June 6th - D Day! - Departure day under the cover of darkness. Only just, though. After uploading the June 6 blog, there was nothing more to do in Bayfield, so Coast Guard was contacted for a recommendation about whether to start our epic voyage under the current iffy weather forecast. "I can't give you a recommendation". So, at 2347 hrs to be precise, off we went and "Prozac" majestically bid her final adieu to her friendly home at Roy's Point. Having backed away from the dock with Carl at the helm, we headed for the marina entrance. "Can't see where I'm going" said Carl. Greg was way up on the bow so deftly shouted something like "Follow the sound of my voice!". It worked and by the time June 7th rolled around, we were outside the breakwater without a scratch and were officially on our way.

The crescent moon had slipped below the horizon a couple of hours earlier, so the clear skies gave us an incredible canopy of stars brighter than can be imagined. An amazing sight for a city-dweller.

A minor technical glitch with the chart plotter didn't allow us to properly upload the entire route, although the charts and GPS location were perfect. Always prepared, Carl connected another GPS antenna to his laptop in the main cabin and Bob's your uncle, we have a navigation room AND a helm. Each waypoint on the laptop could be entered into the chart plotter at the helm when required and a duplicate navigation system was the result. Foolproof (good thing).

In darkness, except for those amazing stars, we successfully found our way through the Apostle Islands to the final waypoint before the open lake off the Gull Island lighthouse at about 0200. The course was set for the entrance to the Keweenaw Waterway and our first major leg across Lake Superior began with Mother Nature offering a spectacular Northern Lights display. Our two-man watch system kicked in right away with Carl and Theyre doing the 0200-0500 watch while Greg and Peter got some shut-eye. 

My goodness it got cold overnight, but fortunately the swells and wind were right on our stern giving us a good push and with the engine on "eco" and flying only the jib, we raced along generally around 6 or 6.5 knots. It was decided that flying the mainsail overnight was not prudent since going forward in the dark should lines getting tangled would not be fun. Seas were generally quite good - perhaps reaching 5 feet - which "Prozac" handled with aplomb.

By soon after 0300 there was already a glow to the Northeast and a long, drawn-out but beautiful dawn began, culminating in a magnificent sunrise just after shift-change. Greg and Peter took over for the 0500-0800 watch and - given the strong westerly wind - decided to maintain our excellent progress with the engine and just the jib. They elected to change to a course slightly south of that intended when swells started to get a bit ugly up to about 8 feet. "Prozac" seemed to agree and sailing on a parallel course a wee bit closer to the shore gave perfect 3 - 5 foot seas and similar conditions to the overnight run.

When the lake depth went over something like 600', the auto-pilot (yeah, we don't actually have to do anything!) started making funny noises since the whole system couldn't read a depth so we think assumed we were aground. Manual steering was instigated and off we careered, sometimes in generally the right direction. The rest of the lake transit was pretty uneventful - one very quickly-passing squall called for a bit of seamanship, but again this wonderful vessel just threw it aside with disdain. 

In the early afternoon, conditions changed a bit to try getting the mainsail into the fray and do some real sailing and the engine could be switched off. After a rather short time, sadly the winds diminished and, for the sake of expediency, our real sailing out on Lake Superior again had to be supplemented by the engine as the mainsail was again dowsed. 

At 1640, we reached the lighthouse marking the end of our first open lake leg and we entered the Keweenaw Waterway. The air temperature immediately went from about 3 degrees C to about 25 degrees C. Jeez, were we hot in our cold-weather layers and foul-weather gear! Major disrobing took place as we sedately motored through the canal to the huge lift bridge separating Houghton from Hancock. En route we actually saw another boat with humans aboard for the first time on this trip. It was an outboard towing a kid on an inner tube, but hey, we weren't alone after all!

Approaching the lift bridge we gave a sharp "long and two shorts" on the on the hand-held horn". The bridge responded in kind, bells rang, the road barriers came down, the residents of both Houghton and Hancock swore, and the twin towns stopped for a breather as we marched between the towns to our destination just be low the bridge at Houghton County Marina - you guessed it, in Hancock. We've done it. First leg safely completed in just 18 hours, dock to dock.

Refuelling and showers (poooweee!) took place before a beer or two and some damn good steaks ashore (you guessed it, in Houghton).

By 2300 we were all tucked up in our bunks and snoring in complete oblivion.