Still "Sailing" North

Day 3 of the Fabulous Journey of 2010.  By Deb:
Port Washington was a great, sleepy little town.  The marina is huge and nearly brand new in some areas.  But the town has many closed stores.  We had coffee at "Smith Brothers Coffee House" and asked one of the ladies working there about it.  She said that opening a business in Port Washington is almost like putting a curse on the business!

I LOVED Smith Brothers Coffee, however.  I have been drinking iced coffees during the warmer summer months.  The one I got at Smith Brothers was unlike any coffee I had ever had!  When I inquired about it, they told me that it was a "Toddy's Cold Brew."  They cold brew the coffee for 12 hours, and it creates a coffee that has "off-gased" all the stuff that makes coffee taste bitter when you hot brew it.  Well, I am sold.  I am looking for a Toddy's Cold Brew contraption and will be cold brewing my coffee from now on!

Andy slept in on Saturday morning.  Lots of other boats were leaving at 5 or 6 in the morning, WI time.  I think Free Spirit headed out about 6:30 am.  So I had time to get another Smith Brothers coffee, read the paper, watch the sunrise, look at all the boats leaving the harbor, etc.etc.etc.  I had gotten up at 4:00 AM because the fishing boats were heading out in droves.  They are serious about their fishing over here!  Port Washington has lots of fishing charters, if you ever have the desire to go salmon fishing (or whatever other fish is in season).

When we departed Port Washington, the wind was perfect.  We sailed the entire way north to Sheboygan.  We saw lots of fishing boats around Port Washington, but then saw only one other sailboat, close to Sheboygan.  Winds were about 20 knots and Andy trimmed the sails to make it a comfortable ride.

I finished the book "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."  Wow, I would highly recommend this one!  I am definitely going to read the sequel.  Now I'm reading "South of Broad," which takes place in Charleston, S.C. Another great book!  Couldn't hardly put it down yesterday.

We arrived in Sheboygan at about 3:15.  We docked at the Harbor Center Marina (Skipper Bud's).  What a great marina!  Floating docks, nice swimming pool, great showers, ship's store.  I was really tired from getting up so early, so I "rested my eyes" until about 6:00 pm.  We had steak on the grill.  Andy is the best at cooking steaks; I always manage to make them overdone.

After dinner we got the dinghy motor down and put it on the dinghy.  We went for a ride up the Sheboygan River.  If you ever visit Sheboygan, you  have to check out their waterfront along the river.  It's not as wonderful as San Antonio, by any stretch of the imagination, but it's very quaint, has lots of great restaurants, and it has gotten even better since we were here in 2008.

Last night we watched the movie "The Secrets of Jonathon Sperry."  True story.  What an amazing man.

We got up "early" and left the marina in Sheboygan at 8:30.  There is no wind this morning, so we are motoring north.  We will either stop at Kewaunee or Sturgeon Bay, depending on how we are feeling when we get there....

My stress has been slowly melting away, and I think I can see that in Andy also.  We are both in our element, on the boat, on the water, working hard but hardly working.  Wish you all could be here!

OUR FIRST RACE

By Deb:

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't been a part of it.  We were in a race with Island Time!

The race was sponsored by the Lake Michigan Singlehanded Society.  But it was a Doublehanded race.  I know, that last sentence sounds confusing.  But it just means that there are two people on the boat, a captain and a crew.  And I bet you know who was who....  Even if Andy does call me the Admiral, he's still the captain.  :)

Do we know how to race?  No.  We had to study up on the rules.  Andy went to the Skipper's meeting the night before.  We talked to various people who race.  But until you get out there, and the start boat is there, and all the other boats are milling around waiting to start, and they're telling everyone over the radio when you're going to start, and giving you a warning before the start gun sounds, and you have no idea what you're doing, do you realize how crazy it is!!

So, I was following the captain's orders.  He was getting the spinnaker ready to fly.  We heard it was time for us to start.  Were we in the right spot, ready to go?  HA!  So, we were actually the LAST boat over the start line.  The starter boat was leaving just as we crossed the line!  It was hilarious!

There were about 28 boats leaving from Muskegon, and another 37 boats starting from Winthrop Harbor, IL.  We crossed the start line at 8:35 AM.  The winds were light, just right for the spinnaker.  And very light all day, until about 7 PM, about 30 miles from Port Washington, and it picked up considerably.  Despite being the last boat across the start, we were not the last boat at the finish.  We crossed the finish line at 11: 53 pm, CT.  We sailed the entire way.

When we arrived in Port Washington, the staff directed us to a place on the wall in the marina to tie up, just in front of our friend's boat (Free Spirit; Joe and David, Bob's sons, raced her over).  We buttoned up the boat and fell into the berth exhausted.  We didn't wake up until 10:00 AM this morning.  There was a terrible storm during the night, but we barely heard it.

Today we went to the LMSS sponsored lunch, and heard who were the winners in the various classes.  No, we didn't win a flag, but we did finish!  Yeah for us.

I kind of like this racing stuff.  Andy thought it was just okay.  Being in the Chicago to Mac race is on my bucket list.  Do you think....??