Lake Superior Story
Or…”The Next Adventure” won’t be lost
This is to document happenings on Lake Superior Beginning on August 14, 2009 when Wayne McCoy and Jim Clifton took the 26’ sloop “Next Adventure” for a sail out of Bayfield, WI.
Arrived at Bayfield about 5:00 PM, Looked for RV park, park was full. We often used our sailboat as an RV because it had all of the same amenities. We decided to launch the boat and stay on it. All went well, watched the Movie "Holes" and went to bed.
8:00 am Saturday. Began sail to Stockton Island, wind was poor, sailed all day long. Stopped at Quarry harbor to spend night. Cooked up a bunch of stew and had a great dinner. Settled down to watch a movie and the battery was dead....no movie. Alternator on our outboard was bad, causing the battery to go dead.
The “Next Adventure” on Lake Superior
(Notice Main Sail line is missing)
The flies were really bad. During the night we had a storm with rain, thunder wind and lightening. The boat tossed all night long, rubbing the dock occasionally.
Sunday Morning.... found the storm had blown the main sail rope out of fitting and along side of the boat....this means that it was pulled from it's pulley on top of the mast. We made a bad decision....to sail in with the jib only as the rope for it was still in place. It would have been prudent to drop the mast and fix the rope while at the dock. However, we jumped our dead battery to our spare battery and motored out of the bay and raised our only jib sail.
Somewhere near Basswood Island, a wind storm came up with wind close to 50 mph. It was strong enough to break the jib rope. Once again we jumped the battery and started the engine and motored to a calm place in the wind shadow of Oak Island. We dropped the mast and re-threaded the line to the main sail.
Sailing out into the bay, we encountered winds stronger than ever! We tacked across the bay twice, and then as we approached a rock bluff with no friendly shore line, a mast fitting broke in the horrible wind! With a sharp crack, the mast dropped into the cockpit where I was steering the boat. Wayne didn't know what had happened, except he couldn't see me!
He kept calling "Jim are you all right?" Finally I answered him and said he needed to get some of the sail off of me so I could get off of the floor! The twenty eight foot mast had dropped across my left arm. I was saved from injury by the high stern deck that stopped the large aluminum extrusion from breaking my arm.
With no time to waste should the boat be dashed to bits on the rocks, I told Wayne to jump the battery so we could start the engine. Just in time, we avoided the calamity of disaster on the rocks. Steering the boat with my arm under the mast was a problem and so were all of the cables and ropes tangled everywhere from the fall of the mast! Glancing up bay from us were two larger sloops swooping down to help us, as if they knew exactly what happened and seeing us under power and avoiding the rocks, they changed course and sailed away.
Now there was a different problem. We were low on fuel and in a storm. Luckily just a quarter mile from us was a quiet inlet with a boat anchorage. Reaching the safety of the inlet, we met three fishermen who thought the mess on our boat deck was normal for sailors! At first we told them that we needed gas, then we told them about the calamity with the mast.
That was when one of them decided to help us. Making the trek uphill in his pickup, he purchased a tank of gasoline for us and returned. During his trip to the gas station, we cleaned up our mess as good as possible and made the boat usable.
Under power and a full tank of gasoline on board, we headed for the Bayfield Harbor. It was six miles upwind and across waves that would make a land lubber nervous. On the way we passed the remains of a shipwreck, the "Fedora", a 285' steamer that had gone down after a fire and a storm in 1901. It's ribs protruded above the surface of the water. It was a ghostly sight and reminded us how we could have been unmercifully dashed on the rocks. We thought The Fedora’s Captain Fick valiant and bold to have placed his ship near shore so the crew could escape. We praised God that he had allowed us to escape unhurt, in one piece and under power as we made it to Bayfield Harbor.
Later at the launching ramp, we talked to a local boatwright who told us about the wind in the narrow channel where we avoided disaster. He said the islands and land masses around there were so tall that the winds are funneled down the channel in a brutal manner. Also the wind funnel has enough cross winds to prevent big waves from developing.
We had experienced Lake Superior, seen it nasty temperament and lived to tell about it. Had our fear of the lake been satisfied? No, just a little respect and knowledge added to a healthy understanding of life on Lake Superior and knowledge of how so many ship wrecks became reality.
Jim Clifton
Or…”The Next Adventure” won’t be lost
This is to document happenings on Lake Superior Beginning on August 14, 2009 when Wayne McCoy and Jim Clifton took the 26’ sloop “Next Adventure” for a sail out of Bayfield, WI.
Arrived at Bayfield about 5:00 PM, Looked for RV park, park was full. We often used our sailboat as an RV because it had all of the same amenities. We decided to launch the boat and stay on it. All went well, watched the Movie "Holes" and went to bed.
8:00 am Saturday. Began sail to Stockton Island, wind was poor, sailed all day long. Stopped at Quarry harbor to spend night. Cooked up a bunch of stew and had a great dinner. Settled down to watch a movie and the battery was dead....no movie. Alternator on our outboard was bad, causing the battery to go dead.
The “Next Adventure” on Lake Superior
(Notice Main Sail line is missing)
The flies were really bad. During the night we had a storm with rain, thunder wind and lightening. The boat tossed all night long, rubbing the dock occasionally.
Sunday Morning.... found the storm had blown the main sail rope out of fitting and along side of the boat....this means that it was pulled from it's pulley on top of the mast. We made a bad decision....to sail in with the jib only as the rope for it was still in place. It would have been prudent to drop the mast and fix the rope while at the dock. However, we jumped our dead battery to our spare battery and motored out of the bay and raised our only jib sail.
Somewhere near Basswood Island, a wind storm came up with wind close to 50 mph. It was strong enough to break the jib rope. Once again we jumped the battery and started the engine and motored to a calm place in the wind shadow of Oak Island. We dropped the mast and re-threaded the line to the main sail.
Sailing out into the bay, we encountered winds stronger than ever! We tacked across the bay twice, and then as we approached a rock bluff with no friendly shore line, a mast fitting broke in the horrible wind! With a sharp crack, the mast dropped into the cockpit where I was steering the boat. Wayne didn't know what had happened, except he couldn't see me!
He kept calling "Jim are you all right?" Finally I answered him and said he needed to get some of the sail off of me so I could get off of the floor! The twenty eight foot mast had dropped across my left arm. I was saved from injury by the high stern deck that stopped the large aluminum extrusion from breaking my arm.
With no time to waste should the boat be dashed to bits on the rocks, I told Wayne to jump the battery so we could start the engine. Just in time, we avoided the calamity of disaster on the rocks. Steering the boat with my arm under the mast was a problem and so were all of the cables and ropes tangled everywhere from the fall of the mast! Glancing up bay from us were two larger sloops swooping down to help us, as if they knew exactly what happened and seeing us under power and avoiding the rocks, they changed course and sailed away.
Now there was a different problem. We were low on fuel and in a storm. Luckily just a quarter mile from us was a quiet inlet with a boat anchorage. Reaching the safety of the inlet, we met three fishermen who thought the mess on our boat deck was normal for sailors! At first we told them that we needed gas, then we told them about the calamity with the mast.
That was when one of them decided to help us. Making the trek uphill in his pickup, he purchased a tank of gasoline for us and returned. During his trip to the gas station, we cleaned up our mess as good as possible and made the boat usable.
Under power and a full tank of gasoline on board, we headed for the Bayfield Harbor. It was six miles upwind and across waves that would make a land lubber nervous. On the way we passed the remains of a shipwreck, the "Fedora", a 285' steamer that had gone down after a fire and a storm in 1901. It's ribs protruded above the surface of the water. It was a ghostly sight and reminded us how we could have been unmercifully dashed on the rocks. We thought The Fedora’s Captain Fick valiant and bold to have placed his ship near shore so the crew could escape. We praised God that he had allowed us to escape unhurt, in one piece and under power as we made it to Bayfield Harbor.
Later at the launching ramp, we talked to a local boatwright who told us about the wind in the narrow channel where we avoided disaster. He said the islands and land masses around there were so tall that the winds are funneled down the channel in a brutal manner. Also the wind funnel has enough cross winds to prevent big waves from developing.
We had experienced Lake Superior, seen it nasty temperament and lived to tell about it. Had our fear of the lake been satisfied? No, just a little respect and knowledge added to a healthy understanding of life on Lake Superior and knowledge of how so many ship wrecks became reality.
Jim Clifton
Great job on the blog, Dad! It looks great. I am so glad to have a place for you to write about your adventures. Can't wait for our next one!
ReplyDeleteLove you!
This is great! I am glad you are sharing your adventures. I am mostly glad you survived to tell about it!!
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