The crew made it to Duluth as planned, not an insignificant accomplishment. Peter and Greg came from Thunder Bay by bus and were met by Dan Sydow (to whom we owe with his son, Luke, huge thanks) and Theyre and Carl arrived later by plane. By this time Greg and Peter had been shopping for groceries and hotel fridges were stocked with good stuff to eat. Since they had time to kill, Peter and Greg had already started exploring the delights of Duluth's restaurant and bars before Carl and Theyre arrived at the hotel by which time Peter had heard of THE bar to go to... so we set off in the cold for a 'short' walk that was abandoned after a couple of miles that was favoured with an Irish pub that we stumbled across. The luxury of a taxi returned us to the hotel.

The following day, Thursday, we were met at 8 o'clock by Dan and Luke with a car and a truck towing a trailer full of the equipment sent down earlier on FEDERAL DANUBE. By 10:30 we were at Roy's Point Marina and the fun of packing the boat began. Greg and Peter did a fantastic job stowing stuff below - and Theyre ran back and forth to the garbage dump getting rid of anything that was surplus to requirements. Dan and Luke managed, amazingly, to stuff the jack stands into the trailer and - very wisely - left us to our own devices. We were all alone!

Mike, the manager at Roy's Point, filled up the spare diesel tanks - and left us with the problem of where to stow these and the dinghy, the immersion suits, the storage boxes, etc. but not before he had warned us of the impending storm. His advice: stay where we are until it had passed... The next few hours were challenging but we managed to deflate and pack the dinghy and stow this with the immersion suits immediately behind the mast - at the cost of visibility but, what the heck. Jack-lines installed we were ready for a shakedown cruise. Somebody (whose name will not be published) from Roy's Point advised us that a good sail would be across to the ferry terminal on Madeline Island where there was a public dock and a decent pub, our sort of language.

So, off we set. The weather was quite benign although the winds were fresh. Sails went up and, Theyre at the helm, we sailed close-hauled at a good angle with the speed reaching over 6 knots - when chaos ensued. Neither Del nor Carl professed to be very good at bowline knots and, as each us did one, we will never know which one failed - but one most certainly did. Greg rushed to the rescue and, very wisely, retied both. Turning downwind, we goose-winged all the way to the Madeline Island ferry terminal, hanging around to tuck astern of an inbound vessel. Sails down, we motored into the terminal and saw the jetty outside The Beach Cafe. Now, we are not sure who to blame: had we really listened properly to the advice of he-whose-name-shall-not-be-published?; or was he unaware that our boat has a draft? Whoever's fault it was, we went aground. Hard astern pulled us off the sand but put the rudder against something that span the wheel. Fortunately more astern cleared us and we decided to cut our losses and head for Bayfield. 

By now the weather had changed. The temperature plummeted to just a few degrees C, the skies darkened: we were very, very cold. By the time we docked and staggered into the pub, warm food was nearly as important as cold beer. After an okay dinner at The Pickled Herring, we set off back to Roy's Point when the heavens opened. We docked in the pouring rain and howling winds.

So the net progress today? Absolutely zero! And tomorrow's weather is scheduled to be much worse. Maybe by Saturday the wind will be in the right direction and the wind will no longer be bringing Arctic temperatures from the North East. So, Plan B (or is it already plan C?) is to head off to Presque Isle Bay at the end of the Apostle Islands tomorrow, weather out whatever is in store, and then head off very early on Saturday morning (SW winds forecast) to reach Houghton in daylight on Sunday. However the best plans of man....