Where WhimSea Takes Us

Posted by Karen A. Brown

Saturday morning and our destination for the day is Cornucopia. Siskiwit Bay Marina to be exact. We left early, though not intolerably so. Beating much of the fishing traffic on to the river, we had a relatively easy run into the lake.

On our way out, we noticed a number of boats at the dock at Lakehead. They were obviously preparing for a race, though to where we had no idea.

We slipped easily out of the Duluth Harbor and into the greater lake before raising sail and laying in a course for Bark Bay. The wind was with us and we quickly picked up speed and soon could hear the water rushing along our sides. This would not last long, however, as the winds proved to be a bit fractious, puffing away at us one minute, ignoring us the next.

We had a pretty good lead going when the group of racers all hauled up their chutes to take greater advantage of the light airs. The bay was filled with their bright full colors. I like to think that if we had one at our disposal they never would have passed us. Granted, we weren’t headed in the same vicinity, it still was disconcerting to be left behind.

Despite that small setback, the wind took us right to Bark Bay where we marked at more of the lake’s handiwork with the cliffs and sea caves that exist along the shore.

After some problems and a little bit of concern over the diesel, we eventually got our sails stowed and headed into the marina. It was much smaller then I thought it would be and considerably more cramped. We ended up tying up alongside the main dock right next to the fuel and pump out stations they were so full.

We spent some time walking around the marina and enjoying a beer or two as well as chatting with the other boaters there. After a bit of exploration we finally decided we were hungry enough to venture into town and try out “Fish Lipps” the famous bar/restaurant in town. Bill Williams who keeps his boat, the Ebeneste in Spirit Lake highly recommended it.

Fish Lipps turned out to be a very quick walk from the marina and an excellent bar/restaurant. They had a fair offering of Leinie’s and a good selection of food and nice, attentive wait staff. Troy had their fish (walleye of course) because he always does and I tried their Crabby Sandwich, which was absolutely excellent. After dinner we walked about the marina more and admired others’ boats.

We ended the evening with a visit to the beech to watch a breathtaking sunset. I think it’s easy to forget that Corny is on the side that allows you to see the sunset across the wide expanse of water.

Sunday morning we awoke fairly early and walked into town for a Fish Lipps breakfast before deciding to head home. We had hoped to be able to sail all the way, but once again, Mother Nature had other ideas. When the wind was blowing it was coming from Duluth. We had more squalls and periods of rain again on the way home. Once again, we thought of changing to Knife River…..

Posted by Karen A. Brown

0630 and we were heading out for the Apostle’s. We had a three day weekend and expect to spend one day sailing there, one sailing home and one in exploration in between. We had perfect weather and wind for a run straight there.

There wasn’t a lot of traffic though it is notable that as we were coming down river we did encounter a bear! It was either fishing or considering a run across the river to McClough Island. When we got too close it turned back to the relative safety of the mainland. It is sort of funny because Troy though we’d come on a stray dog. Because they dredge the channel it’s hard to guess how deep the other areas are and therefore difficult to judge the size of an animal that you see there. But when it turned around and loped back to the brush you could tell that it was moving in a decidedly un-doglike way.

We left through the Duluth entry and since we were to be favored with a fine wind for a straight run up, we shaped a course that would allow us to round Sand well away from the rocks and were on our way.

We made amazingly good time with a speed of around 5-6 knits, sometimes higher and sometimes lower. As we got close enough to make our Bark point w could see a number of sails as they exited the Siskiwit Bay marina on their way to the islands. And once again, the race was on. Troy was pretty determined to try and catch them and he did all he could, trimming sails, looking at them with binoculars to determine if they had different wind and just all around fretting over the fact that they other boats were pulling away.

What we didn’t know, but would find out soon enough, was the wind was stronger in the islands. With the direction she was blowing, the wind was being compressed round and between the islands. So, when we rounded the point by Sand’s lighthouse, we were up to 9 knots. This ended up being a blessing since Justice Bay was full and we would need to go on to the next anchorage.

Rounding York, we found it occupied and Raspberry Island as well. But, finally, our old friend Oak Island proved to have room enough for us as no one had yet taken refuge there.

By the time we anchored and got all snugged down and were eating dinner it was around 1830 hours. Exactly 12 hours from the time we left. We ended the day with a leisurely evening topside watching the deer and the sunset and enjoying a couple of beers.

We slept in on Sunday morning since I had taken Monday off of work. Our plan (the night before) had been to spend the day on Oak exploring and hiking, as well as a little relaxation. Unfortunately, the wind was turning slightly making the chop in our little harbor much more pronounced and it was decided that we would need to move to another anchorage. We pulled up anchor and were off.

Coming out of the lee of the island proved the wind to be greater then originally surmised. Large rollers and white caps topped the experience. Given that Raspberry has a good anchorage with excellent holding and protection, that became our next destination.

As we were coming in to anchor the oddest thing happened. It may not sound odd, but given the job of the captain it is. As we were coming in to the anchorage an island cruise boat came along the point and headed for the exact same destination. Clearly, they had dropped their charges at the lighthouse dock and found waiting there to be untenable and decided to wait on the other side of the island.

What is peculiar about the whole thing, is the boat swept in front of our bow, came in and dropped anchor in the exact location we were clearly motoring towards. Even though we had the right of way and would obviously be staying longer then they. That is what was so odd. Someone who’s entire job was being a captain so clearly and with such disregard ignoring the rules of the road. Unbelievable.

Lucky for us the sailboat to the port side of our destination was heaving their anchor so we adjusted course and settled in there instead.

Meaning to take a tour of the lighthouse, we piled into WhimC and Troy rowed us to shore. Luckily we got there in one piece I nearly capsized us on entering the dinghy. A trek up the beach to the pathway and an extremely diverse ¾ mile hike later and we were at the lighthouse. The trail to the lighthouse goes past the sandspit on the windward side of the island and up and down some hills where step like areas were cut into the surrounding vegetation. The forest is somewhat dense with the smell of the trees, the rot, the vegetation and not much else save for the occasional chipmunk or bird. Raspberry Island is rather small and can’t support a population of deer or bear like Oak can.

We arrived at the lighthouse’s clearing as the tour boat was loading up its passengers, leaving us, the ranger and a kayaker. We learned later from the ranger that the lady on the kayak is a doctor that needed to get back to Little Sand Bay. She had ducked into the bay on Raspberry when she found it too difficult to cross to the mainland in the wind and waves. The kayaker left shortly after we arrived. We had the lighthouse, and its keeper all to ourselves for a private tour. The lighthouse keeper obviously really liked his job and loved the lighthouse itself. He told us stories about how keepers socialized and visited each other for blueberry picking and suck. We got to walk through all of the rooms, including the tower. We saw this amazing staircase that was floating – or appeared to be since there weren’t any support beams holding it in place. We were even able to climb out on the widow’s perch, or ledge, that surrounds the light. I don’t know if that’s what the space is actually called, but it reminded me of a widow’s walk that you see on old homes on the Eastern Seaboard.

We also learned a lot about the trouble the area had been having with bears. As it is not surprising, many of them have been coming closer and closer to people. And people are getting dumber and dumber. Apparently, they think that bears can’t swim and that they appear by magic on the islands and figure they don’t have to tie up their food. Silly humans.

It seems a bear (this was last year) got into someone’s stash of vodka and chocolate and went a bit mad. The park ended up putting that bear down and calling in some Bear Expert (Whom the rangers referred to as the “Bear Whisperer&#8221. This guy was able to convince the park that simply relocating the bears wasn’t the answer. Since bears are territorial another bear would surely discover the newly available territory and move in. It makes sense if you ask me.

So the park has had to discover an alternate plan. They’re going to try and retrain the bears, through the use of dominance methods. Teach the bears that they don’t want to be where the people are. They’ll also increase people education. Unfortunately, I think the bears are probably smarter then people. Some people never learn.

After that rather informative visit with the park ranger, we trekked the ¾ mile back to the beach and returned to the boat for some supplies; camp chairs, snacks, drinks, the necessities. We then set about wasting away the afternoon with bird and boat watching. We ended the evening on deck of the WhimSea with a beer or two and a gorgeous sunset (at least until it disappeared behind the island).

On Monday we woke bright and early, determined to return to Duluth under sail. Alas, Mother Nature once again conspired against us, throwing wind, rain squalls and bad direction at us. We ended up motoring home from north of Two Harbors under the protection of the lee of Minnesota.

We are now thinking more and more of moving to the Knife River Marina (if there’s room). The wind seems to be perpetually from Duluth on the days we are returning and the added hour up the river is expensive in fuel and engine hours. Knife River would also make an excellent kick off point to Corny, the Apostle’s, Silver Bay… as well as turn Duluth into a place to visit for a quick sail with multiple marina destinations as well as anchorage possibilities.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

We headed out bright and early on Saturday determined to reach Sand Island before dark. Friday night the fog had rolled in and the lake kicked up quite a fuss so when we exited through the Duluth piers we weren’t surprised to find significant swells and the water was compressed through the channel.

We bounced our way through and must have looked pretty awesome, a 40 foot boat skipping off the top of six foot waves. After we made it past the piers, we could see that the fog and the lack of wind would result in our motoring at least part of the way to Sand. We, we set a course, turned the boat over to Bob (our auto helm) and were on our way.

At five miles from Duluth, Troy noticed the bilge pump seemed to working more consistently then we’d ever seen her work and certainly more then would be accounted for by the water coming in from the surge. I went below and tried to find a source and couldn’t. It didn’t appear as though anything was leaking. The bilge pump was keeping up as the water levels in the bilge weren’t increasing. But the water was still coming in. We were sinking. We had to return to the marina. We came about and made for the Duluth entry.

When we reached the bridge and they asked us to wait a few minutes, Troy told them we were taking on water. He actually said “Be advised, we are taking on water”. Something I never hope to hear again!

In due course they raised the bridge and we entered the safety of the harbor. We were nearly there. That’s when the fog descended upon us and left us with little to no visibility at all. We slowly and carefully made our way through the harbor and on to the marina where Jim had the lift ready to pull WhimSea out. Before he did, however, he took a look at where the water was coming in since we were able to pinpoint the location by then. It turned out a clamp had slipped, loosening the bladder around the drive shaft and that resulted in water coming in. He tightened it and all was well. By 1:30, we were once again on our way to the Apostle’s.

We continued on that path until around 4:30 when we decided that we would be better off turning towards Knife River and taking a dock there for the night. As it has become a tradition now, we hiked to Emily’s and had a couple of beers and Walleye fillets. We finished up dinner with a couple of beers on the rocks near the entry as we watched the water.

Returning to WhimSea we were hailed by our dock mates and they joined us in a beer or two. Tim and Diane are from the cities and had just bought their boat, from eBay of all places. She’s a 70’s vintage center cockpit sloop with roller furling on both the jib and the mainsail. She has a real short boom and lots of space on her aft deck. Tim and Diane are pretty new to sailing and are in the process of fixing her up and figuring out where they wanted to go with her. We also gave them a tour of WhimSea and amazed them with the feeling of space and the cleverness of its use below decks.

While we were enjoying our beers topside, we were visited by Lynn and Mark from Screaming Eagle. They too have a slip at Knife River. We gave them a tour as well and traded some stick boat versus stink pot stories before everyone turned in for the evening.

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear with a nice breeze blowing. Since Knife River is so close to Duluth, we thought we’d take a run-up to Two Harbors and take a look from the water side.

We pulled out the sails and made a leisurely way to town. We were just about to sail into the harbor when the ore boat at the docks gave a loud horn signaling they would be pulling from the dock and heading out.

Rather then wait for the ship to leave the dock and head on her way, we turned round and laid in a course for Duluth. Since the wind was coming from Duluth, we ended up tacking all day but eventually made it home without incident.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

It’s the first sail of the season. We came up Friday night with the intention of making a weekend trip of it. We stowed all of our gear and decided to bend on the sails since the wind in the marina was light. Then we wouldn’t wake anyone bending them on early in the morning before the wind started.

While working on the sails and setting things to rights, Troy fell into conversation with another sailboat owner and learned they would be heading out by 0630 the next day for the Apostle’s. This, of course, meant a race was imminent. We set the alarm for an early rise on Saturday, relaxed with a couple of beers and hit the sack.

Unfortunately, Saturday morning started with rain. Since the other boat was planning to head out rain or shine we thought about putting on some foul weather gear and doing the same, however, the rain started pouring even harder! We finally gave up on the idea of a race and went back to bed.

Sunday provided to be a much better day with sun, wind and a sea in need of sailing. We headed out and shook out the sails. We had a great sail, logging many miles under our keel before heading back to the marina and our work-a-day world. For a first sail of the season, it rated right up there!