Woodbine Harbor, Boat Harbor, Slates to Houghton, MI

Saturday – Monday July 29.-31

Woodbine Harbor and Boat Harbor

We are now on our own in the beautiful Canadian north shore as we head east, and our good friends Kari and Danny are heading back west. Our first destination was Woodbine Harbor on Simpson Island which provided good wind protection from all directions. Our intention was to try and hike up to Kenny Lake and catch some trout dinner, but we didn’t have it in us to bushwack through the woods but instead just relaxed and caught up on quiet reading for 2 days. It was very beautiful and relaxing. Our next stop was Boat Harbor on Wilson Island. We sailed past Battle Island which has a beautiful lighthouse on the way to Boat Harbor. We were not able to stop for a visit due to NE winds which exposed the anchorage. This lighthouse had a manned lighthouse from 1877 to 1992. We had another quiet night in Boat Harbor.

Woodbine Harbor

Battle Island Lighthouse

Tuesday – Thursday July 31 – Aug 3

Slate Islands

The Slate Islands have always been on our bucket list, and we finally were able to get there. They are notoriously known for being extremely foggy, but we lucked out and were able to enjoy their full beauty and splendor with abundant sunshine. The island is like the top of a mountain out in Lake Superior.

We had very calm weather on our 18 nm motor to the islands. The entrance to the islands is impressive as you pass through large cliffs and navigate through multiple islands. We found a very quiet protected anchorage deep in the islands. The entrance to the last bay was a bit sketchy but with Tim on the bow watching for rocks and depth we were able to navigate through. The big boat stayed here while we launched the dinghy and explored the interior islands. The water is incredibly clear, deep and a beautiful aqua-blue color. You can see remnants of the logging days with lots of slash on the bottom. The islands are famous for having Woodland Caribou. We were lucky enough to see one swimming between islands and Tim saw another caribou with a large antlers (male/female? as both have antlers) in our anchorage when they came down for a drink. Unfortunately, no photographs (☹). The Woodland Caribou survive here because there are no natural predators (wolves/humans). Their numbers fluctuate based on weather and food sources in the harsh winter months. We were not able to hike as the forest is so dense and so few people come here, there are no trails. We saw a few other sailboats and a couple of fishing boats. We also found an old fishing camp which is now abandoned as the islands are part of a Canadian provincial park. There was an interesting bathtub on the shore if you were so inclined to build a fire and heat up water.

Slate Island with our anchorage at red arrow

AndinI at Anchor in Slate Islands

Interior of Slate Islands

Interior of Slate Islands

Remnants of logging days in Slate Islands
Water was so clear

Tim driving dinghy in interior of Slate Islands

Trees growing out of the rocks

Stopped at an old dock

Old fishing camp

Bathtub at old Fishing Camp

We were hoping to find some trails but no luck
Forest past here was just too dense

Caribou bones others have found

View from our anchorage after storm

View from our anchorage after storm - some fog moving in

The Slate Islands have a fascinating geological history. The islands are not made of slate (not sure how it got its name) but its history is volcanic, sedimentary, and an impact from a large asteroid (20-mile impact width) that crashed here somewhere between 400 – 800 million years ago. One piece of evidence is the presence of one of the largest shatter cone rock formations in the world ((30 ft high). This was locate close to where we anchored our boat.

This is one of the largest shatter cones rock formation
which provided proof of asteroid hit of the islands

Thursday - Friday – Aug 3 - 4

Trip from Slate Islands to Houghton, MI

I will admit I (Barb) was very nervous 😨about the trip across Lake Superior. It was going to be a 120-mile trip (20-24 hours in sailboat speed) across Lake Superior in a boat with an average speed of 6 knots (6.9 mph – even a beginner runner can run this speed 😏). I knew the boat could handle it but could I? I had checked the weather for days ahead of time and all looked good but what if….. Well, it all worked out and we were able to sail for about the 1^st half of the trip. As you can see on the chart the wind just didn’t cooperate for all of it as the wind stayed out of SW and we needed to go SW. We were expecting a wind shift to the NE or N but it did not show up. The SW winds continued to push us east and then the wind died so we turned on the motor for the 2nd half of the trip. On an interesting note, we did pick up a hitchhiker about halfway through the trip. A fledgling finch showed up on our boat in the middle of the lake. We assumed it was blown out in the lake by a strong storm we had the night before. He was extremely tired and very nervous and we assumed hungry. He was able to find enough dead insects around the boat and finally settled down under our dodger to get out of the wind and cold of the open lake. We delivered him to Michigan in the morning. Tim and I took shifts through the night and arrived at the entrance to the canal to Houghton at daybreak. We were safely docked at the wall downtown Houghton by 9:30 am. Overall, it was a very successful longer passage.

Pink line is our route - yellow is actual path

Beginning of trip we had a nice heal.
We were consistently doing high 7 knots with brief 8.1 knots with reefed sails.

Our hitchhiker.

Hitchhiker became more brave and came under dodger to get out of wind / cold

Tim on shift - starting to get cold

Barb on nigh watch with the moon
had my winter clothes on.

Caught a screen print from local web cam
of AndinI going under Portage Lake Lift Bridge at Houghton / Hancock

Sunset on Thurs

Sunrise at upper entrance to the Portage Canal

Friday – Sunday Aug 4-6

We spent a few days in Houlton getting reacquainted with civilization. We did laundry, walked 3 miles to get groceries, did an underground mine tour, and frequented the local restaurants and breweries. We will now have an early start tomorrow to Marquette, MI. This is about 70 miles so will be a long day. Tim is looking forward to sampling more MI breweries.