Cruising Isle Royale
August 2003
Page 5
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Cruising Isle Royale August 2003 Page 5 |
| Next morning three hikers from a camp up the hill came down to the pier to pump five gallons of water out of the lake through a small back-pack filtration pump. It was a bit of work in the high humidity, so they spelled each other at the pump handle. Turned out that they were all Sierra Club members from Mundelein, Illinois, just eighty miles from Rockford. They considered our “Plain Jane” yawl a better neighbor than the Canadian motor cruiser. This cove is a “No Wake” zone, and the inflatable had been clearly out-of-bounds. The next day’s passage was a short one, just ten miles along southwest to Todd Harbor, and then into Pickett Bay where we encountered a veteran Flicka from Duluth. We spoke briefly, then proceeded all the way to the end of the bay and set the Bruce in only two feet of water, midway from both shores. We saw no moose there, but next morning we were treated to the sight of a Belted Kingfisher dropping from a nearby tree for her breakfast of fresh fish. There was no wind at all for the final segment of our circumnavigation. However, the flat water would let True North steam a steady eight and a half mph at a bit over 3/4 throttle. Shearwaters are better than decent motor cruisers. I’ve long thought that our downright pretty bow wave was all the testament needed to Phil Bolger’s expertise designing motor vessels. Of course efficiency of flow should be important for sailboats, too. So why do so many of them throw up so much white water right at their bows? True North’s bow wave doesn’t curl over till the cutwater is three or four feet past. |
