Diane Ramthun

Last August, we were sailing in Northern Lake Superior in a Canadian wilderness marine sanctuary. We anchored at Battle Island with the intention of photographing the Milky Way over the lighthouse. Battle Island is known for its historic lighthouse built in 1877 atop a rocky cliff over the Lake. It”s also know for a shipwreck on August 10, 1899 when a 181 foot steamer ship ran aground below the lighthouse in a sudden fog.
The forecast called for a clear night sky and we set up our cameras waiting for darkness to fall. Finally we could see the Milky Way and all seemed perfect. Suddenly, I saw water drops in my headlamp beam. Howard yelled, “There’s a fog bank moving in from the West!” I got this one photo of the Milky Way and the fog before the bank descended on us. It was so dense that we could not see our hands in front of our face. We packed up but still had to do a 1/2 mile walk on a path through dense overhanging forest and a dinghy ride to the sailboat. I used a compass to find our directions and a timer as I had timed our walk earlier in the evening. We got back fine to the dinghy in the cove but then found we couldn’t see the boat in the fog. Fortunately, we finally saw a tiny quivering mast light through the fog and Howard rowed us home! Diane

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