Nordic Myst Adventures

Adventure Sailing

Sailing Adventures for the Renaissance Romantic

Adventures of the Nordic Myst

Inhibitions fall away, soft breezes lull us into a wistful day dream, and soon we are a pirate on the Barbary Coast or a Voyageur plying the bays of the Great Lakes. We have all had day dreams of fanciful adventures. Adventure Sailing gives us the venue to turn those day dreams into reality.

The Wiles of Lake Michigan

It was dusk as we reached the rest of the flotilla. They were anchored off a deserted beach on the north eastern tip of Little Manitou. The glow of their campfire served as our navigational beacon. We had gotten a late start out of the Glen Arbor harbor due to the traffic coming out of Chicago, but the southwesterly winds had been favorable and we traversed the open waters of Lake Michigan in just over two hours. The winds were forecast to change during the night. Knowing this, the flotilla had anchored on what would become the looward side of the island.

One never knows with the weather on the lake. What is forecasted as intermittent showers and gusts up to 15 miles per hour, can quickly change to a drenching thunderstorm with wind gusts up to 30 miles and hour and 5-6 foot waves. That is the charm, or perhaps one should say the challenge of sailing small adventure boats on Lake Michigan.

Well in this case, the reality was deluging rain and 30 mile an hour winds. However, as planned, we were on the leeward side of the island. The island took the brunt of the wind and we were just left with the drenching rains. It all started around 1 in the morning. The last glowing embers of our bon-fire were quickly subdued by the rain and we rocked gently at anchor, listening to an crescendo of rain drops dancing on the deck.

As the weather blew out across the Leeland peninsula, we we began our sail back to Glen Arbor and were blessed with the beauty of nature's palate.

A Deserted Sand Beach off Charleston Harbor

The Nordic Myst Charleston, SC adventure crew - testing our new outboard

It was a still December morning as we motored away from the city dock in Charleston, SC. The flag at the U.S. Coast Guard station barely fluttered in the breeze as the sun burned off some latent morning fog. A Bayhen and a Skimmer motored off our starboard side. Their masts, naked of sail, looked like metranoms rocking back and forth as the wake of an unbridled Grady White hit their broadsides.

We were headed to Fort Sumter and then on the the estuaries and back water beaches of the channel islands that buffer the Carolina coasts from the menacing winds of the Atlantic. As we reached the green can of the freighter channel the breeze switch from a southwesterly to a northeasterly and gained in strength. We cut our engine, unfurled our sails and beat up to Fort Sumter at about 6.5 knots. Rounding the Fort, with the wind to our stern, we sailed wing and wing into the estuaries of St. James Island and a hidden white sand beach to enjoy a picnic lunch.

Secured at the Ogden Slip in Chicago

after a leasurely sail back from Great Lakes Naval Center over Labor Day weekend. In the background sits the Innisfree, a turn of the century motor launch also designed by L. Francis Herschoff. Two nautical cousins moored in the same harbor.