather Hazy 73 Degrees winds SW 6 Knots

Today's ride was a short ride, and for the next two weeks most of the trips will be short 25 mile hops. We are flying back to New Jersey on September 9th, and have dock reservations in Chicago starting on the 8th. We do not want to get there to early, or miss our flights. We are currently 133 miles from Chicago and we could make it there in one or two days if we needed to, but we have 5 stops planned along the way.

The ride today was as calm as could be, flat seas and minimal wind. There was some fog and haze so the visibility was limited to around 1 mile. We considered going further but luckily we stuck with our plan. Shortly after we docked, a severe thunder storm popped up. It would have been very uncomfortable if we got caught out in it.

Kewaunee is a very small town, with a very small town marina. Because the marina itself is small, we and two other loopers were docked on the seawall coming into town (This is also run by the town marina). The seawall is a great place to dock, unless there is a strong south wind. Guess what the storm brought in, yep a strong south wind! We were bouncing pretty good all afternoon long. By bedtime, it had calmed down to a nice gently rocking motion. If the waves had not been slapping on the swim platform it would have been a great night.

The biggest attraction in Kewaunee is the Tug Boat Ludington. The tug was built for the Army Corps of Engineers and participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy. She was used to tow ammunition barges across the English Channel. Today she is a maritime museum. In true small town America the tug boat is not manned. Someone opens and closes each day, and there is a money box, where you pay on the honor system. It is a self-guided audio tour.

We also took our bikes to the grocery store about 2 miles away. Electric bikes are wonderful, unless they are not charged. We had not charged our bikes since Green Bay, and when we took them to the store, they showed two out of five bars on the power meter. Well the last two bars go away much faster than the first three. I ended up pedaling most of the way, saving what little battery I had for the hills.

Our next stop is Manitowoc another 25 mile trip. (One of the biggest challenges is trying to figure out how to pronounce these town names, when calling the marinas on the radio.)