Lake Superior

 

We are currently at anchor in Marquette (Upper Peninsula), Michigan

We’ve been on the boat one week and are starting to get into the groove! Scooter is holding up well, playing and constantly begging to be petted. 

On Monday 31 May (Memorial Day), we biked to one more Lake Harriet 6:30 am Yoga class, then did final emptying of the house. We thoroughly loaded the car, put the cat in her kennel, and left the neighborhood honking! We made the 2:30 ferry to Madeline and amazingly everything from David’s previous three trips to the boat, and all we brought in this trip fit aboard Khira!

We had so many gifts as we left town, we felt loved. Homemade raspberry coffee cake, sweets and jerky for the road, supportive and encouraging notes and messages, and last-minute help loading our bed into the POD. You know who you are: thank you!

Three contiguous nights is by far the most time we’ve spent at the dock at the dock on Madeline, but we had organizing and tasks to do, and we had fun, socializing, trying our new collapsible bikes, walking into town and indulging in a bon voyage bump at Tom’s Burned Out. 

We let loose the dock lines on 03 June around 10:30 am, stopped in Bayfield to get groceries and hardware, and sailed to Stockton Island where we spent two nights waiting for weather suitable for our crossing to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Long sun-filled days on the water and sunlight late into the evening reminded us of why we came. We hiked island trails filled with wildflowers including various colored lady slippers, and we walked empty beaches, where Judith got in the 59-degree yummy Lake Superior water ever so briefly. We happened to see good friends on another boat the night before we left, so we shared a chilled bottle of champagne then prepped for a 4 am departure to cross the lake!

90 miles from Stockton Island to Houghton, Michigan made for a long day on the water with flat seas, minimal wind and an abundance of flies, but we were in good spirits and by 9 pm Michigan time were passing under the Houghton Hancock lift bridge and tied to the city pier in Houghton. To celebrate we ordered pizza from the Ambassador and walked into town to get it.

Laundry Day

Tied on the City Pier In Houghton, Michigan

Monday morning after coffee in the cockpit, a hike up the steep hills of Houghton, and a stop at Jim’s Grocery, we had late breakfast at a Finnish restaurant then left Houghton and motored 50 miles along beautiful remote mostly uninhabited shoreline into Huron Bay where we kayaked to shore and hiked the isolated beach. The next morning we left early and were off to Marquette! We have only a couple more stops in lovely Lake Superior before we transit the St. Mary’s River and the locks at Sault Saint Marie! 

David is reading Four Winds by Kristen Hannah; and Judith The Life and Death of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan.

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