Day 7: Last day in the Apostles
(August 04, 2004)
For our last day in the Apostle Islands we planned to make a second trip to the Pretoria, but over night the forecast deteriorated. We awoke to brisk northeast winds and a forecast of 1 to 3 foot waves. We needed to finish the Pretoria's survey, and since the forecast was 1 to 3 foot waves we decided to give it try and keep our fingers crossed for the 1 footers.
We headed out from Red Cliff and passed to the south of Stockton Island. The waves were between 1 and 2 feet tall, giving us hope that we would be able to dive the Pretoria. As we emerged from the shelter of Stockton Island, however, steep 4 foot waves were rolling in from the northeast. Our 20-foot Dawn Treader was only able to make a few knotts headway without taking water over the bow, and we were still over 12 miles from the Pretoria. We turned and headed back for the shelter of Stockton Island. The Pretoria would have to wait for another day.
Raspberry Island Lighthouse
On the trip back to Red Cliff we stopped to explore the Raspberry Island lighthouse, where the National Park Service gives regular tours of the lighthouse and keeper's quarters, as well as the
Madeline Island Historical Museum, where Susan Tiesberg and Steve Cotherman gave us a wonderful tour of the many artifacts on display there, including the
Pretoria's anchors.
Tomorrow we head back to Madison after a busy week in the Apostle Islands. Check back to see the progress on the photo mosaics produced from our video surveys.
