WhimSea's Log

The day started warm and bright in loon harbor. I got some pictures of the lumbering equipment that was left over in the bay where we anchored overnight.

We're heading back to Thunder Bay today and since there wasn't a lot of wind to start with, we motored through the loon harbor area, getting some pictures of the bays and islands.

As well as a lighthouse whose name escapes me right now.

It's sad to be homeward bound. But we've had a very good time and seen a lot of the lake and the area along the way. The boys keep calling the hills around us 'boobies'. It stared earlier in the trip when they looked at the hills and said they look like boobies, then the next day, talking to some locals and getting directions, the locals actually told us to head towards the boobies for a certain period of time. I think maybe they have an obsession!

As we left the Loon Harbor area, the wind really started to come up. It was (of course), on our nose and we had to steer 10 degrees off so as not to slam through the waves that were growing. Eventually Troy decided there was too much wind and the seas were too rough, so we raised the sails and headed towards Isle Royale for about a half hour until we could turn towards Thunder Bay again.

Before we turned though, we took a huge wave over the bow. I think about six gallons on water went into the hatch above the table below. Oops, Debi was sitting there reading a magazine and she got a bit of a surprise.

We tied up at the Thunder Bay marina (where they now have power), had a great dinner at The Keg and off loaded a bunch of Debi's stuff from the boat. Dave would be traveling back to the marina with us.

We awoke to a very heavy fog in the morning. We had some coffee and Troy and I took a walk around the town while we drank it hoping the fog would lift as the sun got brighter. Eventually it did and the bay opened up, so we left. We passed through a large series of islands and the fog seemed to keep coming and going around them. We just hoped it would lift enough to allow us to take pictures of the Battle Island Lighthouse.

Luckily it did and we got some pretty good pictures of the light.

The wind came and went througout the day, eventually ending with went. So we rolled the jenny in and out a couple of times, but ended up motoring. Here's Debi at the helm during one of the motoring times.

On the plus side, the rock formations in Loon Harbor were pretty amazing.

The path to our anchorage was absolutely beautiful. Islands, bays, some low areas that could be beaches combined with cliffs and hills. Beautiful.

Eventually we dropped the anchor between Spain Island and one other island. The harbor made it look like we were on a small inland lake, it was so protected. We anchored near the site of an old lumbering site. The remnants still lay on the beach at the edge of the water. The boys rowed over and took a look at it. They also picked up some rocks for me too paint.

Later in the evening we had one last dinner on the grill and a game of hearts before heading to bed.

We awoke to sun and glassy water. The plan was to head to Rossport for the night. We would gas up, pump out, water up and get good long showers in. Bonnie's book says Rossport is the place to stop along the north shore and the Richardsons map said they offer showers and laundry facilities.

Motored out of the Slates we saw some great rock formations as well as some excellent photos of wildlife.

Once we existed the slates, the fog came in. That damned fog stayed with us the whole way across and into the entrance of the islands. Since we had to motor anyway, we had breakfast along the way, Troy's famous orange crusted french toast. It tasted awesome!

After we passed Breadrock, though we didn't actually see it with the fog, it began to lift and revealed beautiful islands. Greens bluffs and high hills. The only things marring the beauty were antennas and towers.

Rossport was a pretty small town. They no longer offered laundry or shower facilities and the bathrooms had become biffys. Oh well, we could still get a shower in on WhimSea (and of course, we all did) with the awning up, the cockpit was pretty cool with the wind coming off the lake, though the sun was pretty darn bright and powerful.

We had dinner on the dock's picnic table with a linen table cloth, napkins and a lantern in the middle. Buffalo steak, potatoes and salad made it a wonderful feast.

We awoke to a fog that burned off with the sun and revealed a gorgeous bay. Here's some pictures. Dave dighy'd around a little bit and picked up some rocks and took some pictures of caribou bones as well as WhimSea. Dave spotted a caribou swimming across the entry to the bay. That was really cool.

After some breakfast pizza, we gathered up rock hunting supplies, water and Dave's shower gear and went ashore.

The rocks were absolutely amazing, broken shards of slate, greenstone and all sorts of rocks with minerals and material melted into them.

When we returned, we needed to try and pull up the anchor. Troy and Dave thought it was caught on something based on our location and the anchor's. Eventually, Troy drove over it, freeing it from the mud below. It was absolutely caked with it.

We motored out of the harbor and into a fog that had been rolling in. After existing the Slates and heading south, Troy and Dave got the lines out while I steered and Debi got her shower in.

The fog hung all the way around the Slates so we couldn't even get a picture of the light. With the fog and the warm weather, no fish either. So we decided to head back to our anchorage at Pike's Bay.

The fog followed us in and it was kind of difficult to maneuver in the islands. Its so easy to get turned around in the fog. Luckily the fog cleared as we came up to the burnt out barge and we could see we were headed in the wrong direction. We turned and headed to the anchorage. It took a little longer to drop the anchorage this time. There were some dead heads sticking just under the water surface we either hadn't seen before, or we disturbed pulling up the anchor. But eventually we were anchored and settled for the night.

We stayed the night off the cabin on McColl Island. The next day, after breakfast, we were preparing to head ashore when Troy grew concerned about some of the logs that came near the surface, our scope and swinging radius and the wind. He and Dave surveyed the situation (with Dave in the dinghy) to determine whether or not we could go ashore when the wind pushed WhimSea around and we hit one of the logs. Though it wasn't a hard hit, it was enough that Troy decided we should up anchor and head to the next anchorage instead of going ashore here.

We motored around and stuck our nose into a couple of little bays and inlets, surprised by the deep water so close to shore.

We did spot a caribou on shore grazing in the open grass near the burnt down barge. Here's a picture of the caribou and the barge.

Both were pretty darn cool to see. The caribou couldn't care less about us, or the campers that were nearby. The barge was a great hulk at the edge of the water. Pretty awesome.

Eventually, Troy agreed to try the anchorage called Pike's Bay. It's known for its shallow depths (unlike lots of other anchorages on the Slates), at 17-20 feet, but with slash on the bottom, folks recommended buoying the anchor. It looked like it would provide all around protection once we entered the narrow passage and it sure did.

On the way into the bay, we passed by this rock. Check out the scraping alongside. Clearly there were rocks in the glaciers as they went scraping by how many thousands of years ago. Pretty cool.

We arrived in time for me, Dave and Troy to get in a shower before it started pouring rain. Seemed like a good day for lounging around, playing games and cards and it sure was. Later in the evening the fog rolled into our anchorage and closed us in.