Green Bay/Door County Trip

[bcoonan]

I am planning sailing trip across Green Bay and up the Door County coast the last week of June in my Sun Cat.  I plan to leave from Marinette, WI with stopovers in Egg Harbor, Ephraim and Ellison Bay before returning to Marinette.  Any tips?

[Greene]

Skip lives in the area and can give you lots of information.  We sail Door County every year and absolutely love it up there.  One tip though is to check on the water level in Ephraim.  Last year it was too low even for our shoal draft to make it in to the marina.  We prefer that little bay and town, but Egg Harbor is deeper and is nice as well.

Mike

[skip1930]

From Marinette, WI. why not go 'Nort' on that side of The Bay of Green Bay and forget the other side of Egg Harbor, Ephraim, Ellison Bay, Sister Bay, and the islands.

Consider Cedar River, but after Cedar River to anywhere is a long haul. Up to the skipper. Sailing and anchor shore side for free or visiting small harbors and towns and paying through the nose.

In Sturgeon Bay, city docks for transients was raised just last night to 95 cents per foot per day plus 5.5% state tax, plus 5% Door County tourist tax. Water and electricity extra, plus tax, plus tax.  

Sail to Fayette, Michigan and hang on the hook in the protected harbor. Swim or dinghy to the beach for a very nice walk through the woods and visit the ruins of Henry Ford's iron smelters. It was here that Ford used the chink from the smelters and invented charcoal briquettes for our Bar-B-Q's. Note; its a primitive harbor.

Additionally the wood here was used to make the 'woodies', Henry Ford's station wagons. The cool thing is the wood is steamed to resembled a noodle and placed in a gig and dry steamed to hold a shape ... the unbelievable fact is once dried, re-giged and re-formed using CA glue to create the shapes around the fenders.

skip.

[bcoonan]

Thanks Skip & Mike.  I definitely take the Cedar River option into consideration.  Do the small harbors and towns have lodging?  I am in a Sun Cat and don't want to spend more than 1-2 nights at a stretch on the boat.

[Greene]

Door County has numerous unique restaurants, bars, shops and motels.  They tend to be clustered very near the harbors which makes walking around very easy. Lots of hidden gems to find and enjoy.  Make sure to reserve both your slips and rooms way ahead of time as the summer season is really busy.  We like to go up in the late summer or early fall when it gets a lot quieter.

Mike

[skip1930]

Not on the Cedar River side.
It's boat camping.

Sounds like your starting here and crossing over to the 'busy' side and going up. Either trip is good.

Menominee Marina, Home Page

www.menomineemarina.com

~ 4 Private Boaters' Restrooms with Showers Public Restrooms Payphone Chart Table with Numerous Nautical Charts Weather Channel Internet and E-mail Access Large Living Room with 125-Gallon Aquarium and Large Screen TV with VCR/DVD Laundry Room w/ Wash Machine, Dryer, Ironing Board

Interestingly from Sturgeon Bay up and over and back to Sturgeon Bay is almost 300 miles! It's 300 miles if the county line is considered. [ following the shoreline cut to cut. The cut goes from The Bay of Green Bay to Lake Michigan through Sturgeon Bay. ]

skip.

[Gerry]

I live in Fish Creek.  I suggest sailing due east from Marinette.  That puts you in Egg Harbor 6 miles south and right on Fish Creek.  North Bay on Chambers Is.
Fish Creek is a walking harbor town (make on line reservations at the Fish Creek Town Dock) or contact me about free gunkholing.  Horseshoe Island, Peninsula State Park, Ephraim, Sister Bay....all are close.  I am a tour boat captain who is on these waters everyday.  Be happy to help you plan,  contact me.

Gerry

[bcoonan]

Gerry,

What is a good contact for you?  
Bruce

[bcoonan]

Thanks Skip, this is good to know particularly about Menominee.  Bruce

[Salty19]

Bruce, I removed your email from your post to avoid internet robots from scanning and finding your email. Helps reduce spam.
Use our private message feature, it works well and will be hidden.

Sorry about the inconvenience.

[Jason]

Hi Everyone

Door County is a fantastic place to sail!  Little villages up the shoreline to explore. Nice scenery, bluffs, beaches, and nice restaurants.  Clean clear fresh cool water, good small mouth bass fishing.  Nice sunsets if you're on the bay side and sunrises if your on the lake side. There are some nice orchards and vineyards to explore inland and it's worth researching the lighthouses to visit them by sail.  The Green Bay shore and the Lake Michigan shore have there own interesting features.  The Green Bay shore is probably more visited and if you're sailing in from the west this will likely be the shore to explore. All the harbor towns from sturgeon bay to Rock Island are worth a visit.  We try to make it up once or twice a year.  The kids like the area also, lots of good ice cream shops, and there's a drive in movie screen between Ephraim and fish creek. 

There's too much to cover in an email, but there are good regional guides.  From a sailing point of view some comments I would share are;

It's a big body of water, I would take offshore type preparation and safety precautions for overnight and cross-the-bay sailing.  There are many posts on this site with advice for safety on the Great Lakes.

Don't force a preset itinerary, safety first, pick a good weather window

Egg harbor, fish creek, Ephraim, sister bay, Detroit harbor, and Jackson harbor can all be anchored in, and you can rent slips in many of these towns.  I have rented a slip from alibi dock in fish creek and the service was great. Wilson's ice cream in Ephraim is worth a visit.  I like the traditional door county fish boils which can be had in fish creek, Ephraim, sister bay....

As has been noted there are shallow areas in the harbors AND there are dangerous shoals out in Green Bay up and down the  coast.  I wouldn't consider this a reason not to go, but it is a reason to pre-study the charts and to have navigational tools and skills to stay off the rocks.  As has been noted Ephraim harbor is shallow, there is a tight channel marked out to get to the public launch, which I have used before.  Many of the harbors and bays open to the north or northwest so be aware of wind direction when anchoring.  There is a great shelter on horseshoe island just outside eagle harbor Ephraim, and across from it is a nice beach in nicolet bay in peninsula state park.   Schoolhouse beach in Washington Harbor is beautiful and is made of amazing round limestones, worth a look.  One can just anchor and swim ashore to many of these places.  The look out towers in the state parks at fish creek and sturgeon bay are a real treat to climb and look out from.

Further up the coast you will find Gills Rock, where you can find some great smoked fish.  I tried launching from Gills Rock last summer but the launch was closed.

Further north you will find Washington island then rock island, both of which are beautiful.  All of rock island is a state park.  Jackson harbor on the north end of Washington island is a good refuge but watch the shoals on the east side of the harbor entrance carefully.  Some detail on my sail around rock and Washington islands is posted in this section under the title "sailing northern door county"

Do not try to sail into Detroit harbor from the east

Do not try to sail between Rock Island and Washington island

The wind can shift completely through the day and weather can change suddenly and waves can get big.

North of rock island, the arhipelago continues but the islands north are in michigan.  This is the area I am planning to explore next summer.


Stay safe and have fun!

Jason

Jason Talbot
Sussex
WI

[bcoonan]

Bruce, I removed your email from your post to avoid internet robots from scanning and finding your email. Helps reduce spam.
Use our private message feature, it works well and will be hidden.

Sorry about the inconvenience.

No problem...Thanks for the security

[rbh1515]

Wow, a lot of Com-pac sailors in DC.  The good news is that the lake is way up.  I have a house up in Sister Bay, and will eventually move my boat up there.  Currently have a Catalina 28, and am probably going to trade down to a Horizon Day Cat.
I would highly recommend stopping in Sister Bay and Ephram.  If you want to go to some great restaurants I'll let you know the good ones.
Rob

[skip1930]

Door County is the best 300 miles of shore line sailing in the Mid west.

Maybe substitute Sister Bay for Ephraim.
BTW, Ephraim is a dry town in both ways. No booze and no water.

Ephraim is still a bit silted and strong wind will expose rocks so don't miss the well marked channel.
It's much better then last season.

Docks are very high up off the water. With visitor slips too high for Sun Cats. [It's not like large yachts will drop in.]

The Wisconsin EPA hasn't yet gotten off their dead a** and issued a permit to dredge and so far there are is no money.

skip. Aside from that we have near record high water with ice still in Lake Superior that limits the evaporation rate. 01-June-2014.