Circumnavigating Lake Superior

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One power boater from Seattle had boated the entire west coast, Alaska to Panama. His opinion was the boating was as good as any he'd done, specifically that Superior was the gem. He question them being called lakes and said 'of all places to get a harsh reminder to watch the weather I got mine on a lake, Lake Superior.'


This is why we call it a 'SEA' .
 
This is an old thread but what a cool read. I was poking around this morning, drinking my coffee, dreaming about boat trips for 2021 and came across this gem of a thread.

Makes me wish I had a diesel...and an entire summer to do nothing but boat the Great Lakes! A good reminder to buy my lotto ticket I suppose...
 
This is an old thread but what a cool read. I was poking around this morning, drinking my coffee, dreaming about boat trips for 2021 and came across this gem of a thread.

Makes me wish I had a diesel...and an entire summer to do nothing but boat the Great Lakes! A good reminder to buy my lotto ticket I suppose...
We have been to Alaska in our gas boat. At 6 knots it burns 1 GPM. Only problem was we had to run the generator to get heat. If we go fast fuel consumption is high and we could run out in some areas. Single screw diesel boats seem to go forever. Met one person in a similar boat who ran one engine at 6 knots. He said he got 1.4 MPG. His mechanic said it would not hurt the transmission. He put the non working engine in neutral.
 
Just wondering, Has anyone circumnavigated Lake Superior, It is on my Bucket list of things to do before the end, Now I'm no where's near the end... but A Plan is always Nice to have for the future, I think it's going to take boat 2 months Maybe... don't know has anyone done this Yet?
 
Fast forward a year and a half. Man did plan, and God did decide. Covid. We thought well, we'll just wait till 2021, by then Canada will be open. Nope. But time marches on and I know too many people who have waited to do something that they have wanted to do for one reason or another and then life happened and they never did it. So at the beginning of June we untied the lines and headed out. We are still not home, we are working our way back, but the Lake Superior portion is done and it was fantastic. We would have liked to visit Canada, but one of our sayings is that everything happens for a reason, so be it.
We spent just 31 days in Superior, due to being limited to the American side, but mostly because the weather was so amazing that we could virtually move about the lake whenever we wanted. We lost one day to wind (if staying at anchor in a beautiful cove at Isle Royale is a lost day) and it rained 2 days while we were visiting Houghton, rain doesn't affect shopping, museum and Keweenaw Brewery visiting too much and a few sprinkles in the apostles was it. I figured that if I plan 1-2 days of wind per week when traveling Lake Erie, 2-3 would be appropriate for Superior. Ha! Thank you Lake Superior! The wind did blow a couple of days, but we were in a town visiting and only the extra day at Isle Royale was a delay day. Never would have imagined it.
Favorite Big town: Marquette
Favorite little town: Copper Harbor
Favorite place overall: Isle Royale National Park
Honorable mentioned: Apostle Islands and Munising.
Places visited: Grand Marais MI, Munising, Marquette, Houghton/Hancock, Ontanagan, Bayfield WI, Isle Royale, Copper Harbor and Whitefish point. Not exactly on the Lake, but we enjoyed Sault Ste. Marie also.
I'll put up a few pics here when I get a chance over the next few days. Cruise director says it's time to go to town.
 
On the 3rd day out, we got into some pretty soupy conditions that made for a few interesting pictures. Low level fog. Couldn't see 100' in front of the boat at times, but 50' or so off the water was brilliant sunshine. We were cruising at about 8 kts up the St Clair River when a Lake Freighter was approaching and overtaking us at 13 kts. They don't seem to slow down much for the conditions. A quick vhf exchange acknowledges we both know we're there
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Cruising on a cloud
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For those who are not familiar with Pilots, ocean ships require a river or lake pilot on board when transiting the different bodies of water in the Great Lakes as the ships captain is not familiar with the waters. This pilot exchange was at Port Huron. Lake Huron pilot getting on and St Clair River pilot gets off. The ship slows down to about 4 or 5 kts and the pilot boat comes along side.
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These pilots had a gangway, sometimes it's just a rope ladder. These pilots had to climb a rope ladder for a few feet to get to the gangway.
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After the oncoming pilot makes it up to the bridge and replaces the pilot being relieved, the off going pilot makes his way down to the deck and onto the pilot boat. In this case, the ships crew then hauled in the gangway and pulled up the rope ladder and they were on their way.
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The fog liffted just long enough for us to get those shots, then it was back into the soup. The trade off was that Huron was flat, easy going.
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We went from Algonac to Harbor Beach that day. We entered the harbor dead slow with the opening in the breakwalls only visible on the radar until practically going through.
 
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Throughout the Great Lakes, we have seen several homes that have been made from bows of lake freighters, or built to look like them. We think this one on the St Mary's River is one of the better looking ones
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Saw a few nice homes/cottages that were built on the lighthouse theme
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Very cool. Call me jealous! I've spent a lot of time in the UP but haven't boated much on Superior.
 
Up in The Soo (Sault Ste. Marie) it's all about the freighters and the locks.
There is one lock to go through, going into Superior it is a 21 foot lift, but there are 5 locks, one on the Canadian side for pleasure craft only, and 4 side by side on the American side, 2 of those are not being used and those 2 are being reconstructed into a new lock.
They have multi level viewing stands for the visitors to watch the show. They never seem to have to wait long, there is just about constant action. Approximately 10,000 ships per year go through and they are closed January thru March.
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This Laker is one of the fleet of 1000 footers. Those have to go through the Poe Lock which is 1200' long. Those 1000 footers are 105' beam. The Poe is 110' wide. The lock in the foreground is the MacArthur Lock: 800' x 80.' That can take some of the Ocean Ships and the older Laker fleet.
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Even the Beer Glasses are all about the freighters. This trip we decided to buy beer glasses from the craft breweries we visited to replace our aging beer glasses at home. We have several really nice ones. This one from the Soo is a favorite.
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My bride of 43 years taking care of business as we exit the MacArthur lock at 6 A.M. on the morning of our anniversary. She loves this, really, she does :)
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We went through the MacArthur lock because the Canadian lock doesn't open until 9 so the Traffic control guys let us pleasure boats go through no problem when the Canadian lock is unavailable. We did go through the Canadian side on the way back.
 
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After The Soo it was on to Munising. The south shore of Superior between Grand Marais and Munising is known for the sand dunes and the Pictured Rocks. The Grand Sable Dunes lie on top of the Grand Sable Bank, A sand bank that rises 300' above the water.
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Not far past the sand dunes starts the Cliffs and rock structures of Pictured Rocks.
I have many pictures, but I'll keep it to a few.
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Chaple Rock is my favorite. Somehow a long time ago, a white pine managed to take root on top of a rock arch, similar to Lovers Leap, the arch in the picture above. This arch though had less soil so the tree sent out a root system across the top of the arch in search of water and nutrients from the soil on the other side of the arch. The story goes that about 70 years ago, the arch collapsed and the strength of the root system managed to hold up as the rock beneath it fell away. The tree continues to survive through it's "umbilical cord" root system.
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The next day when we went back, the lighting was a little better when the sun was lower in the sky and it was warmer bringing out some people on shore to give some scale as to how big this is. The tree is estimated to be over 200 years old.
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The first picture shows the roots better.
Munising is one of those places that the population probably quadruples during the day as the vacationers flock into town to take the tour boats out to the cliffs. After the last tour boat comes back, it's a nice quiet little town with some great little places to hang out.
One of them was Tracey's at Roam Inn. We went to dinner there to celebrate our anniversary and to make up for that 6 A.M. lockage. A Little pricey but the dinner was more of a tasty adventure than just a meal. Highly recommended if anyone gets up that way.
 
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After The Soo it was on to Munising. The south shore of Superior between Grand Marais and Munising is known for the sand dunes and the Pictured Rocks. The Grand Sable Dunes lie on top of the Grand Sable Bank, A sand bank that rises 300' above the water.
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Not far past the sand dunes starts the Cliffs and rock structures of Pictured Rocks.
I have many pictures, but I'll keep it to a few.
View attachment 109128

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Chaple Rock is my favorite. Somehow a long time ago, a white pine managed to take root on top of a rock arch, similar to Lovers Leap, the arch in the picture above. This arch though had less soil so the tree sent out a root system across the top of the arch in search of water and nutrients from the soil on the other side of the arch. The story goes that about 70 years ago, the arch collapsed and the strength of the root system managed to hold up as the rock beneath it fell away. The tree continues to survive through it's "umbilical cord" root system.
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The next day when we went back, the lighting was a little better when the sun was lower in the sky and it was warmer bringing out some people on shore to give some scale as to how big this is. The tree is estimated to be over 200 years old.
View attachment 109132
The first picture shows the roots better.
Munising is one of those places that the population probably quadruples during the day as the vacationers flock into town to take the tour boats out to the cliffs. After the last tour boat comes back, it's a nice quiet little town with some great little places to hang out.
One of them was Tracey's at Roam Inn. We went to dinner there to celebrate our anniversary and to make up for that 6 A.M. lockage. A Little pricey but the dinner was more of a tasty adventure than just a meal. Highly recommended if anyone gets up that way.

amazing pictures Mark. Looks like quite a trip and one we would love to do ourselves someday
 
Mark, thank you for the post and pics! How was the experience going through the locks? I've never navigated such a system. Can it be done with one person, myself? Or do you need 2 people to control the boat in the lock? Do you tie up to a wall? I hopefully will make this journey some day!
 
Mark, thank you for the post and pics! How was the experience going through the locks? I've never navigated such a system. Can it be done with one person, myself? Or do you need 2 people to control the boat in the lock? Do you tie up to a wall? I hopefully will make this journey some day!
I've been through the Canadian recreational lock on a tour boat. You can see the cables hanging down the sides of the lock wall. Those are used to loop a line around and hold the boat as it rises/falls. Depending on the size of the boat, I would think you might be able to do that single handed controlling midship but there may be a requirement for two people. Certainly, two would be much better. I don't recall the flow being very violent in the lock.
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I've been through the Canadian recreational lock on a tour boat. You can see the cables hanging down the sides of the lock wall. Those are used to loop a line around and hold the boat as it rises/falls. Depending on the size of the boat, I would think you might be able to do that single handed controlling midship but there may be a requirement for two people. Certainly, two would be much better. I don't recall the flow being very violent in the lock.
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@play dough, I think I saw you boat at Mackinaw Island on July 6th or July 7th. We headed out on Thursday the 8th about 1pm, hoping the conditions would get better. They did not, it was rough once we got to the east side of Bois Blanc island. Was going to say hi when I think I saw your boat, but I didn't see anyone around.
 
Mark, thank you for the post and pics! How was the experience going through the locks? I've never navigated such a system. Can it be done with one person, myself? Or do you need 2 people to control the boat in the lock? Do you tie up to a wall? I hopefully will make this journey some day!
The locks at the Soo were easy to transit. The MacArthur that we went up to Superior in is a ships lock so there are no cables on the sides to pass a line around. The ships would rip them out when they scrape against them. When a pleasure boat passes through an Army Corp employee throws a rope line down to you. The sailboat in the picture above that was in front of us leaving the lock was single handed, he had no problem, and single handing sailboats in a lock can be a challenge because they are shaped like a football and have a tendency to teeter- totter on their fenders that have to be right in the middle of the boat. The lock master was very generous in his fill, he opened the valves gradually for a nice smooth lift. Going down is always easier. The Canadian lock is as play dough described it. Piece of cake, but, we were going down in that one and the lock is full to start and the water is only a foot or so from the top of the lock. In those cases you need to be aware of that so you can set the fenders accordingly and the Canadian attendant is there to pass your line around the cable as you may not be able to bend down enough to do it. He had to do that for my wife. She sits on the bow going through the locks, 5’ above the top of the lock wall and top of the cable.
There are a lot of different type locks with different ways to secure the boat and different ways to fill and empty them, but that’s the set up at the Soo. I always tell people that are inexperienced at it to mention it to the lock master on the vhf, they are happy to assist. Don’t be afraid to ask for a slow fill also, many people do.
Don’t fear the locks, have fun.
 
@play dough, I think I saw you boat at Mackinaw Island on July 6th or July 7th. We headed out on Thursday the 8th about 1pm, hoping the conditions would get better. They did not, it was rough once we got to the east side of Bois Blanc island. Was going to say hi when I think I saw your boat, but I didn't see anyone around.
Yes, we were in an east shore slip Monday to Friday that week. The conditions for our Friday departure were good and the cruise back to Cheboygan was a nice ride. It was certainly a bit lumpy in the harbor during the east wind mid week.
 

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