People like to party up here in Wisconsin. This is a typical scene on all the marinas in Door County. I don't drink but folk up here DO, anytime, anywhere! This party was on the Alibi Marina in Fish Creek.
The Wisconsin Peninsula State Park, south entrance, is just outside of Fish Creek.
This is a view, from the Sunset Bike Trail, of Green Bay and the islands that dot the bay.
The historic Eagle Bluff Lighthouse, is along the Sunset Bike Trail.
The Sunset Bike Trail winds through some heavily wooded areas and along the west shoreline of the Door County Peninsula. This is a two way trail that keeps you on your toes, as some riders don't heed the "Keep Single File And To The Right" signs along the trail.
Ticaboo tied to the seawall at Alibi Marina, in Fish Creek. Again, there are some fantastic power and sail boats, at all the marinas, on the peninsula.
This is a view of Horseshoe Island. The opening in the "horseshoe" faces to the south, so the island offers excellent protection from a north wind. The island was privately owned, at one time, but is now a part of the Wisconsin Peninsula State Park. The water is four feet deep almost to the beach. Some boaters tied a stern line to a cedar tree, on the island and dropped an anchor off the bow. I used a Lake Powell anchoring technique and put the bow up on the beach, with two lines off my stern cleats.
I'm back to civilization after several nights anchored out in Nicolet Bay. On my last night in Nicolet Bay the wind shifted to the north, which is the only direction Nicolet Bay isn't protected from. Everyone had told me, that if the wind shifted to the north don't stay in Nicolet Bay, move to Horseshoe Island.
I was awakened at 3 a.m. by the rolling of Ticaboo, as the wind shifted to the north. I immediately readied Ticaboo for the short one mile passage from Nicolet Bay to Horseshoe Island. As I was pulling my two anchors, the water was getting very choppy.
When I arrived at Horseshoe Island I got a very pleasant surprise and found the water almost four feet deep, right up to the beach. Before leaving Arizona I had sorted through everything on board Ticaboo. I debated if I should take my anchoring gear, I use on Lake Powell (sledge hammer, four 36" spikes and two lines I run off my stern cleats to the beach). I decided to keep this gear aboard. Horseshoe Island was the perfect place to use this gear and with the sun just rising I anchored to the beach.
Horseshoe Island is very small but as everyone had told me it offered excellent protection from a north wind. After a week on the hook, I was ready to get to a marina and town and have some good restaurant food and ice cream. I had cell phone service on Horseshoe Island and called Alibi Marina, in Fish Creek, on the Door County Peninsula and arranged for a slip. At around noon I headed out for a short ride, south, down the west coast of the peninsula, to Fish Creek.
All the boaters had told me that Fish Creek is the center of activity on the peninsula and it is. This is a quaint little town but bustling with traffic and tourism. Fish Creek is also at the south end of the Wisconsin Peninsula State Park. Yesterday afternoon, I walked the mile, to the State Park entrance and rented another bicycle and did a 10 mile bike ride. The trail went along the peninsula shoreline and into thick wooded areas, where the trees shaded me from the sun but not the humidity.
Tonight I am going to the American Folklore Theatre, in the State Park, to see two spoofs, on men, in northern Wisconsin. The early show is called Lumberjacks In Love and is about four burly lumberjacks and one mail order bride. The late show is called Guys & Does and is a "hunting" musical. The entire state of Wisconsin literally closes down the first few weeks of hunting season and I have heard a hilarious story of how the Navy pulled a contract, from a boat builder, when they showed up unannounced, to inspect a rush job and found the establishment shut down, with a sign on the door "Gone Hunting."
Seriously, this is a huge boat building area and many of the mine sweepers, the Navy uses, are built here on Green Bay. The Staten Island ferries, used in New York, are also built here in Green Bay. It would seem like a Twilight Zone episode to see a ferry with Staten Island, on the side, in big letters, doing sea trails, in Green Bay. You might think you had been transported several hundred miles, in an instant, and would start looking around for the Statue of Liberty.
Ticaboo is doing fine and has been a great summer "floating condo" for me. As mentioned, by other Albin 25 owners, everyone at the marinas wants to know what kind of boat it is. When I give a very short tour of Ticaboo and people find out I'm a single-handler, I get invitations to come aboard their boats and sometimes an invitation to go out to dinner with them. I've met dozens of very nice, interesting people. Everyone has interesting boating stories and I've met several people who are about half-way around the "Great Loop." From what they have told me, they go right into downtown Chicago and go through the Navy Lock and eventually end up southbound, on the Mississippi River. I've only met one northbound boat, on the loop, and they were headed to the North Channel and the Trent Severn waterway.
I hope you enjoy today's pictures.
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