A hike, a sail and a loss
Woah, today turned out to be a whole bunch of things. A few expected, a pleasant surprise and one big loss overboard.
Let’s back up.
The morning was quite expected. We all slept really well and slept in just a little. Captain and I took Kona to shore for her morning walk. We had seen one snake last night (turns out, it was dead as it was still there in the same position) but this morning the beach was littered with tons of little “nope ropes.” Not large fellows, just small (1-3 foot) water snakes. Kona startled one as she jumped from the dinghy. I kept coming up on them without seeing them and they would slither away. We saw one eating a goby fish. We thought he may have died eating it but as we got closer, he went into the water all while his jaw was dislocated enjoying his meal. You could see them in the water. Their tiny heads sticking up looking like small floating branches. After about 5 minutes of this and a few girly freak outs we headed back to Ciara to make some breakfast.
While Captain made breakfast, I busied myself packing for our days hike. The goal: Hike to the other side of the island to the sand dunes, summit the dunes and see the other side. Last year was the first time we had come to this island. It has a fascinating cult history but has been uninhabited for about 85 years leaving the island to completely overgrow. No deer on this island, just ground nesting birds, some hunting peasants that had been planted here years ago and a wildlife refuge for waterbirds. There are ruins scattered through the island and no real maps to any of them. Needless to say, this hike made me cry last year. We weren’t prepared. The vegetation is thick. Any form of path disappears after the first quarter of the journey. The bugs are relentless. Last year Captain didn’t walk away defeated, he saw it is as challenge he must concur, so here we are. We brought trail blazing tape. We brought lots of water for us and Kona. We brought snacks. We wore full protection from head to toe. Captain brought his machete AND his battery chainsaw and after our bellies were full, we were underway.
Cory hadn’t taken this hike before and it was nice to have a good attitude along with us and to show them what little we knew. We enjoyed the ruins of the old DNR huts before we vanished behind the curtain of green for another four hours.
For just two miles we took three hours. Cory and Richard hacking away at the trail while I blazed our path from behind. Kona flocking like she doesn’t care. Not far into the hike the chain fell off the chainsaw and we had to abandon it on our blazed trail to pick up on our return. Captain got blisters on his hands from using the machete so much. We were using mapmyride for GPS breadcrumbs and I was also using my google photos app to let me see where we were in comparison to last year with photos I was taking. We stumbled upon some of the old ruins and even a very old barb wired fence. To say I was having a good time would be a lie, but at least I wasn’t crying and I was keeping my mouth shut. I secretly do want to conquer this hike as well.
We emerged on the other side of the island to the base of those darn dunes. Ya’ll, I’m not joking at the level of disappointment and frustration at these dunes. They are even MORE overgrown and just as steep as the dunes at Sleeping Bear Natl Park. We meandered around the base of them for about an hour, trying to find a place to summit all while Kona bounded between the green ground cover that came up to mid-thigh on me. Cory had actually given her some of our blazing tape on our collar. It was very helpful to see the blaze while keeping an eye on her!
Eventually I had to make the call and be the one to say we needed to get back. We had been out a long time and still needed to sail over to Beaver Island for the night as our current anchorage was no good for tonight. Reluctantly Captain agreed. Cory was neutral but they gave me a look that said “thank you!”
Thankfully the return trip was much faster thanks to my blazes and the fact that we had spent all that time hacking away at a trail. We were back at the boat in less than an hour with the only notable event on the return was rousing at least one ground bird (a Whip-Por-Will or a pheasant, not sure). I was very happy to see the beach. Cory’s legs were completely eaten up, even through his socks. He ripped off his shoes and socks and ran to the water along with Kona for a refresh before we headed back to Ciara.
Captain would like me enter this plea here: Since we blazed the trail if any of our readers find themselves on High Island to please work on following them and help reestablish a trail! If you get to the dunes with more energy, blaze a trail to the top for us and let us know!!
We had a really nice steady light breeze when we pulled anchor at 5pm for our quick 10nm trip around to St. James Harbor on Beaver Island. Cory lifted the sails and we were able to sail the entire way. This sail was our pleasant surprise. I told Captain if all sails were like today, I would never want to NOT sail. We first started downwind, then a perfect beam reach and then a sporty but not scary upwind push into the harbor all while giving everyone a show. The waters were calm, our speed was incredible and the anchor was set just a little after 7pm. The only strange thing was the navigation buoys in the channel between Garden Island and Beaver Island were not there nor were they in the channel in St. James Harbor. We hope to ask locals about that. Thank goodness for GPS navigation though as we can see exactly where we are on the charts and go around the buoys “virtually.”
With the anchor set and about half an hour until closing time I quickly went into the belly of Ciara and grabbed the grower Captain had gotten here three years ago to be refilled. He has forgotten every year and, much like the hike, was determined not to miss this year. We made it to shore and to Whiskey Point Brewery with enough time to get Cory a root beer, a Berry-lious cider for me and a grower of lager for Captain. We spend the early evening sitting outside the brewery with Kona and, of course, making new friends. It didn’t take me long to remember the “Beaver Island Wave” where you wave to everyone driving by and they wave back.
Just as we were leaving our friends from Merging Waters walked by. We knew they were here as Captain is in touch with them. They had gone out for a nice dinner and then came to find us. I tried to get us back to the boat before 9pm but (as Cory said) we had a really long Midwestern goodbye near the boat house and didn’t get back to Ciara until around 9:45. Merging waters had told everyone they met that we were coming and that I played Taps and they were wanting it as well so I played at 10pm with the excuse of “it really doesn’t matter.”
Taps was ok. I was out of breath. Because, well, the day ended poorly. Our last part of the day, the big loss overboard.
Here is the scene. Cory had left to go take a shower on shore. Their bug bites needed some TLC. Captain had started making Kielbasa and onions and they were simmering of the stove as I pulled out my horn and got ready. I headed to the bow about five minutes early as I try to do so I can get a feel for how the boat is moving and calm my nerves.
Captain came up three minutes before to witness Taps as he always does. I was sitting at the bow; he was standing on the starboard side near the pilot house (mid ship). I wasn’t watching but I heard “Oh shit, no!” and as I turned, I heard a “plop” and saw Captain throw himself overboard! I knew exactly what happened then, as I could only think of one thing that would make Captain jump in the water like that. His phone. HIS PHONE!!!!!!
He didn’t get it. We could see it’s screen still lit 20 feet down. He called for a ladder right away. I told him to dive for it. But in the confusion of the moment, he felt he couldn’t without goggles and wanted out of the water. I quickly got the ladder and found the goggles for him. For some really stupid reason we felt we still needed to play taps, so I quickly went and played (hence the out of breath part). By the time Taps was done, the phone was gone. Remember we are at anchor, so just because the phone went off in one spot doesn’t mean it will be in the same place relative to the boat the next. No matter how many times I called it, we couldn’t see it and it was now the fading last light of day.
So much sadness. Dinner was just a bunch of woes. The irony is Captain hates his phone. Much like I do. We hate how tied we are to the thing. Social media being the worst of it for that seeded hate. The hard part is we have all gotten so used to it being our camera and how we communicate via text or calls. Now we are far away not only from an apple store, but even any store that would carry a phone. I have a few ideas to how we can remedy this but Captain wanted to sleep on it and see how he felt in the morning. We are supposed to get weather tomorrow which will hinder any rescue attempt, although I feel strongly that that depth and time will have left the phone ruined anyhow. For now, I think we have about two weeks at the very least where he will be phone less. It will be wildly inconvenient as he uses my phone while underway and more, but alas, it is sailing. Sometimes if you don’t like the winds, you just need to adjust your sails and that is what we will do.
We finished dinner and dishes. My cherry-tini’s were highly requested and with the current mood I couldn’t say no so I made everyone a drink. I hope to find more cherry vodka here on the island as I think we have a new boat drink and only one bottle!
And to finish the day we all went to bed listening to ducks’ peck mayflies off our steel haul. One of our earliest sailing stories involves these ducks as we were here on our first ever crossing of Lake Michigan in 2018. We had gone to the maritime museum and learned about a shipwreck not far from here. The sailors that had survived had written about the storm and how the boat ripped apart. They wrote about listening to all the rivets break before the ship collapsed. I was a green sailor back then. I knew our boat was steel, but I had zoned out on her construction. We are welded, not riveted, but I didn’t know that and that night as we laid in bed we could hear “ping, ping, ping” coming from all around the boat. “Captain! The rivets are popping!” I forced him awake. “We don’t have rivets, go back to bed!” “You are the Captain, you have to go see what that noise is if you don’t know!” Reluctantly he got up and as he opened up the hatch to go take a looksee hundreds of ducks scattered away from our boat. To this day, it remains a great story and it was comforting to hear again after an eventful day.
