August 16th, Kayak...chasing Europa...Sturgeon Bay

The Europa

Sometime today, I suspected the Tall Ships would be coming through town on their way down Lake Michigan to Chicago and other ports. Several are involved in a race starting Tuesday morning off the eastern entrance to the canal…racing down to Chicago

http://www.sailtraining.org/tallships/2010greatlakes/index.php

I had asked my kayak buddies to keep an eye out for the boats and several either e-mailed or called my cell to let me know ship locations. Some were at the city dock after work, so I hung out there taking some photos, then went to the boat launch in Sunset Park as I could get a good look North into Green Bay…and here was the Europa, under full Sail…I ran home changed into some paddling clothes came back and launched just as she sailed by about a ½ mile away.

So I started following, taking pictures along the way. The problem with picture taking when you are trying to overcome a ship that is traveling at close to your hull speed is I would lose several hundred feet every time I stopped. Finally I was right up on her stern after several miles, got some close-ups, then peeled away to check out the seven other boats now docked around town. The “Friends Good Will”, “Royalist”, “Dennis Sullivan”, “Niagara”, “Lynx”, “Pride of Baltimore II”, “Unicorn” and the “Roseway”.

The Royalist

Safety net under the bow sprit of the Niagra

Information about the ships; http://www.sailtraining.org/tallships/2010greatlakes/participatingvessels.php

Where are they now? Going to Chicago.

Check on their progress here; http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/tsc2010.phtml

Bear in mind that some of the data is several days behind.

August 14th, Tall Ships in Green Bay, WI

Saturday I went to Green Bay with Jeff to board the ships of the Great Lakes Challenge Fleet.

The first was the Bounty…a replica built in Lunenburg during the early 60’s for the movie “Mutiny on the Bounty”. At the end of the movie when the mutineers reach Pitcairn Island they burn the ship and this Bounty was to be burned, but Marlon Brando convinced them to use a model instead…and so here we are, lucky to be walking her deck 50 years later. We picked ships to board by the length of the waiting line.

The Brig Niagara was next. In 2006 she offered instructional rides to 30 or 40 people from Green Bay to Sturgeon Bay and I was lucky enough to be one.

Tall Ships in NE WI

By the time we were off the Niagara, the line to the Bounty had grown to several hundred feet. We boarded the Pride of Baltimore II…a replica of a topsail schooner that was used as a Privateer…a sleek looking ship. It was 1 pm and we had been here since 9...time to go.

Pride of Baltimore, anchored in Sturgeon Bay...2006

I had considered kayaking in the Fox River to look at the ships, but there were many people with boats doing the same. I'd rather have more seclusion

August 12th, Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal

Tall Ship parade captured by Jeff

12 of the Great Lakes Challenge ships gathered off the entrance to the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, for a “parade” through Sturgeon Bay. Jeff was able to get some awesome photos of the ships backlit by the morning sun while appearing out of a dense fog.

They are headed for a rendezvous in the city of Green Bay

The Bounty

Pride of Baltimore II has arrived

August 11th, Portage Park, Door County, Kayak, Tall Ships visiting

The Bounty was anchored off Portage Park

Bounty and the Roald Amundsen

I knew the ships were sailing through town on Thursday and suspected some would arrive early and overnight in the area. I drove out to the break wall on the North side of the Sturgeon Bay Coast Guard station to scan Lake Michigan for sails. One was visible way to the North under sail and another was anchored a mile or two to the North…Portage Park. OK, as I headed home to pick up a camera and paddling gear I called my buddy Jeff and he came out to the breakwater. I went back to Portage Park.

Bounty Anchored off Portage Park, Door County, WI

While I was getting ready, a guy pulled up and started asking me about what I was doing and why I was wearing all that stuff …gee a pair of dry pants and a spray top, spray skirt…he said the water was warm, why are you wearing all that gear?.., I never wear anything while fishing…so I tried to explain, why I try to wear “clothes” while paddling, even when the water is a balmy 65 degrees. He gave me the impression that weaqring more than a swim suit was a little much.

So I launched and paddled the mile or so out to where the Bounty was anchored. Winds were light, waves less than 2 feet, overcast, the water was in the 60’s. Took some photos of the ship, spoke with one of the crew…they had come from Soo Saint Marie, MI. Told him I had been out to Lunenburg where the Bounty was constructed.

I’m thinking to myself…little did I ever imagine…one day I would paddle a kayak off into Lake Michigan to practically touch a wooden ship I had seen in a move 40 years before…or that I had been to the town where she was built…

On the way home Jeff and I stopped at the town dock to observe the ships staying overnight there

The Schooner Roseway

August 10, Paddled to Hat Island

Parked at the end of Juddville Road a few miles North of Egg Harbor.
Light SW winds water warm…air 80.

It is a straight line paddle…three miles out, around the island, three miles back. The Island is nothing more than a gravel pile, used by the bird community to hatch and raise young and by bird hunters in the fall to take a few duck and geese.

There are the remnants of some old structures on the island, probably pre 1920’s and some modern amenities such as a boat lift, a crude boat railway and some blinds used by the hunters.

Many white pelicans, herring gulls, some common terns and cormorants.

I did see a young pelican…wasn’t able to fly yet, but it was in the water swimming.

August 10, 2010

July 12, 2006

In 2006 Laurel, Rich and I went out there on a hot July evening and I haven’t been back in the summer since…4 years, time flies. In Feb of 2008, Jeff and I met Rich out there. He had been ice camping and we walked across the three miles of frozen water to meet Rich and escort him back to shore. The Ice was thick…3’, but had stress cracks where water was bubbling up and pressure ridges that were close to 10 feet tall.

Febuary 3, 2008

It was pretty cool imagining we were up in the Arctic.

August 6, Sailing at Clark’s Lake

My two daughters and I launched the Blue Jay at the ramp on the west side of Clark’s Lake. The wind was in the mid-teens out of the S.

We covered the couple miles to the beach in 30 minutes of so. Mag jumped overboard several hundred feet before the beach, so I feathered the sails to stay along side her,

then Molly abandoned ship and I was left alone to sail to an anchorage just south of the swimming area.

Took advantage of the warm shallow water to give the hull and deck a good cleaning, and then went over to the kids for Frisbee…staying in the water till we were all shivering…the water was warm, probably 70 or more. Laid on the beach and dried off, then walked back through the shallows to the Jay for more sailing. Made it back with one long reach, then a jib toward the dock, dropped the sails and using the electric motor, trolled silently the last few feet.

Stopped for Hawaiian Shave Ice beverages at Malibu Moo’s in Fish Creek on the way home

http://www.malibumoofrozengriddle.com/index.htm

Spending time with my girls is always fun.

JULY 25 2010, Strawberry Islands

Sunday morning I headed up North toward Fish Creek, WI with the intention of going out to Chambers Island…touching the spit on the SE shore.

I entered Peninsula Park at the southern end and drove past Weborg’s Point. Just past Weborg’s campground there is a parking lot for hikers and bikers of the Skyline trail.

There was fairly easy access down some rocky stairs to the water, so I decided to put in.

Water…70, wind light and variable from the SW.

I headed out toward the buoy that marks the outer end of the gravel reef that extends close to a mile from the SE Point of Chambers Island.

The most dangerous portion of paddling in these waters is the power boaters.

On weekends and some evenings there is a constant stream of high speed boat traffic running between Fish Creek and Ephraim. Usually traffic is less in the evenings and early morning. This morning wasn’t too bad, a few sailboats and a couple power boats.

Who has right of way? If it is bigger, faster, I try to stay out of the way.

There is a gravel shoal just South of Adventure Island, so I was going toward the buoy, then heading for Chambers Island. The return would take me past that shoal and Adventure Island. Didn’t work out that way…the wind was very light, water flat and well the paddle would have been long and monotonous, so I stopped at the buoy, then over to the shoal and watched the couple dozen pelicans preening themselves, paddled near as I could without making them nervous, then just drifted and observed…they didn’t seem too bothered by my presence. I then headed to Adventure, rounded the Island and started back to the mainland. I saw a few kayakers in Tennison Bay, which is N of where I started, so I hit the shore side there and headed south, they were all just folks on vacation, staying near shore bumming around…no lifejackets or spray skirts.

White Pelican and Adventure island

I was back to the vehicle about noon.

Summer is going fast. It takes so long for the air and water to warm, summer doesn’t seem to begin until the 4th of July and by Labor Day, there are not many warm days left and it is back to the wetsuit/drysuit by the end of September.