Where WhimSea Takes Us

Posted by Karen A. Brown

The Tall Ships are here! Dave woke us a little earlier then we thought with that announcement. We didn't think they would be going past the marina that early, but it turns out that we only saw the last one go by. They were all congregating outside the Duluth entry allowing boats to take pictures and get right up close to them.

At one time we sailed by the Niagra close enough to toss a biscuit on deck. They hollered over wondering where we were getting our wind. We were sailing circles around them, the engine was clearly not running. It was awesome!

When all the ships went into the harbor we joined in the parade. I've never sen so many boats in the harbor or just outside of it.

When the ships went through the channel they fired of their cannons. It was absolutely amazing the way the noise reverberated off the waves of the channel. The walls were lined 10 deep of people and the entire boardwalk was full all the way down past the cribs to the veterans place. The people came around to the DECC and the Aquarium too. I've never seen that many people in Duluth, least of which on a Thursday afternoon.

We hung out in the bay for a while before heading back home. On the way under the bridge Troy cut it so close the people on the boardwalk applauded him for not hitting the bridge with our mast.

We ended the day with dinner at Dixie's and a Culver cone. A pretty good day all the way around.

I thought I would put some postings regarding this event here so that there's a central place for the information should an e-mail address get dropped or something gets missed. This will probably be more of a recap of e-mail messages sent but there may be a couple of things not critical that may be in here.

Greetings and salutations,

Over the last few years discussions have been held about doing a group sail over to the islands. This year we have a date range for doing so and figure we might as well put it out there for anyone that would want to participate. The dates are Saturday, August 23rd through Tuesday, the 26th. The plan is to leave about 8:00 on the 23rd and sail out for Sand Island (anchorage/rendezvous point to be determined), spend a couple of days in the islands, to either spend with the group or explore on your own or in smaller groups. We’ll Rendezvous Monday night for an early Tuesday morning departure (probably 8:00 again).

Let me know if you will be interested and able to go and I will keep your address in the mailing list. I will only be sending e-mail messages to those folks interested in receiving them. This isn’t an official yacht club event (hence the message from my Whimsea.net account), everyone is encouraged to participate.

I will be posting information in the http://whimsea.net blog site (http://whimsea.net/blogs/blogs/index.php?blog=1) as well so there will be a repository of the information sent out though I may put some check lists and stuff that may be beneficial (let me know if you think something should be included that I missed).

I’m excited about sailing out with a bunch of folks, power boats included (though power boats may wanna just go dead slow to keep with the fleet). Whimsea will not be dropping the hook until the last boat is cruising into the anchorage. I love it at the marina but it is nice to stretch the legs once in a while. Since we have a longer weekend we have some leeway with the weather window. If the weather proves a bust we may be able to do something in September though August would be nice.

So, just to recap;

- let me know if you’re interested and I’ll keep you on the list, if I don’t hear from you by 9th, I’ll exclude you from the mailing list (though you’re still welcome and can read the updates on the blog)

- if you know of anyone that would like to do it and I missed in this message, let me know and I will include them (though include their e-mail address please) or have them e-mail me

- the dates are 8/23-8/26

I think this will be a lot of fun and a great adventure!! I hope y’all can make it!!

Fair winds,

Troy & Karen

Here's the message I sent out;

Ahoy,

It’s looking like the ships are expected in the Duluth Piers sometime around 4:00 (1600) Thursday, July 31st. Figuring a speed of 6 knots will put them off Knife River about 1:00 (1300). So, we’re figurin’ on sailing to the NE about 10:00 to see if we can intercept. I’m thinking they should be between Sand and Eagle Islands about 10:00. We should be able to catch up with them when Bark Point is abaft their beam.

Today, the weather service is predicting NE winds 5 to 15 knots becoming E 10 to 20 on Thursday. If this holds true it’ll be the best point of sail for all three of the tall ships and the Niagara will probably be flying at least top gallants (though possibly the royals as well if closer to 15 knots than 20).

I’m attaching as PDF’s the information I have. Let’s meet at the boat about 9:30. Whimsea is well found even having a life raft but if you have a favorite life jacket, you’re more than welcome to bring it. If we sail all the way down to Duluth with those tall ships we may not be back to the marina before 8:00 (2000). We’ll have coffee, tea and lemonade and muffins in the morning and some snacks. Otherwise, bring some refreshments. Let me know if you have any questions or anything.

Fair winds,

Troy & Karen

Posted by Karen A. Brown

On Sunday, Troy did some WhimSea repair work before heading out for a sail with Dave, Mark and Hailey. Hailey'd never been sailing before but they got a perfect day to introduce her. The winds were pretty light and the lake awfully calm. Unfortunately, I had work to do so I stayed behind in the clubhouse with Deb and Janet. But based on the pictures, they had a good time.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

It's the day of the one day fishing contest and the all-american potluck. It's looking like a damn fine day to be out on the water. Not too breezy or choppy, sun is shining, we're good all the way around.

Troy, Bubba, Janet and I were lucky enough to go out with Dave & Deb on Rain or Shine for the day. Troy caught a lake trout and I go to a coho. Fishing wasn't that great, so I count ourselves pretty lucky. I took a trophy, which is pretty cool. Kathy Behnke made them with her wood burning and they look awesome. I know mine is going on the Lake Superior wall for sure.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

We arrived in the marina just in time to wake every one up and go out for breakfast.

We had a pretty nice day at the marina and got an opportunity to tell everyone about our vacation before heading home to the work-a-day world once more.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

We got up early to a rather hazy day. We breakfasted, for the first time ever on the island, fueled up, pumped out and we were on our way.

The weather called for a good wind to bring us home, but they lied. We tried periodically to sail given that we had a bit of a lumpy sea, but eventually we would give up and roll up the jenny. We took turns napping and motoring through the night, arriving at the marina around 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

We had decided to stay two nights and take advantage of the tour to Passage Island on Friday. The harbor on Passage Island is one we'd probably never bring WhimSea into given its placement and proportion, so we had to take the tour.

It was a good hour out to the island, followed by a guided walk to the lighthouse. As the least visited island, Passage is probably the wildest of the islands. Moose don't go out there, so you see some of the bushes and plants here that have been decimated by the moose in other areas. The Canada Juniper is an example of a plant that the moose love. It's also a plant that only exists there and West of the Rockies. Pretty wild since they don't know how the plants got there. Another plant is the Devils Snare. This plant was probably planted by Indians since its covered in thorns and was thought to provide protection from intruders. Given how thorny they were, I can see ho someone would think that!

The walk was a nice one, though it did get warm in the depths of the forest and there were places where we had to climb up and down quite a bit. My knees were complaining by the end of the walk.

A nice relaxing dinner, some wine with new friends met on the hike, a shower and the day ended quite nicely. We planned to get up early the next day, have breakfast, fuel up, pump out and be on our way home.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

We up anchored in an overcast sky and made our way into Rock Harbor. The day is cold and wet, with fog surrounding us. Before leaving Siskiwit, the fog would take over and completely block it from view. We are now motoring NE to the entry near the Old Island Royale light, 3/4 of a mile from a shore we cannot see. For a while, I thought the sun might win out against the dampness and an occasional glimpse of the top of the Greenstone Ridge came into view, but even those sights are lost to us. We can see only water all around.

The fog would lift for us just as we came through the entry by the Isle Royale light. It was as if the island wanted to make sure we'd make it in without problems because as soon as we got into the bay, maybe 10 minutes into it, the fog closed around us again.

We navigated the bay without incident and came up to Rock Harbor, surprised to see the number of boats that were already there. We're visiting much later i the season then what we're used to. There was someone at the fuel dock already so we decided to dock and wait for the right opportunity to fuel up and pump out.

There were a number of powerboats taking up the deep draft slips already. But after some jockeying about, we finally got tied up and registered. We were ready to decide what to do with the rest of the day.

Showers, relaxing, a little laundry and dinner and a talk on the Birds of Isle Royale, accounted for the balance of the day. We followed this up with a little moving watching and the day was all used up.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

We had a lazy day today. Troy stayed sleeping long into the day while I read a book about the families that lived on Isle Royale so many years ago.

During the day the wind turned more Northeast which, if it picked up, would make the bay uncomfortable, so we decided to head to Wright Island.

There's no longer a restriction on visiting the island. Apparently the eagles who had nested there previously, made a home elsewhere. So we anchored just outside the bay and went ashore with Charlie. I got loads of pictures and we explored the island a bit, both by land and by water in the dinghy, heading back to WhimSea when it started to rain.

That evening after a nice supper we settled in to listen to the end of Treasure Island and the rain before going to bed.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

We awoke to a beautiful day and a bumping by Charlie. The breeze had brought him round so he was softly tapping us awake.

We went up to the ranger station and Troy go us registered while I went shopping. We picked up a couple of books and a poster commemorating 50 years of Moose-Wolf Studies on the island. The ranger there didn't know us, but said she'd heard of us, the pirate ship WhimSea, from other rangers.

Next stop, the store for ice and shower tokens. We enjoyed a cup of joe on the deck and watched birds as they came to pick berries from a nearby tree. As we were leaving the store another ranger called out our names, "Troy, Karen, glad to see you back". It was a ranger we've met a few times before. How amazing that he would remember our names! He was guiding a couple about the site and stopped to visit with us briefly and told how we had a pirate ship that visited the island every year. How cool is that!

Since we were docked in the Voyaguer II's slip, we didn't have a lot of time to visit. We needed to shower yet, and pump water out of Charlie before shoving off.

We got under way in plenty of time and were soon motoring down the harbor. We would slip out through the gap into Grace and halfway down Grace Harbor before crossing wake's with the Voyaguer II. Before the Vogaguer came through a Ranger boat proceeded them and gave a hearty argh at the sight of our flag, which Troy, of course echoed back.

We rounded Cumberland Poitn and raised sails only to be strongly disappointed. The waves must be left over from the previous nights storm for the wind was not enough to keep a sail filled. So, we motored along the shore to Sisikiwit Bay. We had intended to stay on Wright Island, but wind from the east chased that notion away. So, we traveled instead up to Hay Bay.

Hay Bay is an amazingly shallow bay with a dock near the end of it. We thought there could be enough room to get up to the dock, but the closer we got, the worse the idea seemed. The alarm for the depth sounder went off. I could clearly see the bottom. So we came about and anchored instead.

Hay Bay is a beautiful little hidey-hole. The ducks and loon were fishing around us all day. We got out our lounge chairs and sat on the foredeck, enjoying first a martini and then some red wine before finally heading below for dinner.

We indulged in a second bottle of wine with dinner before Troy took to sleeping and I went topside to enjoy the stars and the moon. Nearly full, she shown with such a brightness that night that she overpowered the stars. To the North in Canada, there was a lightening show going on. So I had plenty of entertainment, complete with the forelorn echoing of a loon cry in the night.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

We up anchored by 0700 hours and shaped a course for Windigo. The winds are light, but the sun is warming us. Last night they predicted low's in the 40's and I for one was loathe to leave the bunk.

We exited the islands between Rocky and South Twin before coming to a bearing of 50 degrees. So far we've seen two freighters, but both are to far away to either name or take photos of them.

We ended up motor sailing and motoring up to Windigo. The breeze they had predicted did not reach the middle of the lake. Outside of what was probably Grand Marais we saw two sailboats, sailing in company, probably headed for the islands. There was also a freighter heading up the coast, probably to Thunder Bay.

We arrived at the Washington Harbor entrance with no problems. The wind, was little to non-existent still, but had turned a mite cold. I think because of the rain it appeared to be bringing. We watched a storm as it made its way up the Minnesota coast. It competed with the sunbeams as sun and rain put a cross-hatched pattern in the sky. I tried to get pictures of it, we'll see how they turn out.

As we neared Beaver Island we overtook a group of loons. There were six of them fishing in company, which is something you just don't see. I don't think I've really ever seen more then two unless there's a baby included.

Another interesting sight was a MacGregor, at anchor (or beached, it's hard to tell) in an inlet before Beaver Island. Troy would strike up a conversation with them later at Windigo dock. He learned they were from Michigan and had driven to Grand Portage and came across from there. In previous years they had attempted the trip, setting off from Copper Harbor, only to turn back halfway across.

We would get lucky and find the dock had room to accommodate us for the evening. We tied up, stretched our legs on dry land and put on the sail cover. We were just about to head top side with a martini when the rain came. We'd been watching the lightening for a bit, but hoped we'd be able to enjoy the martinis with a light show. Oh well. I'm glad we made it into the harbor and at dock without getting wet.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

We had a rather bouncy evening at anchor as the wind gusts came over and around the island all night. We got up at 9:00 and determined we didn't need to be up, and so went back to bed for a few more hours. I love vacation.

While making coffee and muffins we watched a small drama unfold on Oak Island. The Island Princess, the island tour boat, was standing off and on near Little Manitou light for an awfully long time. Turning on the radio, we learned there was a Black Schooner at anchor with a man waving his red jacket frantically at the Princess. The coast guard vessel arrived and learned that they were out of battery power. They had food and water, but no juice. The Coast Guard called the man's father to deliver a battery to them and the Coast Guard would apparently be doing the delivery of said battery.

After a couple of hours we decided we would move on to Rocky Island for the evening. This would allow us to motor sail, pull out and re-roll the jenny and warm some water for showers. Unfortunately, we forgot that we needed to have the engine engaged to run the hot water through the engine.

We had a pretty strong wind, now more westerly, moving to Northwest. We hit 8.4 under the jenny alone. That's pretty amazing since we were pretty broad on to both the wind and the waves.

We arrived at Rocky and set the anchor and each had a bit of a shower, I say a bit because it was a little cold.

It's now 1600 hours, dinner is in the oven and martini's are being drunk. Treasure Island is being told to us (CD Player) and we've got only 81 nautical miles to Windigo tomorrow.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

By 8:50 we were passing the breakwall on our way off on our adventure, finally! We weren't certain if our destination would be the Apostle Islands or Isle Royale. Of course, it always depends on the wind.

By 15:30 we're anchored off of Raspberry Island in the east bay. We absolutely flew there from Knife. At times we reached 10.1 knots surfing down some of the larger waves. There was spindrift and green water as far as the eye could see.

When we reached Sand, instead of moderating, the gusts became more pronounced, with gusts in the 30's for sure. We broached a couple of times and at one point took a wave to the side during a broach that put a few inches into the cockpit. Even my camera case needed to be upended and emptied of water.

During the broach we lost the traveler. It looks like a pin that was holding the block on sheered away. Shorn the sheep also went flying down below.

The weather reports are saying gusts of 44 miles. There's definitely some wind here.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

Blowing like stink from the Northeast. Even if we wanted to go out we wouldn't, it would be an awful lot of work with the wind, the fog, etc. We spent the day inside doing a whole lot of nothing, then decided on dinner at Dixie's, both of us feeling like pizza.

When we drove by the Two Harbors High School we saw that the town players were doing the play "Our Town" 1900-1930. It was pretty funny and the music was pretty good as well.

We returned to the marina with pouring rain. It was coming down in sheets and buckets. One dash from the car to the head drenched me completely. I guess it's a good thing we didn't head out or we'd be out on the water getting soaked. We're hoping for fair winds on the morrow.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

We slept in having had way too much to drink with our Blueberry friends. The filters arrived and we didn't even hear the marina drop them by the boat. We were pretty out of it. When we did finally get moving it was to find a Northeaster blowing. We would be stuck in the marina for another day.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

Kerry returned and finished the work on WhimSea's motor. Since Troy had ordered the replacement filters, we will have to wait until tomorrow's post, at the earliest, before we can head out on vacation so we might as well enjoy the evening outside.

We planned to have a martini before dinner in the cockpit and were pleasantly surprised by a visit from Pam and Corliss of Blueberry. It's amazing how many people you can catch up with being at the marina during the week!

Posted by Karen A. Brown

A lazy day today. Kerry, the mechanic, would not be coming by with parts as they aren't ready yet. We pulled out the drawing supplies and had a nice quiet day together.

We ended the evening swapping stories with Nelson from Wind Flower. Not a bad way to end the day.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

We rested up a bit after a long ordeal returning from the Apostle's. Kerry was by and pulled pieces from the engine. He determined that there was something bent in the fuel injection pump. It was bent by a blow back from the injectors. He pulled all parts and brought them back with him for repairs.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

We went to start the engine to continue on our journey and no dice. Troy had replaced the filters but that didn't seem to help. We pulled the anchor under sail and debated which direction to head for a while. Do we go back to Knife (against the wind) or do we go to Bayfield and get a tow in. Eventually we decided to head to Knife and see if we could make our way back and perhaps sail into the marina.

The wind was good for a run directly to Knife River without to much work. The wind would begin to come Northwest as we got closer, allowing us to curve down. At 2:00 am we reached 3/4 of a mile from the marina and the wind completely died. Troy laid down for a little while and I took the first watch. We thought we would stand off and on outside of the marina hoping for the NW wind that we're told will be coming.

At 3:00 am the wind started to come up. We pulled out the jenny and were up to 4 knots right away. We made it into the marina relatively easily and docked at the fuel dock for the night, then hit the sack.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

By 10:15 am we were away from the dock. The wind is pretty much non-existent today so we would get a full test of the engine as we motor out to the apostle's. The wind looks like barely moving glass. I don't see much of a touch on the water. If I were a fisherman, it would be a good day.

The reports say there is some wind in Wisconsin. But otherwise we would spend the entire trip motoring.

She started a little hard this morning, but Troy's persistence paid off and we got underway. The sky was a little hazy, but we should have a good night on the Apostle's before heading off to Isle Royale. A little late, but better late then never.

We had a nice dinner off of Raspbery's marina shoal, followed by a peaceful night's rest.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

Happy Independence Day! It's a beautiful day though a little short on wind. Kerry was by and by 11:00 working on the diesel. He decided it must be a problem of dirty fuel. So Troy and Kerry went to Duluth and bought all the filters they could find, as well as the wrench to replace them.

We got the filters replaced and we're out for a little ride. Sounds like we'll be on our way tomorrow since today there is no wind.

Lucky for us, Bruce and Kathy (KC II) invited us out to watch the fireworks off shore. We couldn't have picked a more beautiful night. The Sunday was an amazing array of colors and the fireworks were spectacular in sight and sound. The way the noise would reach us a minute or three after the fireworks went off was pretty darn cool.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

First day of vacation and it's a beautiful day. Troy got an update from Kerry and we learned that he would be by later with the injectors to install them.

So of course we had to go out for breakfast. Lucky for us, Steve and Marilee were also ready for breakfast. Since we had some time, we also decided to run to Duluth and get WhimSea's name for the sides. We're thinking she (WhimSea) might be upset because the name has been off since this spring.

Kerry came by and installed the injectors, but now we have white smoke, which he didn't like. Looks like we'll be here tomorrow too.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

We came up to the marina after work and loaded on the last of our provisions. Perishables, clothes and entertainment all needed to be stowed below. Not knowing for sure what was up with her engine, Troy tried to fire her up only to find that the injectors were still missing. It was awfully late by this time so we would have to wait until tomorrow to call Kerry for an update.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

Troy heard from the mechanic. They fixed the starter and thought the enigne was running rough so Kerry pulled the injectors (again).