Day 79/August 19th/Last stop in Lake Superior/ traveled over 1500 miles

On Monday morn, August 19 pulled up anchors (had a stern out for the first time this trip), because anchorage was too small for us to swing. Before our trip this summer, I never liked to swing with only 1 anchor.  I used to insist we tie to land or have a stern anchor out, but this trip, we were very comfortable with just the one anchor. Headed to Sinclair Cove where u r able 2 view ancient pictographs. We had been there before w/ our SeaRay & the drawings were pretty interesting to see, you could still make out the shapes of canoes & animals. When we arrived 3 hours later, we entered the cove first & realized it was too small for our 2 boats-Drat!! So we had to change course & will pass within 8 miles of where the Edmund Fitzgerald went down & is resting on the bottom.

Sinclair Cove

Indian Pictographs

Big Batchawana Bay

Today, Day 79 we hit the 1500 mile mark on our way to Batchawana Island, our last anchorage in Lake Superior. It is a large area, with cottages along the mainland shoreline where the beach is. There is a road that comes down to the water also on the mainland. We anchored in 15 feet of water which didn't take us very close to the island. It feels like we anchored out in the middle of a small lake. We were hoping to stay out in Lake Superior for a few more nights but this is not conducive for staying more than one night.  
We were visited by 5 loons this evening, saying goodbye to us. 

 As of today we have  spent 2 full months cruising Lake Superior. It has been amazingly spectacular. We are running out of adjectives to describe it. Even though, we have had 2 months here, it seems like it went too fast, isn't that amazing? The rest of the trip will be fun, but I know I will miss the beauty & awe inspiring scenery we have been lucky enough to experience.  One thing though, I won't miss the cold temperatures.  

Our last sunset over Lake Superior

Indian Harbor/ Devil's Chair; August 17, 2013

Garry & his 2 beautiful Salmon

Fresh Salmon & sweet potato chips

Saturday, August 17, we arrived to Indian Harbor after a few short hours. We have traveled 1447 miles. Connie B was anchored there, the Nordic tug we met in Otter head. Waterford & Day Dreams both had to put out stern anchors due to the size of the anchorage. It is a pretty place with a sand beach to our starboard.  The weather has continued to improve, it's sunny & in the 70's. Garry started fishing immediately after getting the anchors set & caught a salmon from the stern of the boat. That got him excited so he spent some time fishing from his dinghy in our cove & caught a bigger salmon.  Needless to say we had a great dinner. Then for dessert we had a beach campfire with s'mores.  

Sunday morning, after checking the wind & wave forecast, we hopped into our dinghy's & headed out to Superior to explore the rock formations called Devil's chair. These are really cool and fun. We were able to wade around these interesting volcanic rocks. 

Moose skull :(

After lunch, we hiked 3.5 miles to the next bay, Warp's bay & we were tracking Moose & bear but didn't see either. But we sure did see tons of evidence; a moose skull, tracks, paths & lots of big piles of poop. 

After dinner, Doug & I kayaked a couple of miles. It was a gorgeous, calm evening.  Our last few anchorages, the lake water has been clear as glass. You can see the bottom in 18 feet of water. We had another warm 70 degree day. 

We have broken a personal record: we have anchored 27 out of the last 30 days & still loving it! We haven't run out of food, water or space! 
  
Anchorages: all in Lake Superior

Grand Island   2  Nights

Lac le Belle.    2 Nights

Stockton Island   2Nights

Isle Royale  10 Nights

Loon Harbor  2 nights

Otter cove  3 nights

Woodbine  1 night

Battle Island 1 morn

Slates  1 night

Pulpwood  2 nights

Otter head 3 nights

Bruele  2 nights

Indian Harbor 2 nights

Brule Harbor/ Day 75/ August 15, 2013

Day 75, Thursday, August 15 pulled up anchor, the strong wind warning over, almost. Waves 2-4's to occas 6's but the thermometer says 61 degrees. It has been 48 degrees in the early mornings when we get up. So 61 looks good to us. Under way 7 hours, we arrive to Brule Harbor. We are anchoring close to mainland Canada, in Lake Superior Provincial park. Thank you Canada for making most of your beautiful Lake Superior coastline, park area, so it is still wild & rugged. Yes, I could become a tree hugger with a little encouragement!! 

Our view out of our back deck

We are anchored in a beautiful snug spot, which took some maneuvering to get secure. The water is pretty deep in here which makes it tougher. We are tied to shore & Garry has a stern anchor out, both to keep us from swinging. Garry is in the same cove but not close. We have a huge beaver dam in our area. Jacque made a nice meatloaf for dinner for us all, Thank you for feeding us, Jacque.

During dinner, a small sailboat sailed into our cove & proceeded to tie up very close to us. There were five 20 something's on board. Wouldn't you think they would like some privacy?  They got settled, ate a quick dinner, then they donned rain gear, it wasn't raining but it was cool out. All 5 of them hopped in their dinghy without lights & took off.We don't know where they went & it was after dusk.  There are no public places anywhere near, only the open waters of Lake Superior. We didn't hear them return but the dinghy was tied up in the morn when we awoke. Thank goodness! They left that afternoon.

Water clarity, can you believe it?

Friday, turned into one of the nicest weather days we've   experienced. We took off in our dinghies early while the Lake was calm & checked out the Pukaskwa pits, we had read about. They have been studied & researched. It is thought they are thousand of years old, but no one knows what they were used for. 

Garry in his hot tub Pukaskwa pit

   Of course there are theories. Garry's theory is that this one was a hot tub for their tired achy bodies after a long day of hunting & gathering. Hot rock therapy. We then checked out Old Woman's Bay.  The cliffs are high & majestic. We walked along a sand beach, found a spring fed small pretty inland lake off the sand beach & the guys had to skip some stones in the calm water. 

In the afternoon, it actually got up to the mid 70's. We kayaked our cove & around the near by islands. We walked around the rocks on Entrance Island. This is another beautiful, quiet spot. We heard loons last night but haven't seen any but we have watched Eagles soaring & one flying down to a beach to grab a fish. 

We were able to sit up on the bridge & read our books & I even went for a quick dip in the water behind the boat. 








We kayaked after dinner, the moon rose brightly @ about 3/4's full.

Everyone says HI, wish you were here!!

Otter Head/Waterfalls/lLighthouse & Fish.

Cascade Falls

On Monday August 12, we pulled anchor in the rain and cruised along the rugged eastern shoreline and the Provincial Pukaskwa Park.  We are anchored now in the Otter Head area, there are other boats in the anchorage but it's big enough for all of us. There is a lighthouse on a nearby island that we attempted to dinghy to the first day, but we aborted the mission due to rough seas. There is also a series of waterfalls we passed on our way into the cove that we hope to get to, with Cascade falls dropping right into Lake Superior. The falls are located in an open area without much protection & the wind is blowing towards them so we'll see. We are secure in a big cove with 2 sailboats & 1 Nordic tug; ConnieB (Bill & Connie from LaPeer, MI.)

Tuesday, made it in our dinghy's with rain gear & explored Otter Island lighthouse & grounds. the blueberries are ripe & we don't think there are any bears

Now do you believe we've had cold weather?

around so we picked a container full-yum. If there were bear, I wouldn't want to take their food away from them. Didn't see any caribou, which are the only inhabitants on the Lighthouse island.  Paddled up a stream in our cove & found the hidden unnamed waterfalls in our cove. We could hear the falls from our boats. The waterfall is very pretty & bigger than we expected. 

Garry had bought a Canadian fishing license so he was making good use of it.  He trolled along in our cove & was awarded by catching 3 northern pikes, releasing the 2 smaller ones   & giving the 32 " big boy to a sailboat anchored nearby. He didn't keep it for us, because Northern Pike are very hard to prepare & get the bones out.  We are picky you know. But Garry had fun catching them. 

It has been a bit windy & wavy, so we were not able to dinghy & hike the Cascade Falls. We actually have been weathered in an extra day here due to a strong wind warning, so it is Weds & we (Waterford & us) are all by ourselves in this big cove. Doug & I kayaked the perimeter of the cove & it is over 4 miles around. We went up a stream & saw evidence of Moose & a busy beaver but did not see either. We did see 2 Eagles soaring & perched among these high rock bluffs around us. 

On our weathered in day, Jacque & Garry hosted a Movie matinee. Doug read a Jack Reacher novel this trip written by Lee Childs & is hooked.  Jacque & Garry were already fans & have read many of lee Child's, Reacher series. They even had a Reacher movie in their library on the boat, so we watched the movie "One Shot"  with Tom Cruise portraying Reacher.  Even though Jacque & I agree that Tom Cruise was not the perfect pick for Jack, it was a good flick. We even had popcorn! We don't rough it.

Pulpwood Harbor, Northeast corner of the Great Lake Gitchee Gumee

Still recapping our anchorages while we were wifi free. 

Sunday point lighthouse

Sat morn, Aug 10 all three boats, (Raydiance too) pulled up anchor & headed out. The sun was out but it was cool, so what's new? We arrived @ Pulpwood harbor, near Hattie cove & the Pukaskwa park. The narrowest entry yet, but with 30 ft of water. I could have reached out & touched the cliffs almost. Nice anchorage, no other boats anchored. We took the dinghy over to the next cove, Hattie's Cove & there is actually a visitors center & campground. It's the mainland & the border of the Ontario provincial park; Pukaskwa which spans 726 square miles with a 37 mile coastal trail. There are no other roads that come down to the shoreline in this park. There are hikers & kayakers around the park. We actually registered here because the guy @ the Visitor's Center told Garry & Jacque they needed to, but when we went to the office, the girls working there didn't know what to do with us because no other anchored boats had ever registered, so they charged us a day hiking fee so we paid $9.00/couple.  The water keeps getting clearer. Doug & I kayaked around the coves & islands; we couldn't go out into Superior, because it was pretty rough. 

Doug's next life phase

That's a fungus, we think

We were hoping to dinghy to the White River this Sunday morning,August 11, but the lake has decided to kick up it's heels for a day. We certainly can't complain so far about that, so we enacted Plan B, when boating it's always good to have a Plan B.  So the four of us hiked 10.4 miles to the White River, to view & walk over the coolest suspension bridge over a gorge & raging river-totally amazing. Doug & I had been here in 1997 and the bridge had been pretty rugged open wood slats, which we walked over then.  That was before Doug fell out of the tree & no longer is excited about high moving things, like trees, roller coasters & suspension bridges.  Luckily, after 5+ miles of hiking we arrived and  were pleased to see a brand new, very well constructed bridge. Our hiking trail had some pretty rugged sections that reminded us of the forest in Lord of the Rings.  Today was sunny & warmer and we actually got (dare I say it), hot once on the hike. No wildlife spotted :(

"I'm not going over that falls!!"

Alizann surprised us & were anchored in the bay with us when we returned from hiking. It's always great to see them. Marty & Suzanne invited us for cocktails on Alizann & we caught up since seeing them @ Otter Cove. Cocktail hours are always so much fun; we have so much in common & we all have so much to share of our adventures.

Another mini Krogen Rendezvous!!