Door County Day 2

The breakfast at The Old Post Office restaurant was awesome, as always.

We decided today's sail should be up to Fred and Fuzzy's near Sister Bay. The winds looked promising, the sun was shining, and both boats were rigged and ready to go. By the time we hit the end of the long channel to get out of the marina the winds pretty much died. We ghosted along together taking pictures and chatting until the wind completely quit. Eventually we motored into the docks at Fred and Fuzzy's. We forget how small our boat is until we pull into a dock where the average boat looks like a house.

Just the bow of the boat on the right is bigger than our boat!

Docks in Door County are designed for "big" boats. 

 Pulling into a dock in Door County is a humbling experience.  You might feel like a really big-time sailor until you have to get a boost up just to tie off.  The above picture was taken by Mike standing in our cockpit while Brenda secures the "big to us" boat.

Fred and Fuzzy's at opening time.  We love the place!

The umbrella drinks and the good food at Fred and Fuzzy's were as good as we remembered. Their sweet potato fries are perfect!

After full bellies and a fun sail, there is nothing better than a dip in the cool clear water followed by a nap. The winds eventually freshened enough for us to pull anchor and head back to Ephraim. The gusts prompted us to keep in one reef. Strong winds are preferable to a wind that can't make up its mind whether to blow hard or stall. Makes for some fun and tricky sailing. We "raced" a big two master on the way and took pictures and videos of each other. You see all kinds of unique boats when sailing and sailboat watching is one of the fun things in Door County.

The Hunter 235 besting the big boy!

Once back in the marina it was a race to the showers and a chance to cool down. This record-breaking heat means you really have to keep a check on your core body temperature. Thank goodness for the bimini. Without it we would not be doing much sailing at all.  Dinner tonight was at Gibralter's where the outdoor dining in the shade of nearby trees was a relaxing place to recount our day's adventure. Of course we had to have some of their famous cherry bread pudding. We were not disappointed. The servings were huge and delicious.

Next up, a return to our marina for our traditional sunset viewing.

Back at the marina

Ahhhhhhhhh!

More later.

Posted with Blogsy

Door County Sailing - 2011

Here is our final post from the past. We hope you enjoy!

This was our eagerly anticipated long weekend of sailing in Door County. Then we got the call informing us that our dear friend's mother had passed away. The wake was to be on Friday. Needless to say, we changed our plans to insure that we would be able to be there for this challenging day. 

Instead of heading to Door County, we put the boat on the water in Madison. After work we sailed over to the Edgewater to listen to the reggae music. As we bobbed on the water absorbing the island sounds from the shore, we sat in the cockpit and watched the other boats on the lake while we enjoyed a light supper and a glass of wine. It was a gorgeous night out, so we turned on the Nav lights and quietly sailed back to Picnic Point. (Have we mentioned how much we enjoy night sailing?)

Friday we woke up lazy so we had instant oatmeal for breakfast and then Mike "fished" while Brenda read. There wasn't much wind, so we just stayed put until we pulled out to go to the wake. It was hot and we were feeling grubby, so we pulled into a McDonalds, ordered a light lunch and then used their bathrooms to change and clean up. Our next challenge was to find a spot to park a boat on a trailer in a funeral home parking lot. Not to worry - our Door County sailing cohorts were already there with their boat lined up in the back of the parking lot, so we just pulled up behind them. After the wake, we had a four hour ride up to Door County. Since it was Friday evening, we expected lots of traffic, but we were rewarded with a leisurely drive. We saw signs for Culver's in Sturgeon Bay, so we saved our gas stop until then. We thought for sure that we would find Jim and Joni already there. But they had continued on and gave us a call from Shipwrecked, a bar in Egg Harbor. They thought we should stop there for old times sake. A quick glass of spirits there and then on to check out our new "hotel" in Ephraim.

The Anderson Municipal Marina is a small, quiet marina.

No one was out and about when we got there and we had been given permission to park in the lot overnight. It was a beautiful 80 degree evening, so we walked to Wilson's for ice cream. Even at 10 o'clock there was a half-hour wait. After a delicious treat, we walked back along the water front to our boats and once again camped in the parking lot.We woke up to a gorgeous Saturday morning. No harbor master in yet, so we walked along the bay to the Old Post Office Restaurant where we sat under an umbrella with a very picturesque view of the bay. After a relaxing breakfast, it was back to the boats to start rigging.

The harbor master was scheduled to be in at 9, so we decided to be water ready by then. When the harbor master arrived, he had to do a little rearranging on his chart to get our two boats together, but we ended up on the outside dock with slips perpendicular to each other. Perfect!

With all the paperwork taken care of, we were off to the water. There were 14-15 mph winds and 1-2 foot waves. After a short, careful motor through the channel (3 feet deep) we sailed out of Nicolet Bay toward the point of Peninsula State Park.

We were dumping wind so that we would not get too far ahead of our partners and we were still scooting right along! We played with some tacking and turns and had a wonderful two hour sail out toward Horseshoe Island and then back to the bay by Peninsula State Park where we dropped anchor, put up our awning for some much needed shade, and invited our sailing partners on board for lunch.

We had enough fixin's for turkey wraps for everyone and cheese, crackers, chips and fruit were shared between the boats. Ok, maybe there was a beer or two involved as well.

After our leisurely lunch we were anxious to pull the anchors and start sailing again. This time we went for our first circumnavigation - around Horseshoe Island.

Approaching Horseshoe Island

It sounds more impressive than it really was, but it was like a mini-adventure. Once you get out that far, there is nothing but water in front of you for 30 miles. It made us feel like big time sailors.

Then it was time to leave the big water and head back to Nicolet Bay and our awaiting slips. Loren (the dockmaster) did a great job of catching our dock lines and guiding us to our slips. After getting settled in, we were ready for some supper. We hopped in the truck and headed out to explore the nearby towns. We stopped at Husby's in Sister Bay for a cool one and to get some local's recommendations. The triathletes (who were celebrating with Jaegerbombs) recommended Fuzzy's. Who wouldn't take a recommendation from a triathlete who is doing Jaegerbombs!  So back to the truck and the GPS to see if we could find Fuzzy's. No listing. One girl had said that it was just as you entered Sister Bay. She didn't say which end of Sister Bay, but hey, there can only be two ends. No luck. No signs. We had heard that Fuzzy's was considered the Coconuts of the North (comparing Fuzzy's to the Coconut tiki bar in Cozumel, Mexico) so we had to find it! Sure enough, tucked back behind the golf course and among several lakeside cabins we found Fred and Fuzzy's.

Fred and Fuzzy's (Coconut's of the North)

You can only get there on foot or by water. There is only outdoor seating and the food and the view was fantastic. Ok, maybe an umbrella drink here as well. Even though the place was hard to find, there was soon a waiting line for dinner. Glad we came when we did.

As we ate, we made plans for the next day: sail out of Nicolet Bay over to Fuzzy's, drop anchor, eat and nap! It sure is a rough life! By this time it was close to 8 o'clock, so we headed back to the marina for our first sunset on the dock. We set up the lawn chairs and chatted and took pictures as the sun provided us with a spectacular show.

Jim, Joni and Brenda telling lies about what great sailors we were today.

The colors in the sky and the landscape in the background conspired to provide us with one of our more memorable sunsets. (This is the sunset pictured on the header of this blog!) Long after the sun set we were still on the dock, quietly listening to the music from our radio and reveling in the splendor of the day, not really wanting it to come to an end.

For our Com-Pac friends out there, you will be happy to know that we were approached by a couple who wanted to check out our boat, as they recognized it as a Com-Pac. They were looking to downsize from a 25 (not sure what brand) and were researching the Com-Pac. They were very excited when they saw our boat in the marina and even more excited when we invited them aboard for a look-see. There is just something about the Com-Pac lines that draw people in. After a quiet night's sleep on the water, we headed the other direction in the morning in search of breakfast. We found Good Eggs and their name did them credit. We had omelets made right in front of us that were rolled inside a wrap with potatoes. We dined al fresco at a table made from a surf board! Delicious. We wandered back to the marina, taking in a few shops along the way, and then back on the water.

It was 90 degress out and not much wind in the bay and the Hunter 22 was running away from us, so we switched to the genny. With our increased sail size, we were able to catch them on a broad to beam reach and we approached on the Hunter's leeward side. Just as we were able to pull ahead, the Hunter stole our wind and we slowed down.

This allowed us to sail side by side for about three miles, bantering back and forth between the boats. When we rounded the corner toward Sister Bay, we needed some extra ballast up front, so Mike volunteered to sit on the bow. He really just wanted to sit in the shade of the sails. What a difference it makes, though, when he moves forward. We were able to point much closer to the wind. At Fuzzy's we docked opposite a BIG powerboat. As Jim said, "We look like reasonable sized boats on Lake Wisconsin - not so much in Door County."  Brenda headed straight for the beach for a much needed cool down while the others claimed a table with an umbrella.

Umbrellas and ice cream drinks

No one was hungry, but we ordered lunch anyway so we could stay for the drinks. Was it a bad thing that our $70 bill only included $15 in food?  Boats were lined up waiting for the docks, so we untied and floated out a little, dropped anchor, and relaxed a little more. Joni, who is deathly afraid of being in the water, got so hot that she even went for a dip. Mind you, she had on her life jacket, floated on the throw ring, held on to the rope and had Jim holding onto her as well.

Joni at the helm of the Hunter 22

Anything to lower the core body temp. Did we already say it was hot?!!

Back on the boat the winds had picked up with flukey gusts and direction changes and gusts up to 27. We were on a close reach, but were still able to cruise at 5 knots. The winds were strong enough to heel us 20 degrees, but Brenda decided that 15 degrees was plenty. Jim and Joni headed back to the marina, but we wanted to stay and play a little longer and get a closer view of the bluffs. We also took the opportunity to video a Com-Pac 19 cruising along at hull speed!  Unfortunately we had to head back sometime, so we turned toward home and followed the channel markers to our snug retreat.

Once we were cleaned up, we decided to go marina shopping for our return trip next year. We traveled north by car until we reached Northport - the very northern point of the peninsula. We were contemplating a sail over to Washington Island, but the channel is named Death's Door. Don't think we will be taking that trip anytime soon. On the way back we stopped at marinas in Gill's Rock, Sister Bay and Fish Creek. Although those accommodations looked nice, we are very happy with the Municipal Marina we are in now. Another note for you Com-Pac'ers; there were two Com-Pac's in slips in Gill's Rock - one a 23 and the other a 25. They sure are pretty boats.

Back to Fish Creek for dinner at Bay Side where the service was lousy, but the food was great. We highly recommend the Broccoli Salad with creamy dressing! Once again, we had to hurry back to the dock for sundowners. Unfortunately there wasn't much of a sunset because of an approaching storm. However, the storm was preceded by a fantastic heat lightening show. With the radio playing some gentle music, we shared a slow dance on the dock. A perfect ending to another perfect day.  As the first raindrops fell, we picked up and climbed in our respective boats. We were not tired yet, so we had a private viewing of our sailing videos. Looks like someone was having fun!

Monday morning there was not much activity, so we went back to sleep. About 7:30 we heard something drop on our deck. Sure enough, Jim and Joni were up and out and had dropped off the shower key for us. We took the hint, showered, and met them at the Old Post Office for breakfast. While we ate we kept hoping for some signs of wind, but none appeared. We wandered back to the marina, admiring the several artists and their easels set up along the way. Evidently there was some kind of event going on where artists from all over come to Door County to paint the local scenery, enter them in a contest as a way to raise money for the communities. To our surprise, when we neared our boat, there were three artists set up and two were painting our boat!! Again, there is something about those Com-Pac lines.

Our Com-Pac 19 posing in the background

Unfortunately, the quickly approaching black clouds brought an end to our weekend. We packed up and were on the road back to Madison just as the raindrops began to fall.  

We enjoyed Ephriam and the marina there so much that we have reservations to return this July. Can't wait!

Is it spring yet?

We are sitting here in Wisconsin, looking out our window at the most snow we have had so far this winter - 2-3 inches - and what are we doing? We are dreaming of Spring. With our new to us Com-Pac 23 home and sitting covered in our driveway, it is hard to keep our attention on winter when all we want to think about is Spring and putting the boat in the water for the first time. So, we dream. We dream about the trips we have planned: the Carlyle Lake Rendezvous in Carlyle, Illinois, our annual trip to Door County, and possibly a venture to Lake Geneva. We dream about getting on our local lakes as soon as possible to enjoy the Thursday night reggae music at the Edgewater Hotel, anchoring off the Memorial Union listening to the Badger game on the radio while watching the fans and their revelry after the game, throwing the anchor out in our favorite little coves and "fishing", rafting up with friends, Aquapalooza 2012 (where a great local band plays from a barge and the dance floor is three feet of water), rowing in from our anchorage to explore all the wonderful outdoor restaurants and bars on State Street as well as the interesting people (everyone needs to experience this at least once in their life). Ahhh, that feels better now. Spring is right around the corner and we are ready! What are you dreaming about?

Sailing in Door County 2010

Looking out our window, all we see is snow.  Good time to cuddle up and add some warm memories to our blog.  Here is a journal entry from a trip we took to Door County two summers ago.  We had so much fun we went again last summer and plan to go again this summer.  Enjoy - and think warm!

Pack your bags and fill the coolers - we are heading to Door County.  Lucky for us, our friends for forever, Jim and Joni (Mike and Jim have been best friends since 7th grade), have also picked up the sailing bug.  They have a Hunter 22 and together we began planning this trip to test our sailing skills and to add to our treasured vacation memories.  As we were leaving from home, our 18 year old son called out, "You guys be good.  I don't want to get any calls from the marina, complaining about the neighbors."  We chuckled, never thinking we would need such a warning.

View of Egg Harbor from Main Street

Egg Harbor's New Marina

After an easy 3.5 hour tow, we set up camp in the Marina's parking lot.  Since we knew we would be arriving after hours, we had arranged with the harbor master to overnight on the blacktop.  As the sun set, we took a quick look at this newly remodeled facility.   Floating docks, lots of slips, nice ramp well lit, very protected, beautiful setting tucked down the hill behind the main street.  Nice showers.  Big parking lot.  Best of all, it is within walking distance of Shipwrecked, a  fun restaurant and bar.

Shipwrecked  Brew Pub

 
We decided we needed to be sure this was an OK establishment, so we sampled the food, wine and beer before turning in for the night.
The temperature had dropped as the sun set (40's) which made for a nippy night in the boats since we did not yet have access to electricity for our little space heaters. 

In the morning, we managed to set off the truck alarm at 6:30 a.m. by leaning on the key fob left in a jacket pocket. The joys of  trailer sailing, no room to move around in the cabin.  After emerging topsides, we expected our friends to ridicule us for winning the "bad marina neighbor" contest, but he said that at about the same time our truck alarm was going off, he was busy putting out a fire in his boat and considering calling in the fire department.  It seems he spilled a little alcohol when he filled his one-burner campstove and it ignited around the tank and on his cushions.  He woke up his wife Joni by telling her, "You might want to get up now, the boat is on fire."  Fortunately he was able to smother the flames with a pillow, so no fire trucks for us.  (Don't anyone tell our son!).

CP 19 and Hunter 22 "Campers"

Friday morning we walked about three blocks to the Bistro restaurant for breakfast and a captain's briefing.  We decided to sail north since there was an unusual east wind predicted.  After our bellies were full, we returned to the marina, rigged and dunked the boats to a beautiful morning sun which foretold a truly awesome day.  We were nervous about motoring out of the marina past all the 40-50 foot yachts worth more than our entire life's earnings. We had just picked up our 8 hp Mariner from the shop the day before for carb repairs and we hadn't had it out for a test run yet.  Mike normally takes care of our mechanical issues, but work and other commitments didn't leave enough time to get the repair done.  Fortunately, the motor ran well all weekend and we found motoring out of the marina to be quite easy.

We had a great sail in 7-12 mph winds with just a few 15 mph gusts.  The views of the shoreline, BIG sailboats, and the small islands dotting the area made for a pleasant, relaxing morning.  We found we moved along nicely near hull speed with very little heeling, but the Hunter 22 still pulled away from us without even rolling out all of it's 155 genoa.  All weekend we were impressed with how little sail he had to put out to move along so quickly.

Hunter 22 pulling away

Our plan was to sail up to Fish Creek Harbor, about 6 miles, for lunch and wandering around the neat old town.  As we were approaching the entrance to the bay a huge odd barge was overtaking us in a big hurry.  We couldn't figure out what it was.  It looked like an enormous upside down catamaran with the two hulls reaching high up into the air.  We continued to the far side of the bay entrance to allow the ship room to pass on our starboard side.  As he came cruising by we realized the barge was transporting two huge cement trucks (one on each side), two skidsteers and a mound of sand.  They pulled into the marina and started pouring out cement to repair a section of the dock.  You sure don't see that every day.

Cement truck barge

As we approached the harbor entrance, we knew we needed to hail the harbormaster for directions on where to tie up.  Brenda had the VHF radio in hand and was teasingly practicing her call, "Breaker, breaker..."  Mike, wanting very much to follow protocol, was a little leery that she would actually follow through with the very unorthodox old trucker call.  Not to worry, she did just fine and received instructions from the harbormaster to go to the metal wharf for temporary dockage .  He met us there to catch our lines.  They are definitely set up for much larger ships than ours.  We had to stand on our cabin tops and get a hand from the harbormaster to jump up to the pier.  We secured the boats, signed in and wandered around Fish Creek, shopping and enjoying the great company and perfect weather.

Little boats tied up

After a nice lunch at the Bayside Tavern and a little more shopping, it was time to check out and get sailing back to our slip.  The wind had picked up, which was a lot of fun for the two of us, but the Hunter 22 had some roller furler issues and struggled to make headway out of the bay on the tack to the south.  Once underway, the sail was fun and the slowly setting sun made for some beautiful views.  Some lovely older  sloops and schooners followed us out and we enjoyed watching them overtake us.

Once docked up back in Egg Harbor, the boys decided that they really needed to have a glass of Drambuie for our first official sundowners (not on our home waters) that night.  We enjoyed the view of the sunset from the dock and then moved into the Hunter 22 cabin for a while to catch up with our friends and continue to do damage to the bottle of Drambuie.  The party was going pretty well for the boys until Brenda decided to take away our bottle.  It was a good move on her part - the boys certainly didn't need any more.

Mike and Jim pre-Drambuie checking out the big toys.

Since Saturday was supposed to be rainy all day, we went out for a great breakfast at the Village Cafe ($8 for oatmeal - seriously?) and back to the boats to read/nap.  The Wisconsin Badgers football team played at 11:30 a.m. so we HAD to go back to the Shipwrecked bar to watch the game with an occasional toddy.  The girls lasted all of 10 minutes before leaving for a 2 1/2 hour shopping excursion.  The girls did lots of walking, shopping and laughing, but only spent about $20 while the boys might have managed to generate a bar tab slightly higher than that. A trip to Door County is not complete without visiting at least one lighthouse.  So, after the Badger win, we toured the 1884 lighthouse in Bailey's Harbor - Cana Island where they still have an original Fresnel lens in operation.  It is amazing that it is lit by one little 250 watt bulb.  This lighthouse is surrounded by some really nasty shoal waters.

Back at Egg Harbor Marina

Sunday morning arrived with fresh winds forecast at 10-15 mph which quickly turned into 15-26 mph actual winds with very strong gusts and small craft warnings.  We reefed down our mainsails and went out into Egg Harbor to play in the somewhat protected area.  We practiced putting in and taking out our reefs and experimented with different sail setups while the Hunter flew around with just his reefed mainsail.  We found our boat handled best with the standard jib up and the mainsail reefed.  We were thrilled with the improvement in tiller feel with the NACA 0014 rudder.  Even with 20+ mph winds, the tiller was easily managed with a very light grip.  Sweet!  After playing for a while, we led the other boat over to the protected shore of the bay in about five feet of water and rafted up.  We enjoyed a great afternoon of conversation, sun, cheese and crackers, and music while we bobbed in the water.  A wonderful relaxing way to end our sailing adventure.

We motored back to the marina and loaded up the boats.  Another easy tow home and our Door County sailing adventure was done.  We'll certainly be back for more next year.