Jennifer’s
Big Adventures
by Jennifer Bocking
We used to have a sailboat,
Cloud
Nine, in which I sailed the north shores of Lake Superior with my family
- my mom (Elaine), my dad (Patrick), my brother (Kevin) and my Labrador
retriever (Shadow).
From my home in Thunder Bay all the way to the Slate Islands near Terrace
Bay, we explored and discovered wonder after wonder on the Ontario shore.
What an incredible place.
We picked blueberries by the dozen at the Welcome Islands near Thunder
Bay and brought them back for a delicious blueberry pancake breakfast.
I walked to the top of the island, and I remember looking over the waters
of Thunder Bay coloured by a magnificent sunset in gold, pink, red and
orange.
Sailing around the foot of our famous Sleeping Giant (also called Thunder
Cape), the water often begins to get choppy and turns almost black-green
in colour. I can see why this lake might be a nightmare for some people
with the boat pitching and turning enough to make someone feel ill.
Shadow watches his people - author Jennifer and brother
Kevin Bocking - glide across the water. COURTESY JENNIFER
BOCKING
But not me. I sat on the bow of the boat, constantly splashed with the
spray from waves up to two metres in height. I was never scared; I had
little to fear. The boat had a 99.9 percent chance that it would not flip
over, and I had a life jacket and a life line securing me to the boat so
I would not be swept away if by chance I did fall overboard. I often did
this around Black Bay near Silver Islet, which amazingly enough is not
black but was named after a fisherman. The water in Black Bay is actually
a lighter colour than much of the lake. The waves are short and steep because
of the shallowness of the water.
Now came Porphyry Island with black iron-rich sand that causes the compass
to point in the wrong direction, making it particularly dangerous to pass
on a foggy day or at night.
It was either our first or second year sailing that we met two kayakers
camped at Agate Cove who were having difficulties with the immense waves
and harsh Lake Superior temperatures. A sailing vessel had offered to give
them a ride, but it was heading for Thompson Island, just behind Pie Island,
and would take more than three hours to reach the kayakers. We listened
to their VHF radio conversation and interrupted and offered to help as
we were literally just passing the entrance to Agate Cove.
We became close friends with Jack Polich and Debbie Leonard - the kayakers
who bravely paddled all the way from Silver Islet - and dropped them off
in Nipigon. On the way to Nipigon we passed close by a cliff with ancient
Indian petroglyphs. Jack taught me to count in Spanish. Uno, dos, tres,
cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho … something like that! We remain good
friends and exchange visits and e-mails. They live in Ironwood, Michigan,
and always send us Oreo cookies because, let’s face it, Americans are much
better at making Oreo cookies than Canadians. (It’s harder to untwist a
Canadian Oreo!)
I was around 10 when we went to the Slate Islands. We explored an abandoned
mine shaft and you could almost see the ghostly figures of ancient miners
as they went about their laborious work. On the shore were the hoof prints
of invisible caribou. For awhile we couldn’t leave due to extremely dense
fog, so thick that you couldn’t see the opposite shore 20 feet away. We
eventually ended up using our depth sounder and GPS to navigate out of
the Slate Islands and toward home.
One of my favourite islands is named Battle Island. A friendly light keeper
gave us a tour of the lighthouse and told us of a time when spray and wind
and waves broke in one of the top windows during a treacherous fall storm
rather like the one that sent the Edmund Fitzgerald to its watery
grave.
Leaving Nipigon Bay and entering Nipigon Strait, we encountered the leaders
of the Red Rock Regatta Sailing Race. When we were most of the way through
the strait an incredible squall struck. It hit us so fast that even though
our sails were well-furled before the wind really struck, our mainsail
was wrecked. The powerful wind lifted our Zodiac inflatable boat that we
were towing and spun it in the air like a propeller. The line broke and
it was about a month before another boater found the Zodiac. It rained
so hard during the storm that the top of the mast was invisible. The sky
was black like a nightmare.
Jennifer and her Shadow. COURTESY
JENNIFER BOCKING
We had plenty of smoother sailing, too. At one of my favourite coves, Loon
Harbour, we met up with some good family friends and stayed there for a
night. I love Loon Harbour because all around the shores of the island
there are millions of geodes (holes in rocks filled with crystals). The
shore sparkles like sugar on a chocolate cake.
Jennifer’s Advice
to Traveling Families:
“The kids have to love water, camping and spending time with their family.
It is important to bring books, games, music (dancing helps keep down motion
sickness) and good food. Snacks are especially important. Also, parents
must make sure that they stop a lot and explore new places along the shore.
It is fun going to visit lighthouses and sometimes we managed to get a
tour inside them courtesy of the caretakers.… I am especially grateful
to my parents for bringing me along. It was fun!”
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Continuing home, we visited Swede Island. My family and I were still a
little shaken after the storm and it was wonderful to have an old-fashioned
party with many fish given to us by a generous local fisherman. The fish
were prepared with a delicious sauce and cooked over a large fire. After
this scrumptious meal, soon followed by a sailor’s dessert (instant pudding!),
we warmed up in the sauna. When we were nearly dying from the heat, we
ran out and jumped into the arctic-like water of Lake Superior. It was
enough to make a penguin freeze!
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Whenever we got close to home, it was always comforting to see the Sleeping
Giant with the sun beating down upon it. Our last stop before entering
Thunder Bay was usually Tee Harbour. The small peninsula shaped like a
letter T lets you anchor in either cove. In the east cove, the shore is
a terrific sand beach. The opposite shore is a rock beach where anyone
can watch the sunset turn the water into orange sorbet.
We’ve sold our sailboat to get a bigger sailboat and perhaps to sail to
Europe and sail more on Lake Superior. In the meantime, we are getting
an 18-foot powerboat to explore the lake in a different way. It will be
good to be on the lake again; there are things that I miss from our sailing
trips. Like the way the northern lights lit up the sky as if God were painting
a glowing night rainbow to give light to the ancient sailors from the long
lost stories of Lake Superior.
Jennifer Bocking, 14, is a ninth-grader at Hammarskjold High
School in the French Immersion program in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
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