A week in the Apostles ~ Day 6 Madeline Island to Cornucopia

Today's journey was a beautiful 35 mile sail from Madeline Island to Cornucopia, also known as "Corny". We left our anchorage and headed west toward Sand Island. A huge sailboat was floating between us and Sand Island off of Lighthouse point. The crazy captain came within 50 to 75 feet of the rocks at the base of the island. We watched in awe as a dinghy was launched and six people left the sailboat and rowed to shore. The captain pulled away safely but stood with both hands on his iPad taking photos of his friends instead of steering the boat. It looked like, maybe, he'd done this before.

Captain Dave at the helm

Sailboat off of Sand Island Light

We rounded the South side of Sand Island, past Eagle Island and the wind shifted to the northwest. We were still doing 5-6 knots but the waves were building. We furled the jib and motor sailed toward the caves at Corny.

It was too rough to stop at Meyers Beach to anchor. There were many people kayaking the caves but we decided to make our way to the marina. The wind was howling as we approached Cornucopia Bay so we dropped the main before passing the breakwater. We tied up at the gas dock where a line of men were sitting in chairs in the shade, watching the day pass.

Cornucopia Caves

Mary Beth and Dave run the Siskiwit Bay Marina. It is a quaint little place with a lot of character. Our friends, Yolanda and Scott Moody, stopped here on their adventures. Yolanda asked me to look for a specific long sleeve shirt which she wanted but had not purchased on her visit. We paid for dockage and looked at the store's goods. There were two shirts remaining, a size medium blue and a size large pink. I wasn't sure what size to get so I called Yolanda on the store phone. It was so nice hearing her voice and we giggled and chatted for a moment. For Yolanda, it would be the medium blue.

Siskiwit Bay Marina, Cornucopia, WI

Our slip was across from the gas dock. Navigating would be difficult in the northwest wind. As we maneuvered into the tight space, we had to be mindful of the boat on our port side named Cigano. We managed to get Mystic in the slip with just a slight smudge to her starboard topsides. Dave, the owner of Cigano, helped us tie off. He'ss from Minnetonka and has kept his boat at Knife River for many years. He moved to Cornucopia because it was their usual destination. It made sense to make it their home. Minnetonka has a beautiful lake but Dave did not enjoy sailing there due to the abundance of power boating on the lake. Dave asked if he could give us a tip on docking Mystic. He suggested we put a cleat at the center of our jib sheet track. You attach a dock line here. The line handler takes the line to the dock and ties off here, at the center of the boat. The captain steers and keeps the engine in forward. With the line taught, the boat will move into the slip and tuck in to the dock. This eliminates the problem of keeping the bow or stern from drifting away during a windy dockage. It works like a charm.

Cornucopia Sights