The Admiral begins her morning on a "semi-irregular" basis with a walk with her sister, who lives in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles. They walk and talk for a half hour before breakfast. As she was walking this morning, the Admiral spotted this fox lounging on the breakwater. The fox picked a cloudy and foggy morning to try to relax in the sun, and it was cooperative in having pictures taken.
The waterfront park around the marina was busy this morning (Saturday). There were a number of boats, including these in the photo at the left, that were loading handicapped people for a morning boating trip as part of a non-profit program called Fishing Has No Boundaries. It was not the greatest day with patchy, heavy fog, but there are lots of protected areas inside the harbor as well as the Milwaukee River. So, hopefully they had a wonderful experience.
At one point as we were preparing to leave the dock, I looked up and saw hundreds of people walking along one of the many bridges and walkways around the marina. Then I noticed the aid and water stations (picture at right) that had been set up for a charity walk.
Today we had an honor of sorts when a fellow Looper asked to buddy boat with us to Racine since he had very little experience in fog (photo at left). I didn't have the courage to tell him that we only had a couple of days more experience than he did. We left Milwaukee at 8:45 am when the fog partially lifted for a few minutes. As we went out through the main entrance to the harbor, we got a great view of the Milwaukee Harbor Lighthouse (see photo below).
The fog had lifted long enough for us to clear the outer harbor and head out into Lake Michigan, and then the fog closed back in around us. My "plan" was to go at about 6 mph for 2 miles until we got far enough offshore for the fog to be lighter and to get out beyond the fishing boats that were trying to stay close to land. The fog was indeed lighter offshore, but once again having really good electronic navigation aids was really the key. Our trip was 24.9 miles and once we got two miles out we were able to increase speed up to 8 mph, which is our normal cruising speed. An ocean going grain carrier left Milwaukee about 15 minutes after us, and we were able to see him as far as 5 miles from us as he passed us going toward Chicago (?). Almost all of the fishing and pleasure boats that we saw on radar were not visible to us since they were hugging the shore in what turned out to be the heaviest fog. When we got near Racine, we headed in toward the harbor mouth, and sure enough, the fog got heavier as we approached the entrance to the harbor. When we got about 200 yards out the breakwater popped right into view. I had to alter course a "few" degrees to hit the channel, but I was really relieved that it all worked so well.
The Reef Point Marina is really very nice and includes a pool and two (?) hot tubs. We were met at the dock by fellow Loopers and boaters who did a great job of tying the lines. They were also helpful in terms of local cruising and eateries. There were many people sitting in chairs on the docks. They were obviously here for a weekend of boating, but instead had decided to sit the fog out. Unfortunately for them, the fog never really burned off as it had yesterday. It was so damp when we walked into town for dinner that I had actually shrunk as a result of all of the moisture (photo at left).
The downtown appears to be making a big time come back with new waterfront condos and lots of lofts. We had a wonderful dinner at a Thai restaurant. I love Thai food, but I cannot eat most of it since it can be very hot, and that does not agree with my system... After dinner, we walked two blocks to the river, and then we walked back to the marina along a beautiful waterfront walkway that was at least 12 feet wide.
The last picture (on left) for today shows a few of the other nicely restored buildings in the downtown area.
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