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Door County, Wisconsin

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DavidCrosby
Navigator

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USA
229 Posts

Initially Posted - 07/22/2016 : 20:47:38

Today, three boats and three couples from Carlyle Sailing Association on Carlyle Lake, IL have departed for a week long trip to Door County, Wisconsin.

I am going to see if I can manage daily updates of our cruise. Our destination is Alibi Marina in Fish Creek, WI. Initial plans are to use this marina as a base and sail out to different destinations and return each day.

Below is a group photo.
(C250 WK#614, C250 WB#649 and a Hunter 260)

David Crosby "Small World"
'02 C250 WK #614

Buzz Maring
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1762 Posts

Response Posted - 07/23/2016 : 04:53:22

What a cool photo! 'Looks like a Catalina 250 armada on its way to a lot of fun.

'Hope y'all have a GREAT time!

Keep us posted, and send photos if you get the chance.

Buzz Maring

~~Freya~~
C-25 SK/SR #68
Lake Dallas, TX

Stinkpotter
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
9013 Posts

Response Posted - 07/23/2016 : 07:48:30

Hope you don't need the ambulance!

Great venue! Fair winds!

Dave Bristle
Association "Port Captain" for Mystic/Stonington CT
PO of 1985 C-25 SR/FK #5032 Passage, USCG "sixpack" (expired),
Now on Eastern 27 $+!nkp*+ Sarge

Edited by - Stinkpotter on 07/23/2016 07:49:32

DavidCrosby
Navigator

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USA
229 Posts

Response Posted - 07/24/2016 : 20:17:05

Saturday, we finished our drive to Fish Creek, WI. 560 miles in total from Carlyle Lake, IL to our destination. The drive went off with out any glitches. However, arrival in Fish Creek is not quite what we had expected. I had talked to the harbormaster of the marina about a month earlier when we made our reservations. I had asked lots of questions about the boat ramps, water depth at the ramp (for my wing keel) and general parking area for staging. I had received all positive responses and went ahead with making our reservation.

When we rolled into town, it is a neat little town, but had an unbelievable amount of tourist traffic. There was absolutely no (legal) place to park a boat and truck combination, let alone three rigs. It became clear quickly that we would not get launched in Fish Creek. The phone calls started. Egg Harbor, WI harbor master responded positively as well. They said they had a big parking area and there was certainly room to park our three rigs and get staged before moving on to the ramp. So, off we went. That was a joke as well. The place was a zoo. There was in deed a lot of trailer / car parking spots. The majority were filled with multiple cars. maneuvering through the parking lot was quite challenging.

We gave up on Egg Harbor and then went to Peninsula State Park. We had to pay $5.00 each just to go into the park to look at their ramp situation. This was fun to get to. Lots of winding around on narrow two lane roads. The Launch area was not clearly marked and was missed the first time around. When we arrived, there was adequate parking and the ramp looked like there may be a depth issue for my boat, but we gave it a try. By this time, it was getting late in the day. We also had time limits to get our rigs out of the ramp area and into overflow parking. So, we tag teamed getting mast ups and boats in the water. We first launched the Hunter 260 and got him anchored. Thankfully, I had just bought a dinghy (Walker Bay 8) prior to this trip. We were in definite need of dinghy to get to/from the boats as they were anchored out in Nicolet Bay. We decided to raft all three boats together and spend the night in that configuration.

First thing in the morning, we finished rigging the boats. The park would only allow us 24 hours to park our trailers. So, we the sent the wives back to Fish Creek in one of the trucks and the three of us guys then motored our boats back to the marina at Fish Creek.

Sunday, was threatening storms most of the day, so we spent the day at the marina unpacking, transferring stuff from the tow vehicles to the boats and moving trailers to a long term storage location.

We are finally settled in and have plans to sail to Sister Bay, WI tomorrow.

Below are a few photos of of our boats rafted together at Nicolet Bay, Wisconsin.

David Crosby "Small World"
'02 C250 WK #614

glivs
Admiral

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USA
822 Posts

Response Posted - 07/25/2016 : 03:37:33

And the adventure begins...thanks for keeping us posted!

Gerry & Leslie; Malletts Bay, VT
"Great Escape" 1989 C-25 SR/WK #5972

Stinkpotter
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
9013 Posts

Response Posted - 07/25/2016 : 09:28:30

The first photo above, from dead-ahead, re-raises the question about whether/how/why the C-250-WK has higher freeboard than the C-250-WB. The WK's boot stripe is a little higher above the surface, but it doesn't appear to me to be the full difference. Is the weight of the full ballast tank that much more than the weight of the wing? (That could make sense, given the higher CG.)

Dave Bristle
Association "Port Captain" for Mystic/Stonington CT
PO of 1985 C-25 SR/FK #5032 Passage, USCG "sixpack" (expired),
Now on Eastern 27 $+!nkp*+ Sarge

Edited by - Stinkpotter on 07/25/2016 09:29:09

DavidCrosby
Navigator

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USA
229 Posts

Response Posted - 07/26/2016 : 21:08:21

Before I get into reporting on our trip. I will say that Greg's (Sail Away) 2002 WB #649 and my 2002 WK #614 are definitely very different boats. We are noticing so many differences that there is no longer any doubt in our minds that the water ballast C250 and wing keel C250 are different boats from different molds. There does not appear to be any shared components in the deck, hull or interior pan molds.

On to the trip. Sorry, no pictures today. It is late, and I am not feeling up to downloading photos and then uploading.

Monday, we sailed out to Chambers Island. There is a light house that we were told we could get a tour of. We made it to the island. Anchored in a nice fairly protected bay. I had recently bought a Dinghy and it was time to put it to work. The dinghy is really up to no more than two people at any time. Since my wife was not ready to go a shore, I first paddled over to Brice and Patti's boat (Hunter 260).Patti joined me in the dinghy and we rowed to the beach. We were rewarded with a valuable lesson. I headed straight into the beach bow first. As soon as the bow grounded out, the small waves started pouring over the transom. So, much for delivering Patti ashore and keeping her dry.

I then paddled back out and brought Brice a shore. This time, as I approached the shore, I turned the bow into the waves and backed into the beach. This worked quite well. Brice and I took turns rowing out to my boat and Greg and Jerri's boat (C250 wb). We managed to deliver everyone a shore in a semi dry state (except Patti).

We then walked from the beach to the light house which was maybe a half mile away. The lighthouse certainly looked lived in, but no one was home, so we did not get a tour. Instead we took several photos and then moved on.

When we arrived back at the beach part of the groups decided to swim out to the boats (yes with life jackets). The remainder were rowed out to the respective boats.

Once we were all back on our boats we attempted to sail back to Fish Creek. Unfortunately, the wind had dropped off to just about nothing. So, we ended up motoring the several miles back to Fish Creek.

The day was wrapped up with a pot luck BBQ.

Today, we sailed to Sister Bay. There were no slips available at Sister Bay Marina, so we docked at Yacht Works instead. They had room for us on the outer wall. That was fine when we arrived. We walked into town and were gone for about three hours. Upon our return the wind had come up quite a bit and the boats were thrashing around at the dock. The worst part was that they were stern to the waves.

We managed to get the three boats off the dock and headed back to Fish Creek. The wind was directly on the nose, so we decided to just motor all the way back instead of tacking out way back.

After we arrived back at Fish Creek, we drove into Sturgeon Bay to do a grocery run. There is not a lot available in Fish Creek and of what there is at the local market it is quite expensive. Sturgeon Bay offered much better prices and was well worth the drive to get there.

For tomorrow, we are talking about sailing out to Horseshoe Island and anchoring in the cove and then going for a swim followed by lunch at anchor. We will see what tomorrow brings.

David Crosby "Small World"
'02 C250 WK #614

DavidCrosby
Navigator

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USA
229 Posts

Response Posted - 07/31/2016 : 19:37:21

When I last wrote, we had sailed to Sister Bay. Below is a photo of our boats tied up at Yacht Works Marina.

Sister Bay was a nice town to walk around in and they had recently put a lot of effort into rebuilding their beach and boardwalk area. Sister Bay Marina had adequate space to stage and launch our boats. Although, I would imagine on weekends, the place would be quite busy and no space would be available. While we were there, a guy had just launched a Pearson Triton. If he can get that boat off a trailer, then it would certainly be suitable for a C250 WK.

Up next was a sail to Horseshoe Island. We anchored in the little cove and played around in the dinghies for awhile and some members of our crews went ashore. There is a trail around the island that can be hiked.

The following day, we sailed to Egg Harbor. They did not have any slips available for us to tie up for a few hours, so instead we anchored out and then went ashore via the dinghy. We walked around town for awhile. We had ice cream and did some grocery shopping. Egg Harbor has one of the better markets in the area for provisions.

Below is a photo of us sailing to Egg Harbor.

The sail from Fish Creek to Egg Harbor was mostly downwind and very peaceful. The return trip was a beat on a single long tack most of the way and finished up with a bunch of quick tacks to stay near the shore and see the houses along the lake shore. This day of sailing was my favorite of the entire week.

Below is a map with rough drawn lines of our daily trips.

The red line represents our first and last days. We launched out of Peninsula State Park and spent the week based out of Alibi Marina in Fish Creek. The green line shows our trip out to Chambers Island. The return trip in all cases was similar. Yellow line is the trip to Sister Bay. Black line is to Horseshoe Island. Orange line is to Egg Harbor and back.

This is a great area to sail. The water in general is 40 to 70 feet deep. There are some shallow areas. But overall, the navigation is simple and there is not an over abundance of boat traffic. There are numerous small towns all along the peninsula to sail to. There does not appear to be much space at marinas for transient boaters though. So, I feel that a dinghy is a definite need and plan on anchoring out if you want to go ashore.

Overall, the trip was a big success. All were happy and there were only a few minor hiccups.

We trailered our boats 1,120 miles round trip. We are already making plans for a group trip again next year.

Happy Sailing!

David Crosby "Small World"
'02 C250 WK #614

sweetcraft
Admiral

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USA
816 Posts

Response Posted - 07/31/2016 : 20:20:28

We appreciate your reports. You were able to handle the changes due to parking and traffic and weather. I will try to do some reporting too with our upcoming cruise. Just relearned today how to get pictures to the Forum. Glad you want to return as that indicates a good cruise.

Commodore
Russ Johnson

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USA
690 Posts

Response Posted - 08/01/2016 : 23:28:01

David,
Thank you for your story.
I also just sent you an email

Russ Johnson, Commodore 2009-2022 (commodore at catalina-capri-25s.org)

Dave5041
Former Mainsheet Editor

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USA
3754 Posts

Response Posted - 08/10/2016 : 08:11:16

So, would you recommend YWM as the best launch/recovery and trailer storage site if we arrived and departed on a week day?

Dave B. aboard Pearl
1982 TR/SK/Trad. #3399
Lake Erie/Florida Panhandle

Edited by - Dave5041 on 08/10/2016 08:12:32

DavidCrosby
Navigator

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USA
229 Posts

Response Posted - 08/10/2016 : 11:13:30

Dave, I did not even see a boat ramp at Yacht Works Marina. That is not to say that they do not have one. I also did not question the marina on trailer storage. We ended up at Yacht Works because Sister Bay Marina did not have any open slips for our short term stop. Yacht Works had space available on the outside wall, which we accepted and within three hours conditions changed and was not a good place to be.

Sister Bay Marina has a ramp with a dock and has three good parking places that would allow staging. I think a week day would work. A weekend would be an entirely different story though. We did not ask about long term trailer parking in Sister Bay. I am guessing that it is going to be similar to Fish Creek's trailer / tow vehicle parking. They had a spot about a 1/4 mile from the ramp that you can park for 10 days for just $7.00.

Egg Harbor also has a nice staging area at their ramp, if you arrive on a weekday. Again, a weekend is going to be a zoo.

Good Luck.

David Crosby "Small World"
'02 C250 WK #614

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