Day 37 Apostle Islands - Oak Island to Sand Island

Friday 25th June.

We made it through the night unscathed, just even wetter than before. The worst of the storm had hit approximately 60 miles south of us and had done some quite serious damage which is worrying as when we are camping normally each night we don’t have a clue what is coming. It was spitting as we packed up and got on the water. We crossed the open water back to the mainland where the waves were slightly more choppy but still relatively calm. We were told we were safe to Kayak in waves from calm to 2 feet and wind up to 10 knots so the weather radio said we were good to go. We followed the mainland West and with a North East wind we were helped along nicely.
We took a short stop at Little Sandy Beach Bay as we were about to cross back the open water to Sand Island as fog came over and we could no longer see the island. We were reassured by the ranger station that we would be ok and while grabbing lunch the fog cleared. So we paddled as fast as our arms could manage over to the island. We followed it round in an anti clockwise direction in order to explore the Sea Caves. As the water was still like a mirror we were able to venture into some of the larger caves as the Kayak was large and tough to manoeuvre. The caves were spectacular and magical to be inside and around, with the sound of a sea organ coming from each crevice.
As we had been kayaking for hours we were getting cold and so ploughed on to our campsite on the north of the island that despite the sky being grey was like our own little paradise. Again we found it marked by a single pole on a huge stretch of sandy beach which took some effort in itself especially after 15 miles kayaking. It was dry but chilly so we wrapped up in all our dry clothes and munched another sandwich and were actually in our tent by 4.30pm! We were advised by the ranger earlier that the waves tomorrow morning were going to be from 1 to 3 feet which is way out of our comfort and my ability zone so we were best to leave at sunrise to get back across the open stretch to the mainland before the wind picked up.