Ground Drifting

How quickly one’s plans can change just by looking out the window!

Mild winds were in the forecast for today.  We have a weather window (the first in several days) to move farther down Lake Michigan towards Chicago (Tomorrow the winds are predicted to pick up again until next Tuesday).  With water and fuel tanks filled, bikes loaded, dinghy secured, engines checked and adequate provisioning, departure from Quarterdeck Marina in Sturgeon Bay was scheduled for the 6:30 am sunrise.  At a whopping 7-10 mph speed, Velsignet would need at least 11 good hours to make the 107-mile cruise to our intended destination:  Port Washington, WI. 

While a lot of things went as planned (alarm went off at 6 am; winds were light at 4 mph), the dense FOG delayed our departure time by 4 hours and now necessitated adjusting our destination.  Will it be Manitowoc? or perhaps Sheboygan? 

Experiencing complications following an emergency appendectomy, prayers of many helped to bring Killian (front and center) back home to his brother and sisters.  After celebrating Killian's return home and wishing him a speedy and complete recovery, yesterday we left Saint Paul, MN and arrived 5 hours later in Sturgeon Bay, WI.  

Children's Hospital has a soundproof teen "Minnesota Wild" lounge where Grandpas and their grandsons can whoop and holler over a game of bubble hockey without disrupting the entire floor.
(...and what a motivator for stretching a sore 13-year-old patient to move outside his hospital room!)

Children's Hospital of Minnesota also had a sunny, colorful garden that allowed Killian to get outside in the comfort of his hospital garb!

Autumn is showing its signs in Wisconsin.  We admired this maple tree at the Quarterdeck Marina.

We met fine folks at Quarterdeck Marina:  Bruce & Julie; Kathy & Mike; Becky & Art; and Gary. 
They included us in conversations around the boaters' lounge, offered us rides, invited us out for lunch, and shared insights of the area with us.  

Let see....how shall I tell this story?  These are two of FOUR muskrats that made the fatal mistake of choosing our (attractive?) muffler chamber as their hotel (They got roughed up and gassed!).
We're putting up a "No Trespassing" sign so that this won't happen again.

As we slowly made our way out of the marina and through the channel towards Lake Michigan, both Mike and Brenda were on lookout and we relied on our mapping programs to help keep us on course.  To warn others of our presence, Velsignet sounded its horn every few minutes.  We estimated visibility to be about 1/4 mile; Trying to focus on our whereabouts reminded Mike of windy and snowy winter road trips in the Red River Valley. 

The lake is smooth for cruising today.  Because there's basically no wind, the fog has persisted in areas.  Now that we're fully underway, we expect we can make it to Sheboygan before nightfall.

So what do we do on an all-day cruising day?  Because the temperature is pleasant, we'll spend most of our day in the flying bridge.  We're listening to a Seattle radio station.  Mike's making work-related phone calls.  Both are catching up on emails and Looping Information.  For reservation purposes, we're researching Sheboygan and its marina.  Brenda's working on a knitting project.