We had an excellent time last week getting away from the stresses of everyday life and relaxing for a change while cruising around Door County on our boat. It was just the two of us and even Willow was left behind at “The Spa” aka San Villa Kennel. I had recently received and accepted a written offer on the sale of the boat and had planned to use some of the week getting Take Five, a 1985 56 foot Hatteras, ready for survey and sea trial. The buyer, from New York, planned to take her back to the Atlantic coast and keep her somewhere in Maryland. It has been two years since she was in the water and I just wanted to make sure there were no surprises that could potentially jeopardize the sale.
We started in Sturgeon Bay over the weekend and then planned to take the boat north and spend a few nights in Fish Creek before returning to Sturgeon Bay over the following weekend.
The first weekend in Sturgeon Bay was fantastic, enjoying some live music at Stone Harbor Resort on Saturday and checking out some of the new and not-so-new stores located downtown. It’s been five years since I have spent any real time in Door County and it always surprises me how many new places there are to explore. We also spent a day and took a drive around nearly the entire peninsula and had a lot of fun exploring Bailey’s Harbor and Sister Bay. We avoided Fish Creek and Egg Harbor since we knew we’d be there by boat later in the week.
Unfortunately on Tuesday morning, our planned departure day, we had a small glitch in that there was air in the fuel lines of the starboard engine and it took several hours for us to figure it out. Maneuvering a beast like that with one engine is nearly impossible so it had to be fixed before any travel was contemplated. Luckily, Bay Marine came to the rescue and determined that a fuel line connector going to the priming pump was bad and leaking air. After bleeding the lines and replacing the connector, we were finally able to restart the engine and begin our voyage to the north, albeit one day later than planned. I reminded myself that this is exactly why I wanted to get out on the boat so this sort of thing wouldn’t complicate the sea trial for the buyer. Some friends spent the night with us on Tuesday and we managed to not get into too much trouble with them as we planned for our rescheduled travel on Wednesday morning.
It was an uneventful trip there and we had a great time once we arrived, enjoying all the amenities Fish Creek had to offer and even got a couple of 36-mile bike rides in to boot. Our first ride was a loop that took us through Peninsula State Park overlooking the Bay of Green Bay and it’s just gorgeous! I had taken my bike through there many times and am certain I will never get tired of it. There’s always a view! The second bike trip took us south into some horrendous winds, but I managed to keep up with Natalie (barely) and we found ourselves at the newly remodeled Shipwrecked Brew Pub in Egg Harbor for lunch.
Our final bike ride in Door County Friday morning was canceled because while I was planning to get Take Five ready for the journey back to Sturgeon Bay, I wasn’t able to start the starboard engine again. We discovered another connector on the same priming pump was leaking air. In the end, we were able to get her back to Sturgeon Bay and successfully docked (with two engines!!) and enjoyed the rest of our weekend from our home port.
Natalie decided that our final Saturday afternoon and evening was to be spent bar hopping. Not something I really do that much, but there were several places in Sturgeon Bay that we had never visited and she wanted to learn about them in preparation for her family’s arrival later in July. Evidently they like beer. They will be spending a week in Door County with us and we wanted to ensure we were well versed on the best local establishments for entertaining and drinking a few beers. We ended up visiting several nice places and several dives, all of which ended up making the afternoon quite enjoyable. We ended up visiting Poh’s Corner Pub , Butch’s Bar, Cherry Lanes, The Red Room and The Brick Lot Pub and Grill.
During our bar hopping “tour” we also admired many of the 25 cherry displays located throughout the city. They are part of the Cherries Jubilee, celebrating 21 years of public art in Sturgeon Bay. For years, they have done this, with an auction during the early fall every year where lucky bidders are able to take them home. In fact, years ago, I went to one of these auctions and ended up bidding and winning a massive sturgeon made out of metal junk. It was named Rusted History and was the most popular and received the highest bids of any of the other pieces that year. I even ended up in the Sturgeon Bay newspaper as a result, one of my very few “claims to fame”! I still have it on display at my Steinthal property.
After all this planning to get Take Five ready for sale, I got a call during the last Friday of our week-long vacation that the buyer had completely “ghosted” my broker and hadn’t even paid the earnest money, which was due within 48 hours of the signed agreement. It seems he was using our accepted written agreement as a bargaining tool for other potential boat deals he had in the works. He wanted to show the other sellers that he had our written agreement and hoped it would sweeten the deal with another seller. Really a crappy thing to do, in my opinion.
This dilemma forced Natalie and me to have a long discussion about our future with the boat. This was her first time ever spending any time on the boat and in Door County and I think it opened her eyes to a whole new world of exploration. I have always loved Door County and have spent countless days there over the last 19 years of my ownership of Take Five. I bought the boat in July of 2002 and it has spent most of its time in Door County over the years. When my kids were young, we would spend nearly every summer weekend in Door County and on the boat and she has served us well throughout the time with many very fond memories to remember as time goes on.
Currently, our slip in Sturgeon Bay is located on a wonderful property with indoor and outdoor pools and hot tubs, an exercise room and it’s located within walking distance to the downtown with all the touristy and not so touristy venues. I think Natalie is starting to feel that perhaps the Door County experience would be a good one to have for her and her children and we are now considering our options of a possible future with Take Five at least until her kids are out of the house. The major drawback to this is that her engines (Detroit Diesel 8V92Ts) are ancient and are in the need of a major overhaul which is not a cheap endeavor at all.
We will continue to weigh our options and plans for the immediate and more distant future after learning more about what the costs would be to give Take Five that much-needed engine overhaul, but it seems like there is potential for creating even more fond memories aboard the boat that has given me so much enjoyment over the years.
In the meantime, here are a few more pictures of our time last week!
