Mad, Mad, Madeline
By Bill Bisanz | Apostle Islands She’s beautiful, mysterious, and elusive. And she would drive most mad if you had to live with her year-round. Madeline Island, the largest and only permanently inhabited of the Apostle islands is a 13-mile island set off the Bayfield peninsula on Lake Superior. My first visit was nearly 10-years ago when I chartered a sailboat just two weeks after receiving my basic certification. It took me two days of what felt-like death defying maneuvers before I was brave enough to take on all three miles of the protected waters of the channel between Bayfield and Madeline. Our sojourn was just one night. We docked at a transient slip in the Madeline Island Yacht Club, walked into town, had dinner at what seemed like only restaurant serving dinner (which is no longer there) and retired to the boat for a night of floating slumber. Even after such a small taste, I had a sense that Madeline could be, if given an appropriate amount of time and attention, a truelove. Little did I know how right I was. This summer I spent two weeks on the island. Oddly, most of that time was without cell-phone coverage. [...]