Blog

We are anchored in Detroit Harbor on Washington Island. Washington Island is the northernmost point of the Door Peninsula and is accessed by a 30 minute ferry ride from Northport. Unless you are sailing in! We arrived yesterday afternoon from Sister Bay. It was a pleasant motor/sail under sunny skies and light wind “on the nose” which means it’s not great for where we wanted to head – thus the motor sail.

At one point yesterday, we both heard a metallic ping and couldn’t figure out what had happened. We looked around and hadn’t lost anything overboard. and didn’t find anything amiss. After dropping anchor, we usually lower the dinghy for a better view out the back and Harold noticed a bolt in the dinghy – along with a washer and a nut. Apparently it worked it’s way out of the davit support. We are thankful that it didn’t go into the water. So we need to tend to that sometime today.

The entrance to Detroit Harbor is a bit tricky. It is well marked and we saw the ferries entering and exiting the channel. We decided to follow the ferry in and were surprised to be face to face with another ferry going out. The channel seemed very narrow! On either side it was quite shallow. We hugged the red markers and squeezed passed the outgoing ferry then wended our way through the channel where it had less than a foot under the keel at times and found Pedersen Bay. A lovely quiet shallow bay, well protected from all winds with plenty of room. We are the only boat here and a few fisherfolk around the edges.

Mostly it is White Pelicans, Cormorants, Gulls, Great Blue Herons, White Egrets and last night there was a huge hatch of midges which the spider webs are full of this morning. Everyday I am thankful for our “solarium” It keeps most of the insects out – or at a tolerable level, and provides shelter from the sun. There are several screened windows which can be adjusted for temperature control.

We spent several days at Menominee Marina during the hot and humid weather over the fourth and took full advantage of our air conditioner at night. We have found the being anchored out even on warmer nights is quite comfortable because when we are “swinging on the hook” our boat faces in the direction of the wind and our three hatches funnel the breeze into the cabin. In the marina, it is not always the case that we can catch the wind because we are stationary.The Menominee Fireworks were launched right off the breakwater at the marina so we had a good view from our cockpit and were happy because the breeze carried the debris south of our boat.

After Menominee, we sailed back across to Egg Harbor and found it pretty lumpy because of the unpredicted wind direction. So the next morning, we left for Nicolet Harbor – and found the really busy so continued on to Sister Bay where we reluctantly took a slip at the Marina. We got a couple of good walks in, visited the library (of course) and enjoyed a quiet night.

So far, this is our favorite harbor in the Door Peninsula. Many of the other bays are quite busy with jet skis, supercharged pontoon boats, fisherfolk whisking themselves out to find the fish, or speeding back to port before the fish spoil! All of which, throw off enormous wakes and send us rocking – which is a minor complaint because we are enjoying life on board. Even from here, we can hear the ferries coming and going with their big engines and the clanking of the ramps.

We’ve been on our adventure for just over 5 weeks – the longest sail trip we’ve ever experienced and we still feel like we have just started.