Great Lakes Sailing

7/9/08

Pulpwood Harbor

I woke up this morning very cold and damp. In fact, the inside of the boat was so cold that the hull was sweating and with subsequent absorption by our sleeping bag. If you can picture the steam room at you local health club only the temperature is 50 degrees, that is what it was like. Mist, fog and drizzle prevailed outside and the forecast called for a continuation until early afternoon so we did what any good parents would do, we sent the kids out into the unknown in the dinghy bound for Hattie's Cove with the garbage. They returned a couple of hours later having done all of the errands and had even figured out how to dry their clothes using the hand driers located in the restrooms!

Towards early afternoon, the weather started to improve and we surely could have made it the 14NM to Allouez Island, our next destination but honestly I was too cold to even think about leaving at that point. Instead, Deanna and I took the dinghy to the visitor's center along with my own wet clothes to dry. I made a few business calls on the pay phone located at the visitor's center (no cell feed in this area) before trying to dry a minimum quantity of clothes using the hand dryer. Unsuccessful at this, we returned to the boat to bake a cake with the hope that the oven might warm things up. It didn't, however, I was able to dry my socks and undies by hanging them on the oven door. Becoming increasingly stir crazy, we started singing "smoke on the undies; grill marks on the socks" to the tune of the original song by Deep Purple. Just when I really though the crew might mutiny, the sun came out and the boat warmed up to a respectable 60 deg. Deanna made a delicious deep dish pepperoni pizza out of the remaining fresh stock that we had. After dinner, the kids kept entertained by searching unsuccessfully for my shirt that apparently blew into the lake during the dinner hour while Deanna and I dislodged a large dead head that had wrapped itself around one of our anchor lines.