September 12-17, 2013 Milwaukee,WI

I was out walking this afternoon and had stopped to talk to a boater who was contemplating embarking on the Loop when I noticed the Michigan Street bridge going up.  That suddenly registered with me since it was 4:30 and the next opening was at 5:30 which was when we wanted to leave.  Ran back to the boat and bumped into Mary heading off to the showers. She evidently hadn't forgotten the bridge schedule.

We managed to get showered, dump the garbage, untie the lines and pull out of the slip on a rather windy day all within 50 minutes.  Impressive feat of agility for us old people.   The bridge openings are on the half hour, every hour.  And had we not made the 5:30 opening we'd have been stuck until 6:30 when the Michigan Street bridge was due to open next.

We went through the bridge and tied up near the boat launch for about an hour waiting for Kathy to join us for the trip.  The Mobile Bay, a Coast Guard buoy tender was tied right behind us.  Kathy arrived soon after and we wolfed down a sub and headed out on a pleasant calm evening for the 19 hour cruise south to Milwaukee.

Beautiful evening and clam waters heading out to the lake

Thunderstorms to the right and another boat to the left

Once on the lake the swells were deep and slow from the south so we were lightly bouncing along.  The rain showers ended up being more than showers and through the night we had a series of torrential downpours along with thunder and lightening.  Luckily the seas remain relatively calm and the winds remained steady and light.

Milwaukee skyline (look closely at the horizon).

Approaching Milwaukee the coastline didn't seem familiar at all even though we've seen it many times before.  I identified a few landmarks but without the charts I wondered if I'd have been able to find the marina entrance.

We started through the north entrance into the McKinley marina when it began raining.  Fitting since we more often than not are either docking, locking or anchoring in a downpour.

It took a minute figuring out how to approach the fuel dock but we finally did and got tied up where we took on 168 gallons of diesel.  Last time we filled up was in Detour, MI.  We're still getting around 2-2.5 miles per gallon.










We received a slip assignment and I started to walk towards E dock where we were going to be tied  when I unexpectedly ran into Bob and Jan toting chocolate cupcakes.  They had come down to surprise us when we pulled in!   Bob and Jan came aboard and we left the fuel dock for the quarter mile ride to the slip.  Who ever said boat rides had to be lengthy!



After we tied up Kathy took a kayak down and when off searching for our burgee which blew off as we swung in to the harbor.  The flagstaff snapped at the base and it, along with the AGLCA burgee went spiraling into the lake and headed off towards the breakwater.  Kathy didn't spot it so it seems to be lost forever.  But internet shopping we can do!

Kathy Colin and Dave heading home

While Kathy was out in the Kayak the remaining crew had a cocktail (captain Morgan of course).  And ironically, we noticed that Larry and Judy's old boat was 3 slips down from where we're tied up.  Bob and Jan left shortly after.

 Dave and Colin arrived shortly after Kathy returned from kayaking and we trotted over to Altera to bring back a few sandwiches to consume before they left for home.  Thanks Kathy for coming along and taking the 4am watch!




We then just did a few cleanup tasks and collapsed into bed.  Long day that was.

We'll probably only be staying in Milwaukee until Monday before heading down to Chicago.  Weather permitting of course.