Is Cold, Blustery Lake Superior a Perfect Cruise Destination?

It’s an August morning in northern Wisconsin, the kind that residents of the small town of Bayfield dream about in the darkest months of winter. The sun glistens on Lake Superior, a gentle north breeze cools the 70-degree air, and the City Dock, lined by sailboats and yachts, is quiet save for a small circle of drummers from the nearby Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa stationed in front of the town’s Lakeside Pavilion. They beat their drums in tune to dancers dressed in intricately beaded formal regalia. Behind the drummers, a few hundred yards into the bay, sits the Viking Octantis, the largest cruise ship the town of 466 year-round residents has ever seen.

At 665 feet, with space for 378 guests and 256 crew, the state-of-the-art $230 million expedition ship hovers in place using the powerful thrusters of its dynamic positioning system, technology that eliminates the need for an anchor and, thus, damage to the lake bed or ocean floor. Built to cruise the Arctic, Antarctica and the Great Lakes, the ship has an ice-strengthened Polar Class 6 hull. At 77 feet wide, the slender Octantis has just six inches leeway on either side to squeeze through the narrowest of the 16 locks that allow ships to pass from the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence Seaway and Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron before finally entering Lake Superior, the largest and westernmost Great Lake. As the drums beat to honor the visitors, the passengers are ferried off the ship in flaming orange tenders.

This town of pastel Victorians on the tip of the Bayfield Peninsula is no stranger to tourists. Its annual Apple Festival in October attracts 50,000 people. The jumping-off point for the 21 islands comprising the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Bayfield is a haven for kayakers, sailors and environmentalists. Opinions in town about the cruise ship are divided.

“It is the beginning of the end of Bayfield,” said John Unger, an employee at Apostle Islands Marina, near the City Dock. “I’ve got a feeling that within five years we are going to have cruise ships sitting out there all of the time.”

The Octantis had seven scheduled stops in Bayfield this summer, the last of which is Sept. 20. There are only three scheduled stops for 2023, but Lake Superior cruising is gaining momentum. The Octantis will be joined on the lake by its new sister ship, the Polaris. Combined, the two will offer four Lake Superior itineraries, including one epic 71-day journey on the Polaris that…