Day 73 to Manitowoc, WI

     Today we are headed out early to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. which is just a short 25.9 mile route north, and it should take about 3 hours. As we left the harbor, the south side is dominated by the view of a large resort hotel and conference center  with 244 rooms (photo at left). The marina is off to the right just out of the picture. There were really nice walkways along both sides of the River. The one on the left in the photo connected up the breakwater and had lots of people out for evening walks.

      The photo at the right shows the Sheboygan Lighthouse as we cleared the entrance to the harbor, but as you can see, the wind was light. The sky has high clouds with plenty of haze down low. We want to arrive before lunch so we can explore the town since we plan to be here for only one night. We dropped our lines at about 7:30 am.  The Admiral always thinks that our departure time is very uncertain because she claims that I am picking up Lucky's habit of growling when she is not ready to get up. Get real! I don't growl. I just ignore her...

      We made it to the marina at shortly after 10:30 am and had an easy docking. We did have some rain on the trip and as we arrived. Unfortunately, the Admiral decided not to give Lucky medicine and she did get sick underway.

     As we were checking in, the S.S. Badger came into port. The photo at the right shows the Badger docked and unloading. The Badger is a ferry that runs from Ludington, Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. We saw it on the other side of the lake during our first loop trip, and in Day 72  I showed a photo of her propeller on display. She can carry 620 passengers and up to 180 vehicles along with a crew of 50 to 60. She is the last coal fired steam powered ferry operating on the Great Lakes. I also believe that she is an official National Historic Landmark. At 410 feet 6 inches long with a cruising speed of 18 mph it really is impressive when she comes rapidly into the port. She drops an anchor to help her turn around and dock in one motion. It really is amazing to watch.

     We walked along the seawall and over a bridge to downtown for lunch at the Courthouse Pub. On our way here, we walked by the Maritime Museum that features an in-water submarine, the USS Cobia. The photo at the left shows the Cobia docked at the museum and was taken from the bridge on the way to lunch.

      On the opposite (or south) side of the river is a large (former) Budweiser agricultural malt plant. Facing the downtown, there are 30-foot-tall painted beer bottles on the sides of three of the 175 concrete silos that can hold 4 million bushels of barley, oats, buckwheat, amaranth and other grains. So, as long as neither Anheuser-Busch nor any of the new owner's customers object, the murals will remain as a distinctive landmark, and of course, this is all free advertising for Budweiser.

     Our walks yielded a number of interesting sights, such as this trawler/yacht in the photo at the left. Everything about its appearance had the look of a heavy duty North Sea trawler that could definitely circumnavigate the globe. Even the dock lines at 2 inch diameter were over-sized. In the fore ground is part of the grassy park area along the land side of the marina.

      The photo at the right was taken at dusk and shows part of the large waterfront park on the north end of the marina. All of this is built on fill out into Lake Michigan. The high bluff in the first photo today probably represents the original bluff along the coast. The fill in many of these locations is reported to be dredged material, garbage, and even sawdust at one location. I guess that in "olden days" they used whatever was available and cheap.

     I will end this post just like many days end. The photo at the left shows the Admiral headed out our dock with Lucky and I tagging along behind. The reason that we are behind is that Lucky insists on checking the dock thoroughly for any "stray" bait like crab claws or small fish. I try to guide her around and away from them, but she occasionally wins the battle. So far, none of this has made her sick, but I really do try to keep her from winning the battle...