We took a delightful trip from Menominee, MI to Door County's Sister Bay in the thumb of Wisconsin, on Friday the 22nd of June, aboard Sankaty. It is roughly a 25 mile trip one way.
On Friday we left Menominee at 1 PM and we were close hauled the entire trip. First the wind came out of the south and gradually shifted to the east and finally we were headed right toward the middle of the southwestern shore of Chambers Island (WP3 in the attached chart). That is when we switched from starboard to port tack and the wind continued to veer to the northeast. This allowed us to pretty much lay the mark (WP4), a buoy that is at the southern most end of the Hanover Shoal that extends southeast of Chambers Island for almost two miles. We continued past the Hanover Shoal buoy until we got close to the shore at Fish Creek (WP5). Then we went on a starboard tack due north, up the Strawberry Channel toward way-point six (WP6). Finally we got past the Eagle Bluff Light house and were able to lay the opening between Horseshoe Island and the tip of Peninsula State Park on a port tack. We continued east, on port tack, to Ephraim Bay (WP7) and asked the Ephraim Yacht Harbor, via Marine Radio, if there where any slips available for the night. There was one available but they wanted $54.00 plus tax. This was well beyond our threshold, so we dropped the anchor and found that Sankaty could pull the anchor along the gravel bottom while in reverse without much trouble. We took a chance since there was no wind expected that night.
We gave the inflatable dingy a pump up, put her in the water and filled her with life jackets, paddles, extra fuel and installed the mighty 2 HP Nissan, water cooled outboard, on the transom of the dingy. A sailboat passed close by on it's way out to see the sun set near Horseshoe Island. They told us that the large building with the red roof had a nice restaurant upstairs. Mom kind of remembered it and suddenly I did too. Anyway, off we went like a herd of wild turtles toward the restaurant. Then I remembered I left my wallet in the navigation station aboard Sankaty. We turned around and went back to Sankaty about 300 yards away by now. Then I noticed that there was no water coming out of the cooling water output port for the outboard. So, we paddled back to Sankaty, got the wallet and paddled to the restaurant. There was a gradual, gravel beach and we had to walk the dingy up on shore through shallow water for about 50 feet. We arrived at the restaurant at 7:30 PM about thirty minutes before it normally closes.
The Ephraim Shores Restaurant was on the second floor of the Ephraim Shores Motel. We stayed at the Motel six years ago with Ila and Kelsey for two nights. After a delightful meal overlooking Ephraim Bay, we went back to the dingy about twenty minutes before sunset. We walked the dingy out to the deeper water got in and paddled. I still wanted to try the engine again and I did, but it just got hot again. When we got back to Sankaty I put the engine up on the rear stanchion, and we settled back to watch the sun set right between the point at Peninsula State Park and Horseshoe Island. A cloudless and haze free ski gave us a spectacular view and during the last three seconds of visible sun we noticed that it had a distinct green hue, much more pronounced than I have ever seen in the Florida Keys.
We had a restful night with no motor boats wakes or noise. The next morning, after the morning fog cleared the air, we motored up to Sister Bay about 5 miles north of Ephraim and tied up to the breakwater wall at Al Johnson's Marina, after a fellow on the breakwater got our attention and told us that it was OK. After we tied up to the wall and got off of the boat I noticed a black mess on the port side of the transom that collected a considerable number of dead lake flies as well. Evidently, the motor got so hot it melded a hole into the plastic gasoline tank on the outboard and the whole tank just emptied during the night (roughly 1 gallon).
Later I talked to Al Johnson's son and he said it was just fine to tie up to the wall. I suspected he was an owner as he was the only person picking up trash that was laying on the sidewalk near the restaurant. Then we made our reservation and walked across the street to the library to check our e-mail.
After our fantastic Swedish pancake breakfast at Al Johnson's Restaurant, where the goats graze on the roof tops, we started back to Menominee, MI.
From Sister Bay to the Horseshoe Island it was pretty much the same trip we took 26 years earlier with our then 9 and 10 year old boys, on a 27 foot Pearson sailboat that we chartered for an afternoon.
After passing to the south of Horseshoe Island on a port tack we tacked back and forth into a very shifty southeast wind past the Eagle Bluff lighthouse and down through the Strawberry Channel. This was followed by a three hour broad reach in winds up to about 20 MPH. Sankaty often peaked at 7.5 knots, her hull speed, so we finally reefed the Jenny during the last hour of our trip. During the trip back there was a constant parade of sailboats going east as it was Saturday morning the start of the weekend, and we where just a day ahead of phase.
It is very pretty just north of the 45 degree latitude, with the dark green evergreens along the white, pebble shores next to the water that is almost blue and all the little islands and old light houses. We had wonderfully clear skies the entire time.
Well, now it is off to work on the outboard, so we can go on our next adventure
