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This article, written by Kim Kevin and published by Cruising World magazine on August 31, 2022, is reproduced here without permission and for Wayback blog friends and family only. For the original article and corresponding invitation to subscribe, please see here. Wisdom for the Ages As time marches on, different styles of boating can be appealing – especially in charter and bucket list destinations. By Kim Kavin | August 31, 2022 Lifelong sailors sometimes switch to power and charter a trawler to explore remote destinations from the Pacific Northwest to Alaska. Courtesy NW Explorations Jan Reyers tried to take it in stride when his father started calling him “my deviant son.” After all, his father had sailed until he was almost 70 years old, and Reyers had spent countless years sailing a Columbia 22 on Lake Superior. This was a family that lived by the wind. The mere thought of buying a boat without sails made Reyers, well, a wayward child. The thing is, Reyers wasn...

Returning to the Light

Researching Isle Royale history over this past winter, often from the notes and files of my writer and publisher father-in-law, enhanced memories of my time in Washington Harbor last summer. Living and walking among the cabins, fish houses, and boat houses of Washington and Barnum Islands, boat trips to the Rock of Ages lighthouse, and visits to the site of the shipwreck America brought some of that history to life for me. It was so enjoyable, rewarding, refreshing (read: cool), and informative (thanks to descendants of the Sivertson fishing family), that I'm returning again as a volunteer this year. The Rock of Ages Lighthouse Preservation Society (ROALPS) was desperate enough to ask me to run the Rock Hopper workboat again to move supplies and work crews back and forth to the lighthouse for another season. Plans were to "Paint the Rock" this season. Over the winter, as part of their fundraising, I wrote a couple of articles to support publicity efforts. One, A...

A Heritage Revitalization

This is the fourth in a series of posts about the future of the Rock of Ages Lighthouse and the proposal to restore and preserve the other historical sites in Isle Royale’s Washington Harbor. If we accept the premise that the restored Rock of Ages Lighthouse, even when fully staffed with historical interpreters, cannot overcome the associated costs and risks of facilitating guests, given the current level of visitation to the Washington Harbor area, then it’s time to broaden the discussion. For the moment, we’ll set aside the issue of dock safety, assuming it can be addressed through targeted funding. We’ll also set aside the transportation question itself, assuming that some means will eventually be found to attract sufficient numbers of visitors interested in a historical tour that is engaging, accessible, and reliable enough to operate regardless of the weather. If that attraction is NOT the lighthouse alone, then the question becomes: what other historical or cultural a...

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