This is a fairly typical overnight sailing trip out among Lake Superior's Apostle Islands, when the air happens to be light. Because of the southerly wind direction, we choose to stay at the scenic and sheltered anchorage on the north side of Oak Island, which everyone calls North Oak. As expected, it proved to be a highly popular place. There were between 20 and 25 boats already there, when we arrived.
Oak Island is the tallest of the Apostle Islands, rising about 480 ft. above the lake. It's slowly reverting to boreal forest, and it's now hard to imagine the island once had several busy fishing and lumber camps before it became part of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Incidentally, it's also known to have a very large population of black bears.
Both days were quite hot. While sailing Lake Superior is widely known to be a cold, cold pleasure, there are times in the summer, when its South Shore's temperatures soar into the 85-95-degree range - and sometimes higher. Combined with the humidity, that can be quite uncomfortable, if there isn't any breeze.
Satellite images courtesy of Google Earth.
30 сен 2024
