Sunday 080215– in Grand Marais Harbor, Michigan

Weather/Sea   Sunny, wind 5 to 10,  temp60 to  70

Captain - John C. Kwak crew Chuck Livingston

We arrived yesterday in Grand Marais Harbor after a 9 hour slog into the wind with the engine at 2000rpm and going only 6 to 7 mph. The wind was 15 to 20 steady with 25 knot gusts. This is in Lake Superior so I can strike that off my list. This is a rural camping vacation area with State and National parks all over. The Harbor charges $58.00 per day and we are staying 3 days to recuperate. There is no office here you push a button on the squawk box and call the Woodland Camp Ground who come down and collect the money.  On Sunday I called them for diesel and they promptly arrived. Tanked 31.954 gallons of diesel at 3.509 per gallon for a total of $112.13 plus $10 for pump out. On Monday I will pay for one more day we need the rest. At the higher RPM coming here we averaged 1.16 gall/hour. So slower is cheaper! We will reverse our route on Tuesday and hope to be sailing downwind. Lake Superior lies west to east like Lake Erie. The prevailing winds are westerly.  We did a 13 mile bike ride on Sunday to a house that Chuck’s brother owns, we planned to go see it but the black flies were fierce so back on the bikes and out of there. Bought some smoked Lake Trout for $10/lb. will try it tomorrow. 

 

  

Cleaning Lake Trout and DUTCHESS on the wall at Grand Marais.

We came here from White Fish Point Harbor of Refuge where we stayed only the night of July 30. This harbor is free and you get what you pay for. NO services at all, the docks are rough and first come get the best. There is no one to call you are totally on your own.  It was mostly a fishing harbor but not much anymore. For us it was a rest stop after a long run from 0900 to 1759. Sailed for an hour without the engine on only the furled jib, we were doing 6mph to 8mph with up to 25 knot winds pointing up as tight as she could go which is about 45 degrees off the wind. Going into the steep waves slows us down and we were not going to our harbor but into White Fish Bay. We wound up following the shore as far as possible then turned on the engine and got closer to land in 50 feet of water.  In the lee of the land the waves were lessened and we made better speed.  We scooted into White Fish Point Harbor at 6 PM. We saw over 400’ depth on this run, these lakes are DEEP

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Above pictures of White fish Point Harbor and my competition for oldest boat in the harbor.

The day started at Sault ST. Marie where we left at 9AM and went to the Canadian side to enter the Canadian Lock. No customs required to lock thru. This is a smaller lock than the Americans and recommended for small craft by the US Corps of Engineers. It was an easy lock thru, there are plastic covered vertical fixed cables on the wall and Chuck simply put a dock line around a cable and held us steady as we rose up to Lake Superior level.. That was mid ship, so to keep us lined up I used the bow thruster a little. After the lock we followed the ship channels and Range markers to White Fish Bay. We were then in Lake Superior and it is BIG.

In my last blog we were in De Tour Marina, sailed from there on 7/29/15 using the engine at 1600rpm and the jib fully out we were moving at 7to 9 mph. So my temporary crew mate Ross Pollard actually got to sail the last stretch of his stay to Sault St Marie.  Chuck came back that evening and Ross took the car back to Kalamazoo MI. We stayed in SOO as the locals call it for 2 days. This is a very well kept marina and charges $58.00/day. We were lucky to get a slip because the place was filling up with race boats. The Trans Superior Sail Race was to start on Saturday and this was the closest marina. They all were going thru the locks and then start the race at 1100.