A small early morning thunder storm passing in the distance delayed our departure. The winds picked up a bit over night but the warm air from the southern blow felt quite pleasant. As we pulled up our anchor line we discovered at about 50 feet to the anchor the line was stuck around something on the bottom. We both pulled and yanked nothing! We then circled Albion around pulling from different angles to no avail. So I decided to dive down to see if I could free up whatever the rode was attached to. We have an extra anchor on board, but didn't want to leave one behind. The depth was 15 feet so I didn't have much time to work below. The line was tangled in the limbs of a large tree. After a number of dives we succeeded in setting up a trip line on the anchor side of the line and pulled it free.
We made our way the two miles out around the shoals to the mouth of the White River. The entrance to the White at Superior had considerable boiling do to the Southern waves rolling into the narrow river mouth. With some bouncing and tossing around we make it out of the mouth and into Superior. The weather had picked up over night and we had waves 2-3 feet and winds out of the South. Not the desirable sea conditions since we were heading south. So we tacked our way south with a furled fore sail and full main, back and forth towards Otter Cove. Albion seems to ride the waves better into the weather with a furled Genoa. A full jib seems to push the bow into the waves more. The Eastern shore here is all rocky mountain cliffs, part of the Pukaskwa National Park. I often wondered when looking at road maps why the Canadian highway that circles Superior makes a big turn and is 50 miles from shore here. I think the answer is the Rocky impossible terrain.
Later in the afternoon our heading changed to SE and the winds and waves eased. But we were able to keep the sails up all the way into Otter Cove. We are tucked away a mile or so off the lake in an all weather protected anchorage in Otter Cove. This Cove is ours tonight and it is gorgeous. We our so grateful to have the opportunity to be such a place. We are alone of course but Venus is shining very bright over us, she never seems to shine so bright except at places like this.
Otter Cove
8/4/2008
