Racine

The Lake was calm and we arrived about 6pm to a huge marina - over 921berths and only a small town. They are trying to become a premier marina and help bring business to the town. The dockmaster told us that there were other loopers (about4 couples) in the marina lounge having a pot luck dinner. We went along to see if we could join in and contribute but they insisted we stay and join as there was plenty for all. We 'd met most of them earlier in our journey. The next morning we were surrounded by fog and it stayed like that for most of the day. The Lake being so cold hits the warm land air and you can actually feel the pockets of it as you walk between them. The fog horn sounded for 24 hours. We walked the town between downpours and had a great lunch at an Italian restaurant 'Salute'. Paintings and signed photos of many Italian entertainers were on the wall including Dean Martin, Sammy Davis & The Rat Pack. There was a dedicated section on the wall to the soldiers including the owner who served in the 7^th cavalry in Vietnam. A film based on this was “We Were soldiers” directed by Mel Gibson.

Later that evening 18 of us loopers went to a fish restaurant 'The Yardarm' for dinner and caught up with a few new additions to the group. The weather predicted for the following day was not good so we stayed another day and later that evening had a final dinner with Ted & Sue on 'My Dream'. We were splitting up the next day as we carried on south towards Chicago and they returned to Muskegon across the Lake to haul out and store the boat until summer 2016. We had been together nearly 8 weeks and got on really well together. It not only makes the trip more fun enjoying all the meals, visits & silly incidents that happen but it helps to ease the stress by sharing decision making and plotting and planning. We will miss them but plan to catch up on our return in February 2016.

We left Racine for Chicago at 6.30 am with a worrying forecast but the 8hour trip was calm until the last 10 minutes when we were hit by the black thunderstorms that had been following us for the last hour. We tied up in heavy rain. Welcome to Chicago and summer is well & truly over.