Where WhimSea Takes Us

We set sail for a three day weekend with Judy (Troy's Mom) at around 11:00 in the afternoon. Destination: Apostle Islands. We had planned to set out earlier, but were delayed while we lay in provisions and took care of some housekeeping.

We had a fairly good run the whole way with favorable winds allowing for a straight shot up the Wisconsin coast. The winds weren't exactly steady, but were at least consistent in direction. After the sun went down, the wind picked up quite a bit. There was no moon to guide us, so we had to navigate by star light and electronics alone. This is the first time we'd done that so it was a little spooky, but we made it without a problem.

We rounded the point by the lighthouse on Sand Island with the intention of tucking in at Justus Bay. With the night as black as it was the idea of anchoring somewhere familiar held great appeal.

Troy and I had been running on very little sleep and we were looking forward to turning on the anchor light and hitting the sack. You can imagine our shock and dismay to see Justice Bay fairly twinkling from the lights of anchored boats already in the Bay! We pressed on to the next bay only to find that one full as well! In all we counted eighteen boats in those two bays on Sand. We would not find refuge there this night. We headed towards Little Sand Bay and anchored there tucked in as close as we could to the mainland. We weren't totally happy about it as we would feel some chop from the lake, but it would have to do.

The wind shifted slightly overnight and fetched the waves across the lake and through the islands directly to our anchorage. We awoke with a very uncomfortable chop and an urgency to move to a new anchorage, so we hove up the anchor and headed out. A number of the beaches that were familiar to us were still quite full of boats as most people were still waking up. We eventually found safe harbor off of Oak Island. This is an island we'd always meant to visit but hadn't yet done so. It was reputed to have bears, eagles and high cliff sides.

A really need feature of Oak Island is the "hole in the wall". It's an outcropping of rocks that form to create a perfect hole and frame the water on the opposite side really well.

We anchored and had lunch, and then Troy and Judy went off to explore the island while I spent some quality time with a good book.

Troy and Judy tell me the views from the island were spectacular with the scenic overlook truly living up to its name and providing a bird's eye view across the lake and the neighboring islands. The picture below shows the dramatic drop from the top of the cliff to the lake's edge. After they returned we had a quick dinner and repaired to the cockpit with our wine to watch the sunset.

You can imagine our surprise when we saw a bear saunter out of the woods and lope down the beach! The rumors were true. The bear appeared to be a juvenile and wasn't interested in either the campers or the boats. It's pretty cool to see nature up close and personal like that. We got some pictures, but as it was pretty close to dark, they didn't come out real well.

The next day, Labor Day, we awoke early and began our trip back. Judy had to be back to work on Tuesday morning. We did get some good pictures of the Sand Island Lighthouse as we passed on the return. The winds were light and we started the diesel so we could make it on time. We arrived with very little time to spare at the Grassy Point Draw only to find the bridge was broken. We hung around for a while and they eventually completed enough of their repairs to let us through.

As Troy and I had the rest of the week off, we returned to the Apostle's on Wednesday. We had a great run. It felt like no time passed getting us to Sand Island. We even hit 9.3 knots at least once, probably more often then that. We've never gotten a boat traveling that fast. It was amazing.

We spent the rest of the week bumming around the islands. We took pictures of the wildlife, the sands on Stocktown Island and the passing commercial fishing ships. We even saw the "famous" balancing rock off of Stockton Islands. I say "famous" because Troy and I think that the fame is pretty questionable. We're not even certain we actually saw them because it didn't seem that remarkable.

We spent the final night on Rocky Island, in our favorite anchorage. We spent some time on the beach, but mostly were on the boat. We were treated with a magnificent sunset and excellent wind on the return trip.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

Our intended destination for this weekend was the Knife River Marina. The marina is located about 14 miles north of Duluth along the Minnesota side. We had called ahead and arranged for a slip to be available and were looking forward to trying the local restaurant, Emily's, for the first time.

The day was promising to be sunny and hot with variable winds out of the East. We left the marina, motoring out the Superior entrance, set the sails and shaped a course for Knife River. We were slowly sailing a broad reach almost due north relaxing yet lamenting the hotness of the day. The wind was not being cooperative as it kept swinging further South. Eventually the wind was blowing from due South when it died all together. Moments after the south wind deserted us, the North wind started blowing and blowing pretty good. Our wind instruments hadn't been set-up yet but our hand held windex was giving us readings in the 20 knot range.

So, our leisurely broad reach turned into a fierce beat to windward. Whim Sea went from a negligible heel to 20 degrees in no time. We reduced sail twice and the wind continued to build. So, we decided to call it a day, turned on our heel and made for the Superior entry. We were thinking it would be much easier to dowse the sails within the protection of the harbor than to mess around taking everything down outside the Duluth entry.

While we were sailing towards Knife River, we were watching a mini-regatta of three good sized boats headed for Duluth from the Apostle Islands. They had stopped and seemed to be just hanging out for a while. Though we were aware of them, we weren't paying much attention to them as they weren't near enough to be a concern to us. Once we turned around, however, they were again a part of our considerations. Two of the three vessels bore away from the third on a course for the Duluth Entry. On that tack they were sailing a converging course with us. We got to within a mile when they tacked and made for the Superior entry. The Race was on. We were sailing with one reef in the main and a 100% jenny. One of our unsuspecting competitors was sailing with a 140% jenny and the other just the full main. We all seemed to be in about the same size class and we were all three of us sloops.

We were a mile behind when they shaped up the same course we were sailing so we were all on the same line and we were gaining. The waves were building but the wind seemed to stay pretty constant at about 20 knots gusting to 25 or so. The waves were in the 4-6 foot neighborhood and building. It was exhilarating with the Whim Sea flying before the wind. Whim Sea is such a fast ship it made us feel like pirates running down our prey. We could imagine what it felt like to swoop down on unsuspecting ships like this. We were about two miles outside the entrance when we caught up and started passing. We passed them both by the time we were a half mile outside the entrance and had a nice easy sail the rest of the way into and down the harbor when we dropped our sails and went home.

We didn't make it Knife River but we had a pretty awesome sail. Chances are we would have lost a real race with those guys, more than likely they weren't interested in making the extra effort of adding sail. After all, who wants to race back to the dock? Never-the-less, it was awesome to 'run down on 'em.'