We did not leave as we had planned-the small craft warning, along with wind, waves and rain, kept us in Marquette for another day.  The staff and facilities at Cinder Pond were amazing!

On  Wednesday, our 14^th Anniversary, we left shortly after 6 am, and travelled past Big Bay, the Huron islands and this lighthouse. The waves were at most 1-2 feet, but as we crossed the Keweenaw Bay, they increased slightly.  We travelled 69 miles, and reached the Portage lower entrance of the Keweenaw waterway at 1:15- a long 7 hours.  Keweenaw comes from the Ojibwe which means the crossing place. This 25 mile long waterway  cuts out  almost 100 miles, by not having to go around the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Since the next day was going to be Independence Day, we decided to stay tied up to the pier wall for a couple days.  Being near the boat launch and entrance to the canal, there was a fair bit of boat traffic.  On July 4^th we could hear fireworks in the distance, but didn’t see any.  We spent the day working on projects- Andy his woodworking and me crocheting poppies, I also had book club Thursday night which I could join because of Star link. On Friday morning, it was raining off and on, so we didn’t leave the pier until just after noon.  We headed into Houghton, to go through the lift bridge—our reference books, indicated that the bridge was at 7 feet, and lifted on the hour, and half hour.  Andy contacted the bridge tender to alert him that we wanted to make the 2pm lift, and that our height with antennas and star link  was 19 feet.  He informed us that the bridge was now at a minimum level of 32 feet, so he wouldn’t need to raise it for us. 

We proceeded through and down the channel to the Lily Pond,  another pier set aside as a harbour of refuge, just before the upper entrance. We tied up using the bollards and wooden wall structure.  We were joined by a family fishing, and later by some young people that entertained us by jumping into the water ( they didn’t stay in too long) or by trying to hit golf balls across the canal.  Once again with the boat traffic and boat ramp nearby, we were rocked by many wakes.   On Saturday morning we left shortly after 7 am, and headed down the channel to Lake Superior.  The wind was fairly light and the waves less than 2 feet. We travelled 42 miles to the town of Ontonagon  arriving at 11:45. The water here is a very dark brown colour, when I asked about it, they said because of the iron in the hills, that the river brings down to the Lake.  There is a definite colour difference out in the bay leading to the lake. There were fireworks in town, that we could see from the boat. Here is the old lighthouse in Ontonagon.

We  left on Sunday morning by 7:30, and had plans to go as far as Saxon Harbour, however we encountered some storm clouds on the lake, so we entered the Black River Harbour, part of a state park.  We had tired calling the number for this harbour on Saturday, but got an office in Ironwood, that was closed until Monday.  We didn’t know if there was space, but we wanted to get off the lake.  The entrance to the harbour, had some shoals, but Andy stayed tight to starboard and we were able to get in and tie up. He did see 4 ½ feet at one point, but we had 8 feet at the dock.  We tied up on the commercial dock, because they had power, however, it kept tripping, so we relied on the sun to top up our batteries.  The first thunderstorm hit at 1:00, and we were drenched.  We helped a sailboat into the harbour around 3:00 and they tied up farther back on the dock. John was able to provide some advice on the Apostle islands, as he had just spent a month there with his family.  We had the second storm hit at about 4:00, again with thunder lightning and rain.  There was a very nice day use picnic site here, and numerous trails, there was also a suspension bridge across the Black River.

On Monday morning, Andy talked to the commercial fishing boat, for advice on leaving the harbour—he said to stick to the port side on exiting.  We left at 7:30 Eastern time , and started experiencing some light fog.  About an hour and a half into our voyage, we passed by the Porcupine mountains and finally left Michigan behind, and entered into our second state- Wisconsin, where we switched back to Central time.  The winds were light, the lake was fairly flat and the temperature were finally rising. Just the way I like it!

 The fog continued for quite awhile, and at one point, a small fishing boat at full speed, came out from a fog bank, and nearly hit us. We had our first glimpse of the Apostle Islands, passing by the south end of Madeline. We called the Marina in Ashland, to find out if they had a slip for us, and we proceeded down Chequamegon Bay for over 2 hours to reach it.  We filled up with fuel, water and got pumped out.  We walked up to the grocery store to re-provision, and in the afternoon, the marina staff gave me a ride to the laundry.  I had to walk back which was almost a mile.   In the evening, we walked over to a nearby Chinese food restaurant and then to the Liquor

Today, July 9th –we are off to the Apostle Islands, not sure how many of the 22 islands we will stay at– but will likely see them all.