2 Aug 2022 - Raspberry Island Lighthouse Cruise

 2 Aug

Today we took another cruise, this time to Raspberry Island to visit the lighthouse there. Yesterday we passed by it but today we were able to stop and see it.

Picture from yesterday - the weather was much better

Another picture from yesterday.  The fog signal building is the brick structure on the right

The forecast was for rain but they did not cancel the cruise which we were glad.  The boat today was much smaller than yesterday's huge catamaran.  

We only had 22 on board today and that included two tent camping folks that were being dropped off for a four night stay on Oak Island. 

Our two tent campers preparing to hop off the boat on Oak Island

The boat returns on Saturday to pick them up.  They had to carry in everything they needed and carry out everything they brought including their trash.

We departed Oak Island and we could see the weather in the distance.  It was headed our way for sure and seemed to move fairly quickly.  As we arrived at Raspberry Island the weather started to turn nasty.

  The 20 of us made it up the 76 steps from the dock and headed into the fog signal building.  There we briefed by two National Park Service rangers about the history of the Raspberry Island Lighthouse. 

One of our NPS Rangers in costume of the late 1800's lightkeeper

Our group in the fog signal building

The Raspberry Island Lighthouse was built and first lit in 1863 and served as a beacon for steam ships traveling the west channel of the Apostle Islands.  The building we were in, the fog signal building, was added in 1903 and that created a need for more staff.  So in 1906 the original lighthouse was remodeled into a duplex.  The south side of the lighthouse building was where the head lighthouse keeper and his family lived.  The north side of the duplex was actually two "apartments", one for each of his assistants.

How the lighthouse looked back then 

Inside the fog signal building there were two steam generators that sounded the fog horn.  The generators have been removed from the building and it is now primarily a power distribution building.

A bank of 6-volt lead-acid batteries that are charged by solar panels.

A generator and solar converter panels that help to provide the power

The briefing from the National Park service Rangers was interesting, but considering the impending weather they should have allowed us to tour the lighthouse building first.  By the time they finished with their presentation (~45 minutes) the weather was upon us with limited visibility, lightning, winds and heavy rain.  The lightning was what prevented us from climbing the lighthouse.

So we made a dash for the lighthouse building in a torrential downpour and there we were able to tour the lower and uppers floors.  

The kitchen area

Wood-fired stove

Kitchen sink with a hand pump connected to a cistern that captured rain water

A small pantry

The dining room

The living room complete with working hand crank Victrola

One of three the upstairs bedrooms

The second of three upstairs bedrooms

The third bedroom was not furnished, but led into the staircase that went up into the light tower, the area we could not go due to lightning.  They did let Doreen go up a few stairs for a photo-op:

One of the few lighthouses ever built with wooden stairs

The light itself went through various fuel types including different types of oil, kerosene and finally was electrified and automated in 1947.  

In 2002 and 2003 there was an extensive project to reinforce the shoreline and the shore was eroding and the lighthouse would have eventually fell into the lake.  

You can see the shoreline here before it was reinforced

How the shoreline looks today.

That concluded the lighthouse tour.  It would have been much nicer if the weather would have cooperated, but at least we got to visit today.  

People coming down the stairs to get back on the boat

The storms passing by

Tomorrow we will pull chocks and head west and north, passing by Duluth on our way to an area east of Hibbing Minnesota, our next stop.

1 Aug 2022 - Grand Tour of the Apostle Islands

 1 Aug

This afternoon we headed out  🎶"on a three hour tour" 🎶but ours had a much better outcome than the USS Minnow and Gilligan's Island!  Today we explored the archipelago, or island chain, of the Apostle's.  There are 22 of them all together surrounded by the cold, blue waters of Gitche Gumee (Lake Superior).  Todays trip brought us by 10 of them:  What a beautiful part of this country, and so much history!  

The Grand Tour route

Our craft

Our catamaran provided a very stable ride today

We arrived early (imagine that) and therefore got our pick of the seats when we boarded.  We headed up to the top for best view as recommended by the crew, and headed to the front, port side of the boat.  

While waiting in line we met a young couple from Tomah WI near my old stomping grounds at Volk Field.  They had camped at Fort McCoy, attended the Warrens WI Cranberry Festival, etc so we had a lot in common.  They ended up sitting right behind us on the boat, and also happen to be camping at the same campground we are staying.  The line kept getting longer and longer to board the boat.  

As we headed out, I took a couple pictures of Bayfield WI with the harbor in the foreground.  Very scenic town.  

Some of the historic old buildings overlooking the harbor

Downtown Bayfield near the harbor

Our journey first took us by Basswood Island and then Hermit Island.  Many of these island were involved with quarrying sandstone back in the 1800's.  Evidence of this is still visible on the shore today.

The shorelines of these islands are beautiful.  It is nice they all fall under to governance of the National Park Service now, so they are preserved rather than developed commercially.  

A Bald Eagle standing watch over the shore.

Sandstone shoreline with various colors from minerals

The route then took us past Oak, Manitou, Otter and Rocky Islands before arriving at the furthest most point, Devil's Island.  

Rock landing area on Devil's Island

Endless rock caves along the shoreline

More rock caves carved by the constant water erosion

Soon the Devil's Island Lighthouse came into view.  As with all of the six Apostle Island Lighthouses, it is long since electrified and automated.  All of the lighthouses are still operational and unmanned,  but less relied upon with modern GPS navigation.   
 

The top of the Devil's Island Lighthouse

Island visitors greeting us as we passed by!

More of the Devil's Island Lighthouse

Everyone on our boat was excited to see the lighthouse.  

Scenic rock formations all along the coast

Devil's Island Lighthouse as we passed by

We rounded the tip of Devil's Island and headed past Bear Island to Raspberry Island.  This island is small compared to many but has one of the nicest lighthouses.  Tomorrow we will travel back to Raspberry Island to explore the lighthouse further.  Today, from a distance, we got a glimpse of what we will see tomorrow! 

The beautiful Raspberry Island Lighthouse

The stairway we will climb tomorrow to visit Raspberry Lighthouse

This shows the work they did to reinforce the shoreline near the lighthouse to prevent erosion from consuming the lighthouse 

We were back about four hours later which is about the same as we will be gone tomorrow.  It was a real nice cruise and glad the weather was good for it.  Tomorrow's cruise departs at 1415 hrs and we are looking forward to visiting Raspberry Island!