Journal Entry from July 10 - with more photos!!

 

Sailing Journal Entry:

 

It’s Monday, July 10, 2023 and I wake up on a sailboat on the rugged north shore of Lake Superior in a well protected harbour on the east side of the Black Bay Peninsula. We all arrived at Marcil Bay after a shore lunch at BEMB, where we would have stayed but for the wind which from the exposed south was making it too wavy to stay the night comfortably. 

We've been fortunate to have calm anchorages for the past three nights and I have slept like a baby being rocked in a cradle! But that comes in part from the experience of my fellow sailors whose read of the wind directions have helped with choice of where to stay.

Getting here has been an adventure. I've sailed 70 nautical miles since last Thursday or actually more, since I was tacking and gybing to take advantage of wind, so probably around 100 nautical miles on the water!!

 

To recap: I left my house last Thursday, July 6, to sail Fire ‘n Water the 18 nautical miles to Thunder Bay and to be ready for crossing of the big bay southeast and around the toes of the sleeping giant, and then into Lake Superior proper. 

My crew for that trip to TBay was my brother in law, as I wrote about in my last entry. We had big winds and awesome seas but they were even bigger and awesomer for my solo sojourn on Friday, July 7, and I was enthralled by the experience. It’s a big lake with waves and winds and weather and wonder to match. Except for the lack of salt, it’s a sea. Maybe it is a sea, after all!

 

Here's a short video clip from July 7 as I was approaching Thunder Cape, in case I forgot to post it with my previous post:

 

 

We are a small flotilla of three sailboats: my 26 foot Grampian, named Fire ‘n Water; Will’s C&C 27 foot, Killian’s Red; and Kevin and (other) Michael’s MacGregor 21, The Minnow. 

I worried greatly that the Minnow was no boat suited for Lake Superior, with a fairly short outboard engine, and very low freeboard, and a small cockpit, and a retractable keel. However, the Minnow is  also a very light boat, and floats on the water like a cork and only in the biggest winds will she not sail, making motoring mandatory. In really big wind and waves, even I resorted to running the engine if heading directly upwind.

The crew of the minnow seem fearless and still made good headway under power with contrary winds and somehow managed even the the biggest waves. Some were 5-6 feet from trough to crest and with a tight frequency these big choppy waves can make handling a boat challenging, especially with following seas. 

I’ve been sailing mostly without running the engine each stretch on this trip so far, but because I am on my own in my boat, I do take some extra precautions and use the engine in tricky areas where my ability to manage the sails might not match the shifting winds and rocky shoals. Without my tireless crew mate Otto von Helm, I could not do this. The autopilot keeps the boat pointed the the direction I set, allowing me to reef or shake out sails, furl the headsail, prepare the anchor for stopping me, go down below and make a sandwich, have a nap, read a book. . . .

I've never made a trip like this and although I've single-handed (sailed solo) a few times around the bay where I live, and have more experience as crew racing the Wednesday night bouys, and have done a few offshore races (as crew) including the Trans Superior some 20 years ago, this is by far the biggest sailing challenge I have faced. And without two other boats making this trek, knowing that if I needed help I could call them, I would not have attempted it.

 

On Friday night, after a 30 Nautical mile voyage, we all anchored in Pringle Bay on Edward Island, in Black Bay.  I had volunteered to cook the first group dinner which consisted of chicken fajitas with onions and peppers and salsa and cheese and sour cream: my first meal ever prepared and served to guests aboard Fire ‘n Water.  (Actually that might have been the second night that I made the fajitas; it might have been steaks that first night) .My wife had made little mini cheesecakes with fresh strawberries and almond crust that I brought out for dessert and to celebrate turning 58 years old!

Meal for six hungry guys.  We started with cocktails: I made Fire ‘n Water’s signature cocktail: a Manhattan made with Crown Royal Rye, Dolin’s Red Vermouth, dried maraschino cherries and an orange slice, the rind rubbed along the rim to infuse extra orange flavour (it’s also supposed to include orange bitters (that I forgot)). (The Manhattans were good even without the bitters, so I was told.)

Dinner was enjoyed on deck and beer and wine and I think a salad? that maybe the Minnow provided, and a charcuterie board as almost every evening for appetizers. 

Minnow was tied up alongside Killian’s Red and they all came over on their inflatable tenders that each boat towed. 

Saturday after breakfast and jumping into the lake to wake up and clear cobwebs, we sailed on: a very nice and sunny day on the lake.  Minnow was meant to be fishing but had engine troubles so needed a tow. The Minnow is well set up for fishing when all goes well: the retractable keel allows them to get into the shallows and inlets (photos of lunch to follow). We anchored Saturday night off Shaganash Island after 7.5 nautical miles, sailing out into the lake and then into a lovely little archipelago of inlets, islands, peninsulas and all around. 

We received a delivery of fresh ice on Sunday morning by airplane. My father in law was itching for an excuse to go for a flight, and I could update our location by satellite tracking. There’s no cellphone service once you round Thunder Cape, except occasional brief snippets where a signal manages to sneak between the high rocky cliffs protecting the shoreline of the sleeping giant.

 

 

I’m sure the ice delivery trip was exciting for the two pilots in its own way. It is impossible not to be overcome by the intensity of this nature that is around us. 

 

Sailed out into a breeze that looked to build so I kept the reef in the main from the previous afternoon. Minnow's engine began working intermittently after convincing show of lack of mercy and a threat of liberal use of a hammer, plus the wind became more favourable, and by Sunday night we made it another 8 nautical miles into Loon Harbour, around the point of the Black Bay Peninsula and were greeted by the haunting calls of loons who were either happy for the company and were welcoming us, or were wondering why we were disturbing their peace. 

 

 

Minnow was tied alongside me and that evening we all had a sauna on an island, going into the lake with the challenge: stay in for two whole minute, accepted! Water temp was 9 degrees C. 

 

No one developed hypothermia. 

 

Next: Otter Cove and the waterfall and a hike up to a lake above the cove.