Sturgeon Bay

We like to eat out once in a while at Apple-bee's in Sturgeon Bay. It's right on the waterfront of the bay. It's not too expensive and a lot less crowded than the waterfront eateries in the upper part of Door County. You can see the big ore carriers from your seat in the restaurant. If you look closely at the name on the ore carrier to the far right -- it is the Arthur M Anderson -- this is the ore carrier that was the closest to the Edmund Fitzgerald when it sank in the storm. You can also look out at the docks and see the small yachts and sailboats as well as the old steel bridge that is no longer in service. They are trying to "save their bridge" because it is an historic landmark. If you own one of these pleasure boats docked in Sturgeon Bay, from what we've observed, you sail or motor up to Fish Creek -- about 20 miles --and dock there for a few days and then go back to your Sturgeon Bay mooring.

We ventured farther out into the bay to try our luck fishing and went all the way around Chambers Island. This is a fairly large island about half way out in the bay -- maybe about 15 miles out from shore. The island is owned by a catholic archdiocese. There is also a lighthouse on the island. The picture shows it and you can picnic on the grounds if you can figure out a way to get your boat to shore.

We caught more huge rock bass and a sheepshead (a type of sucker fish) and more Gobie (one of several exotic species that is ruining the fisherie). We also fished closer to Sturgeon Bay and found other walleye fishermen -- a good sign-- but no one was catching any. Jim caught a clump of Zebra mussels fishing along the bottom. They clump together and one of them in the clump latched on to his bait ( a leech) and wouldn't let go. Zebra mussels are another exotic species.

THE BIRDS

The picture with the cabin on the edge of the water -- if you click on it -- you can see that its covered with birds. They were flying all around and obviously had nests on the grounds. This cabin is on an island so the people can't really get away from these birds and must have learned to just live with them.

I caught my first fish -- a good size rock bass -- it was 15". I've never seen one this big. Usually these are the "little" fish you catch by docks. I caught it by Little Strawberry Island -- where the cabin with the birds was. The island is just a few miles from the shore of Peninsula State Park. We were disappointed that we didn't catch a small mouth bass or a walleye but at least its a fish.

The picture that was taken from on high -- was taken from a tower at Potawatami State Park. It overlooks Sturgeon Bay and on the far shore you can see the cliffs of the old quarry that is now a county park with a boat launch. The finger of land sticking out into the bay has private homes on it -- you can imagine what that real estate is worth. Real estate in Door County is still expensive. I assume prices have come down with the poor economy but you could have fooled me.

On Our Days Off

If you look at the picture of the tugboat closely -- click on it to make it larger -- you see that it has a rope tied to it that is really tight. One end was tied to the tug and the other end was tied to the cast iron mooring on the breakwater and there were measurement devices attached to it for a test. They were testing the rope's tensile strength -- how hard you can pull the rope before it breaks-- The rope didn't break before they quit pulling so I guess it passed the "test".

We finally took pictures of the restaurant with the goats on the grass roof. The grass is very brown where the goats have been "mowing". The restaurant is called Al Johnson's and its in Sister Bay. We haven't been in the place to check out the story behind the goats.

If you click on the picture of the water to make it larger you can see the ore carrier. We were out fishing -- maybe two or three miles offshore and saw the ore carrier about 9 miles out from where we were. It is very strange to share the water with really big ships. The nice thing about fishing in the waters of Green Bay is that the big ships have to stay in the very middle of the bay to avoid all the hazards. Most of the structure we are fishing is closer to shore and unless we are going to cross the bay and go to the Upper Peninsula we shouldn't have to worry about the really big ships.

No fish caught yet -- we hear they are catching walleye like mad about 35 miles south of us where the water is warmer.

Our Campsite

We have a nice campsite with trees all around us. This is very different from the gravel and cactus campsite we had down south. Our truck is parked right across from our campsite so its nice and close without taking up space at our campsite. The "road" in front of our camp is just a little road in the camp with very little traffic.

There are four couples (including us) and one single lady who are workampers here. Our main job is cleaning the bathhouses but we also cover some hours in the office/store and some of the other outdoor work. We have a good group of folks (the others are older than us) that all do their share and we are starting to get to be a good team. Two of the couples own homes in Arizona but workcamp up north in the summer. The other couple usually workcamp in the south in the winter. We haven't applied for a winter job yet. There haven't really been many posted yet and the ones that have been are mostly for volunteers. We may have to take a volunteer job -- at least you get a place to park for free.

We have been out on the water actually fishing twice now. Still getting to know the waters and trying to find fish. We sat at a waterfront restaurant and watched two boats fishing the harbor of Sister Bay for over an hour and only saw one small bass caught. They were working it hard too so we don't feel bad that we haven't caught anything yet. It is still cold here - we've only had a couple of days over 65 degrees. It still getting down in the 30's and low 40's at night.