June 2021 - Lake Superior
What's a good destination sailing trip during the 2nd year of COVID lockdowns? How about Wisconsin! Not one of the usual top destinations, but we chartered a boat and spent 3 days sailing around the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior. It was a great adventure. The lake is absolutely enormous. There are beautiful red cliffs (another surprise for Wisconsin) full of sea caves that were fun to explore with the dinghy. And the islands themselves were great for hiking on, other than the abundance of ticks. We spent our first two nights on anchor, which were a big success. An excellent sail to both kick off and wrap up the summer 2021 sailing season.
What's a good destination sailing trip during the 2nd year of COVID lockdowns? How about Wisconsin! Not one of the usual top destinations, but we chartered a boat and spent 3 days sailing around the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior. It was a great adventure. The lake is absolutely enormous. There are beautiful red cliffs (another surprise for Wisconsin) full of sea caves that were fun to explore with the dinghy. And the islands themselves were great for hiking on, other than the abundance of ticks. We spent our first two nights on anchor, which were a big success. An excellent sail to both kick off and wrap up the summer 2021 sailing season.
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| Ready to start our adventure! | Out to sea first thing in the morning | The Wisconsin coast, red rocks and green forest |
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| On motor due to low winds, but still a lovely cruise | Anchored in Justice Bay on Sand Island to explore the island | Red cliffs of Sand Island |
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| Taking the dinghy out to explore the cliffs and their sea caves | The cliffs are full of sea caves | |
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| Natural caves reminiscent of those carved into the cliffs at Petra | A really cool sea arch | |
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| A nice deep cave | Looking back at our anchored boat | |
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| An intricate series of caves | More caves and red cliffs down the coast | |
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| Having a great time! | ||
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| Beautiful green forest on top of the pocketed red cliffs | A window in the rock | |
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| Into the dark | A precarious position | |
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| Red cliffs all around the island | ||
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| Another cool window in the rock | ||
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| Beautiful cliffs! | ||
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| Headed back around | ||
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| Such intricacy! | ||
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| A really great tour of the cliffs and caves! | ||
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| Taking the dinghy ashore. The beach had beautiful red sand. | Justice Bay | A lovely boardwalk trail across the island. Lovely, but literally crawling with ticks. |
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| The opposite side of the island, Lighthouse Bay | ||
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| The staircase down to the water looks like it had a rough winter! | It's amazing to see where the cliff has collapsed into giant boulders, seemingly recently | |
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| The very cute Sand Island lighthouse | Some fog came in while we were there! | |
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| Snack break at the lighthouse | A curious song sparrow | |
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| I was relieved to see the dinghy still there when we got back from our hike to the lighthouse | The Raspberry Island lighthouse | Pulling into our first anchorage, on the west side of Oak Island |
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| Ready to drop! | On the anchor | Relaxing after the day's adventures |
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| Dinner time! | The GPS track after the night on the anchor: we spun all around the anchor, but it didn't slip at all. Well placed! | Headed out to explore the islands by sea |
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| It was June, but felt like a winter sail that morning | Human blanket! | |
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| Otter Island was closed for nesting birds, but a lone gull on this cliff was the only bird we saw on the island | The only person who showed up for Singles Night. Sad! | Islands large and small |
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| An island nearly obscured by fog | Coming out of the fog | |
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| Coming around Stockton Island | More sea caves in the cliffs | |
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| A really cool isolated rock tower | Anchored in the lovely Presque Isle Bay on Stockton Island | Our boat at anchor |
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| A common merganser hanging out in the bay | The trail across Stockton Island | The island was full of Pink Lady's Slipper flowers in full bloom |
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| The pouch is for trapping insects (bees), but for fertilization, not food | Presque Isle Bay, with our boat in the very middle | |
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| A cool dragonfly | Hiking through the ferns | Streams cutting through the island |
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| An area that burned recently | A boardwalk over the marsh | |
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| The beautiful red sand beach at Julian Bay | Beautiful rocks on the beach | Debris from an old shipwreck |
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| Marsh islands | ||
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| Crossing the mouth of the estuary | I wouldn't want to be out in the storm powerful enough to embed this giant root upside down into the beach | We were disgusted to realize that the black lines running the length of the beach were thousands, probably millions, of dead flies that had been washed up |
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| Fog moving in while overlooking Julian Bay | Where the beach turns into forest | |
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| Rocks covered in ladybugs | Back at the boat, a lot more boats in the anchorage! | The anchorage at night. I love seeing the constellation of anchor lights at night. |
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| The night GPS track from another perfectly set anchor! | Enjoying the morning on the anchor | Weighing anchor! |
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| Sailing action shot | ||
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