Familiar waters feel like a fond hug
Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015
We had just seen a favorite kid play the role of a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz when we untied our docklines in late June for a 75-nautical-mile delivery back to where we started. The refrain, “There’s no place like home,” featured prominently in my thoughts. Many times aboard Mystic, our C&C 30, we’ve made the trip from Bayfield, Wisconsin, to the twin ports of Duluth/Superior in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Many times we’ve made the return trip. This time was different; we were going home.
Thinking it was a good investment, we purchased a slip in 1996 at Roys Point Marina near Bayfield. Brand-new at the time, this marina proved to be a good home for cruising in the Apostle Islands and beyond to Isle Royale National Park and the remote Canadian shores and provincial parks to the north. With these wonderful destinations, we considered most of our longer voyages to be “wilderness cruising” — take what you need for a three-week voyage; do not expect to find ice, groceries, fuel, water, electrical hookups, or pumpouts; do not expect to get weather information once you’ve left civilization (cell service and WiFi had yet to be widely available).
Much of our shorter sailing adventures in the Apostle Islands, however, were within a day’s range of grocery stores, fuel supplies, and secure marina slips. This part of our sailing time was very social as we frequently anchored with friends we’d known since buying Mystic in 1992. After we started the magazine in 1998, if we didn’t know the people in the anchored boats, we often paddled a copy of Good Old Boat over to them as a way to introduce ourselves and the magazine. Whether it was a wilderness experience or a social one, I loved every minute.
Jerry says I got wanderlust. That is probably the best explanation. Eventually I told him I wanted to go farther afield, to Lake Huron’s well-known North Channel. He wasn’t interested. One day, as a joke, I told him that if he didn’t want to go to the North Channel I’d find a husband who would! Those highly effective words have been quoted with great good humor many times since then.
We spent two summers (2005 and ’06) cruising in the North Channel only to discover that we preferred our wilderness experiences on Lake Superior. In the meantime, we had rented our home slip to another boat. When we returned to Lake Superior from Lake Huron, we spent three summers (’07 through ’09) cruising out of Thunder Bay, Ontario, on the far side of the lake, bringing the wilderness closer to our base of operations.
During the summer of 2010, we cruised for three solid months and had no home base whatsoever. A shorter version of that followed in 2011 through ’13. During all this time we referred to ourselves as “homeless.” We wintered in Duluth/Superior at Barker’s Island Marina. We summered on the lake.
We didn’t launch Mystic at all in the summer of 2014, that being the summer to launch and learn about Sunflower, our trailerable C&C Mega 30.
This year, 10 years after leaving our slip at Roys Point, Mystic would be coming home. As we rounded the top of Sand Island, the westernmost island in the Apostles, a loon flew by. We relaxed. Here, as nowhere else, we have local knowledge. While we have paper and electronic charts on the chart table at all times, we have been in every nook and cranny here. We know where the fishermen routinely set out their nets and where the sand spits extending from some islands are particularly worthy of respect. We know which anchorages have a lot of slash or rocks and which have great holding in sand. There’s no place like home.
As we sailed home through the Apostles, we called the islands by name as they came into view. They are not Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as you might expect. What’s more, someone couldn’t count: they number nearly two dozen. We were thrilled to recognize the shapes of Bear Island, York, and Devils! Rocky, Raspberry, Otter, and Oak! Manitou, Stockton, Hermit, Basswood! We were home!
Things were quiet at Roys Point when we arrived on a Friday in mid-afternoon. Where were the marching bands, sirens, and balloons? No fire hose salutes? Where were the little girls in white dresses with bouquets of flowers? No “All hail the conquering (and returning) heroes” signs? Nothing?
It was just as we had remembered it, and it felt great to be home again.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
