Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Happy Birthday Jenny and Josie

Reunion with other boats on the 400 ft. dock

We were up early about 6:30 and prepared to leave for Fayette State Park, departing about 7:00. Still south winds and a bit of left over swell from yesterday. Generally a nice cruising day for the 22 mile trip. We arrived about 11:30 curving around the corner into the bay with a 400 ft. pier. We were able to bring the boat onto the dock between two 40 ft. sailboats. People from the other boats were on the dock to welcome us and help us land. Boaters are like that, they will do the right thing regardless of the inconvenience to themselves. As we got situated we moved our boat tight to the sailboat ahead and moved the sailboat to the aft tight to our boat to provide additional room on the dock for other boats. And as the day progressed we needed every inch. Currently on our 400 ft. dock we have a 48 ft. trawler, a 40 ft. sailboat, a 30 ft. sailboat, another 40 ft. sail boat, Reunion, a 40 ft. sailboat and a 40 ft. Sea Ray Express cruiser, pretty full.

The two charcoal iron ore furnaces

Fayette State Park is a fascinating place, originally built in 1867 to produce pig iron using iron ore, limestone and charcoal. A company town of 500 people at the peak. Trees were cut locally and heated to produce charcoal, then a mixture of ore, limestone and charcoal was loaded into a furnace the charcoal burned producing pig iron and slag. Two large stacks were used to produce the iron and 80 charcoal producing ovens were scattered along the peninsula. Nine of the original buildings have been preserved, one replica log cabin built and much original information has been gathered to document the factory town. The White House was the largest house on the property and was occupied by the Superintendent and his family.  The company closed the factory in 1891 just 24 years after it began. So we toured the grounds and read all the signs. Carol had an ice cream at the gift shop, a really interesting place.

Superintendents House

Three of the boats in the harbor are flying AGLCA (Looper Burgees). We spoke with Mike and his plans include going to the North Bay and through the Trent Severn waterway over the next month or so, then to Montreal and Lake Champlain. He is concerned about getting frozen out, his destination this year is Ft. Lauderdale.

We have no cell phone coverage here and so this post may not happen until tomorrow or even Thursday.

Fayette Harbor tucked in around the point