I leave tomorrow to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin to do a little provisioning and then move the boat down lake Michigan to Chicago. I’ve already learned a few things about winter in this part of the world. All of the Chicago area marinas close on October 15 and all boats have to be gone. This means we will have to start into the canal system and proceed about seven miles down to have a good stopping place. Out of curiosity, I checked the marine weather for Lake Michigan Wednesday and received the following forecast:
WEDNESDAY NIGHT…WEST GALES TO 45 KNOTS DIMINISHING TO 35 KNOTS
OVERNIGHT. SCATTERED RAIN OR SNOW SHOWERS DEVELOPING. WAVES BUILDING
TO 10 TO 14 FEET
It should start subsiding Friday but it looks as if our departure from Sturgeon Bay will be Saturday at the earliest. Since there are so few stopping places, we will probably run about 25 hours straight to the canal entrance and then the remaining seven miles to a marina. This is going to be quite interesting. Stay tuned.