By Brian E. Clark

It's about a dozen miles as the crow flies from the village of Bayfield, Wisconsin, to Stockton Island in the southwest section of Lake Superior. But on a recent three-day sailing trip in this extraordinary corner of North America, my buddy Dave Cushman and I were taking the long route as we tacked back and forth on our 33-foot vessel, the Breeze, with Capt. Mike Simon of Superior Charters.

By the time we reached Presque Isle Bay — our anchorage for the night — we'd logged more than 25 miles, zigzagging past Basswood, Hermit and Madeline islands. In the process, Cushman and I had netted bushels of valuable sailing experience that will allow us to charter our own sailboat later on.

Adding to our adventure was the 50th anniversary of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Advocated by former Wisconsin Gov. Gaylord Nelson, a visionary conservationist who later served as a U.S. senator, 22 islands in the Apostles' archipelago were added to the National Park System in 1970. Nelson was also the man behind the establishment of Earth Day.

I'd sailed in the Apostles — often called a freshwater version of the Caribbean's British Virgin Islands — before, and I learned to raise and lower the sails during that trip, but I never quite understood how the boat sailed or even what some of the terms meant. So when the opportunity arose this early summer to take a class, I jumped on it. Better yet, Cushman — who grew up sailing in Lake Michigan — signed on to join me.

We drove north from Wisconsin that first night. After buying provisions, we bunked on the Breeze, our home for the next few days.

We met Simon the following morning, carefully motored the boat out of the Pike's Bay Marina and headed into the open waters of Lake Superior. We soon raised the mainsail and then the jib sail at the bow of the boat.

I learned that sailboats only "catch" the wind for propulsion when they are headed downwind. The rest of the time a sail essentially functions as an airplane wing standing on end. When the sails are trimmed or adjusted correctly, each sail's leading edge points into the wind, creating higher pressure on the windward side (the side facing the wind) and lower pressure on the leeward side (the side away from the wind), actually lifting the boat forward.

Cushman and I shared time at the helm of the Breeze, doing our best to make the boat sail smoothly. We also practiced anchoring and docking the boat safely, a key skill to learn if you want to return a chartered boat worth $150,000 back to its owners undamaged.

Late that afternoon we ate dinner in Bayfield at Gruenke's Restaurant. Because of pandemic restrictions, we ordered takeout and sat near the marina watching boats on the lake and children playing on a public lawn.

Simon arrived the next morning around 9. We began our voyage to Presque Isle Bay on 10,054-acre Stockton Island, the second-largest land mass in the archipelago after Madeline Island. We sailed into a northeast wind on a crooked, tacking course, arriving at our destination around 4 p.m. and again practicing our anchoring skills. Later Cushman and I rowed our dinghy to a sandy beach and hiked past lovely displays of blue-bearded lilies, lady slippers, lupines and ferns, as well as trees bent into magical shapes.

We continued on to Julian Bay, where the beach is known for its singing (squeaking) sands. Sandhill cranes and loons serenaded our walk. Black bears are also abundant on Stockton Island, but we didn't encounter any. The winds were whipping up whitecaps on the bay, so we didn't stay long before returning through the forest to our boat.

That night, Cushman made a delicious meal in the Breeze's galley of pasta covered with tomato-ground turkey sauce plus sourdough bread and a mixed salad. We topped that off with a local beer and watched the sun set over the islands. While we ate Simon told us of his sailing adventures, which included running trips from the Florida Keys to the Dry Tortugas and racing in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans as well as the Gulf of Mexico. He quickly fell in love with this archipelago during his first visit and now makes his home near Bayfield.

"I'd read magazine articles about this area being one of the top spots to sail in the country and they were right," he said. "The natural beauty of the forests, the rocky islands and the caves carved by the big waves of Lake Superior really appealed to me."

We slept in a bit the next morning and with the wind blowing again from the northeast, we navigated a relatively straight shot downwind to the marina, practicing our docking skills a time or two before we pulled the Breeze into our slip to give it a thorough cleaning — which is required when you charter a boat.

WHEN YOU GO

For information on other things to see and do in and around Bayfield, which bills itself as the "gateway to the Apostles": www.bayfield.com.

Superior Charters: www.superiorcharters.com

The Breeze lies at anchor in Presque Isle Bay off Stockton Island in the Apostle Islands of Wisconsin. Photo courtesy of Brian Clark.

The author poses at the helm of the Breeze, the boat on which he learned to sail in Lake Superior. Photo courtesy of Dave Cushman.

Pike's Bay Marina on Lake Superior is home of Superior Charter. Photo courtesy of Brian Clark.

Brian Clark is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

The Breeze lies at anchor in Presque Isle Bay off Stockton Island in the Apostle Islands of Wisconsin. Photo courtesy of Brian Clark.