Ok, I always thought that Lake Superior was notorious for being cold. But today we were blessed with record high temps and, after standing almost an hour on the docks waiting to board the boat, we were three hot tamales. Frederick was stoical but Thomas was...not.
Here we are, just heading out. You'd think with all that cloud cover that it would be cool and breezy, but you'd be wrong.
All right, now we are on the move and feeling some breeze in our hairs. Life just got a little bit better.
The coastline along Munising (where we are, for those that do not know) is really magnificent. This is one of the minor "painted cliffs" around here. Tomorrow we are taking the boat tour of the more famous cliffs which, we were told today, reach up to 200'. Today we were touring shipwreck sites of Lake Superior. There are three nearby that we visited, each with a fairly intact ship from 1830-1860s sunk just off the coastline. Most were on sandbars and so were only 5 or so feet from the bottom of our boat which was, by an amazing coincidence, plexi-glass so we could view the wreckage. This tour was really hyped all over town so I was expecting to be let down but it was, I was surprised to find, actually kind of cool and Thomas and Frederick both really enjoyed it. Despite the warm temps (the water temp was 72 degrees F which is simply unheard of), the water was still clear as no algae or other small organisms live here--which is why, apparently, there are so many shipwrecks still in great condition. I expected to see a few loose boards but all three sites had most the hulls and, in one case, debris spread about a square mile--including the captain's bathtub and commode. One ship was hauling 300 tons of iron ore which we could see scattered about in piles all over the lake floor. Diving is very popular here (there are dive shops--and pastie shops, interestingly, all over the place) as there are aver 2,500 known wreck sites within just a few miles of the coastline. We only saw three but that was, I think, enough for one day.
Frederick LOVES boats. I strongly suspect Simon and I will be visiting him on his houseboat in 20 or so years. (Note rat clutched tightly in his hand. I try to get it loose so I can wash or, at least, rinse it but no way--he even clutches it in his sleep.)
Here we are, just heading out. You'd think with all that cloud cover that it would be cool and breezy, but you'd be wrong.
All right, now we are on the move and feeling some breeze in our hairs. Life just got a little bit better.
The coastline along Munising (where we are, for those that do not know) is really magnificent. This is one of the minor "painted cliffs" around here. Tomorrow we are taking the boat tour of the more famous cliffs which, we were told today, reach up to 200'. Today we were touring shipwreck sites of Lake Superior. There are three nearby that we visited, each with a fairly intact ship from 1830-1860s sunk just off the coastline. Most were on sandbars and so were only 5 or so feet from the bottom of our boat which was, by an amazing coincidence, plexi-glass so we could view the wreckage. This tour was really hyped all over town so I was expecting to be let down but it was, I was surprised to find, actually kind of cool and Thomas and Frederick both really enjoyed it. Despite the warm temps (the water temp was 72 degrees F which is simply unheard of), the water was still clear as no algae or other small organisms live here--which is why, apparently, there are so many shipwrecks still in great condition. I expected to see a few loose boards but all three sites had most the hulls and, in one case, debris spread about a square mile--including the captain's bathtub and commode. One ship was hauling 300 tons of iron ore which we could see scattered about in piles all over the lake floor. Diving is very popular here (there are dive shops--and pastie shops, interestingly, all over the place) as there are aver 2,500 known wreck sites within just a few miles of the coastline. We only saw three but that was, I think, enough for one day.
Frederick LOVES boats. I strongly suspect Simon and I will be visiting him on his houseboat in 20 or so years. (Note rat clutched tightly in his hand. I try to get it loose so I can wash or, at least, rinse it but no way--he even clutches it in his sleep.)
2 comments:
Why no pictures THROUGH the bottom of the boat? Why no pictures of the cornish pasties?
Looks beautiful though!
xM
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