SPRING IN BAYFIELD REALLY ARIVES WITH THE FIRST FERRY

FERRY ARRIVES AT BAYFIELD DOCK FROM LAPOINTE ON MADELINE ISLAND

Thursday,  9:00 AM.  36 degrees, wind NE, calm with moderate gusts.  The sky has a low overcast and it rained .16" last night but has stopped at present.  the humidity has risen to 92%, and the barometer has dropped to 30.01".
   We were having a mid-morning cup of coffee yesterday when I caught movement out on the channel, a big black object proceeding slowly across the ice.  Or, more accurately, through the ice.  The ferry was running!  In Bayfield spring doesn't arrive with the first robin or the first daffodil, but with the first ferry.  I tried to get a photo but it was out of sight before I could do so.  I got into the truck and got to the ferry dock just as the ship was coming in.
   I found out later from neighbor Sherman that the ferry broke ice from Bayfield to LaPointe on Tuesday.  It took one hour and thirty-two minutes.  Usually a Coast Guard ice breaker will make the first run, but they have had all they can do to open the major shipping lane from Duluth to the locks at Sioux St. Marie on the east end of the Big Lake.  There is still a tremendous amount of ice out in the channel and it will be a tough run every morning to keep the path open as the ice breaks into flows and is pushed around by wind and current.  But now it is officially spring in Bayfield.