Great Lakes Sailing

7/6/08

Otter Cove

This morning we awoke to the most beautiful songbird that I had ever heard. It would sing 5 notes and then sing 5 different notes. It inspired me to get up and take a row around the harbor. Pilot Harbor lacks the size and majesty of Brule', yet in the early morning light I was awestruck by it's perfect protection from every wind direction. In fact, the surrounding land is orientated with it's greatest protection towards the west and north which is the direction that the worst storms come with the south well protected but less verticality and finally, the east with barrier islets. After more exploring and some boat prep, we were underway by 0930 and were soon rocketing downwind in 20+ knots of east wind. Soon the sky turned cloudy and we were back wearing our foulies, winter hats and gloves while listening to the weather radio talk about severe thunderstorms packing 50 knot winds northeast of Isle Royal. We received some sprinkles and some wind shifts but we avoided the worst weather and in no time, we were firing up the diesel and turning east with the 4'-6' waves crashing into the cliffs at the base of Otter Island to our port and the continuous whitewater of the swells breaking over the massive reefs of Otter Head to our starboard. It is a rather narrow passage for these conditions and I worried about what our fate would be if the diesel were to hiccup, but nonetheless, our dependable Perkins engine carried us safely into the depths of Otter Cove. We anchored in 30' of water away from shore to avoid the mosquitoes and soon we were off in the dinghy to explore and find the waterfall near the ranger station.