Port Washington → Milwaukee
September 27, 2026
Distance: ~21 nautical miles
Waterway / State: Lake Michigan — Wisconsin
Locks: 0 | 0 total so far
Notable: An easy three-hour run after a week-long weather hold, arriving in Milwaukee around sunset.
The Trip
After about a week at home, we returned to Port Washington and got Breaking Awave ready to go again.
We had been watching the weather pretty much every day while we were home, and the window for getting to Milwaukee kept looking better. Thankfully, it held.
The trip south was about three hours, with very little wave action. After the weather that had kept us off the lake for the previous week, it was a very easy way to get back into the trip.
We came into Milwaukee right around sunset, which made the approach especially nice. Seeing the city from the water as the light was changing was a very different view than arriving by car.
We got settled at McKinley Marina, tied up near the end of the dock, and were officially moving again.
The Experience
Milwaukee was familiar to us because we had been there before for an AGLCA Looper Lifestyle Seminar, back when the Great Loop was still something we were learning about rather than something we were actually doing.
Now we were arriving aboard our own boat.
That was a pretty good feeling.
Once we got settled, we took an Uber downtown and ended up at The Outsider, a rooftop bar with a great view over the city.
We had just come from a wedding the night before and were still feeling the effects a little, so we weren’t looking for a big night out. We had a quick dinner, enjoyed the rooftop for a while and headed back to the boat.
After a week away, it was nice just to be back aboard and moving south again.
At the Helm
There really wasn’t a big boating lesson on this leg—and we were perfectly happy with that.
We had left Breaking Awave in Port Washington while Lake Michigan got rough, watched the weather while we were home, and came back when the conditions looked right.
The difference was pretty dramatic.
A week earlier, we had been standing on the harbor wall watching large waves roll in. Now we were making the same stretch of lake in very calm water and arriving in Milwaukee at sunset.
Sometimes the best lesson is simply that waiting works.
Today’s Route
[Nebo route visual]
Today in Pictures
[Returning to Port Washington, getting Breaking Awave underway again, calm Lake Michigan, Milwaukee skyline on approach, sunset arrival, McKinley Marina and rooftop views from The Outsider]