WHAT'S NEW ON THE WATERFRONT

Shown on the former Hansen / Standard Oil pier are Ferry Line
Vice President Rich Ellefson, Coastal Engineer David Wentland
and Ferry Line President Hoyt Purinton.

Washington Island -

Changes may appear to happen slowly on Washington Island, but they do happen.

The major news in this entry is about a change of hands on the property that was Ray Hansen's, most often referred to as either the Hansen Oil or Standard Oil property.

The pier and the upland property that supported the oil storage and transfer business, so critical to the island these many years, had been cleared of tanks and associated pumps and piping quite a few years ago, when storage was moved to a new Hansen tank facility near East Side Road and Town Line Road.

Except for an old shed containing a few related fuel transfer items, and seasonal boat moorings, the property has been mostly vacant since that time.

As adjacent landowner, and a business dependent upon water frontage and mooring for its vessels, the Ferry Line had expressed interest in purchase of the property, a transaction that was accomplished in the early days of the fall season.

While no long term plans have yet been made, initial efforts will stabilize and repair the pier.   Coastal Engineer David Wentland, of Docks & Marinas, Inc., Green Bay, will offer a plan on how best to repair the pier, work that could be done yet this winter from shore.  Attention will then be turned toward the treatment of upland property, how to best to mesh with adjacent properties, and whether safe public access opportunities, such as pier fishing, can be included and managed.

Historical note:   Hoyt Purinton, great grandson of J. W. Cornell, received the Title papers on the property intended to be purchased September 12, 2014.  This was exactly 104 years - to the day - from the date when John W. Cornell purchased the same land from Bo Anderson and Ole Christiansen.  Cornell, we presume, later sold to Standard Oil, and more recently the title was transferred to Ray Hansen who assumed ownership of the property along with the Standard Oil distributorship he already managed.

Season about to close

This week marks what for all purposes is the last of the "busy" fall tourism weeks, although we anticipate lively traffic yet through the end of the month, especially while fall colors are vibrant.

Our schedule for the ferries to and from Northport cuts back Oct. 20 - from eleven to six trips.  Many island retail shops will soon operate with curtailed hours or days of the week.   The Cherry Train - an air conditioned ride that can be miserably cold on certain fall days - is nearing the end of its 2014 track, soon ready to head for the roundhouse.  And at Jackson Harbor, the Karfi's schedule to Rock Island ends Monday.  Columbus Day is the last day of service.

I took my last turn at the Karfi's wheel Tuesday with Tony Woodruff as my crew.  The time seems to fly each one of those days I've been aboard.   I've enjoyed the full schedule of Rock Island trips - when campers and piles of gear await us on the docks at either end for a quick turn-around - as well as the softer fall schedule, when Tony and I pass the time between trips talking sailboat designs and past cruises with nostalgic regret for the short summer just passed.  (If we were tuned in to the ice boating season, our regret would soon be replaced!)

The fall weather and shorter days make the realism of camping or tramping on Rock Island less appealing to visitors.  It was just yesterday (Wednesday) that high velocity westerly winds and the small handful of Rock Island travelers, led to cancellation of the afternoon's two trips.   But overall, 2014 ferry traffic made it a good tourism season, and we look forward to seeing the next one roll around.

Apple cider at the Farm Museum and the Fall Harvest Festival Dinner at Trinity mark two major events on the island this weekend, paired with outstanding tree color everywhere.   Hardly any leaves have so far fallen, and the tree colors now may be placed in the 40% range, turning much later than many other island autumns.   There are still plenty of great fall days to enjoy.

 -  Dick Purinton

MESSING ABOUT IN BOATS

Rigging for a sail on a light air day -  
Michael Kuharski and his canoe trimaran.

Jackson Harbor, Washington Island -

While getting ourselves ready for our first trip on the Karfi a couple of weeks ago, we watched Michael Kuharski of Madison prepare for a sail from Jackson Harbor's launching ramp.

Michael's rig is a one-of-a-kind, which he says was an idea that came about over time, modified through experimentation, and he's never through with tinkering to improve its performance.  The center hull is a Mad River canoe, and he obtained the pods for the outriggers from a company out of Minnesota that made a proa-type sailing boat. From all appearances, these were made to match.

The first time I observed Michael getting his gear in order on the beach was last year.  With his portable drill in hand, I observed from a distance as he fastened the struts together - struts that held the pontoon pods in place.

Like many other onlookers, I'm sure, I expected very shortly to see a show once he nosed into the bay and experienced that first, strong gust of wind.  It was blowing fresh from the NW, and there were 2-3 foot waves with whitecaps.  Michael didn't disappoint me in terms of putting on a show - but it was a clinic, and not a show, as it turned out.  He tacked back and forth to Rock Island effortlessly, multiple times, having great fun in winds I thought would overpower him, a breeze somewhere between 15-20 mph.   He often stood up on the decks, or in his canoe, to balance his craft and to maneuver more easily.  At no time did he ever appear to be "out of control," or was his craft put in a precarious position.  When he got in a tight corner near shore and needed an extra boost to come through the wind to tack, he stroked a few times with his paddle to help bring it around.

His sail has a Sailfish insignia on it, and along with a small foresail, this is sail area aplenty.  He handles it well, as he does his craft, screaming along on reaches with little-to-no wetted surface to slow him down.  The day before I took these photos, he told me that he sailed in winds at least 25 mph, and he had fun doing it.

He spoke of his experimentation in reducing wake by the accidental adjustment of his outrigger pontoon, and centerboard position, partly the happy result of an accident in which one strut broke.  His repairs improved performance.  He's a confident sailor, enjoying what he's built, and I would add that he's also quite fit, scampering about on his craft with the agility of a youngster (I'd guess he's mid-60s).

It shows what fun one can have messing around in a small boat, and in this case, Michael's trimaran is one I would label a "high-performance" craft.  

Nutshell Pram

My Karfi partner and crew many days this summer was Tony Woodruff, a sailor who enjoys recreational sailing about as much as anyone I've known.  He often often rigs his catboat for a sail after work hours, or on his days off.

Last week, as crew member Carl and I prepared for our last trip to Rock Island, Tony (who had that day off) was preparing to launch his home made Nutshell Pram, a Joel White design.  He said that it took him a few years to put together, but the result is a stunning little craft.  Neat as a pin is an apt description of this boat, which Tony proceeded to row out to his mooring and tie off to the stern cleat of his catboat, where he put up sail.

I spent quite a bit of time at an earlier age, when I existed in much smaller dimensions, learning to sail in an Optimist Pram, 7-footers owned by the Sturgeon Bay Yacht Club for the purpose of teaching sailing.   These were rather poor boats to sail, with hard chines, flat bottoms (notorious for leaks along the seams), an inefficient gaff-sprit rigs, outboard rudders and  centerboards that could be quickly adjusted by hand.   Not especially good on the wind, they were still fun when in company of a dozen other boats, all headed for the same mark at about the same time.  Lots of pushing off one another, taking advantage of chances to steal one another's wind, these were tactics employed when we needed to get to the finish line first.

Tony, about to get underway in his Nutshell.

I alternated between that sailing activity and a 19-foot family sailboat, and running around the bay in a 12-foot, wooden Shell Lake motorboat powered by a 7.5 hp Evinrude.

I couldn't have been happier on the water, and I often think I could still be happy playing around in such a small boats…its just that it's much harder to maneuver today in a boat that has a beam of not much more than three feet.

-  Dick Purinton

ISLAND STUDENTS SEEK NEW LAND, NEW LIFE

The entire Washington Island Schools student body, here
led by kindergarten children with teacher Margaret Foss,
filed aboard the Arni J. Richter for a voyage of immigration.

Washington Island, Wisconsin -

The prospects of opportunity and a new life, a Voyage in Experiential Learning, brought 59 students and 11 staff members onboard the ferry Arni J. Richter yesterday morning.  In their current unit, the Washington Island Navigators (WINS) sought a taste of practical understanding, to expand on classroom studies of what it might have been like to be an early Island settler, in this case, Icelanders who arrived on Washington Island.

Jeannie Hutchins and Mary Andersen
offered early Icelander perspective to
elementary students.

Helping to provide images from an early Icelander's point of view, the positives and the uncertainties about their new home, were portrayals of early Icelandic settlers and one particular family who came from Iceland by way of Winnipeg, Canada.  Jeannie Hutchins spoke about the Lindals, her forbears, who arrived in the early 1920s to work for Mr. Thordarson on Rock Island, then stayed, making Washington Island their home.  Mary Andersen took the part of Gertie Andersen, her husband's, Martin's, grandmother and the first child born to Icelanders on Washington Island. Her children became an integral part of the Washington Island community (and as an aside, she christened the new ferry Eyrarbakki in 1970, the centennial that marked the arrival of the first Icelandic immigrants here).

Howard Scott as Goodmander Gudmundson, and Tony Woodruff, a heavily accented Jon Gislason, related challenges encountered in being the first of their countrymen to join Washington Island's melting pot.

With temperatures in the low-20s and new ice already several inches thick where Friday there had been none, the ferry arrived off Plum Island's southern point around 11 a.m., the voyage half-way point.  Course was then adjusted for Washington Island's Detroit Harbor.  Island students, upper grades and elementary, were cheek-to-jowel in separate, overheated cabins, not unlike immigrants packed into steerage.  They respectfully absorbed the lessons passed along from early Icelanders, names that still resonate in many families today such as Gunnlaugsson, Bjarnarson, Magnusson, and Gudmundsen.

Island students proved to be an ideal audience, offering
their full attention in the confines of one of the AJR cabins.

After what may have seemed like an eternity, a voyage of endurance, the ferry at last touched land and the young immigrants came ashore, fleeing to the warmth of their yellow school bus - but not until a group photo commemorated their ordeal.

The low rumble of diesels and constant parting of ice notwithstanding,
upper-level students gave their full attention to Gudmunder
Gudmundson and Jon Gislason, portrayed by Howard Scott
and Tony Woodruff (gesturing).

Around this same time, it might be noted, a St. Patrick's Day parade comprised of adults honoring national Irish heritage marched up Main Road, cheered on by more adult bystanders.  They "made land" at Karly's, where corned beef and cabbage and adult libations awaited, a learning reinforcement with a slightly different flavor.  It can be said that among the Island's earliest European pioneers were the Irish, who along with German immigrants led that parade, followed by Scandinavians.  The first Icelanders arrived in 1870, at a time when others had already staked their claim to land.  A collection of dwellings on the western slope of Washington Harbor was dubbed the "Irish Village."

Island students (59 of them!), school staff, Island Players
and ferry  crew reach destination in time for lunch.

Our thanks to School Administrator Mr. Raymond and the Staff Members of Washington Island School for voyage arrangements that ignored stow-away photographers.

 - Dick Purinton