We had many wonderful sailing weekends around the Apostle Islands, joined by our children, grandchildren and friends. I wonder how much of this the kids will remember as they get older, they adapt very well to the motion of the boat.

Our 12-day sailing adventure this summer was to explore the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula and further east along the Canadian shore than we had been before. We left the Apostle Islands for an overnight trip to Copper Harbor, MI, and Paul played cat-and-mouse with storm clouds. We avoided the worst of it, minimizing the chance of a lightening strike. We were able to explore Copper Harbor on our traveling bikes (Bike Fridays are wonderful!) and then took off for the Slate Islands. Interestingly, they were formed by a meteor strike many years ago. If you look on the map, their basic outline is round. We were able to use our inflatable kayaks and explore – much easier than trying to hike. Off to explore Rossport and Battle Island. We later anchored at T-Harbor, this time meeting up with Jim and Cathy on the other Nokomis sailboat. We also met up with Bill and Judy on their sailboat, Jubilee, in the Grand Marais Harbor. Little bit of a scare the next morning as we tried to leave – we had smoke coming out from the lazarette. But we were very fortunate, it wasn’t a fire but the exhaust hose coming loose from the engine manifold.

Total sailing days: 41 – 745 NM sailed