Friday, July 26, 2013

After deciding the night before to stay a day in Sheboygan, we arose to mostly clear skies, winds from the south at 5-10 knots and a pleasant morning. The radar was clear and depending upon which weather report was used, it appeared clear until either late afternoon or early afternoon.  After some discussion with the Admiral, the benefits of traveling a partial day were explained to the Captain, and we decided to move on to Manitowoc.  We were able to leave by 9:00 and the earliest weather expected in Manitowoc was 1:00 PM. After some quick calculations we determined we would arrive before noon, the new Garmin Chart Plotter set the ETA at 11:49 so off we went.

Channel to slips, looks quite big now

Weather pretty much a carbon copy of the day before for the 20 nm voyage, seas building winds from the south. We watched the radar on our iPhones for storms and spoke with John Busey, our broker, about 10:30. He mentioned a little rain in Racine but no real issue. We could see the rain showers at Fox Point about 11:00, and it seemed like we would make port before the showers came. Well,  close, we ducked behind the breakwall at Manitowoc out of four foot waves and it began to pour. We covered the instruments and called the marina for our slip assignment and to obtain docking assistance. By the time we reached the channel to the slips it was raining so hard, I thought it could not rain any harder. Wrong.  In the next few moments it rained harder yet, we could see our slip but another boat was also in the channel and we could not determine their intended destination. The squall line was so strong the stern was being pushed around the bow. The bow thruster, that normally spins the boat quickly, had little effect. We were in a narrow channel being blown about. Well a little reverse, spin the wheel, some thruster, spin the wheel, then forward, then reverse. A deck hand had hold of the bow line but it became un-cleated from the boat. A few tense moments, Carol did an excellent job of working with the deck hands, while I kept the boat off the dock. Bow line re-cleated, stern line in hand and we move to the T head of a pier, safe and secure.

New Weather Front in the Northwest

The wind continued to blow until 4:00 when a new cloud formation could be seen in the northwest, dark and ominous, must be the predicted cold front with a few thunderstorms. More rain showers, but the wind is calm, and the burgee hangs limp (a burgee is the triangle flag on the front of the boat).

Doug and Dennis Timmel came to visit about 2:30, Doug sailed with me from the Chesapeake to the Hudson River last summer and wanted to see the changes to Reunion. It was very nice to see Doug and Dennis, we were able to show Dennis the changes to the boat and discuss the process. I hope Doug or Dennis can come visit again and maybe cruise with us on the Tennessee River or Tombigbee waterway.

Cooler weather with highs in the 60s and lows in the high 40s are predicted for the next couple of days.  Again, we have decided to stay in Manitowoc for a day or two.  Lets see if that's what we think in the morning.

The latest weather front has passed, I dried our jeans at the marina laundry and we had a nice rainbow to top off the day. A bit scary at times, always a learning experience, and a nice finish.