Day 73-75

Washington Island - Sister Bay WI

• Start 9:35 AM
• End 11:30AM
• Underway 1:55 Hours
• Distance 16 miles
• Total Miles on Trip 1521
• Av Speed 8.8 knots
• Weather Clear Sunny winds South 20+

Today's challenge was getting out of the marina. The marina was too narrow for me to turn around in, and the forecast was 20+ MPH winds all day. I needed to back out 300 yards down a narrow fairway with a cross wind to get out of the marina. Watching the wind we waiting for a lull and went for it. Nick, Ginger and one of the permanent slip holders stood on the piers ready to fend me off if needed. As nerve racking as it was we made it out with no problems.

The trip itself was fine. Because of the wind we traveled very close to the shore, and the waves were only 1-2 foot directly on the bow. The forecast was for 2-3 foot seas in the bay. Our original plan was to cross the bay and go to Cedar River to meet Steve and Jane (Sabbatical). This would have put the waves at our beam making for a very uncomfortable ride. As soon as we left I called Sister Bay Marina, (our next stop after Cedar River), and asked if we could come in a day early. Luckily our slip was available, so we headed there.

Sister Bay is very much a tourist town. Sister Bay was originally settled by the Swedish. We ate breakfast at is a Swedish restaurant in town A L Johnson's which opened in 1948 and is still operated by the same family and features goats on their roof during the tourist season. Yes I did have Swedish meatballs for breakfast.

During one of our bike rides in town, we found and stopped at Might Winds Farms, advertising, open daily, fresh produce. The farm is run by Dan, Char Fatke and their son Tay. The store is self-serve with prices on a chalk board, and a box of cash to make your own change. Char came out and introduce herself and gave us a tour of the farm. We spent 45 minutes touring the farm. The farm is not certified organic, but they follow all of the practices but the cost to become certified outweighs the benefits for them. One thing we did figure out, the farm produces lots of rocks. Even after farming for several years, ever year rocks continue to surface. They gather the rocks in 5 gallon buckets and remove them from the fields.

Another stopped we made was at the Old Anderson House. This house is now maintained by the Sister Bay Historical Society. The house was built across the bay in 1875 and moved across the frozen bay to its current location. In the 1993 the town bought the property with the plan to tear down the dilapidated house. In 1994 a local teacher received permission from the town board to save and restore the house. Today the house is fully restored and they have moved several other buildings to the property show casing what life was like in the early 1900's.

Our last night in Sister Bay was spent watching a spectacular storm and sunset from the back deck of the boat.

Our next two days will be spent anchored in Nicolet Bay.