june/july 2016cruisingworld.com61FRED BAGLEYPUT OFF BY THEIR PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE CRUISING
WISCONSIN’S POPULAR APOSTLE ISLANDS, THESE
LONGTIME GREAT LAKES SAILORS NEARLY DIDN’T
COME BACK. LUCKILY, THEY DISCOVERED THAT
SOMETIMES IT’S NICE TO BE WRONG.BY FRED BAGLEYApostles
Mea Culpa
It
was a noise unlike any we had ever heard on our boat. It
was well after midnight, and the sound was like a class-
room of schoolchildren madly scraping their fi ngernails on a
blackboard. Instantly we were awake, and we realized our boat
was moving hard to port. Then our motion stopped with a mas-
sive thunk.
Clouds obscured the quarter-moon as we staggered to the
cockpit. We were clearly still fl oating, and we could see we were
pretty much where we had anchored the evening before, but
there were now two-foot waves smacking our bow.
Welcome back to the Apostle Islands, we said to each other.
Clearly we had not learned our lesson from our previous visit.
Even worse, we wondered why we had bothered to come back
at all.
Catamount, a Caliber 38, is seen through the extensive caves
at Devil’s Island (left). The Apostle Islands are known for
their plentiful red sandstone formations. Jennifer takes in
the solitude at Sand Island (above).