Great Lakes Sailing

7/11/08

Pike's Bay Slate Islands

Allouez Island is definitely one of our favorite spots so far but this morning, we got underway at 0800 because once again the weather is looking like it is going to deteriorate despite the blue skies. We exited the harbor flawlessly and began sailing downwind in a nice 10 kt breeze. Soon, however, the skies became gray and the wind vanished so we were once again under power. I made a few phone calls (good cell feed in this area) while the kids took turns steering. We chose to enter between Dupuis and Franciois islands instead of the rock strewn east entrance near eight foot rock as this seemed to be very straightforward. Once inside, our only difficulty was in trying to go between Bowes Island and Patterson Island which didn't look anything at all like the chart on either GPS so after nearly running aground, we turned a 180 to go through the more straightforward approach between Bowers Island and McCoil Island.

Our final approach into Pike's Bay was a real hair raising experience as it requires passage between a small island (kept to port) and a bedrock cliff on Patterson Island. This passage isn't more than 50' wide and is probably only 15'-20' wide at it's max depth. As luck would have it, our hand held depth finder wasn't working, so we weren't able to send the dinghy ahead to take depth soundings like we normally would have done so with the wind gusting right off the transom, Isak on the bow, Deanna on the port beam and Stefan on the starboard, we entered the narrow passage with no option for turning around. Deanna began to shout, "Go starboard", Stefan replied back, "Don't go starboard, there's a rock". Isak shouted, "Go straight". I shouted 8.2 feet, give me some direction at which time Isak would say, "Go straight", Stefan would shout, "It's getting real shallow over here and Deanna would flap her arms and scream, "There's a rock right there". By this time, I'm ready to wet my pants, but cool heads prevailed and we were able to anchor in the bay past the trouble spot in 12' of water after running up hard aground on a large deadhead.

About 10 minutes later, the S/V Peregrine from Eagle Harbor MI (Keewanau Peninsula) arrived and anchored nearby. This was the first cruising boat that we had seen since July 4th a week ago!

Soon we were off in the dinghy exploring the old mine shaft near Lambton Cove on Mortimer Island. On our return, we spotted a woodland caribou feeding in a grassy area being eyed up by a couple of bald eagles that flew right by us.