Day Eight: continued

We really enjoyed our time with the Sherk family, especially hearing granddaughter Sarah talk about her chickens.  (We've always said, put some owners of chickens together for whatever reason, and within five minutes the conversation will be entirely about chickens.)  We watched the waves out the window with Evan monitoring three different weather sources until about 2:30pm when we decided it was time to go.

Back to Cat Harbor we trooped, and as we packed up we were pleasantly surprised when our friends Dave Bach and Allison Slavick drove up in their pickup, on their way to meet us at Silver Island!  I turned my camera over to Dave who got the following shots of our stream-lined launching techniques:

The wind was still strong, but once we were out of Cat Harbor, we found that it had gone from a northwest wind to a straight west wind.  This was perfect for us!  The waves pushed us along and even a bit of sunlight started to peek through.

Dave and Allison beat us to Eagle Harbor and took this shot of us off-shore, and.....

This shot which shows Silver Island in the far-off distance.  It's the third bump.

The sun broke through gloriously as we pulled into the shelter of Silver Island, and were greeted first by Bill Rose, and then Nanno Rose, owners of the island, and then the others who celebrated with us our Bon Fini!  They had prepared not only another fabulous dinner--beet salad, pork loin, keilbasa, orzo salad, quiche and salad with chocolate for dessert--but the saua was hot!  Naked folks were running from the sauna to the jump-off cliff, one of Terry's favorite activities.

Evan's arrival on the island.

Doin' the Silver Island Shuffle.

 Terry and Libby heading to the north shore,

Terry and I checking out the north shore,

Evan and Libby with a freighter between them on the horizon--can you see it?

The party leaves in the sunset, Brockway in the distance still lit up.

Dave and Allison stayed on the island with us.  We sat at the campfire, telling Lake Superior stories.  Turns out several years ago Dave had made nearly the same trip we had made, only he was alone and the experience was different, of course.  It inspired some poetry and I'm going to be leaning of Dave to share his story, or at least some poetry.

At last we bedded down to the sound of gentle waves lapping the shore.  The stars were bright, Polaris hanging low over the island.

We had one more final leg of the journey for the next day, on to Copper Harbor.

I added some pictures to Day Seven....

Day Eight: OMG, What were we thinking?

It's only 11 am, and I'm thanking sweet Jesus to be alive.  Okay, you know by now that I can exaggerate and Terry would say, that was fun!  And Ray Sharp would say--Those waves were pretty sporty, eh? But good grief, going around the point at the end of Great Sand Bay was really scary!  But we have been rescued by Doug and Nancy Sherk who have a clothes drier AND wifi!

Here we are with their son Ben, in their lovely home between Great Sand Bay and Cat Harbor, with Evan taking the photo.

Now back to yesterday:  we left the Fitzgerald around 5 pm in intense sunshine, coasting along the sand, hailed by the Campbell-Olsiewskis (forgive me for that spelling) who were basking on the beach

on to our friends Craig and Jeannie Kurtz's cottage where we were made welcome by the whole family including their daughter and friends and their dogs.

This is their dog Teddy, pretending to be a cat.

We were made comfortable for the night, after watching the sunset and sitting just a while in their sun-warmed sauna there on the beach.

We had a great breakfast of waffles made by Daughter Leah,

Yum!

Visited the neighbors Marianne and Al Brokaw in the sweet addition they've built.

It was grey and windy when we cast off, but the wind was heading mostly in the same direction we were and the waves weren't all that big, so we said well, if they get too big, we can always stop, plenty of take-out places.  HA!  Things were good until about opposite the monks' basilica and I yelled at Evan to try taking a photo of the dome with my waterproof camera, and he yelled back, are you kidding?  I'm fighting to stay afloat here!

Yes the waves were huge and we were riding them with stability in our big flat- bottomed boat, but Evan, in his little speedy kayak, without a rudder, was just bouncing all over the place.  We managed to fly right on past the sand beach, but when we had to get around the point with big breakers slamming over our hull, I was worried, and kept telling myself what Libby had said, you gotta relax into the wave.

Evan said later that he realized that neither of us would be able to do much to help the other if something bad happened here, but at the same time he wished he had one of those helmet cameras because it was thrilling to watch us bouncing and wallowing.  Terry just kept saying he was having fun!

And here I need to give some credit to my husband; he really is an expert kayaker and kept the kayak steady even in those huge rollers--were they over four feet tall?  I'm exaggerating again.  But Terry is the best!

Cat Harbor!  Yeay!  We surfed in, and only then realized that it was raining and we were soaked to the bone, we'd seen Doug Sherk's house and we just walked here.

The waves haven't decreased yet but we're still hoping they might and we'll get to Silver Island this evening.  Once launched again we think it should only take an hour and a half or so..

Onward!

Day Seven: Calumet waterworks to Eagle River

Red sky at night......last night's sunset was nice and red, a good portent that has been born out.

As our friend Curt would say, Thank you sweet Jesus for this day!  

I'm going to have to make it short because the connection here at the Fitzgerald in Eagle River is a little funky, and I'm sitting out in the hallway, so I'm going to have to flesh this out later with pics and all.  The pulled pork sandwich was excellent, so this is not to dis the Fitz, you understand.

Anyhow the seas were smooth and calm this morning as we embarked, just the way I love it.  Even the fog didn't really detract from the lovely coastline, most of it very familiar to me from walking on the beach close to home, and also close to my home when we lived on Tamarack Waterworks road many years ago.  eagles again, and some mergansers, a sand hill crane at the mouth of the Gratiot.

The wind and sun finally overcame the fog, and we cruised along with a very pleasant headwind,on to the east.  We passed Calumet Waterworks, Tamarack Waterworks, Sedar Bay, Black Creek, mouth of the Gratiot, Seven Mile Point, and finally Five mile Point and Eagle river.

We will stay at a friend's cottage tonight, hope to make it to Silver Island tomorrow.  I will post pictures as soon as I can, also I think our escort Evan has some good ones, especially of a phenomenon we'd never seen before, a fog bow, like a rainbow, only white.

Onward!

Okay now that we're safe with wifi connection I'll post some pics from yesterday what a beautiful day it was!

First we had to say good-bye to Pete and Carol Ekstrom who had taken such good care of us the day before when we were overcome by the head-wind.

This is a fog- bow!  The ends near the water had an other-worldly glow that doesn't show up here, but made us marvel at the mystery of it all.

Evan cruising by the shore, so calm and peaceful, and the bottom of the sea was just fascinating--smooth sandstone rounded like old mountains with canyons filled with pebbles of all colors, and the sun lighting it up, oh it was beautiful!

Basalt outcrops around Seven Mile Point.  Later, after Five Mile Point, we passed bluffs of what Terry thought was Copper Harbor Conglomerate, and his cousins came out to wave us on as we neared Eagle River.

Paddling through the fog near Sedar Bay.

Still misty at the Gratiot, and there's a sand hill crane in there somewhere.

At the mouth of the Gratiot, a day late.

Some friends, hoping to meet us here to paddle with us, didn't find us of course, and took off paddling ahead of us.  Unfortunately we didn't figure it out until much later so we missed paddling with Jeff Flam and Viki Weglarz.  Dang!  We woulda loved that!  Next time, okay?

Passing the Sand Hills Lighthouse at Five Mile Point.  

Terry wanted to stay here but they were full up.

This day was truly one of the most beautiful days ever!  Lots of fog and sunshine, fascinating lake bottom easily visible, familiar and new shorelines.

Onward!