Apostle Islands Cruises — Local services in Bayfield

Advice for PHOTO enthusiasts. This is about the Grand Tour, the 3-hr boat trip that goes around many but not all islands. The cruise has plenty of open spaces, with time to enjoy sun and fresh air, but once the boat gets closer to islands and points of interests, pay attention as there might be few photo opportunities. The highlight of this cruise are the sea caves, and they are located on the Devil’s Island, which is the farthest point this cruise will take you.

Devil’s Island is the bean-shaped island, slightly off the north-south direction. However, the sea caves stretch for hundreds of yards almost continuously, but all are located in the northeastern part of the island. That makes it very difficult for photographing, especially for the late afternoon tour, as most of picture taking will be directly against the sun. (I am assuming that the morning tour arrives at sea caves before noon, which would also keep the sea caves good part in the shadow. Not sure, but the days with light cloud cover might be better, at least the contrast will be reduced.

Many people on board will take pix with the cell phone, but each tour has at least several people with larger cameras. All points of interests will be some distance away, say 50 to 100 yards from the boat; therefore, longer lenses are desired. Think about a bald eagle waiting on a branch above water, with the boat slowly passing some 40-50 yards away. In terms or FF DSLR or mirrorless, consider 50mm for “general” view, and longer lenses, such as 70-210 mm zoom for “details”. (For “crop” sensors, that is equivalent to 35mm and 50-140mm zoom). In few instances the captain got just yards away from the face of the rock, and in those cases, anything goes… including wider angles. Important - do not leave the lens shade in your car or hotel room. This tour is where that can make a difference, will increase contrast and help to reduce lens flare!

To catch the best seat for taking pictures come early and wait in line (start of the line is at the marked yellow line). If you arrive one hour ahead, don’t be surprised to find 5 people already waiting, so come early and be prepared to wait for the best seats. At least during busy days.

Best seats? Although the boat will spend similar time going out and returning to the port, return goes faster, and in fact there are not many points of interests, and overall people did not take many photos in that period. Check the attached map to see how the tour goes around islands. The same map is shown in the APIS NPS brochure, but does not show the tour itinerary. Thus, if you pick the left side, based on the outboard trip and location of points of interests (including sea caves), you get more “exposure time” and direct view. The captain turned the boat around maybe three times, to provide similar photo opp to the right side of the boat. So, when deciding how early to wait in that line, consider that the upper deck has about 8 rows, and you want to be in one of them (at the end of the row). Obviously, the last row and the first row are likely to be taken first. The lower deck might be good place to take photos too, but windows have plenty of water streaks, so unless you happen to get a place near an open window (about 40% chance), that is a non-starter. All travelers must be seated, at least initially when the ship leaves the port, however, later during the cruise people can move, and the rear lower deck is another good place to take photos, allows more water and color reflection in the water. The rear lower deck is small and only 3-4 people can grab good positions.

While you might be sweating waiting in the line for boarding, if you plan to have a seat on the upper deck, it gets windy, and depending on the season, can get much colder. On a warm and sunny days later in the summer, the temperature difference (port vs. open lake) is maybe 10-15 degrees (F), but on some days that can temperatures on the upper deck can be 30 degrees lower, or more. Take long sleeves or a light jacket. Enjoy your tour and take...

It all started out well. We booked a water taxi and had a wonderful ride over to sand island. The captain was very nice. We were set to be picked up at 4 pm, and the captain arrived a touch early. We boarded the water taxi and were about to depart when a high pitched sound came on; it turns out the engine had overheated due to a belt entirely slipping off. This is when the lack of professionalism began.

Our captain begged the local NPS staff for use of a cell phone bc he had no signal (this didn’t make us feel very safe). He called to the main office, and I could tell by the discussion that they did not want to send a rescue boat and instead wanted him to “try to fix it”.

After waiting an hour plus with our captain fumbling around, the main cruise boat arrived but “didn’t want to dock”. They didn’t acknowledge the patrons (us) in any way, and instead threw a trash bag of tools onto the dock for our captain to keep trying to fix our boat.

More time passed and our evening was slipping away. I lost patience and waved down the big ferry boat. “Hello! We’ve been waiting an hour and a half here and want to salvage our evening in Bayfield. We need to go”.

Eventually it was determined that we were going to be towed home! We were told by our captain that we could pick which boat to travel home on (broken or main ferry). I then specifically asked the captain of the other rescue ferry if we could get on that one to salvage a fun ride home. “Yes indeed, just give me a minute”, Bryce said. The owner Dan then entered the scene, didn’t bother to look our way or say anything to his customers that paid $500 for a water taxi. I’m still “waiting a minute” and next thing I know, they put the ferry into gear and we are left on the broken water taxi to breathe in the fumes of the big ferry for a slow (due to the towing) ride back. We got back 2.5 hours late and NOT ONE EMPLOYEE FROM APOSTLE ISLANDS CRUISES ACKNOWLEDGED IN ANY WAY THE INCONVENIENCE.

We understand that mechanical issues come up. That didn’t bother us. What bothered us was that none of the employees seemed to care AT ALL about our experience. The owner Dan was too cowardly to speak to us, and sent his young female employees (very nice) to deal with us demanding a refund. Find a different company with the decency to speak to their customers when...

I took the evening grand tour on Sep 3. 2017. The boat was about 30 minutes late. There are no restrooms available to waiting guests, and there is no shade or protection from the weather while waiting. Since this this cruise was over the dinner hour, many of the passengers brought meals along for the trip. The cruise attracts an ethnically diverse group, so there were many interesting food smells for the trip. The boat for the Apostle Island Cruise seats 37 people on the upper deck. The total capacity is about 150, and the boat was mostly full on my trip. The first 37 people in line get to sit in the open air. The remaining 100 or so of us were told we were not allowed on the top deck and were directed back to our seats. The main cabin has some windows that open, but due to the warm day with the wind from the South, there was no air flow in main cabin. Imagine being locked in the trunk of a car. On an 80-degree day. With 100 people. All eating a variety of ethnic foods. For 3 and a half hours. There were 20 minutes of nice views of the shoreline on one island about half way through the trip, and I would share a photo if I were able to get close enough to a window to have gotten a picture. This boat trip was the lowest point on this vacation, and probably any vacation I've ever taken. My wife and I now use this a relative measure to prove that life is not that bad – yes, you have the flu and can't get out of bed… but at least we not on that boat anymore! Please avoid...