Adventures of the Jubilee

Sturgeon Bay to Lake Huron

7/25/2007 - Sturgeon Bay, WI, to Frankfort, MI - 51.7 miles

On Wednesday morning the humidity was high and the waters in the Sturgeon Bay channel were dead calm.  A few charter fishermen beat us out of the Quarterdeck Marina at first light, and we, too, were making a good, early start on an anticipated long day crossing Lake Michigan to Frankfort, on Michigan's Lower Peninsula.

When we entered Sturgeon Bay from Green Bay we had passed through a largely natural channel that cuts about 2/3's of the way through the Door Peninsula.  Our trip this morning through the rest of the channel into Lake Michigan proper followed a 1 1/4-mile long, 160-foot wide, shipping canal.  The canal was originally cut years ago to allow commercial ships to transit to and from Sturgeon Bay and lower Green Bay without going around the tip of the Door Peninsula through the infamous Porte des Morte (Death's Door) passage. 

Prior to the wonders of GPS and electronic chartplotters, Porte des Morte was an often-treacherous entry into Green Bay, particularly in heavy weather and poor visibility.  Over the years many ships completed their final voyage on one of the rocky shoals marking Death's Door.  Today the Sturgeon Bay ship canal is used more heavily by pleasure craft than commercial vessels.  The picture at right was taken as Jubilee followed the canal out to Lake Michigan.

All through the morning the open lake was flat calm and heavy with 3/4 mile visibility haze, so we fired up the radar to track the numerous fishing boats trolling up to about 8 miles out.  Around noon a breeze filled in for a promising sail, but after 2 hours of sailing we needed an engine boost again to keep moving at an acceptable speed.  The wind had almost fully died by the time we entered the Frankfort breakwater.

Frankfort is completely transformed from when we visited during our honeymoon in 1968.  But to be perfectly honest, we've changed a bit over the ensuing years too.  We had stayed overnight in Frankfort to catch the morning car ferry across the lake to Manitowoc, Wisconsin.  In 1968, other than the ferry docks, a sleepy motel, and a couple of cafes, we didn't recall too much of note in the town.  This time was different.  Although there were three marinas in the bay area, we decided to anchor and dingied in to see the sights, finding numerous restaurants, artsy gift shops, boutique clothing stores, and more ... but the car ferry is long gone.  Our Frankfort purchases were more mundane ... a few groceries and a stop at the post office.

7/26/2007 - Frankfort to Charlevoix - 68.0 miles

Another hazy day greeted us early Thursday morning.  All three anchored sailboats began raising their anchors simultaneously, as if by silent command.  Clearly early departures were everyone's plan for the day.  The holding in Frankfort is excellent, as we can attest by all the mud that came up with the chain and anchor.  We noticed the other boats struggling to clean their chain with a deck brush and pail.  We're sure glad we put in the pressure deck wash a few years ago.

Just outside the breakwater we were greeted with 12 knot southeasterlies, which promised a nice quartering run to the north.  We did have a great 2-hour sail, eating breakfast underway while auto steered Jubilee.  Auto only eats amps for breakfast, and has mastered eating and working at the same time.

When the shoreline did peek out through the haze it revealed stunning sand dunes rising amazingly steeply some 200 feet or more from the surface of the lake, remnants no doubt of the mega-lake that must have covered this area long before our honeymoon trip here.

The forecast was for light southerlies with the possibility of mid-day rain, followed by rain and thunderstorms late in the day, overnight, and all day Friday.  Accordingly we dropped South Manitou and its east-southeast-facing open roadstead from our anchorage plans Thursday night.  Instead Bill laid out three possible courses ... Leland, a small marina and town about 40 miles from Frankfort should the weather deteriorate early, and if it was looking like we could likely get further along before the expected thunderstorms arrived, Northport (~65 miles from Frankfort - another marina and town) or Charlevoix (~68 miles from Frankfort and a major boating center for the area). 

The North Manitou shoal light, marking a narrows between North Manitou Island and Pyramid Point on the mainland, was to be our decision point.  The laker Integrity passed us right at the light, and shortly after rounding turned slightly to port to proceed up-lake to the Straits of Mackinac and beyond.  With nothing too threatening on the horizon at this point (to the extent one could even see the horizon in the haze), we decided to continue on.

We just made the Charlevoix Bascule Bridge 6:00pm opening by notching the throttle up a few hundred RPM for the last 10 minutes, saving us the need to wait an extra 30 minutes for the next opening.  Entering Charlevoix is like entering another world, instantly changing from "north woods" to a harbor that reminded us of places like Martha's Vineyard.  Once through the entrance canal one enters a small (1/3 mile diameter) but fairly deep entry lake, appropriately called Round Lake.  The shores are chock-a-block with slips opposite beautiful lake homes and well manicured lawns to the North, and marinas, condos and businesses to the south.  To the east another short canal connects Round Lake with Charlevoix Lake, a 14-mile long body of water that reaches all the way down to Boyne City.  We anchored in the NE corner of Round Lake.

7/27-28/2007 - Charlevoix Venetian Festival

Unbeknownst to us, Charlevoix was wrapping up their week-long Venetian Festival the weekend we arrived.  How lucky is that?   We started our exploration by walking the downtown waterfront and shops on Friday, taking a leisurely lunch at an outdoor restaurant near the Bascule Bridge. 

Charlevoix marks the start of Michigan's Riviera (our term), including the towns of Boyne/Charlevoix, and a little further up the coast, Petoskey and Harbor Springs.  Through this stretch the boats were bigger (up to 100'), the cars fancier, the shops more up-scale, and the lake-side homes and gated communities tastefully designed with perfectly manicured grounds.  In our years of boating we've seen many yachts with cranes to drop their large power tenders into the water.  We've seen yachts with heli-pads.  We've even seen a yacht with a folding-wing float plane on deck.  But prior to Charlevoix we had never seen a yacht with a power tender and an amphibious car on deck.  Pretty cool.  We wonder if we can work something like that on Jubilee without sinking her.

A continuous concert took place at Charlevoix's Lake Michigan beach, including a great bluegrass band just prior to the evening's fireworks.  And wow, what a fireworks ... 40 minutes of a continuous "grand finale-class" display.

Saturday the Venetian Festival Parade kicked off our visit to town.  Lake Wobegon, you better step aside.  These Northern Michigan women are far above average, don't you agree?

After the parade Judy did some more exploring while Bill biked out to K-Mart, ACE, and a marine store for some needed supplies.  When we met again at the waterfront around 4:30, people were already staking out their spots around Round Lake for the evening's Venetian (lighted) boat parade and another fireworks display.  When we arrived on Thursday night we literally stumbled into the primo anchoring spot for watching the boat parade and fireworks that evening.  By 10:00, when darkness had fallen for the parade and fireworks displays to begin, boats were anchored in rafts up to 7-wide for the event.  There were literally hundreds of spectator boats. Thank goodness tere was no wind to speak of, or there would have been collisions galore.  Attached are a couple of pictures from the parade and fireworks that evening.  This fireworks display lasted "only" about 20 minutes, but like the night before it was a near-continuous "Grand Finale".  Only this time the displays were almost directly overhead.  Wow!

7/29/2007 - Charlevoix to Petoskey - 17.9 miles

We had a leisurely down-wind and quartering sail in about 8 knots true between Charlevoix and Petoskey.  No speed records today, but with only a little over 15 miles to go we didn't care about speed.

Petoskey turned out to be Judy's favorite town so far (Bill's was Charlevoix).  We took a slip in the Municipal Marina so we could easily explore the town, and explore we did.  We quickly learned of the Hemmingway heritage in the area, and finally understood a sign we had seen in Charlevoix: "Hemmingway never slept here".

Starting less than 2 months after he was born in 1899, and until 1917, Hemingway spent every summer at his Chicago parent's cottage near here.  After returning from WW I as a 20-year-old war hero, he again spent a few months between 1919 and 1920 in Petoskey, recuperating after having 227 pieces of shrapnel removed from his legs from action on the Italian front. It was in a Petoskey boarding house (pictured) that he penned his first short stories for publication.  We understand those first works were no literary masterpieces (they were never accepted for publication) but they were a start.  It wasn't until four years later, with "In Our Time", that Hemmingway started to display his full literary potential. 

Although Hemmingway left the area for wider horizons elsewhere, experiences from the days he spent here kept appearing in his books for years to come ... the "coldest on record" winter he endured here, the lake vistas, the city streets, bars and pool halls, and of course the people, kept reappearing in one story or another.

We enjoyed one of the best dinners on our trip so far at one of Hemmingway's Petoskey hangouts, the Park Garden Cafe which is now called the City Park Grill.  This place had it all ... great menu, excellent food, attentive and well-trained staff, and reasonable prices.

7/30/2007 - Petoskey to Harbor Springs - 4.6 miles

Monday morning it was but a 3-mile jaunt across Little Traverse Bay to Harbor Springs, to which we added another mile or so checking out the harbor before dropping the hook.  With a 12-knot west wind we decided to roll out the jib and sail even though we knew we'd be there in only half an hour. 

All three towns along the "Rivera" were participating an original art auction around a sailboat theme ... "The Art of Sailing: Charting a Course Across Northern Michigan".  Each town had scores of identically carved wooden boats, each with metal-sculptured sails uniquely painted with a special design by the submitting artist.  Later this summer these artistic sculptures will be auctioned off, with the proceeds going to the Red Cross.  Similar to Marquette's "grandmother doors" described in the Lake Superior transit section of our blog, the sailboat sculptures throughout each town added a unique artistic touch.

As in Charlevoix, we had a glass of wine and a mid-afternoon appetizer at an outdoor cafe facing the large city dock where two 100' yachts were tied up, along with numerous other 50'+ vessels.  Very civilized.

7/31/2007 - Harbor Springs to St. Ignace, MI - 54.6 miles

As of Tuesday afternoon we completed our Michigan Loop, for a total of 523 Lake Michigan miles from our west-bound track under the Mackinac Bridge to our east-bound track back under the bridge (see the Navionics screen snap of our Lake Michigan route below).  Quite frankly, neither of us expected our Michigan Loop to be as memorable as it's been.  The places, the experiences, and the people made for a wonderful July cruise.

Like many of our Lake Michigan transits, Tuesday's leg to St. Ignace was also on the diesel, with apparent winds off the stern at less than 2 knots.  In fact, looking back at our log, the only down-side to our Lake Michigan travels was the endless motoring while a weak high seemed to remain positioned right on top of us for much of the month. 

Tomorrow we'll be reprovisioning here at St. Ignace in preparation for the several weeks we plan to cruise the northern reaches of Lake Huron, an area of the Great Lakes we've been eagerly looking forward to exploring for years.  Known as Lake Huron's North Channel and Georgian Bay, this area is filled with hundreds of islands and with secluded wilderness anchorages too numerous to count.  The area also contains smatterings of cottages and small towns for the occasional dose of civilization.  Internet access is expected to be a bit sporadic while we're cruising this area over the next month, but we will try to update the blog whenever we can get a WiFi connection.  Continue to watch this space!   

Green Bay Part II

We returned to Jubilee on Friday evening, 7/20, after our "side trip" home and up to Duluth-Superior for the Great Lakes Cruising Club (GLCC) Rendezvous.  Our roughly four days at home before and after Duluth gave us a chance to have dinner with Jill and Li An twice (unfortunately Thomas was out of town on business both times), as well as to see some other Twin Cities friends and attend to some miscellaneous business. 

We had a wonderful time at the GLCC Rendezvous.  Approximately 200 people from all 5 of the Great Lakes were in attendance.  We can't count the number of times someone told us "be sure to call when you come through (name your port)", nor could we tally the cruising advice we received for harbors yet to be encountered this summer. 

The Rendezvous was also a great opportunity to catch up with several friends we'll miss seeing on the lake this summer, including Dave & Donna Steffens (pictured at Duluth Entry with the Mesabi Miner in the background), and Stan Cory and Linda (picture shot while on the Vista Star between Superior, Wisconsin, and Duluth).  Dave, Donna, Stan and Linda, we just had to put your faces on the blogosphere ... we hope you'll enjoy your new found fame!

Ahh, but this is a cruising blog.  On to the cruising!

7/21/2007 - Menominee, MI, to Sister Bay, WI - 24.4 miles

While we still had our rental car on Friday night, Bill picked up two new 12-volt 4D batteries from Nest Egg Marine in Marinette, WI, replacing the four 6-volt house batteries that were already used and in the boat when we purchased Jubilee in 2000.  The old batteries were getting so tired (as well-used 8-10 year old batteries do) that our chart plotters were shutting down due to a low voltage dip whenever we started the engine.  The new batteries should give us well north of 300 amps power, which hopefully will alleviate that problem.  But more on this in a minute.

Our trip to Sister Bay was uneventful.  With plans to meet college classmates Dwight and Linda Davis in Sister Bay, we poured on the coal and motored in the extremely light winds.  The Menominee Yacht Club was hosting their "100 miler" race that day.  For some reason the 100 mile race is only about 35 miles, but no one we talked with could remember where it went when it was truly a "100 miler".  Perhaps the name has something to do with the conditions.  For those who raced it must have felt like 100 miles.  The fleet started about 4 hours before we left Menominee, and they weren't yet at the farthest mark when we motored by them around 4:30 pm.  It was a long day, and night, for many of the participants.

Dwight and Linda sail a 40' O'Day out of Sister Bay, and also have a beautiful bay-side home just north of town.  As an added bonus, Mike Effinger, another college classmate and frat brother of Bill's (as is Dwight), with his wife Gayle, happened to be in the area sailing their 17' Precision, Gayle Force, that weekend.  There was lots of reminiscing going on at Dwight and Linda's home over dinner together that night. 

Oh ... it was also Bill's birthday ... one he'll certainly long remember.

Sunday morning found us in Ephiram for cherry pancakes with Dwight, Linda, Mike and Gayle.  It was the height of cherry season, so the cherrys were as fresh as can be ... and the pancakes unbelievably good.

7/22/2007 - Sister Bay to Egg Harbor - 16.5 miles

Shortly after noon we said our goodbye's to Dwight, Linda, Mike and Gayle, and set off with intentions of going to Sturgeon Bay.  Unfortunately we found ourselves in yet another mid-day Green Bay "high", with almost no wind.  We tried sailing for a while, but quickly realized we weren't going to get to Sturgeon Bay that way that day.  Instead we turned in at Egg Harbor and anchored off the beach for a relaxing afternoon on the boat and exploring in town.  The anchorage rewarded us with some wonderful sunset images, as shown here.

7/23/2007 - Egg Harbor to Sturgeon Bay + Sturgeon Bay lay day - 26.7 miles

Our distance traveled was quite a bit more than the point to point distance, as we tacked up-wind much of the way.  The sailing was great for about four hours, then shut down as we neared the Sturgeon Bay waterway. 

The Sturgeon Bay waterway is a deep commercial shipping canal that connects Green Bay with Lake Michigan proper.  In the town of Sturgeon Bay are two bascule bridges that provide car and truck access to the northern Door peninsula, but also tilt up to allow vessel to pass beneath.  The attached picture shows the Michigan Street bridge raised for Jubilee and several other boats during their hourly bridge opening.

In Sturgeon Bay we stayed at the Quarterdeck Marina on the recommendation of another sailing fraternity brother, Barry Hammerberg.  Barry and Ruth are presently sailing on the east coast so we weren't able to get together with them, but their home port, the Quarterdeck, is a marina we'd heartily recommend.

After visiting the Sturgeon Bay Maritime Museum together (don't miss it if you come through Sturgeon Bay), Judy went on to check out the shops in Sturgeon Bay while Bill finished some yet-ondone boat projects.  While we were berthed at Quarterdeck, Nest Egg Marine in Marinette arranged for a battery delivery truck to exchange out one of our new (sorry, 3-day-old) batteries under warranty.  It turned out that one of the batteries we purchased in Marinette was DOA and would not take a charge.  The replacement was delivered as promised, and except for Bill having to sweat a bit to get the bad battery out and the new battery in (4-D's are much larger and weigh about 3 times as much as a group 24 car battery, perhaps more), we were impressed by the professionalism and service of both Nest Egg and their battery supplier.

Another pleasant customer service surprise at Sturgeon Bay came from West Marine.  We had ordered a turning block from West to be shipped to the Sturgeon Bay store and held for us there.  When Bill called and asked directions so he could bike out to pick it up, the store manager said he'd drive the part down to our boat in 5 minutes.  West has always been strong on customer service, but this store manager really goes the "extra mile" for his customers.

Continuing our "reunion cruise" theme, we were able to get in touch with a sorority sister of Judy's, Carol Casey, who lives in nearby Green Bay.   Carol was an attendant at our wedding, and Judy was an attendant for Carol's first marriage.  Carol and her soon to be new husband, Tom Ramsfield, drove up to Sturgeon Bay Tuesday evening for drinks on the boat and dinner at a local, traditional, Wisconsin Supper Club that evening.  Bill even had a frog leg with his seafood platter.  How much more traditional "Wisconsin" could that be?  Carol and Tom will be getting married the Sunday before Labor Day.  They make a great couple, and we wish them the very best.

And so marks the end of our Green Bay travels.  Capping this part of the trip off by getting together with so many long time friends was the icing on a very fine Green Bay cake.  But it's now time to move on.  We plan to leave Sturgeon Bay around 7:00 am Wednesday morning to cross the lake to Frankfort, MI, on the Lower Peninsula.  More on that section of the trip with our next installment.  Stay tuned!

Beaver Island to Menominee, MI

"A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature.  It is the earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depths of his own nature." - Henry David Thoreau

This leg of our trip will give us an opportunity to explore an area we originally sailed back in the late 70's aboard our first small cruising boat, a trailerable Columbia 23.  We made two trips to the bay in those years, one with our daughter, Jill, and another with Ron Hitzemann and Bev.  Bill's first Cruising World article, "Chasing the Green Bay Trades", was based on our 1978 trip here with Jill.  During that week we enjoyed great sailing winds blowing in favorable directions for each day of our two weeks on the bay.  Unfortunately this trip to Green Bay didn't start out that way. 

The picture at right captures just one of the many special moments from this portion of our trip ... a sunset as captured from Jubilee's cockpit at South River Bay.  Follow along with us as we cruise the bay.

7/3/2007 - Beaver Island, MI, to Green Bay's Ellison Bay - 88.1 miles

Forecasts for today called for south winds increasing up to 15-20 knots.  Our course was to initially take us west, then head WSW for about 50 miles before winding around the islands that mark the entry into Green Bay.  The forecast had the makings of a great sailing day ... a delightful change in outlook.  Green Bay's Washington Island was at least 70 miles away, so an early departure was in order.

After cleaning up lots of clay on the chain and anchor, we were finally on our way out the St. James buoys by 6:45am EDT.  We motor-sailed around the buoy-marked shoals on the northern end of Beaver, and were then quickly off on a comfortable near-hull-speed beam reach.  Over the next four hours, increasing winds brought a deep reef in the jib and one reef in the main, which kept us moving comfortably in the mid-6's while wind over the deck increased to 18-20 knots. 

Then the winds veered to the SW.  Uggh.  And the short steep Lake Michigan chop was quickly building to 4' and growing.  Double uggh.  No longer able to lay our mark under sail alone, and with a day spent tacking over 50 miles upwind, then sailing another 10-20 miles to find a suitable anchorage unfamiliar to us at dusk or later, we decided to start up the diesel again for an 8-hour motor-sail, pinching under engine and the single reefed main for the Bay.

Lesson:  We should have stayed another day in Beaver, notwithstanding forecasts for West winds the next day.  It was a grueling day, as we pounded into steep, short, 4-6 foot seas with occasional 6-8 footers.

We were off the big lake (and the big seas) and poking into Washington Harbor by around 7:00 pm, but we weren't comfortable anchoring there.  We ended up heading another 12 miles upwind to Ellison Bay for a well deserved calm evening.

Earlier we had said that we'll probably pay for our days of calm weather.  The payback has started.  Hopefully Independence Day will bring more favorable conditions.

7/4-5/2007 - Ellison Bay to Escanaba Michigan, plus a lay day in Escanaba - 31.7 miles

We awoke to fog with 1/4-mile visibility in the bay, and with a breeze that was slowing shifting to the SW and W.  About 90 minutes later, with perhaps 1/3 of a mile visibility and a building breeze now beyond the protection we had been getting from the peninsula, we decided to weigh anchor for Escanaba, about 32 miles to the north.

As we cleared the bay and the wind filled in, we finally had a favorable wind direction, albeit light, but with only 32 miles to go that wasn't an issue.  The fog had burned off later in the morning, allowing us to shut down the radar while we ran wing and wing (mainsail and jib run on opposite sides of the boat) downwind to the south wind that had settled in ... a very nice sail.  Of course there has to be some excitement in every day, and for us it was dealing with one of those "occasional" thunderstorms that were running through the area on the 4th.  About 2 miles out of Escanaba we were hit with a strong T-Squall which poured rain for several minutes and dropped visibility to near zero.  Luckily we had dropped the sails and battened down just before the cell hit.  Judy drove from inside while Bill tracked our status on the chartplotter and the position of other boats by radar (amazing how well the rain clutter electronics allow you to see through even heavy rain).  After about 10 nail biting minutes during the heaviest rain and wind, and then another 20 minutes while the trailing part of the squall passed, the skies quickly cleared just outside of the Escanaba marina to reveal a beautiful sunny blue sky day.  What a welcome!

Bill had contacted Great Lakes Cruising Club Escanaba Port Captain Marilyn Kinsey (picture at right) by phone the prior night, and she helped arrange a slip for us with a great view of the fireworks that evening.  She and her husband, Glen, also invited us to an Escanaba Yacht Club pot luck that night.  What a great way to meet folks!  The Escanaba Yacht Club was formed in the 1930's, and regatta trophies in their display case go back almost that far.  Among the members we met were a couple who had made two trips on their boat to the Caribbean, and another couple (he's the oldest living stockholder in the club, having been given stock for helping build the original club as a high school student in the 30's) who did the "loop" on their trawler about 5 years ago (doing the loop involves taking the Illinois River from Chicago to the Mississippi, heading for the Gulf on the Mississippi or via the alternate TennTom branch, skirting the Gulf of Mexico to and around south Florida, running the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) up the east coast to New York, then taking the Hudson and the Erie canal back up to the Great Lakes and tying the loop back to your home port).  We left with a number of tips we know we'll be able to put to good use as we proceed on our travels.

Wednesday night's fireworks display from the park adjacent to the marina was spectacular.  You couldn't ask for a better seat than our own boat.  There were so many fireworks, and they ran so long, that it was actually getting hard to see the final displays through all the smoke!  We felt we had been royally welcomed to the city.

7/6-7/2007 - Escanaba to South River Bay, plus a lay day in the bay - 28.0 miles

We departed Escanaba with a gaggle of sailboats, most headed to their home marina in Menominie, MI, after celebrating the 4th in Escanaba.  Also traveling south were Marilyn Kinsey and Glen aboard their beautiful blue Bristol 35, Adena.  With initial very light winds all were motoring except Marilyn and Glen, who tried valiantly to get the chute to fly.  No such luck, but we were impressed by their tenacity.

However shortly thereafter a beautiful SW breeze filled in as we turned the corner ot head up Big Bay De Noc for our best sail of the trip so far.  We were sailing on the quarter (wind of the starboard stern) with jib, staysail and full main to our intended stop at Fayette.  Unfortunately there was "no room at the inn" at Fayette ... boats were already rafted to the max, so we proceeded 3 miles further north to South River Bay.  South River Bay is a little-known anchorage with a tricky entry that Marilyn and Glen had recently charted extensively, so we followed them in over the deepest part of the unmarked river bar ... a least depth of 7.4'.  We wouldn't want to attempt that entry with our 6' draft in any wave action!  We anchored in about 9 1/2' over sand, with perfect protection from the SW winds that blew all the time we were there.

We tried a little kite flying off the cockpit in the breezy anchorage (see picture), some dingy exploring up the South River, plus simply chilled out a bit and got together with Marilyn and Glen on each others boats to gam a bit.  It was a nice change from the busy 4th of July marina scene in Escanaba.  We're hoping that the Fayette crowd will leave Sunday morning for their home harbors and Monday morning jobs so we can move up there tomorrow for a couple of days exploring the historic iron smelting site.

7/8-9/2007 - South River Bay to Fayette, plus a lay day in Fayette - 4.4 miles

Sunday morning after the weekenders had left, we motored the short distance up to Fayette, this time finding plenty of dock space.  Fayette was arguably our favorite harbor during our last Green Bay cruise in the late 70's, and it's destined to be our favorite Green Bay stop again on this trip.  Shortly after the Civil War the Jackson Iron company established a smelting operation at Fayette to reduce UP iron ore to pig iron for subsequent shipment to down-lakes steel mills, primarily Cleveland.  A bustling town with nearly 500 residents quickly grew around the two blast furnaces, which began operation in 1867.  Forests from the surrounding Garden Peninsula provided wood for charcoal which in turn was used to heat the blast furnaces, and the massive limestone deposits located right at the natural snail-shell harbor provided the lime used as a flux in the furnaces and for mortar in associated building construction.  During its 24 years of operation Fayette's furnaces produced some 230,000 tons of pig iron, but operations ceased abruptly as the Garden Peninsula timber supply ran out and more efficient coal-fired blast furnaces down-lakes started coming on line. 

As a result of its remote location, many of the buildings remained standing to this day, although the town was abandoned, or at least partially abandoned, for most of those intervening years.  The Michigan DNR has done an outstanding job of stabilizing the remaining buildings, reconstructing and refurnishing some in disrepair, and providing excellent interpretive materials for self-tours of the site.  We spent the better part of Sunday touring the various buildings and walking surrounding trails.

Sunday night we walked about a mile to Sherry's Port Bar for whitefish with Glen & Marilyn and another sailing family from the Pontiac, MI, area.  Sherry's is an experience in itself ... the bar and restaurant filled with boating and fishing-related memorabilia of all sorts.  On Monday we got our bikes out for a wider ranging tour of the area, stopping again at Sherry's for lunch, this time meeting Sherry in the flesh.  She's quite a character.  If you visit Fayette make sure you stop there and say hi.

Monday afternoon was dead calm under partly cloudy skies, perfect for finally getting a long-overdue coat of Cetol on the exterior teak.  Jubilee was looking a lot better by Monday night.  Hopefully by September we'll have the rest of our spring boat list done.

After dinner Monday night, and a refreshing walk around the point that wraps the harbor, Bill came across the Thoreau quote that opens this section of our blog. Better than our words ever could, it captured for us the essence of this place and this evening. 

7/10/2007 - Fayette to Washington Island Peterson Bay (Detroit Harbor) - 32.5 miles

With forecasts of SE winds increasing and veering to the south and southwest by early afternoon, we finished breakfast and were outside the Fayette harbor buoy by 7:30 am, sailing with a reefed main and full jib at near hull speed directly along our course to Washington Island.  As the wind built and veered more toward the south about an hour later, we partially reefed the jib and tightened the sheets, still managing to hold our course.  But later, as the wind further increased and veered to the south (essentially on our nose), and with severe weather forecast for the afternoon, we dropped the jib at the north end of Washington Island and motor-sailed the final miles. 

We weren't able to secure a dock in the harbor, so anchored in the adjacent Peterson Bay.  The entrance to Detroit Harbor is narrow but well marked with buoys.  That said, after making the turn into Peterson Bay one has to trust the chart plotter and the two red buoys inside the harbor, since your depth sounder is virtually useless over the weedy bottom (it's unnerving to see 5' on the depth sounder when you draw 6).  A few minutes later we had the anchor down in about 10' with a 7:1 all chain scope should anything serious blow in.  Thunderstorm and tornado watches were posted just after we arrived, so it was good to be anchored in an area with about 340 degree protection, albeit with a shallow and weedy bottom.   

Luckily the thunder cells missed us.  Our trusty CQR anchor and all-chain rode held us well during the mid-20-knot south winds that kept howling through the anchorage, but around 11:00pm the wind shifted west and at midnight we began seeing the predicted higher gusts.  In one of those gusts the CQR broke out (see picture of weed ball we found the next morning).  We motored back up-wind and set our 44 pound Bruce along with the CQR, not able to tell if we were dropping anchors in weeds or sand.  We hit weeds and in 30 minutes were dragging again.  Up came the Bruce for a 2nd reset, which also dragged after about a half hour.  Our 3rd re-set took about 30 minutes, most of that time with Bill working feverishly to get the weed ball off the anchor while Judy held us in place under power.  The 3rd reset (around 2:45 am) held, but just to be sure we kept an anchor watch all night long.  Through all of this it was pitch black with heavy overcast skies (doesn't stuff like this always happen at night?). 

In our over 25 years of cruising, most of those years anchoring 25-30 nights a season, we've never felt the need for a constant all-night anchor watch.  Peterson Bay will go down as one of the three most trying anchorage nights in our sailing experience to date. 

7/11/2007 - Washington Island to Menominee, MI - 38.3 miles

Over the course of the prior evening neither of us got more than about 2 1/2 hours of sleep, but by morning we were anxious to get out of Detroit Harbor and on to Menominee.  After breakfast we set about raising our two anchors, which took a full hour due to all the weed in the chain and especially on the CQR (the prior night's cleaning of the Bruce and a lucky last drop in a sand patch resulted in it coming up reasonably clean).  Once out of the harbor the westerlies continued, necessitating a tight pinching motor-sail in lumpy seas and dropping winds until we were around Chambers Island, where we sailed for a couple of hours before the wind dropped off again.  Thank goodness for diesels, or we'd still be in Western Lake Superior.

Ruminations...

And so ends the first segment of our sailing travels for this summer.  For the next nine days, 7/12-21, we'll be driving back home to the Twin Cites for a few days, and up to Duluth-Superior to attend this year's Great Lakes Cruising Club Rendezvous. 

The closing chart plotter image in this segment shows our track to date, as we've crossed Lake Superior, traversed the St. Mary's River, sailed under the Mackinac Bridge to Lake Michigan, traveled across upper Lake Michigan to Green Bay, and then spent about a week and a half poking around in the northern areas of Green Bay.  Since leaving Bayfield we've logged some 681.2 nautical miles so far (about 784 statute miles), but geographically we aren't any further east than we were when we were half way across Lake Superior. 

Of course, that's what sailboat cruising is all about ... not looking to traverse the shortest/fastest distance between two points, but rather taking time to smell the roses.  We couldn't help but contrast land travel with water travel as we sped across Wisconsin to New Brighton by car on Thursday.  When traveling by car, most of what you pass is just a blur.  Traveling by plane gives you even less sense of what's down below. 

However, traveling by sailboat forces you closer to the world and people around you.  You're keenly aware of your surroundings ... the protection a bay offers, even its bottom composition, and of course the weather.  And meeting people seems easier too.  Fellow cruisers as well as boater and non-boater locals often walk the docks in the evenings, stopping to chat (as do we).  On Jubilee's stern is the hailing port of St. Paul, MN (no one knows where New Brighton is).  We wouldn't even venture a guess at how many times we've already been asked how we got "here" from St. Paul. 

In the harbors we visit we explore the area on foot, or strike out in the dingy or on our bikes to see the sights ... opportunities we don't have or too-often don't take advantage of during a driving or flying vacation.  And while we're traveling this slow-paced route, we often learn of out of the way spots like Sherry's Port Bar in Fayette, a great spot to have a fresh fish dinner and a beer in the boater's or fisherman's version of a biker bar, albeit a very family friendly biker bar.

If these ruminations make it sound like we're really getting in the groove of this thing called cruising, we are.  We can't wait to get back and resume our travels in about 10 days.  But of course we also can't wait to see our daughter and grand daughter (unfortunately Thomas is out of town right now, so we'll miss him).  We'll be seeing Jill & Li An tomorrow night (Friday) for dinner.

We hope your summer is going as well as ours has so far.  Look for our next posting somewhere around the last week of July when we resume sailing after our Minnesota side-trip.  'Til then ... Cheers!

    

Sault St. Marie to Lake Michigan

The next few days after leaving Sault St. Marie were spent connecting the dots between Lake Superior and northern Lake Michigan, slightly dipping our toes into Lake Huron along the way.  After cruising northern Lake Michigan we plan to return to this section of Huron to spend a few weeks cruising Lake Huron’s North Channel and Georgian Bay.

So join us as we set out for Lake Michigan!

Thursday 6/28/2007 – Sault St. Marie to Detour Village, MI – 37.8 miles

After filling the diesel tanks as soon as the marina opened in the morning, we departed Sault St. Marie to proceed down the St. Mary’s River.  The winds, although fairly boisterous during our lay days at the Sault, now had turned to light northwesterlies.  The St. Mary’s runs roughly NW to SE, so this meant motoring again with apparent winds of near zero or “on the nose”, created by our boat speed.  Someday yet we will sail, but not today. 

It’s probably just as well, as trying to sail down the winding and often very-narrow dredged channels, at the same time dealing with freighters, can be a bit much, if not impossible.  The river currents made our 37.8-mile “through the water” distance about 4 miles shorter than the actual distance.

We traveled down the up-bound channel to minimize the time we might be running parallel to freighters.  A good plan, especially as we didn’t meet any up-bound commercial vessels other than a dredge.  There  were two lakers traveling the down-bound channel during our passage, but they were in a different cut and we never got close to them.

About half of the up-bound pleasure vessels we encountered today were Great Lakes Cruising Club boats heading up to Superior, Wisconsin, for the July GLCC Rendezvous.  We talked to several by radio as we crossed paths.  Judy and I plan to attend the Rendezvous too, but by rental car, leaving Jubilee somewhere on Lake Michigan for a week.  Detour Village is a very pleasant harbor, primarily set up for transient dockage.  We had a nice walk through town, a quick stop at the grocery store, and a trek out to check on Jerry Cucci & Diane England’s Yarely Fair, which is waiting on the hard for them to re-launch for a North Channel cruise later this summer.  We’re hoping to possibly link up with them in August. 

Today while we were underway, thanks to our cell phone booster, Judy was able to arrange dockage at Mackinac Island for tomorrow evening, so we’ll be off early on Friday for the land of Fudge!  Yum.

Friday-Saturday, 6/29-3-/2007 – Detour to Mackinac Island and Mackinac Island lay day – 40.5 miles

Friday’s breezes started out light again, but gradually filled in to a beautiful 10-15 knot sailing breeze.  The only problem was that it was within a few degrees of being directly on the nose for our passage to Mackinac Island.  We sailed for a while, but because of the need to tack (angle into the wind one way, then into the  wind the opposite), our velocity made good was only about 3.5 mph (we later determined that about a half-knot surface current was slowing us down  too).  Since we didn’t want to lose our slip reservations, we again cranked up the kicker to arrive in time for some island exploring.

Many of you have been to Mackinac Island and know how charming it is.  Going there by boat has to be the best way to visit.  Slip fees at the Michigan DNR marina were $50.00 a night, only a little more than round trip ferry fees would be for two people.  And lodging on the island is extremely expensive, even for rooms without views, whereas we had the comforts at home right at the waterfront.

At around 9:00 or 10:00 all the “fudgies” (the day-tripper tourists from the mainland) are gone, the ferries are shut down, and only those staying on the island or in the marina remain.  Things become pretty quiet, except for the sound of the occasional horse carriage taking people home from dinner or out somewhere for music and dancing.

Horses and bikes are king and queen of the roads on Mackinac … there are no cars.  On Sunday we got the folding bikes out for a spin around the island (8 miles), and later did some side bike trips to visit a couple of spots we didn’t stop at the first time around. 

39 years ago this month, we spent a day on Mackinac Island during our honeymoon.  To be honest it wasn’t much fun.  It was very cold and damp from a week of unsettled weather, Judy had a bad cold, and both of us had been up all the night before with food poisoning from Al’s “All You Can Eat” chicken in St. Ignace (actually we think it was their salad dressing).  This time the weather was great and we were primed to see the island.  Judy cooked up a gourmet meal in celebration on Saturday night, and Sunday night we treated ourselves to dinner at the Chippewa Hotel’s outside dining area, overlooking the harbor. 

This weekend the Wheelmen  (www.thewheelmen.org) were on the island participating in a rally for antique bikes, especially the big wheel-type bicycles from the late 1800’s.  Maybe we’ll have to trade in our 20” folders for two of those 5’ diameter big wheel bikes!  The only problem is that we’d need a 95’ boat to have sufficient lazarette space to store them when underway.  Judy voted no.

Sunday at twilight many of the bikes lit their oil lanterns for an antique bike parade down the main thoroughfare.  Great fun.

Tomorrow morning we plan to pass under the Mackinac Bridge and enter Lake Michigan, another milestone in our travels.

The following shots are of the Grand Hotel grounds (note the shrub sculpture of horses and a carrage on the grounds below), and a picture of a horse carrage "taxi stand" on the island.

 

Sunday 7/2/2007 – Mackinac Island to St. James Harbor, Beaver Island – 42.5 miles

At around 10:00 we passed under the Mackinac Bridge marking the Straits of Mackinac, and formally entered Lake Michigan.  The passage to Beaver Island was again uneventful, as we motorsailed in light and variable winds ranging from NW to S.  Some day we’re going to pay for these flat days.

This northern portion of Lake Michigan is scattered with shoals, reefs, small low lying islands, and lighthouses, most of them abandoned, to help guide the way.  Winding our way through Grays Reef we turned west, a little south and parallel to the low lying islands and reefs for our final miles to Beaver Island’s secure northern bay at St. James Harbor.

Beaver Island has an extremely interesting history.  In the 1840’s a Mormon Church leader from Illinois, James Jesse Stang, claimed to have a letter from the assassinated church leader Joseph Smith entrusting Stang with leadership of the Mormons.  Stang then excommunicated Brigham Young from the church because of Young’s acceptance of polygamy, whereas Young rejected Stangs’s supposed letter from Smith as a forgery.  In 1848 Stang led his small branch of the church to Beaver Island, where they could practice their religion without interference.  On the island he uncovered buried scriptural plates , much as his predecessor had done in New York.  He subsequently translated the plates into English, and coupled with visions he was receiving, told the assembled group that Beaver Island was to be their Kingdom on Earth.

Of course, a Kingdom needs a king, and what better person than Stang to serve in that role.  He served as absolute ruler on the island over both religious and civic matters.  The sect ultimately fell into disagreement over the issue of polygamy.  Most of Stang’s followers had followed him on the basis of his opposition to polygamy, but after he received a revelation stating that polygamy was not only acceptable, but mandated for the saints, which of course he was.  He took four additional wives, after which his first wife soon left him for the Wisconsin mainland.

Subsequently he started a practice of "consecrating" the teen aged women of the group by having intercourse with them.  He also became more autocratic, especially with respect to women, banning long dresses, requiring they wear bloomers (like coulottes), and banning long hair.  The husbands of women defying these edicts were persecuted, even to the extent of whipping the husbands of particularly recalcitrant women.

King Stang was ultimately ambushed and shot by two of his followers.  Following Stang’s murder a vigilante group of mainland gentiles, always upset about Stang’s group claiming exclusive fishing rights for the rich fishing grounds in the Beaver Island group, invaded the island, putting all the Mormons on steamers bound for Milwaukee & Chicago, dropping them there with none of their belongings.

Folks … you just can’t make stuff like this up.

Subsequently the island was populated with a group of settlers who had been thrown off their land in Ireland.  The island still maintains much of this Irish tradition, with business names and street names more often than not of Irish origin.  We found Beaver Island to be a gem of a stop.  The bayfront street, shops and restaurants are not in any way pretentious, but the St. James Harbor front was, in a word, very civilized.  Many storefronts and the library had the same classical music feed piped softly outside.  The library had free WiFi (as opposed to the $11.00 for a 24-hour connection in the harbor area!), where they had an outside "reading room" with chairs and even plug-ins to power you computers!

We plan to spend a lay day here on Monday to explore further.  After that we plan a long hop to northern Green Bay.  Our next posting will probably be in about a week.

Lake Superior Crossing – 6/17-6/25/2007 – 337.4 miles

Barring the unsettled weather the first three days, Superior was unusually docile for our departure to new cruising grounds.  In fact, we experienced conditions more similar to the August calms rather than the typically windier and colder June.  As a result we found ourselves under sail-alone for only a handful of hours, motor-sailing or motoring most of the time in dead calm or breezes under 5 knots (often <5 knots from astern, meaning we were motoring faster than the wind and “generating” and apparent headwind).  All in all we logged about 55 hours on the diesel. 

That said, this trip offered an opportunity to visit several “new to us” places on the lake.  Unlike our normal cruising haunts along the wilderness north and east shores of Superior, the few natural harbors along Lake Superior’s eastern south shore have established cities with typical “1st class” state-built marina facilities.  And each town has (and celebrates) its rich heritage from the heydays of exploration, lumbering, and mining.  Read below for more details.

Saturday 6/16/2007 – Ready to go!

As pre-departure visits from boating friends continued throughout the day, progress on our final departure items was not completed until the water tanks had been topped about 6:30 p.m.  Ever the wiser of the two of us, Judy suggested staying in the Marina Saturday night and departing Sunday morning, which we did.  Paul Zadel from White Oyster joined us that evening for a cockpit barbeque to help mark the “start” of our trip.

Sunday 6/17/2007 – Departure for Stockton Island – 12.4 miles

Weather systems were unsettled throughout the day.  Our 2-hour passage to Stockton was marked by light rain, followed, after anchoring, by a major front with heavy rains and N  & NE winds to 25+ knots.  Given the forecast for strong S/SW winds later in the evening, we decided to try docking at the newly “7-foot-dredged” Presque Isle docks, but with our 6 foot draft we still grounded three times before we were able to tie to the very end of the south dock … with only 6” to spare under the keel!  With the lowest lake levels recorded since 1926 we’re expecting access to many Lake Superior harbors and docks to be an issue this year. 

Monday 6/18/2007 – Stockton to Keweenaw Waterway Upper Entry Lily Pond – 85.6 miles

We awoke at about 5:30 a.m to calm winds and a more favorable forecast of 15 knot SW winds. These conditions would be perfect for the  ~80 mile open water passage to the Keweenaw Waterway, a roughly 20-mile navigable cut across the middle of the Keweenaw Peninsula.  Unfortunately the forecast also called for the possibility of afternoon storms.  After 8 hours of great sailing and motor-sailing those forecast thunderstorms caught up with us. (Note -- sometimes the weather service is right)  From 2:30 to about 5:30 we powered through cell after cell, with gusty conditions, rain, and fog, until things finally cleared for the final 1 ½ hours of motor-sailing to the Upper Entry.  We decided to tie up for the night at the “Lily Pond” ship’s wall near the Upper Entry, and head in to Houghton-Hancock Tuesday morning. 

Tuesday 6/19/2007 – Lily Pond to Houghton MI – 7.7 miles

We again awoke early, this time to a building westerly, and decided to make a quick departure from Lily Pond before it would be almost impossible to get off the wall.  8 miles down the waterway we traversed under the Houghton-Hancock lift bridge, the only link to the easternmost tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula.  The picture at right shows Jubilee heeling in her slip to 25-35 knot winds, occasionally gusting to 45 knots!  While trees were being uprooted on land, conditions on the open lake must have been awesome.  At the marina Judy was almost blown off the dock in one of the gusts!  Gotta feed that girl more so she doesn’t blow away.  Later in the day and for dinner we met Mike and Cheryl Ditty, Apostle Islands boating friends from prior years who now own a lighthouse B&B near the Lower Entry to the Keweenaw waterway.  We plan to visit their lighthouse-home tomorrow.

Wednesday 6/20 - Houghton to Lower Entry Park - 10.7 miles

The weather finally cleared!  Late morning we toured the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum at Michigan Tech. with two other boaters, Butch and Diane from St. Louis, MO, traveling on the Nordic Tug Necessity Too, home port Lake Erie.  We’ve always wanted to see the Seaman Museum’s collection of some 30,000 rocks, minerals and gemstones, with associated explanations on their formation, but never had the time before.  Fascinating.

Judy (see photo) drove us downwind under Jib alone to the lower entry wall and park, where Mike Ditty picked us up by dingy for a tour of their lighthouse B&B.  What a spectacular site and well appointed B&B!  The view from the top of the light is simply breathtaking.   Views from the B&B rooms are equally beautiful, as is the ambience of the deck Mike just added down by the lakeshore.  The charming 1868 lighthouse keeper’s quarters, augmented by a tasteful addition in the 1990’s, offers extremely comfortable accommodations we would recommend to anyone looking for a unique and relaxing vacation experience.  As an added bonus you can arrange for them to take you out for a boat tour of the waterway area.  For more information click  www.jacobsvillelighthouse.com.

Thursday 6/21 – Lower Entry to Marquette Cinder Pond Harbor – 61.7 miles

The clearing weather turned to dead calm, giving our Diesel a good workout for the day.  Butch and Diane (the folks from Lake Erie) on their Nordic Tug overtook us about 3 hours out of Marquette, and we later had them over for cocktails before the four of us went to dinner downtown (really “up”-town … most everything is on a hill here). 

Friday 6/22 – Marquette – lay day to explore Marquette

We fell in love with Marquette.  The city  has preserved their beautiful downtown turn of the century buildings, and seems to have parks and bike trails everywhere.  Cinder Pond marina is located at a lakeshore park, but also lies only two or three blocks from the heart of downtown.  This summer the city is holding an exhibition celebrating grandmothers, where literally hundreds of doors have been placed in city parks, painted or otherwise artistically decorated with images of artist’s grandmothers or great grandmothers.  A significant collection of these decorated doors were located in the park adjacent to our marina.

 

Jumping on our folding bikes we took an 8-mile round trip ride up the coast to Presque Isle Marina and Park, visiting Marquette’s excellent maritime museum along the way.  We also stopped at the Superior Dome, also known locally as the “Yooper Dome” (pronounced YouPer” for the UPer’s) on the Northern Michigan University campus.  This indoor football stadium is the world’s largest wooden dome! 

In the afternoon GLCC members and Madeline Island boaters Joe & Elaine Floyd arrived on their new 45’ Hans Christian trawler, Swan.  With their daughter and son in law they were delivering the boat back to Madeline from it’s prior owners and home port near Detour in upper Lake Huron.  It was good seeing Joe and Elaine again … and touring their beautiful new boat.

This weekend the city was hosting the Superiorland Bike Fest, starting with bike races through a loop in the hilly downtown area Friday evening.  Like a mini-Tour de France, a lead car was preceeding the pack as the bikers wound through city streets on a course blocked off from traffic for the event.  Earlier events included bike races for kids, with the serious racers wrapping up the evening in a fast-paced 1-hour race consisting of 40 loops around the city’s hilly streets.  Spectators arriving early for the event were given cow bells to cheer the bikers on, just like at the world cup giant slalom ski events.  Fun stuff!  On Saturday and Sunday various road and off-road bike races were planned.  Spandex suits were everywhere.

A quick look at the city’s event calendar revealed special events like this almost every week in the summer, making Marquette a must-stop for every south-shore cruiser’s itinerary.

Saturday 6/23 – Marquette to Munising – 39.2 miles

After motoring in calm winds about half way to Munising, a SW breeze finally kicked in for a great near-hull-speed sail to just outside the Munising Marina.  Unlike Marquette, the town doesn’t have a lot of amenities, but we were able to pick up a few items at the grocery 4 blocks from the marina.  And, courtesy of someone with an unsecured Linksys WiFi in town, we were again able to get access to the internet from the boat.  The Broadband Express booster antenna we purchased before the trip has been paying off big time.

We suspect all the transient space has now been taken for this evening, as of the arrival a few minutes ago of a 45’ Tiara, who came all the way from Drummond Island today.  We can only imagine moving that fast, and we can’t imagine how much fuel (read $’s) they must have burned getting here from Drummond today.  We doubt we’ll use that much fuel over the next two years of cruising!

The accompanying photo captures a couple fishing off the Munising breakwall at sunset.

Sunday 6/24 – Munising to Grand Marais, MI – 37.3 miles

Another day spent motoring in calm winds.  So much for the “fury” of the big lake Gitchie Gummi (we’ll see if that kind of cavalier attitude elicits wind from the lake tomorrow).  That said, this stretch of coastline encompasses the pictured rocks national lakeshore, and , closer to Grand Marais, the Au Sable sand dunes.  It was nice to have a calm day to motor in close to the shore and better take in the sights. 

The pictured rocks lie to the east of Munising, and encompass about 10 miles of sedimentary rock cliffs, with numerous caves and other formations carved out by eons of water, wave and ice action (see the picture of rainbow cave at right, or click the Pictured Rocks photo album link on our blog if you’d like to see some additional shots from the area). 

The Au Sable dunes, as shown on the left, are huge, rising some 300 or more feet from the lake level.  One doesn’t think of sand dunes on Lake Superior, but sure enough they do exist!

Unfortunately there wasn’t any space remaining at the dock with sufficient depth for Jubilee, so we anchored out in the bay.  Interesting … the dock is too shallow, but the shallowest spot we could find to anchor was 31 feet in this very picturesque little harbor.

Grand Marais Oddities:  Check out the Pickle Barrel House.  The first floor is the livingroom, the second floor a bedroom, and a smaller barrel behind was the kitchen.  Someone actually lived there at one time!  To each his own.

Monday 6/24 – Grand Marais to Sault St. Marie – 83.2 miles

All night we sat at anchor in Grand Marais to a 10-12-knot S to SW wind.  The forecast called for S to SW in the morning, turning to light and variable in the afternoon.  The wind apparently didn’t listen to the forecast.  Leaving the Grand Marais breakwater a little before 7:00 we enjoyed a great beam reach … for about an hour, after which the wind died for the rest of the day.  Another long day on the iron genny.

Motoring in flat water under clear skies does offer the opportunity to get caught up with boat chores.  Bill cleaner-waxed the pilothouse and cabin sides, a task we hadn’t gotten to yet this spring, while Judy set about cleaning the myriad of louvered teak doors we have down below. 

So far we hadn’t seen any shipping with the exception of the Mesabi Miner on our way into Marquette.  As we approached the Sault, that changed.  From Whitefish point on we successfully avoided any “too-close” encounters with four up-bound and one down-bound vessels.  Arriving at the Canadian locks around 7:45pm, we locked through with the tour boat on the lock’s last down-bound lock-through of the day.  Had we missed their last lock-through we could have locked through on one of the much larger American locks, which run 24 hours a day, but negotiating the Canadian lock is much easier in a smaller boat.  We berthed for the next two nights at the George Kemp Marina in Sault St. Marie, MI., where we’re waiting for a replacement chart chip from Navionics.

Lay Days at the Sault – 6/26-27/07

It’s clear, hot and humid on Tuesday, but with a nice breeze blowing through the harbor.  Wouldn’t you know the breeze would finally come up on the day when we don’t intend to move.

After breakfast downtown we walked about 2 miles to the International Bridge US Customs office to get our I-68’s.  We’ve been properly fingerprinted now, so we won’t be able to get away with too much from now on.  The I-68’s, coupled with a US customs boat decal which we purchased over the internet before our departure, provide what is essentially a pre-authorized customs clearance back into the states from Canada for “trusted” frequent travelers.  Allowing clearance with a simple cell phone call, the I-68 saves us the hassle of repeated inspections and having to clear back in at an official US border station as we cross back and forth from Canada to the US.  Unfortunately the Sault St. Marie office is not yet set up for issuing Nexus certificates, which are reciprocal with Canada and provide similar privileges for crossing to either country, so we’ll have to plan our entrances to Canada at designated harbors.

As soon as our replacement chart chip arrives by UPS Blue Label we'll be off, hopefully Wednesday afternoon, and on to the lower St. Mary’s River, the Straits of Mackinac, and Upper Lake Michigan.  Stay tuned.

6/16/2007 Bayfield Departure

In November of 1981 Cruising World magazine published a short article of Bill’s.  It spoke of the mixed feelings associated with putting your boat away for a long northern winter.  At that time we sailed on Lake Pepin, a wide spot on the Mississippi about 70 miles southeast of Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN.  The article closed with these words …

“Wabasha, our haul-out point, comes too soon.  Should we turn in at the buoy, or simply let the river sweep us away to our dreams?  Each fall, two or three Pepin boats never make that stop at Wabasha.  They continue downriver, striking out along the Gulf Coast, bound, simply, to follow where their dreams lead.  Some year we’ll forget the stop in Wabasha, too … but not this year.”

That was 1981.  This year we did cut those dock lines.  After 26 years of visioning this moment we’re off to pursue our cruising dreams.  

In many ways it doesn’t seem that it’s truly happening.  But indeed it is.  The dock lines are being cut, and our long-envisioned cruise out the Great Lakes and beyond is beginning.

With the excitement of departure also come some mixed feelings.  We know that separation from family and friends, especially our daughter, son in law and granddaughter, will require some adjustment.  Luckily we live in a communication age where cell phones, email, web-based video conferencing, and web sites like this one will help us all keep in touch. 

Sailing-wise, the Apostle Islands Marina in Bayfield, WI, has been our summer home away from home for over twenty years now.  It will be equally hard to leave our many Apostle Islands boating and marina staff friends behind. 

However, we’re comforted in the advice of that old camp song: “Make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other gold!”  We’re not leaving our circle so much as expanding that circle.

One way to keep in touch with you will be this blog.  We’re hoping to post updates about once a week, depending on availability of a web connection and something interesting to write about.  Our first step will be to cross Lake Superior.  We then plan to cruise the northern half of Lake Michigan for a few weeks, spend a month or so in Lake Huron, particularly the North Channel and Georgian Bay areas, and then explore Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.  We’re hoping to store Jubilee somewhere on Lake Ontario this fall, ready for departure next year out the St. Lawrence, turning south at Nova Scotia to exlore the east coast to Florida and the Bahamas. 

The red waypoint boxes on the Lake Superior navigation chart to the right will give you an idea of the places we’re likely to stop as we traverse Lake Superior south shore.  Over the years, most of our prior Lake Superior cruising has been along the lake’s Canadian north and east shores.  We’ve never sailed closer than 50 miles to many of the south shore harbors east of the Keweenaw Peninsula, so we’re eagerly looking forward to visiting places like Marquette, Munising, and Grand Marais, MI, and to seeing the south shore’s Pictured Rocks and sand dunes for the first time.

While we’re underway please do email us or give us an occasional call on our cell phones.  We look forward to keeping up with what’s happening “back home” while we’re on the water. 

But now it’s time to cast off.  It is happening.  After all the years of visioning, planning and preparation we’re finally on our way, following those cruising dreams. 

Fair winds, all –

Bill & Judy