Door County Adventures - Sturgeon Bay to Sheboygan

We arrived in Sturgeon Bay on the 28th around 9:00 PM after an easy crossing of Lake Michigan.  We spent the morning at the Harbor Club, took a long walk through town and then decided to head for Fish Creek.  Motivation.  Well, we've never been there and there was a remote possibility of selling the boat. 

We departed Sturgeon Bay at 1:00 PM, headed west to Green Bay (the bay not the city) and cruised north at 8 MPH for just under three hours close in along the beautiful Door County shoreline.

We docked at the Alibi Marina, which is located adjacent to Fish Creek's the lovely commercial district.  Unfortunately, we took only one photo.  However, that photo (below) of  an old pre WWII Buick captures the essence of Fish Creek.  This is the quintessential coastal town.  Great shops, hotels and lots of good restaurants.

Prewar Buick parked at Alibi Docks

We stayed in Fish Creek for two days to allow Richard, the potential buyer, to see the boat up close.  Some background.  We met Richard and Kim when we were docked in Bing Inlet (Ontario, Canada).  Richard and I chatted about cruising while I showed him Guided Discovery's great navigation system.  We then saw them again at Mackinaw City Marina's gas dock.  While saying hello, Kim asked if we were interested in selling the boat.  Subsequently, we agreed on terms and agreed to bring to boat to Fish Creek.

Richard and several of his friends inspected the boat on Saturday morning and seemed to like what they saw. 

Immediately after showing the boat decided to return to Sturgeon Bay as a north wind was roughening up the bay.

Note: Unfortunately, Richard changed the terms several days later and we were unable to make a deal.

Even though the waves were running 2 to 3 feet, the three hour cruise back to Sturgeon Bay was easy due to a following sea.  We arrived back at the Harbor Club around noon and spent a relaxed afternoon reading on the back of the boat.  We were also serenaded by a band performing at a wedding at the hotel just across the ship channel.  We then had a spectacular dinner at the Inn at Cedar Crossing (a favorite restaurant).

View of the hotel across the ship channel

A word about Sturgeon Bay.  Having visited many cities on our almost 6,000 mile journey that had been negatively inpacted by factory closings, it was nice to be in a city where industry seemed to be alive and well.

Large tug in dry dock at Sturgeon Bay

Sturgeon Bay is home to Palmer Johnson, a builder of large luxury yachts. Palmer Johnson is currently building two boats; a 220 footer and a 170 footer. Adjacent to Palmer is a large ship repair facility. 

220 footer under construction at Palmer Johnson

Note: The hanger where the 220 footer was being built is not on the water.  This boat needs to move at least 500 feet over land to reach the canal.  Locals say it a big deal when they "splash" a boat.

On Labor Day we departed for Manitowoc Wisconsin.  Again we cruised at a relaxed 9 MPH for 6 hours arriving in at the Manitowoc Marina at 5:00 PM.  We initially experienced 2 to 3 foot waves on the beam, which diminished, just as forecast, to less than 1 foot as the day progressed.

Our location on Lake Michigan

We stayed in Manitowoc overnight.  Manitowoc is an industrial town that, unfortunately, like other towns we visited, has lost industry.  Fortunately, they still have a large Anhauser Bush brewery which sits right on the lake.

Anhauser Bush brewery

The city also has a large modern maritime museum.  During WWII the Manitowoc Ship Building Company build 28 submarines, one of which sits in the channel adjacent to the museum.  Check out the history in the photo below.

WWII Submarine originally built in Manitowoc

Early Tuesday morning, Kodi and I took a 4 mile exploratory walk through Manitowoc.  During the walk, as is our custom, we talk with the locals to get a sense of the community and it economic health.  One resident told us about the Mirro plant that had closed several years ago (2003), costing the city a large number of jobs when the jobs were moved overseas.  The massive Mirro facility now sits uninhabited and an unpleasant reminder of the cities plight.  Mirro manufacturered aluminium cookware.


Closed Mirro plant

We headed for Sheboygan at 9:00 AM just after Kodi and I returned to the boat.  Conditions were favorable with light westerly winds (5 MPH) which gave us swells running at less than 1 foot for the 26 mile run.  For the first hour we experienced fog with visibilty as low as 1/2 mile, which rapidly improved to 5 miles in haze during the three hour run.

Fog bank visible as we departed Manitowoc

Upon arrival we took a walk into downtown Sheboygan to have lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Il Ritrovo. On the way we stopped to examine two vintage automobiles in the Martin Automotive showroom, one of which was a prewar Pontiac.

As usual, our official Social Director, Kodi got us into a conversation with Martin's manager.  Martin was a Pontiac dealer who dropped the franchise years before the Pontiac brand was eliminated by GM.  I've always been curious about about why that occured and thanks to Kodi I got the unabridged story. The dealerhip now sells used GM cars and provides service to their customer base.

We then enjoyed lunch on the deck at Il Ritrovo.  This is a unique restaurant, which also provides high end deli foods and a great wine selection. 

Sheboygan is Kholer country.  The Kholer factory is just five miles out of town and appears to be doing very well (i.e., few vacant stores).  This is one very together city.

After lunch we continued our walk.  Our pleasant day was interupted by the news that our friend's son had taked his own life.  This tragic news altered our plans.  We previouly decided to continue our slow cruise back to Chicago touching base at some of our favorite ports along the western shore (Port Washington, Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha).  Since the funeral was scheduled for Friday, we contemplated cruising to Milwaukee on Wednesday, getting a rental car and returning home for a long weekend and then retuning to Milwaukee to continue cruising.  That plan changed when a the forecast suggested a perfect weather for a cruise back to Chicago on Thursday.  More on that in our next article.

Written by Les.