Greek's Folly on the Great Loop: July 17, 18 Washington Island to Nicolet Bay

July 17, 18, Wed, Thur, Washington Island to Nicolet Bay

When pulling up the anchor, it took some time due to the fact that we put out extra chain to keep our holding firm. It also took extra time as the bay was very weedy and we pulled some of those weeds up with our anchor. This reminded us of our experience in Canada, also in a bay, where we too pulled up enough weeds for salad for a week. Once moving, we head to the anchorage at Nicolet Bay - but only after Tom does some cruising into Sister Bay and into Ephraim and finally into the bay. The ride was a pleasant one as Tom just wanted to do some cruising around and check out water depths and boat activity. The wind is to be from the south east so we choose a spot close in and to the east to settle. There are others here in this popular place and by the end of the afternoon, there are 4 power boats and 5 sailboats here for the overnight stay. Pam has purchased us tickets for a local performance at a theater here in Peninsula State park. We dinghy in, walk to the Northern Sky Theater and enjoy the evening in this unusual setting.

In the morning, the sun is shining and we are off to shore for a walk. We secure the dinghy and head off for some exercise. The park has trails and paths that criss cross the area with much of the activity right at the beach area. Many paths are gravel, wide, and well-marked. Even with all that, we still get turned around and off our planned route. No problem, we just turned around and hiked the opposite direction. We walked thru some campgrounds to see the facilities. After a much needed ice cream treat, we head back to Greeks Folly for a relaxing afternoon. However, there was some excitement. Tom was napping, suddenly awoke, to see our dingy off on its own adventure floating away from the harbor all by itself. Tom yelled, "Oh S----!, the dinghy!" dove in the water and swam after it. Soon he discovered he couldn't catch it, was far from Greeks Folly and headed back swimming slowly. He was out of breath, tired, and I threw him a line and a float and he was home safely. Just at that time, a fisherman was heading in to the bay, we waved, yelled and pantomimed about the floating dingy. He somehow got the message, motored out and retrieved our wayward dinghy. We were very grateful, tied her up tightly and breathed easier. We went to Short Vacation for happy hour and double checked the knot on the dinghy before retiring for the evening.

A beautiful sunset from Detroit Island anchorage by Washington
Island

What we pulled up in the mornig from our anchorage and probably
why we dragged our anchor the night before. The weeds had fouled
the anchor preventing it from grabbing the bottom