Long Island and Bayfield

A little rain this morning, but again, not as heavy as the forecast. In fact it had stopped before I got far from the marina. I left Madeline Island Yacht Club marina and headed south to Long Island. My chartplotter tracks showed I’ve been by the LaPointe Lighthouse there, but never stopped at the dock. So today I stopped at the dock. It’s completely covered in goose or seagull poop, and ends 20’ before the shore, so had to wade in 3’ of water. There is a nice beach there, and weirdly enough, there is what looks to be a fairly new outhouse in great shape. It’s behind the light tower and clean with plenty of toilet paper and a broom. The crew’s quarters is locked and boarded up. Light tower is also locked. Peering through the quarter’s windows, looks like it would need quite a bit of rehab before the public could tour it. So many of these light houses have a lot of history, and wish more of them could be accessible for the public to see. Back at the boat, and headed a short distance to the west end of the island to see Chequamegon Point Light. It leans slightly towards the water, and I suspect someday will succumb to a watery grave. The Point shoal goes out quite some ways, so I stayed off shore and just took photos. Then headed back north towards the Bayfield Marina. Pulled into my slip, next to Halcyon, a 22’ C-Dory with a history, if you are familiar with Bill and El. Several of my facebook friends are based out of Bayfield. Bill, a retired UW professor from Madison has Halcyon now. Jon, who writes a number of stories for the Friends of the Apostle Islands and takes great photos, has the 22’ Tremolo. And Jeff, the Executive Director of the Friends, another great photographer, has the 16’ Little Dipper. If you remember from my blog earlier, I decided to go to the marina over the City Dock due to construction at the City dock. There actually ended up being quite a bit of room still for public docking, so the Bayfield Marina manager said it would be ok to cancel my reservations there and move over to the City Dock. It was open with space most the afternoon, but the last spot just filled a few minutes ago. (7:30pm). After getting tied up here at the dock, I explored town doing some window shopping, buying some salt water taffy and stopping for ice cream (of course!) At 4 pm, I attended Mass at Holy Family Catholic Church. I’m Protestant by faith, but after marrying Rosanne, a Catholic, I got involved with the Catholic Church in music and helping to song lead. Both Rosanne and I participate at both the Catholic Parish and Lutheran Church. Before getting to Holy Family, I stopped at the NPS headquarters building. While there I remembered that I needed to replace my Senior Lifetime National Parks Pass, as my card was cracked and splitting. Fortunately they were able to replace it right there. After Mass I returned to the boat, made supper and ate. Helped a few other boats coming into the dock by taking their lines, including one very big yacht. .Read more