 Saturday evening was pretty calm with a nice sunset to
watch as we relaxed off of Madeline Island. However, the
weather changed overnight and
the wind started picking up. By morning, the wind again switched
direction so that it was blowing us in towards shore although we
were still fairly well protected in the bay. We heated water for coffee
and hot chocolate and started heating some more for the thermos when the
propane ran out. We switched to the alcohol stove to heat more and that died
too. Good thing it was the last day. The weather looked OK but it was a
little windy so we decided to just sail with the genoa. As we got out of
the bay into the north channel the wind was quickly building. We furled in
the genoa a bit so that about 1/3 was out and we were moving along pretty
smoothly. The wind and waves kept building until we were bouncing up and
down in 6-8 foot waves. We had never been in waves this big before and it was
a little disconcerting to have the boat so easily tossed about. Steering
became hard work requiring quick reactions and heavy concentration to keep us
on course and to keep us from getting broadsided by the waves.
The wind just kept getting stronger and we furled
in the genoa some more until just a tiny bit of it was out, less than 1/4
and we were still being pushed over by the wind. With the rudders all the
way over Dad still couldn't keep the boat pointed as the wind was just too
strong and the waves were pushing us around too much. I decided to start
the engine and give just a little bit of power and this finally allowed Dad
to keep the boat pointed in the right direction. I was pretty nervous about
running out of gas so we kept it at a fairly low throttle setting. Dad was
squeezing the lifelines so hard that that he could have probably drawn blood
from them. It took us about an hour to inch our way across the bay into the
public marina, sweating the whole time that we were going to run out of gas
and meet our fate smashed up against the rocks in the west channel of Bayfield
Bay. With a sigh of relief we finally turned the corner into the protected
marina and out of the wind. We pulled up to the boat ramp with just ounces
of gas left in the tank and tied up to the dock finally cut the engine.
We made it back!
|
