Day 16 - 150 miles to home!

We left Sheboygan, WI around 11am Sunday, ready for our 150 mile journey home! We were lucky to have a beautiful day, and a flat calm lake to greet us.

We made a stop in Port Washington after about 25 miles to fuel up. Gas here was 40 cents cheaper than Sheboygan, and we found it to be a really cute little town that we plan on going back to visit!

About 3 hours into the trip, we stopped for lunch outside Racine, WI. This is a typical lunch on the boat for us!

Ben was pretty excited when we passed Milwaukee, as it seemed pretty close to home!

We followed the shore all the way to Chicago, and then turned to cut across the lake back to Portage.

Back outside Burns Waterway, Ben's parents met us in their boat, Executive Decision, to film our entrance back home! Thanks Bill & Kathy! :-)

Entering the channel back to our marina was both exciting and a little sad. It was nice to be back in familiar waters, and we had never realized how good we have it in Indiana on the southern tip of the lake! It seemed like we had the warmest and best water conditions around, and also the best marina friends, whom we missed! :-)

This is Seapickle II back home in her slip

And me enjoying some Summer Shandy back at the marina!

Our 150 mile journey home took about 7.5 hours, and after a couple hours of talking to family and marina friends, we were ready to get home! But we are already planning the next trip! Look for a post soon on the summary of our trip and the lessons we learned along the way!

Miles: 165.7

Time: 7hrs 21min

Fuel used: 74.6Gal

Avg Mpg: 2.22

Total Miles: 941.3

Total fuel used: 453.9Gal

Total Avg Mpg: 2.07

Seapickle II Crew

Our first embroidered Seapickle II gear! Yes!! We finally fit in with the rest of our Four Winns friends! haha...

Thank you to Bill & Kathy (ben's parents) for the gift! We can't wait to wear them on our trip! We'll probably have some cooler nights up north in Michigan... and while I love hot summer weather... I'm actually looking forward to some cooler days.

Stay tuned in the next few weeks for updates on our progress through Lake Michigan! We'll try to update as regularly as we can.

~dana

Maiden Voyage to New Buffalo Michigan!

Today is our maiden voyage aboard the Seapickle II, and we are loving it!! We spent the morning and early afternoon shopping and preparing the boat for the trip. The weather did not cooperate as well as we would have liked, but after buying a new fleece from Bass Pro Shop in Portage, it was time to head out. We left port ok, and started down the channel to the song "Into the Mystic" from the Swell Season concert, as is our tradition for the beginning of every journey.

Turning out into the lake, we quickly learned that the marine forecast we checked earlier in the day was not quite correct. The lake was very choppy and rough... not a smooth maiden voyage at all. It was mostly one to two footers, but by the time we hit Michigan City we were hitting three and four foot waves. We took turns at the wheel, with our average speed at about 24 mph until we reached Michigan City, and once it got too choppy, we cut the speed down to about 8 mph the rest of the way. Our total trip time was about an hour and a half.

Once we arrived in New Buffalo, we found the marina and slip #13 without a problem, but due to recent heavy rainfall the current of the river was very strong. The first time we tried docking... we hit the dock on the starboard side... second time we hit a pole... but the third time we made it ok! Dana learned how to tie up dock lines correctly and did an excellent job.

We worked up an appetite battling waves for over an hour, and Ben started to set up the grill for the first time! We had been very eager to try it out and grill our first meal. Unfortunately... our planning did not include checking to see if the grill had an igniter nor bringing any kind of lighter or matches... so it was time to try out that microwave!! After a delicious dinner of hot dogs and goldfish crackers, we set out into town to do a little exploring. New Buffalo was actually our first trip together when we started dating (just about 4 years ago), so the walk into town brought back some good memories for both of us.

At the Sweetwater Boating store (the only store still opened by the time we arrived), we picked up a floppy straw hat for Dana and a Cruising Memories Boaters Diary to record our journeys in.

After stopping for coffee and hot chocolate at the South Bend Chocolate Shop, we finished off the night reading and relaxing in the boat. We're looking forward to coffee and a nice breakfast in town in the morning, before heading back to Portage.