We are no longer in Michigan!!! July 8, Day 37 of our Grand Adventure

Sunday night, it rained all night, we headed out of Ontonagon @ 7:30 this morning July 8, Monday. Rain had stopped but hazy and overcast, air temp 62, waves 1-2 feet, winds 5-10 knots. Well, we planned to dock @ Black River Marina. It has been a marginal option, we were told by the harbor Master Scott @ Houghton Marina that it was too shallow. We never received a call back from anyone at Black River (should  have been a red flag). We talked to others who had recently been there & hadn't had any problems. 

Waterford was in the lead today (we take turns leading).  When they got close enough to see the harbor w/ binoculars, they radioed & thought there may not be room for both of us. Black River has a wall, not slips & they could see boats lined up. They suggested we wait out in the lake & they would check out the situation.  There was quite a bit of debris (tree branches & logs) coming out of the mouth of the river where it flows into the lake. (Another red flag). Waterford got into the small narrow channel & was reading pretty shallow. He then radioed us & said abort, not good conditions.  He tagged the sand bottom, lots of debris, the current was very fast and he had a heck of a narrow shallow area to turn around. Needless to say it wasn't fun or pretty, but Garry being the able Captain with an exceptional admiral (Jacque) on board and a fine responsive vessel, made it without any damage except to their psyche. 

We executed Plan B & headed to the next Marina along the shoreline which is Saxon, Wisconsin. Wait did I say Wisconsin, not Michigan? We are actually leaving the beautiful State of Michigan! It sure has shown us a good time, I can only hope Wisconsin will be equally lovely. We also now are in a different time zone, 1 hour earlier. We won't have to stay up till 10 to see the sunset any longer. Garry used his new Satellite phone that he purchased just the other day (after going thru withdrawal without cell phone service for almost a week), to call ahead to Saxon. They eventually were able to tell Garry that they only had 6 feet of water in their Marina, so after one harrowing experience for the day, we decided to keep going right to the Apostle Islands, where there is a yacht club on Madeline Island that we definitely will fit into. So onto Plan C. The fog cleared & the lake laid down & we had a beautiful last hour cruise, sadly though we passed the porcupine Mountains without seeing them due to the fog. :( 

We arrived @ 4:30 PM to Madeline Island Yacht Club.  Madeline Island is the largest of the  Apostle Islands in Wisconsin, but it is not run by the National Park Service like the other Apostle islands.  Population here in the winter is about 200, but in the summer it increases to about 3500, quite a difference.  There is great history on this island & we met Rick, who's wife's ancestry dates back to the 1800's on the island.  We traveled 69 miles today, cum of 831 total.

The Apostle Islands have more pleasure craft per square mile than any where else on Lake superior. Sad Fact: a visit to the Apostle Islands was the last official trip made by Present Kennedy before he went on to Dallas in 1963.

We had a cocktail bridge party on Day Dreams after we were settled.  It sure is a pretty harbor, with boats anchored out in the bay and a really nice yacht club here. We had a great dinner @ the Pub, walking distance from the boat, with a great window view of the beautiful sunset.