Where WhimSea Takes Us

Posted by Karen A. Brown

We have a working weekend plan this weekend. It's the weekend before our vacation so we need to clean and bring on the canned goods and things for our vacation.

On the drive down from Silver Bay, the guys had noticed a diesel leak, so the mechanics had taken a look during the week. A line was cracked during the last of the work which was replaced. Again, they said we were good to go, but wanted us to test her out so we drove around for about an hour on Saturday and found the engine to be working well.

We worked hard on Saturday so all the work was completed on Sunday so we could go for a sail. Bruce, Dave, Joe, Troy and myself went out to enjoy the day. It was Joe's first sail and we hoped for good wind.

The wind, however, was kind of flukey. We had a little wind that we chased around the lake for a while. We decided to start the motor and drive out to the wind and were rewarded with NO ENGINE!

Joe and Dave took a look and found the starter was loose in the compartment. They tightened her up and got the engine going just in time for the wind to come up, so we, of course, shut it off again and sailed a while. We got closer to the marina and restarted the engine to bring her into the marina.

Looks like the mechanics would be back to tighten the starter.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

Friday night and we stopped by Knife on our way through to Silver Bay. There was no point in hauling all of our loot up just to bring it back to Knife for the party, so we off loaded what we could before continuing the drive.

Once we arrived, we decided to try and start the motor. First thing we noticed was our batteries were way down. Someone had shut us of at the dock as well as our neighbor. We suspected kids were at fault and got them charging again. Troy called Kerry for an update to learn that the low batteries affected his ability to finish the timing on the engine and he'd have to come back Saturday morning. So, we rearranged our plans and drove back to Knife to finish setting up for the treasure hunt.

On the way back up to Silver Bay for the evening the moon was amazingly full. It was the summer solstice on Friday and the moon had risen over the water so big and orange in color. Someone told me it was a strawberry moon, but whatever the term you want to use, it was absolutely beautiful.

On the drive back we encountered some rain and saw what looked like a moon rainbow just past Gooseberry Falls. The moon was so bright that it lit up the water in the atmosphere. It looked amazing.

Saturday morning and Kerry was at the boat bright and early to get her going for us. About an hour and a half of work for the timing and we were good to go. Unfortunately Knife was too far away to reach before the pirate events so we would drive down for the day and bring WhimSea home on Sunday.

Pirate Day -- what a great day we had! As expected, the kids had a blast shooting off the potato cannons. There were three of them this year so I think all the kids got an opportunity to run the ramrod or fire off the potato or prepare the artillery. They had a blast, quite literally.

After a good amount of time with the cannon blasting, we broke the groups into four and started the hunt. Shortly into the adventure rain came that drenched the kids, but they didn't seem to mind. It was rather warm that day and the rain was refreshing.

The kids ran all over and found the skulls, keys, skeleton and all the hints that would bring them to their boxes of treasure.

When finally opened, the kids all got booty galore! There were bracelets and kits, gliders, finger rockets and tattoos. Every one got a booty bag to fill. There was just enough wind that we could put together the kites and fly them.

All the kids had a blast. After a while the cannon were called back into service and candy fired across the parking lot for the taking.

For dinner, Steve grilled up about a million kabobs and we all ate until we could eat no more. Stuffed to the gills we were. We had a beautiful night and everyone enjoyed themselves immensely.

On Sunday, the group decided to bring WhimSea home together. We all met for breakfast (Dave, Deb, Mark, Janet, Jerry, Troy and I), then the guys and I drove up to Silver Bay so they could bring her home. I drove the car down and waited for them.

Unfortunately, they had no wind but plenty of rain. I think they got soaked through and through, but they brought her home.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

The week of June 16 and WhimSea had a number of visitors up in Silver Bay. Kerry, the diesel mechanic, worked hard to get her running for the weekend. On June 21, we had pirate day at the Marina and we were hoping to have the original pirate ship around to play her part.

Troy and I were also very busy that week making preparations for the party and the hunt. There were maps to make, clues to write..... lots to do!

Posted by Karen A. Brown

Today's destination is Silver Bay. Last week the marina took a look at the engine and determined that the starter had gone out. They rebuilt the starter and said we were good to go, so we went.

We had a good run up the shore to Silver Bay. The weather was beautiful and sunny and the trip was pretty uneventful. Since we did have issues the previous week, I found myself holding my breath when Troy went to start the engine and bring us into the marina. She popped right off though and we docked in Silver Bay with no issues.

We ran into some former marina mates -- Bob Shutes and his wife -- and was introduced to some new friends from Walk About. Every year Walk About winters in Knife River and WhimSea spends the off season side by side with her. Its nice to finally meet the owners.

We got pretty polluted with them that night and at some point in the evening decided it would be a good idea to back into a slip on dock B we could party even closer. Troy started the engine and pfft. She died and that was it. There was no coaxing her to start. Since there was nothing else we could do, we went back to partying on dock B, figuring we'd make some calls in the morning, or whenever it was we'd end up getting up.

Sunday morning and we're definitely feeling the effects of the night before.

Troy tried again to start the engine to no avail. So we called Knife and Jeremy who happens to live in Silver Bay. As luck would have it, Jeremy was in Duluth for the day, but promised he would come by when he was back in town. So we did the only thing we could, we napped and waited.

Jeremy eventually came back and took a look at the motor. Unfortunately, there was nothing that he could do. Lucky for us Bruce and Kathy were at the marina and were nice enough to come up to Silver Bay and bring us back to the WhimSea car. We would have to leave WhimSea in Silver Bay while they worked on her.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

We left the dock on Saturday morning shortly after the Club's Pancake Breakfast. The plan was to head to the Apostle Islands for the evening. We had a beautiful sail all the way out. The wind was just astern of us, causing us to pole out the jenny, but that meant we could also really fly.

We arrived at York Island around 4:00 pm and made preparations to start the engine and drop anchor. Unfortunately, the engine wouldn't start. Troy called the marina and they offered no insight, but did let folks at Knife know that we would be coming in without an engine, we might need a tow.

Since our options were to drop the anchor under sail and hope for enough wind the next day, or to use the wind we did have to return to the marina, we decided to turn around and head back to Knife. We couldn't predict what the weather would do the next day and we didn't want to squander the wind we did have, even though it was from the wrong direction.

We called Dave Martin (Rain or Shine) around 11:00pm and gave him our location and plan. We would sail as far as we could, get as close to the marina as possible before hailing them on 16. Of course now I would suggest 9, but that night we chose 16 which means lots of boat traffic kept everyone awake that night.

The trip back provides to e very long. We beat to windward the entire way. It was cold and made me very grateful for our silkies. The wind scoured our faces and I'm seriously thinking we should bring ski masks on board the boat.

As night fell the winds diminished and a dampness joined us. Deep, penetrating dampness. The air from shore was sometimes much warmer then the ambient temperature and it make you actually feel colder to be behind the dodger and away from the wind.

There was a lot of ship traffic that night as well. Only one was close enough to be concerned with us though. They were so curious, in fact, that they turned on the spotlight and flashed us. We must have looked an odd sight with the white sails against the pitch black night. Our masthead light was dancing with the rhythm of the lake and indistinguishable from the stars save for its slight movement.

We took turns napping in the cold as we ghosted along, sometimes reaching four knots, but often at two. Around 1:30am we called Rain or Shine and provided the coordinates. They made preparations and collected volunteers for the 'rescue mission'.

During that time, we got another gust of wind which changed our location slightly so by the time Rain or Shine was out our point changed. They didn't see us at first, or actually didn't recognize us. They light lit the sail to make us appear to be a bigger vessel. But eventually we found each other. They had rigged a harness on back so the tow line could be run. We hooked up and made for home.

It worked perfectly. WhimSea touched a dock lined with friends to steer her home around 4:30am. It was an excellent feeling to see how people pitched in to help. And Rain or Shine had it all figured out.

We made it safely.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

We left the marina a little after 10:00 on Saturday morning. The wind was out of the Northwest around 10 knots with gusts up to 22. The sea conditions, less then two feet. Our intended destination for this weekend is Sand Island in the Apostle Islands. It will be our first trip to the islands for the 2008 boating season and we're both looking forward to it.

We were able to sail about halfway to the Sand Island light before the wind deserted us. In the meantime, a number of lakers passed us heading both downbound and upbound. You can see pictures of some of them on the plog site.

We did see something new on our way out. A gaggle of geese were swimming along in the water about halfway across the lake. I don't recall having seen them that far out into the lake before. Usually they stick pretty close to shore where the water is much warmer.

By 5:00 pm we were anchored in Swallow Bay. The sun was shining and the anchorage was empty. Just us and a power boat up on the dock. It was gorgeous.

We enjoyed a martini in the cockpit before starting dinner. Around 3:00 am, the moon was just setting behind Bear Island. A yellow-orange sliver it looked so big and so close that it felt like we could reach out and grab a hold of it.

On Sunday we raised anchor around 10:00am and raised her sails after we rounded past the lighthouse. We had a good run back to Minnesota, naturally we would have to tack a couple of times before coming close to Knife River. Around 6 miles out, the wind deserted us and the sky started to darken behind us. Silver Bay became obscured by rain. About 2 miles out and the wind gusts and rain hit us. Though we had all canvas rolled up, we still heeled over about 10 degrees during some of those gusts.

We returned to the dock in a lightly falling mist. A pretty good end to the weekend, I'd have to say.