Cruising Lake Superior

Day One on Lake Superior

We left George Kemp Marina in Sault Ste. Marie headed across the St. Mary’s river to Canada, where we needed to clear customs. After getting the ok from Canada we hung out there for a bit as we had a phone call we were waiting for. We did not want to lock through until we had a chance to talk to some special people. See we weren’t sure just how much phone service we would have along the route we would be traveling.

Our lock thru went well, we had the entire lock to ourselves. We were up bound to Lake Superior. Once thru the lock we finished the Upper St. Mary’s and entered Whitefish Bay where we met our only boats for the day. A sailboat headed for the Soo locks and a freighter loaded and down bound for the locks as well.

We cleared the Gros Cap light and made our course north skirting the eastern shoreline. The big lake was an erie calm with patches of fog moving in and out throughout our journey north. We could see the landscape change from flat wooded to huge rock bluffs with random pines. We were traveling in any where from 100’ of water to 300’ and just 50 yards off would be towering rock islands jetting out of the water. Our first cove we came to where we had hoped to spend the night (Sinclair) was beautiful however the bottom was very rocky and we had a difficult time getting our anchor to stick. Neither of us felt comfortable with our set so we chose to move on to another anchorage. The next opportunity put us cruising another two hours north to Cape Gargantua we arrived around 8:30 tired and hungry. We tucked ourselves in  a spot in the back of the cove, our anchor stuck good first try Whoooo Hooooo! Directly across the cove from us was a very old wreck with parts of it that stuck above the water. It kind of gives you a healthy respect for the water around you.

Rain was forecasted for the night and it did rain and blow all night. Well I gotta tell ya that combo makes for a real bad night sleep when your on the hook. You can’t imagine how many noises there are when you anchor in windy, rough conditions. Around midnight we got up to do an anchor check and it was so flippin dark you couldn’t see a thing. We checked the GPS and our anchor was doing its job. However you still second guess everything so we took turns throughout the night keeping an eye on our position.

There is NOTHING except water, rock and trees along the 100 miles we traveled today. Oh here is a little info. On our boat. We travel @ 9 Knots so 100 miles took us 10 hours of travel time plus anchoring time and lock thru time! A very long day.

Day Two

We hung out at our anchorage until 10:30 waiting for the fog and rain to make its exit. Our destination today we hope to make Michipicoten Harbor. There we could run the dingy up river to the town of Wawa.

We had fog hanging about 10’ above the water the entire run up and when we entered the harbor conditions turned to full fog. Thank goodness for Radar, chart plotters & good charts. We nestled in the center of the cove and had a great hook set. The cove was filled with fog and we were both really sick of being on the boat with nothing to do for two days now. So we set a way point at the “mother ship” and piled into the dingy to make the trek to well first of all find the river. We made our way through the fog and yep found the river entrance. We froze on the three mile ride over to the river entrance. We were disappointed to see the mouth of the river was silted over. We felt the conditions were unsafe to attempt due to the cold water and rapids. The water temp was only in the 40’s! We thought for sure snow was in the forecast.

We chose to head back to the “mother ship” and regroup. We felt as long as it looked like we would have to spend the rest of the day on board and still not be able to run the river we decided to move on to Michipicoten Island. This was going to be our next stop anyway, so we loaded up the dingy and pulled up anchor.

We had patchy fog for the first two hours and then it seemed to settle right onto the water’s surface. You could see the sky and sun but nothing around you. This went on for two hours. As we approached the island we were looking to anchor at we had to pass between two islands to make the harbor entrance. We got lucky and the fog cleared. There was a beautiful light house on the island to our port side. Set in a layer of fog and the opening to our anchorage on our starboard side.

Once inside the cove we saw one other boat anchored “crooked art” was its name. They were obviously starved for conversation because they called us on the radio to chat as soon as we were anchored. They told us they were on their way to Wawa and were wondering where we had traveled from and just what our plans were.

 We made our way to a great little spot in the back of the cove where we dropped the hook and enjoyed a couple of beers with dinner.

Today was another long travel day. This anchorage is peaceful and the fog has moved back in so it’s time to call it a day. Oh I almost forgot we shared our anchorage tonight with three wrecks! I’m beginning to see a pattern here.

Day three

We woke to fog so thick you couldn’t see the bow of the boat and even the inside of the boat was fogged up due to the cold, foggy conditions.

At this point both of us are getting frustrated with the conditions. There is so much beauty around us it’s just covered in clouds so we cannot enjoy viewing or exploring it. It is like sitting on a raft with a pillow case over your head you just can’t see a flippin thing!

We have been told there are Caribou here, and there are a great deal of areas to explore on this island. There are also a few people I would love to talk to and being that we are 45 miles from the mainland we have no phone service. So we are trying to decide if we want to risk staying another day or make the run to the Slate Islands. The forecast is for flat water mixed with fog for today, building wind and waves for the next few days. So if we choose to stay here it maybe for several days.

Feeling like we don’t want to be stranded for many days we choose to make the run for the slate islands. It is a 9 hour run north on the open waters of Lake Superior with a calm forecast the only issue is fog. Due to very little (like None) traffic and great electronics we feel comfortable making the run. The freighter run is a bit south of us so we are clear from their traffic as well.

About 30 miles out from the slate islands the fog lifted. We could actually see our destination! Travel over was flat with big patches of fog, no traffic just a long 9 knots 9 hour run. We will be glad to make our anchorage.

Once we made our way to the Slate Islands we meandered our way thru the interior of the island. We chose pike cove for our number one spot to spend the night. Our chart showed that we would….. well sort of thread the needle or wiggle our way into the cove. We needed to pass by a small island keeping it to our starboard side along with a bow watch. Our boat NEEDS 4 ½’ of water, we got down to 6 ½’ foot of water! Yikes the bottom is all rock! Once we cleared the white knuckle area the cove opened up and was beautiful, peaceful and secure. We got things set up and enjoyed a dingy ride, dinner and a good night sleep.

Day 4

Just knowing we were spending the day in the same location (finally) we were able to relax. After our morning coffee we headed out in the dingy for a mix of fishing & exploring. We even spotted a few Caribou grazing along the shoreline. We found an old wreck in the neighboring cove along with a few campers that had been dropped off by outfitters. We explored the entire island coast (18 miles) the lighthouse & even caught one northern pike. At the lighthouse we hiked to the bluff & walked the surrounding area. There are two lighthouse keepers houses at the base of the hill. We chatted with Bob & Ron, two brothers that were keeping the property maintained in hopes of gaining rights to the property. We found them very interesting along with the humor they shared they also told of how they grew up at the lighthouse. Their Dad was a lighthouse keeper there for 38 years!

We enjoyed a relaxing day exploring the Slate islands it’s coves, landscape & wildlife.