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CHECK OUT PICTURES OF THIS TRIP ON THE MAY 2010 PHOTO ALBUM

 

May 25-27 Houghton, MI

 

We stayed in Houghton for three days.  Halfway through the first day the constant easterlies turned westward and brought in storm-looking clouds.  We were still tired and easily decided to stay.  The second and third days, the wind remained west, though the skies were beautiful.  We woke up at 5:30 on the third day to check the forecast, just to make sure the wind was EXACTLY wrong—which it was.  NW up to 30 knots.  Grand Marais, our hoped-for destination, was due northwest.  Mark had hoped to make it for a couple days of training there to learn to captain a schooner for the North House Folk School.  The director and his family are good friends and we were looking forward to it.  But it was not to be.  We spent a third, slightly lethargic day in Houghton.  The local librarian, a sailor herself, was interested and interesting and joined us for dinner and took me to the coop for groceries.  The weather cooled after the first day but we still swam every day in remarkably warm waters for Lake Superior.  At least, the girls and I did.

 

The third evening, worried that lethargy was taking over and we might never leave, we turned on the engine and motored to the western end of the canal, poised to head to the Apostles the next morning.  It was good to get away from the noise.  Still, it was a great stay there and we did, in fact, see ourselves in the newspaper, which we thought was very friendly.  A couple people walked by and said “Hello, Gordons!”

 

May 28—to the Apostle Islands

 

Early the next morning Mark and Tom got us out into the lake.  Overnight the winds had died and it was calm.  The girls and I slept in to the hum of the engine with barely a ripple of motion.  Eventually we got up and adjusted to wearing layers again, though for May, it was un-heard of warm.  We sailed a bit in the afternoon, but mostly the winds were too light.  Of course even a light NE wind is enough to get the rollers going, and I was as seasick as I’d been the entire trip, with its accompanying irritability.  “Now I remember what I hate about Lake Superior,” I grumbled to Mark.  “For every two hours of wind you get eight hours of rolling.”  We pulled into the Apostles Islands by evening and jumped around onshore for a bit before finally crashing.  It was the first chilly night for awhile.

 

May 29—to Knife River, MN

 

We woke up to a gorgeous early summer morning.  I got on my running clothes and prepared to dinghy to shore for one of my favorite runs of all time, the trail that encircles Stockton Island.  We knew it was Memorial weekend and our plan was to try to get hold of some of our friends who live in nearby Wisconsin and see if a connection would be possible before heading home on Sunday.  But then we got a call from the Hardys, dear friends who recently moved away from Two Harbors and were back for a visit.  Would we be back soon?  Well, we decided we would sure try!  We immediately upped the anchor and motored into glassy seas, expecting from the forecast to motor the entire way.  Cedar and Lamar were beside themselves with joy at the prospect of not only coming home but being met by the Hardy’s!  Mark and I were contemplative—it was all feeling anti-climatic since Houghton, and motoring along carries much less a feeling of accomplishment.  But then a NE wind started blowing gently off our quarter.  We put up sails and I prepared for a day of rolling as soon as this wind died.  But do you know, it never died, but just kept growing!  Soon the motor was off and we were zipping along.  We sailed home with banners flying—going over 6 knots the entire way.  By late afternoon the gusts were topping 25 knots and we figured there was probably an advisory out.  Tom spent the afternoon at the wheel—his favorite spot, I think—and the rest of us sat on the cabintop and watched the increasingly large, oh-so-familiar NE swells roll and hiss under us.  Amicus II behaved beautifully of course, and it was some of the best sailing of the entire trip.  Mark’s and my melancholy left us completely and we reveled in the familiar sights—passing Silver Bay, Two Harbors, and finally coming into Knife River right at suppertime.  Somewhere in the there we received two phone calls from people who wanted to go sailing!  We set up our first charter appointment for next weekend and felt that the new life was already beginning.  

 

As some of you know, Knife River is an exciting harbor to come into in a NE wind.  Mark’s confidence was clearly high and he expanded on the drama by sailing right into the channel on the jib alone—me at the wheel, Tom poised with the roller furling—and only at the last second furling in the jib.  We basically coasted into our tiny little lagoon, which Mark had carefully measured for depth and length.  We never touched bottom, Mark brought us in flawlessly, and Matt, Jahna and Aurora Hardy were cheering us on the whole time.  Even as we came in we were dropping layers of clothing as the temperatures rose with every foot closer to shore.

 

Matt and Jahna had a grill and burgers and corn on the cob and watermelon.  Need I describe what this was like for us?  Even Lamar ate 1 ½ hamburgers.  Steve—another friend—stopped by a little later and we basked in each other’s presence and our successful delivery of Amicus II until the sun sank low, Aurora (2 years old) wandered happily and mindlessly anywhere on the boat, and  Lamar begged to go to bed.

 

May 31—To Two Harbors

 

In the morning the girls woke surprisingly early so we got up and started packing.  At 9:00 the Hardy’s and Steve showed up with bacon, OJ, syrup, and eggs, which we ate with the pancakes Mark was frying.  Breakfast lasted so long that it was lunchtime before we had the cars packed and were heading home to Two Harbors.

 

Where I now sit, finishing the tale.  There you have it.  The girls and Mahalia are currently upstairs.  One of our houseguests has left and our summer boarder is at work.  So our already-full house is quiet.  Tom is trying to find a bus to take back home to Guelph, ON.  Mark has already mowed the lawn and returned to the boat.  I am in a daze trying to figure out what to make for supper.  What else is new?

 

This summer we will begin our chartering business, which as well as daytrips will focus on trips for families, youth, and young adults.  See our website or call us to learn more:  www.amicusadventuresailing.com  or 218-290-5975.  Thanks for listening!