Here We Come, Lake Superior!

Dick and I preparing Salty Paws for our Lake Superior adventure.

Salty Paws in Newfoundland

I am fortunate that Molly allows me to continue having one or two cruising adventures each year with other willing adventurers.  I am not sure where I got this urge, but I do recall that the quote given me in my High School Yearbook was "When I rest, I rust."

I found a great boat mate in Dick Klain.  We last cruised together in 2023 when Molly departed Salty Paws in Quebec City, and Dick came aboard.   We then spent two months cruising from Quebec City to Maine, including a side trip to the Bras d'Or Lakes, Cape Breton and southwestern Newfoundland.

The OSV Bold

Our brief time in Newfoundland was a trip of a lifetime, but I was also ready for more.  Near the end of the trip, I suggested that we trailer Salty Paws to Alaska and cruise waters surrounded by glaciers and mountains. “Not interested,” Dick said. “I spent some years up there crewing on the OSV (Ocean Survey Vessel) Bold, and I don't need to go back."

Dick then offered, "I would do Lake Superior!"

Molly at Pictured Rock in 2005

I had never given much thought to Lake Superior. My only direct experience was in 2005, when our family returned from a five-week trip out West through Michigan's Upper Peninsula and stopped at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

A younger Dick on the OSV Bold

Now I am 76 years old and halfway through my 77th year on earth. Dick is 2 1/2 years older.  Yet, we will trailer Salty Paws from Maine to Spanish, Ontario, launch her and spend close to two months circumnavigating Lake Superior.  I am pleased that we will be joined by Ron Sanga on Betty Sue.  I need to ask Ron how old he is, but he may be the youngster of the group.

This raises a perfectly reasonable question - Why?

The Great Lakes with Lake Superior the northernmost.

Well, I started researching Lake Superior, and many might have quickly ended the thought right there.  Having cruised on three of the Great Lakes, I already know about the old adage that goes something like "The Great Lakes will help prepare you for cruising the world's oceans, but the oceans will not help prepare you for the Great Lakes." 

 Each lake is its own giant bathtub, where waves frequently come from multiple directions.  Waves can also be more challenging than those in the ocean because the waves waves tend to be sharper in shape and closer together.

 

Image of the Edmund Fitzgerald, split in two on the lake bottom.
While cruising, Dick and I will listen to the best seller -
 The Gales of November - The Untold Story of the
Edmund Fitzgerald by John Bacon.

 Estimates vary widely, but the number of shipwrecks lining the bottom of the Great Lakes is likely much greater than 10,000.  It's also the grave of over 30,000 sailors.  Thanks to Gordon Lightfoot, the 1975 sinking of the Edmund Firtzgerald on Lake Superior is the most well-known.

Lake Superior is the most challenging of all, and it is the largest freshwater lake in the entire world.  The lake is deep, cold, susceptible to fog and erratic weather. 

The lake has a reputation, and anyone operating a small boat on it would be foolish not to respect it. The Edmund Fitzgerald was 729 feet long. Salty Paws might be 29 feet from the tip of its motor to the anchor on the bow.  I am not sure that comparison is particularly reassuring, although the Fitzgerald may have buckled when its bow and stern were lifted by separate waves, leaving the middle of the ship unsupported. We don't need to worry about that on Salty Paws. 

My interest was growing!  I purchased a copy of Bonnie Dahl's Superior Way.  This may be the best cruising guide I have ever used, and one interesting place led to another and another.  There were Ojibwe pictographs painted on cliffs above the lake, mysterious Pukaskwa pits on its rocky beaches, and evidence that Indigenous people mined native copper thousands of years before Europeans arrived. There are abandoned lumber settlements, old mines, remote lighthouses, shipwrecks and enormous stretches of wild shoreline with cliffs and waterfalls best seen from the water.

Soon I had plotted a route of nearly 1,700 miles, with more anchorages and places to explore than Dick and I could possibly visit in two months.  

Lake Superior - Stars are marinas, Eyeglasses are can't miss sights, and Anchors are possible anchorages.

Those who know me probably will not be surprised by what happened next. I co-moderate two online groups for Rosborough owners and like bringing Rosborough boat owners together. 

This is one of my favorite pictures - the 2022 Rosborough Maine Cruising Rendezvous.

The Apostle Islands look very
interesting!

Once I knew Dick and I would be cruising through the Apostle Islands, I connected with Erik Scott, a Rosborough owner in Bayfield, Wisconsin. One thing led to another, and we organizedoo the Rosborough Apostle Islands Rendezvous, August 24–28. 11 Rosboroughs are signed up, and Molly and Dick's wife, Ellen, will fly to Bayfield and join us for four days.

Thank you, Dick, for suggesting Lake Superior.

 

Cruising Through Time in Southern France and The Sad Story of the Cathars

The Famous Medieval City of Carcassonne, a UNESCO Heritage Site

Five of the last six winters, Molly and I have spent much of the winter in Florida or the Bahamas on our boat, Salty Paws.  After last year’s cruise to Dry Tortugas, Molly mentioned that it was now time for something different.  I agreed and suggested that she decide what and where.

I couldn't believe it when she said "let's rent a canal boat in Europe!" Many of our friends have done river boat cruises, but having our own boat seemed much more exciting to this boater.  Together we explored various options with Le Boat, a company that offers canal boat rentals in many different countries.  We soon agreed  on a 10-day cruise in April on the Canal du Midi in southern France. We were thrilled when Rosborough friends Otto and Anna agreed to join us.  

Bill, Molly, Anna and Otto and our Le Boat rental

We were confident in our compatibility from past cruises together although always on our own boats.  Our boating experience also gave us a leg up on many Le Boat customers as they advertise "NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED."  

That, however, did not keep us from having a few mishaps in the first couple of days on the boat.  First, there was me leaving the boat in forward when I thought it was in neutral, almost hitting a canal lock, and shortly thereafter I was at the helm going under the first of many low bridges and neglected to instruct the crew to lower the Bimini top.  On the latter incident, however, I do think there is some blame to go around as Otto and Molly were  next to me and filming the whole affair!  Watch the video below until the end.  Please pardon the "Oh, Shit!"

Bike Overboard!

Then Otto really got into the act when he accidently dropped a bicycle overboard and then compounded the issue by breaking our boat hook while trying to retrieve the bike.  Fortunately, a tall local mariner came by with his own boat hook.  He very quickly executed a successful retrieval operation.

Anna took the stern line and Molly the bow line.

Fortunately, we soon settled down with Otto and I alternating days as boat captain and first mate.  Molly and Anna were excellent crew, manning the dock lines at each lock and keeping the boat much more tidy than would have been the case with Otto and me alone.

Otto's favorite ice cream was
clearly mint chocolate chip. 

Lunch next to a wine vineyard

We developed a routine of purchasing French pastries and two baguettes at a local boulangerie each morning and having one big meal at a French restaurant, either lunch or dinner, and enjoying ice cream for the missing meal.  Invariably, the French food was superb.  Bedtime was also usually proceeded by a bottle of local wine and a great card game of Oh Hell! or Euchre.  Molly was the big winner, but everyone had their moments.

Biking in the town of Agde

Everyone’s presence contributed to good humor throughout, and the top prize goes to Anna.  We had read about a nearby nature camp (i.e.,NUDIST COLONY), and while biking Anna remarked that near our boat she had seen a sign warning travels of an Risque Destination only 500 or so meters away.  Well, that perked up Otto’s and my interest!  After some searching we found the sign the next morning.  With the help of Google Translate, we all had a great laugh!  

English translation - Flood Risk Next 5000 Meters

Typical village street

In southern France towns are still clustered around their centuries-old centers. Streets are narrow, and were laid out for people walking or a single horse pulling a cart. Buildings are stone, and roofs are terra cotta tiles  There are certainly some highways between larger towns, but cars are smaller than in the US or they wouldn’t be able to operate on many roads.

We walked on a section of a 2,100-year-old Roman road and wandered among castles, châteaux and village centers that were already old long before the United States existed.  History was always around us..

Our boat moored along the Canal du Midi in Agnes-Minervois

We did the entire lower section of the Canal up to Homps.

For 10 days we slowly cruised roughly 80 miles from Marseillan, off the Mediterranean, and through the Canal du Midi to Béziers (with a side trip by train to Narbonne) and then a number of smaller towns down stream of Carcassonne,  The entire 150-mile Canal was a masterpiece of 17th century engineering by Pierre-Paul Riquet.

King Louis XIV authorized the construction in 1666 to connect the Mediterranean to Toulouse,  At the time, many doubted it was even possible (referred to as Riquet’s Ditch), but the work began in 1667.  Riquet was the first to use black powder to blast rock, and he had 12,000 men with shovels for all the digging.  Riquet located the Canal in a way that minimized the number of locks, paralleled but avoided the rivers that flooded.   

One of the 140 bridges over the Canal
du Midi built by Riquet's workers.

The Mllpas Tunnel, roughly 500 feet
long, and the first of its kind in 1681.

The original 70 locks were
built in an oval shape. 

That is Molly on the bow as Otto steers the boat on the
aqueduct that crosses over the Orb River.

The famous Fronseranes staircase
of 7 lock chambers.

Riquet's biggest challenge was figuring out how to supply the Canal with enough water, especially at its highest point.  That is where Riquet’s brilliance really showed in creating a large reservoir in the mountains for storing water and feeding the canal so it could actually function.  the Canal opened to great fanfare in 1881, and greatly improved the flow of commerce.

Many former commercial boats have been
converted to either tour boats or personal yachts.

Today, the commercial traffic is almost nonexistent, but the canal remains busy with pleasure boats and boat charters from four different companies including Le Boat, which has a presence in 9 different countries including Canada.

Pope Innocent III (Wikipedia)

There is another chapter of this region’s history, and one I knew nothing about.  The Cathars were a Christian religious community with a faith that emphasized a spiritual life apart from the wealth and authority of the established Holy Roman Catholic Church.  Their ideas took hold in this region of France, where local independence was strong and the authority of northern French nobles and the Church were weak.  

During 12th century the Cathars grew in numbers and were labeled as heretics by the Church.  Finally, Pope Innocent III initiated the Cathar Crusade in 1209 and promised the lands of the southern France region to French noblemen who joined the cause.  Peasants who enlisted also received penance from the Church.

In Beziers on a 1,000-year old bridge with the Cathedral of
Saint Nazaire in the background.  The Crusaders killed over
20,000 residents, regardless of faith.  One leader allegedly
shouted "Kill them all; let God sort them out."

This was the only crusade ever initiated over already Catholic lands, although with limited Church control.  Over the next 20 years the crusaders succeeded in crushing the Cathars, who were largely pacifists. One clear act of genocide took place in Beziers where thousands were slaughtered including Catholics who didn’t turn on their fellow Cathar citizens. The Crusaders then attacked Carcassonne and Minerve and the cleansing ultimately covering the whole region to the Pyrenees, where some Cathars had sought refuge.  We visited many of these sites.

The size of the Medieval City of Carcassonne is hard to grasp.  This is my picture of an image projected on a wall there.

The castle was almost leveled in the 19th centurydue to decay until a local historian and prominent architect Viollet-le-Duc
 started the restoration effort in 1853. His efforts are credited with saving the landmark.

The chateau within the castle walls.  Following the horrors in Beziers, the Crusaders attacked Carcassonne.  The City
surrendered within a week due to lack of water.  Everyone was forced to leave, but there was not a slaughter.

The bridge to Minerve was not built until the 19th century.  The
mountain-top fortress provided insufficient protection as the
Crusaders used trebuchets to pummel the city from a nearby ridge.
Upon surrender, the Crusaders demanded either conversion or death.
In the end over 140 Cathars were burned to death.

A trebuchet was able
to fire on Minerve.

We visited the castle at Puilaurens in the
Pyrenees, one of the last Cathar refuges.

We had an invigorating hike up to the castle.

All along the Canal du Midi we could look southwest and see the snow-covered Pyrenees.  We had to visit them!

We rented a car over the last four days of our trip visiting numerous French towns and castles all the way to the Spanish border in the Pyrenees.  After spending the night in Bourg-Madame, a French border town, we meandered back to Toulouse with two stops - we soaked our feet in the hot springs of Aux de Termes, and we hiked into the Niaux Cave to witness wall painting carbon dated around 16,000 years ago!

We walked across the open border to Spain for a quick visit and some ice cream.

View from the Spanish town of Puigcerda, where we walked for ice cream.

Soaking our feet in the hot springs in Ax les Termes, France.

Before finding the hot springs
 in the town square, we explored
this park. The water was way too hot!

Niaux Cave paintings that were carbon dated to 16,000 years ago.  No pictures are allowed in the cave, and I took this image from a book that we purchased.

The entrance to Cave Niaux in the Pyrenees.

The pictures below are from our visit to Villefranche-de-Conflent, considered one of the most beautiful towns in France, under the hilltop Fort Liberia.  The Fort was built in 1681 in order to help defend the town from cannon warfare, a new threat at the time.  It is now a UNESCO heritage site.  One unique feature is an underground 734-step staircase that links it directly to the town below.  We were too tuckered out by the time we got there to do this hike.  

The main street in Villefranche-de-Conflent.

Fort Liberia, above Villefranche-de-
Conflent

Lunch in the village

Here we are in Carcassonne with Juliette, the owner of the wonderful Villa-de-Carcassonne, where we stayed for two nights.

SOME DIFFERERENCES BETWEEN USA & EUROPE - Recyling containers in multiple locations; plastic bottle tops remain attached to the bottle; every trash bag has a plastic string attached at its bottom to be used for a tie; a good bottle of red wine goes for $7 and the food is spectacular.

Olive grove, vineyard and the Montagne Noire Mountains in the background.
Au Revoir, France!  We hope to return.