In Ontonagon Again

This town is a gem! We stopped in Ontonagon again on our way back to the Apostles. Patrick and Jessica found that you can take public transportation to the Porcupine Mountains and go hiking in the park. Bob, the harbor master, was very helpful with many recommendations and he also took me to a truck stop so I could buy diesel fuel.
There are two ways to go "down town" from the marina. The long way (and our preferred way because we like to walk) is to walk around and across the new bridge and the short way is to dingy from the marina to one of the dingy docks across the river which puts you right "down town". I used the dingy method a few times because I just wanted to go to Syl's cafe to send some email and once again when I just needed some ice for the cooler.
We toured the old Ontonagon Light House. The local historical organization has restored it and it is beautiful. You must take a shuttle to visit it and we found it very interesting and well done.

Ontonagon is a very friendly town with many activities and shopping opportunities. It is a "must see" for anyone visiting the UP.

Still in Port

Jessica did it again, first the opera and today an organ music presentation. The great pipe organ in St. Ann's, a cathedral like former Catholic church that has been restored to a regional cultural center, is played just a few times per year. So we take a taxi from Houghton to Calumet at about 3 PM. After we check out the town and visit the local Copper Country museum (the downtown is beautiful with many old brownstone building from the copper mining days), we find a eatery called the Michigan Pub. Jessica and I have the fish and chips (yum) and Patrick has the "best hamburger he has ever had." After a great supper I find a park bench and continue reading my book while Patrick and Jessica continue to explore the town.
At the appointed hour we all go to St Ann's. The cultural center displays are very well done and interesting. They focus on story tellers of the area, from the per-historic Native Americans to current times.

Time for the music to begin, this is what we have been waiting for. What? A piano - not an organ. Hey, this is a hymn sing along. What?? We're sitting near the back, maybe we can escape. Well, we should give it a chance first.

The leader tells of the ethnic slant of each hymn including who wrote it and why. Each hymn represents a different ethnicity. At my church hymns are sung in a low murmur (seems to be a stoic Norwegian characteristic) but not here. Everyone is belting out the hymns without even looking at the words. This is GREAT!! The acoustics in the huge building are fantastic! The spirit of these few people fills this old cathedral and it's overwhelming. The copper played out and the big shots scurried back to Boston like rats back to their nest leaving these people high and dry. The rich sit in their million dollar Boston condos counting their booty while these wonderful strong people sing and laugh in this beautiful old church. I'd rather be here, thanks Jessica, this was another winner!

PS - They played one hymn on the old pipe organ to tempt us to come back for the special organ day. What a great place!

In Port

What do you do on a sailing vacation? Eat, Sleep, walk, run, shop, talk, read, go to the opera, ....... did I say "go to the opera? Yes, we went to the opera (La Traviata) on the Michigan Tech campus and it was great. Tomorrow - mine tours and an organ concert. When you sail with Jessica and Patrick you "do stuff" and have fun!

Sailing to Houghton-Hancock

We left Ontonagon at 5 AM this morning (7-17-10) and raised our sails just outside the harbor breakwater. Summer Snow grabbed the wind as we headed NE and kicked up to 4 nts on a comfortable broad reach. The wind built as the sun rose and we spend most of the morning at 6+ nts without touching a sheet. Then the wind dipped to >5 nts at 11 AM and by noon we had fired up the iron genny to maintain 5 nts. We arrived at the Houghton County Marina at 3 PM and were lucky enough to get a slip right in front of the restroom/shower/laundry building. All in All it was a great day and Jessica made a great supper for us. Life Is Good!

To Outer Island and Ontonagon

Jessica, Patrick, and I sailed from Corny at 11 AM on 7-12-2010. Our destination was Outer Island in the Apostles. Our overall plan is to stage at Outer Island for an early morning crossing to Houghton-Hancock, MI. The auto pilot is a little sketchy so Patrick is working on it. We “shot the moon” at Sand Island and saw 7’ below our waterline 4 times. We anchored on the south west side of Outer and had supper. After supper we took the dingy in to shore to explore. We found the old railroad path that they used in the old days to bring logs to the beach. We also found fresh bear scat and so decided we had explored enough and went back to Summer Snow.
The next day (7-13-2010) we got up early and set sail at 4:53 AM. We headed for Houghton-Hancock but found this line very uncomfortable as the wind picked up and waves built. The predictions were 5 to 10 nt winds and 1 to 2 ft waves with it picking up to 10 to 20 in the late afternoon. Late afternoon came at noon and the waves were building. We decided to change course and head for Ontonagon, MI instead. We reefed the main first and later reefed the jib. Then we rolled in the jib and were making 6 nts with reefed main. Ontonagon was in site, things looked good. We finally took the main down and went under power but and we approached the harbor the engine quit. OUT OF FUEL! Darn! So we added 5 gal of fuel from our j-can stash, bled the fuel lines and restarted the engine. Patrick had unrolled a bit of jib and tacked out a ways so we had control so we turned and tried it again. Big waves meant that we needed power so we gave her the fuel. THE ENGINE QUIT AGAIN! I assumed that the fuel filters had clogged with crud from the bottom of the tank as the wave action and low fuel mixed it all up together. We restarted the engine and ran under low power to get into the breakwater and harbor. I found that the engine would keep running if I left it at low power. We slowly proceeded to the Ontonagon Marina and were very happy to tie to the dock. We celebrated with a movie and popcorn that evening.

Getting Ready for a Two Week Sail

I got to Corny at about 3 PM, Patrick and Jessica were about a half an hour behind me. We loaded all our gear and food (Jessica got all the food together) into the boat and then made a few necessary repairs. I bought new air vents and we put a cover on the steering pedestal where the compass used to be.

We went to Ethel's for pizza and talked with Bev on Skype when we got back. We plan on leaving tomorrow morning for Outer Island which is about 30 Nautical miles away. We'll stage there for an early Tuesday sail to the Keweenaw waterway and Hancock/Houghton, Michigan. Looks to be about a 13 to 17 hour sail if the winds are good.

Bev and I sailed to Sand Island on Tuesday. We “shot the moon” as Patrick would say, that is, we crept across the shallow water south of Sand Island. We draw 5’ 6” so we watched the chart plotter and the depth gage as we passed over 4 sand bars. Each sand bar had 7’ so we were fine. We anchored in East Bay in 9’ of water with 100’ of anchor rode. We tried out the new dingy motor (6 HP Suzuki) as we cruised the shoreline. Because we had prepared hobo dinners while sailing over we just made popcorn for supper.

Wednesday morning we pulled up the anchor and headed for Stockton Island. It was a great day for sailing and we made 4 to 6 nts the whole way. We got out our copy of Bonnie Dahl's guide book Superior Way and found that there should be enough water at the main dock to tie up rather than anchoring. It was our lucky day; we found room at the dock and tied up for the night. The ferry boat comes in at the main dock on Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday so we would not have to move, yippee! The National Park Service puts on a ranger program each evening so we went to their campfire and presentation on “Living with Bears”. We had a very interesting chat with Captain Tom Rossini from the powerboat 401K and found out that Tom and his wife Julia live in the same development that my sister Joan lives in. In fact, one of his best friends is Joan and Tom’s next door neighbor.

We woke up on Thursday to another beautiful day with a very nice breeze out of the northwest so we decided to sail to Bayfield. We had a great broad reach all the way to the Apostle Islands Marina in Bayfield. It was off the showers and then to Ethel’s for pizza. Then the order of the day became relaxing and reading (sweet!)

After breakfast at the Egg Toss restaurant on Friday, the wind had switched to the SW at 10 to 20 nts so once again we had a great broad reach as we sailed back toward Corny. At Raspberry Bay we pulled in a reef in the main and eventually rolled in the foresail. We were making 6+ nts with reefed main as the wind gusted to 25+ nts. As we rounded the corner to “shoot the moon” we dropped the main and went under diesel power the rest of the way to Corny. It was a great 4 days of sailing in the Apostles.