We departed Maimaisene Island at sunrise (6:30AM) to beat the weather into Whitefish bay. Rain overnight, waves 2 feet, heavy dark clouds, and a 10-15 knot blow out of the North. Not so bad, our heading today is SE. The weather is picking up and we are entering Whitefish bay today. The Edmund Fitzgerald lies near the entrance to WF bay and this area is known for huge waves . The prevailing winds on Superior are out of the NW and Whitefish bay is in the SE corner. So with 100's of miles of fetch this little bay at times takes the full force of Superior. Waves are predicted to be less then a meter but building to 2 meters early this evening. So we are literally on a run for cover.
We sailed most of the day on a run flying the full Genoa with the whisker pole. Albion sails well on a run with a full Genoa. We arrived early (12:30) into WF bay and are tucked away at a fishing dock in Goulais Bay. Soon after we arrived this young boy came down and told us, "This place is really dangerous"? How so we asked? He said there are bears around here that come down to the dock and get on the boats looking for food. So we have our air horn ready to blast away the bears tonight.
We are once again docked on the shores of a First Nation Reservation. We hiked a few miles down the road and stopped at a First nation general store for some ice cream. We hiked another half mile to a stand that sells fresh fish meals to eat outside. We asked if they would deliver dinner to our dock tonight and were quite surprised that they will not only deliver, but offered us a ride back. The First Nation gentlemen that rode us back is the fishermen that goes out each morning to catch the fish in his small boat. He uses Gill nets that go down near 100 feet and provides the restaurant (run by his parents) with all the fish. Whitefish bay does in fact have lots of white fish…
Tomorrow we make our way to Sault Ste. Marie where Mark ends his segment and Bill joins up. Checking back into the US is not an easy task. We need to go through the locks and stay at the Marina on the US side. Bill and I will then need to lock back up to Superior to continue the last segment of our journey.
Are you wondering how we are sending these logs? Last night our Wi-Fi tester located a signal near an old fishing house near the dock and we borrowed it a few minutes. Today we have located a small school near by which appears to have Wi-Fi, so if you're getting this, that's it.
Goulais Bay
August 9, 2008
