Adventure in the Apostle Islands

Sorry for the long delay, I've been real busy.

            It was suppose to be a carefree trip, sailing in and around the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior.  The plan was to spend five days cruising around the islands and see the sights the area had to offer.  Maybe even do some hiking on a few of them.

            My friend Tim and I had been discussing the idea for some time and thought it would be a no hassle trip.  The Apostle Islands were close and the cost would be minor, just food and gas.  The only major requirement was a short drive from Marquette Michigan to Bayfield Wisconsin; where we would launch the boat(s).  That being a four hour drive.  We would have sailed there, but that was a four day trip and we had a limited window of time in which to make the cruise happen.

            Mike, another friend of mine, had also elected to join the expedition, or more appropriately, the booze cruise.  Since there were only three people making the trip we concluded that only one boat would be needed.  Had any more crew members signed on we would have brought both boats.  Tim and I argued the point, but in the end decided to take his boat (The Genius) because it was slightly bigger then mine.  Tim’s being a McGregor 23 and mine a Clipper Marine 21 respectively.

            Tim, Mike, and I made the drive to Bayfield on August 14th, 2010.  Along the way, we stopped in Ashland Wisconsin for supplies, arriving shortly there after at our destination; boat and crew in tact, and ready for duty.

            The first thing we did upon arrival in Bayfield was to go to the park headquarters to get information and see about any required permits.  The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore is under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service.  The archipelago consists of twenty six individual islands that extend roughly thirty miles out into Lake Superior, off of Wisconsin.  The islands range in size from a few hundred yards in length and diameter to five miles or more, and are densely forested.   Each island is separated from its brethren by a mile or more; making the area a boaters paradise. 

            I was happy to discover that there were no entrance or user fees in the Apostle Islands.  This surprised me because every other National Park I’d visited required them.  The only exception was a camping or docking fee, which was $10 per night.  However, this could be circumvented if one simply anchored out and slept on the boat; which is exactly what we would do.

            All jacking around completed, the Genius and her crew headed for the boat ramp.  There, we would spend the next hour putting up the rigging and making ready to sail.

            “Tim,” I inquired, “Are you going to attach the forward shrouds?”  I had noticed that they had not been rigged yet.

            “No, we don’t need them,” Tim answered nonchalantly. 

            “Okay, It’s your boat,” I replied, shrugging.

            “Damn right it’s my boat,” Tim said in mocking admonishment, “I’ll tell you when we need the fucking shrouds rigged asshole.”

            “Fuck off,” I retorted; my standard response.  Mike just shook his head, not use to Tim’s and my incessant banter.

            At the time, I didn’t think much about the forward shrouds not being rigged.  A week or so prior we had sailed to the Huron Islands and had not rigged them then either.  However, that was due to some of the hardware being lost in transit not because Tim had been too complacent to rig forward shrouds. 

I’m sure in Tim’s mind, with recent sailing experiences under his belt; he felt the additional rigging on the mast wasn’t required.  He would soon regret that decision, and I would, and still give him endless amounts of crap because of it.  Hey, what are friends for?

Forgive me; just a quick tangent so that you, the reader, will have a better understanding of the complexities regarding the Genius and her rigging.  A couple years ago, and the first time I ever sailed with Tim, we were in a yacht race in high winds.  During that event, Tim’s mast almost broke in two due to the ridiculously large Genoa Tim was using that day.  To alleviate that problem, Tim modified the Genius by adding forward shrouds to his rigging.  The addition of the forward shrouds would prevent the mast from bending due to the high stresses caused by, shall I say, Tim’s style of sailing.  Thus, allowing him to continue using his ridiculously large Genoa in high winds.  There you have it.

Keeping Watch on the Bow

With the boat rigged and the supplies stowed we launched the Genius at the public boat ramp in Bayfield.  Tim then found a suitable parking spot to leave his truck and trailer for the next five days.  As soon as he returned, Tim cast us off and took control of the helm.

The Genius motored her way out of the harbor, past a fleet of different boats of all shapes and sizes, and then out into the open water.  While that was going on the ridiculously large Genoa was made ready for use.  Once we cleared the harbor entrance we headed towards Madeline Island and as we did so hoisted the Genoa.  The Genius was now under full sail and the engine had been shut off.

“Beer,” Tim ordered.  He was just getting settled in for an afternoon of cruising, as was the rest of the crew.  The command was quickly carried out and before you knew it Mike, Tim, and myself were all enjoying the first drink of the day.  None to soon either, I think the crew was on the verge of a mutiny if memory serves.

“Where we going?” someone asked. 

“Anywhere we want,” I said, “or wherever the wind takes us.”  With that, I pulled out the Apostle Islands map I had picked up at the park headquarters.  I spread it out for all to see and captain and crew discussed the options.  With some deliberation and mostly due to a favorable wind direction we changed course and headed north towards Oak Island.  It was all good.

A Happy Crew

The day was warm, the wind was decent, the beer was cold, and the company excellent.  Mike, Tim, and I sat back and watched the many boaters out for an afternoon cruise.  There were sailboats of all descriptions as well as motor boats going to and fro; their destination known only to them.  We also saw commercial vessels such as, small tankers, fishing trawlers, and the ferry to Madeline Island.  It seemed that the Apostle Islands was a very popular place.

At one point we even saw a Coast Guard boat towing a small motor boat back towards Bayfield; the owner of the boat sitting behind a useless wheel, while the passenger looked on.  At least they weren’t sinking. 

It took the Genius a little over an hour to pass Basswood Island and Red Cliff Bay.  We were doing about five knots and had decided to keep on this heading and make for Bear Island about  two or three hours away.

We rounded Red Cliff Point steering outside of the navigation buoy and neared Oak Island.  The wind started to pick up causing the Genius to heal as she increased speed.  That’s when it happened.  Remember the fore shrouds?

WHAM!  A loud sound reverberated through the cockpit.  Mike, Tim, and I were all startled by abrupt noise and looked at each other in puzzlement.

“What in the hell was that?” I said.

“Did we hit something?” Mike added

“I don’t know?” Tim replied. “Check the boat.”  We all began feverishly looking for the cause of our distress.

“It’s the mast,” I said as I looked up at sagging sails.  The mast was bent at an acute angle and was dangerously close to snapping.  This was especially true with the wind still filling the sails, continuing to stress the long metal tube.  It looked like a giant bow being pulled to loose an enormous arrow.

“We have to get those sails down,” I said to no one in particular.  I then sprung into action, heading forward to lower the Genoa.  Apparently, Tim was in agreement with me.  He had Mike take over the helm and was working on the main sail.

Within a couple minutes the sails were down and the stress on the mast was eliminated.  Now what?  We all sat in the cockpit and looked up at the piece of modern art that use to be the mast, and contemplated the question at hand.  We didn’t know what the situation would bring or how we would fix it, but we did come to the conclusion that we couldn’t address the problem while out on the water. 

I checked the map and found a dock located on Oak Island fairly close to our position.  It was the closest dock to us, so we decided to use it in lue of turning back to Bayfield or Redcliff, to see what if anything could be done about the mast.  The motor was started and the Genius made her way towards Oak Island.

Within ten or fifteen minutes we were tied up to the Oak Island dock.  We all got off the Genius and inspected the mast.  Yep, we’re screwed.  It actually looked worse from our perspective standing on the dock.

Docked on Oak Island

 

To be continued……..