Arctic Solo Sail

May 4^th, 2009:  0930 up the anchor and to the beach.  I run the CAP’N LEM onto the sandy beach below the town of Grand Marais, MI, jump off the port amma to dry ground and walk to town for ice and bread.  It greaves me to buy ice when so short a time ago I just scooped it out of the water.  Getting underway is easy and uneventful, motor in reverse, wiggle back and forth a little and go.

Outside the harbor the wind is from the east so I beat.  Won’t make White Fish today, but there is Little Lake Harbor and it looks agreeable. 

We’re anchored at 2013 in 12’ of water, position Lat 46° 42.784’N ~ 085° 21.691’W.  A good anchorage, very quiet, though a bit sticky to get into because of sand shoaling.  I catch the dagger board on the bottom twice.  It’s very useful in feeling my way over shallows.

Cinco de Mayo, Happy Birthday Mexico.   O913, Up anchor and out bound.  This time, we clear the channel without kissing bottom.  The CAP’N and I are greeted with a good wind abaft the beam and off we go for White Fish Bay.  Abeam Crisp Point, the wind backs to the east and we beat in long and short sawtooth tacks.

The short tacks in toward shore set us back to the west and it appears we are losing ground, but the loss puts us in the wave shadow of shore.  Giving up the easting pays a profit.  Interest gained in calmer water, stronger wind and faster speed.  It’s money in the bank!

White Fish Point Lighthouse comes into view.  My mind hears Gordon Lightfoot’s line “the searchers all say they’d made Whitefish Bay if they’d had 15 more miles behind them.” In spite of the joy of day, the wonders of the lake, that sense of freedom sailing a fine little craft can give, in spite of the warmth in the sun, there is an underlying feeling of melancholy in remembering all those lives cut short on this freshwater sea.  My only antidote to the sadness is a resolve to live this day, my day, on the greatest of the Great Lakes, to its fullest. 

I sail hard.  I hold fast.  I clear Whitefish Point.  The wind freshens, the waves build and the boat moves on a long port tack far enough out into the bay for traffic to become a concern.  To the north a freighter out bound, to the south a tug with tows inbound and me in between.  I call the tug on channel 16.  It’s the Tug DANIEL. We switch to channel 8 and I let him know I’ll need to tack soon but won’t do anything foolish like try to head in front of him.  I tell him, like I tell anyone who will listen, “I love your lake!”

I come about so not to cross the freighters bow, head toward to the tug on a collision course, then about a mile away, I do an alibi tack to gain time, tack again and pass astern.  In chess, an alibi move loses the turn but wins the game.  Today, we all win.

I remember once long ago, I was towing the Barge KITTIWAKE with the SHEARWATER coming into Port Angeles to our berth.  I had just come off the wire and caught the barge on the hip, lined up for the approach to the mooring when a lovely lady of a ketch came from around the City Pier and headed across my bow, port to starboard…close.  I could see this coming so I slowed.  First he gunned it, but that still made him nervous so he killed the engine and had the crew raise the sails. By then I was stopped.  My heart broke at such a beautiful vessel being handled in such an unseamanlike manner, and then I remembered the only requirement to have a boat is money.

On the door of the First Lieutenant’s office aboard the Icebreaker:

“A man must know

What he is about,

Or the sea will surely

Find him out”

 So there we were, two short tacks and clear of the DANIEL’s tows heading straight for White Fish Harbor.  Douse the jib, take a jibe and in we go with a running swell.  It’s a fisherman’s harbor, this one!  No place to tie a 21’ wide trimaran, so down the sail and up the dagger board and beach dead ahead.  Beached in 3 inches of water (at the bow) position 46° 45.650’N ~ 084° 57.902’W having traveled 38 nm today and 697 nm to date.

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Lake Superior. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.