Sailing East Lake Mille Lacs

      Castaway's  is a popular Resort South of Malmo. It has modern aluminum docks with small slips in a small well protected harbor. The  entrance to the harbor is well marked with somewhat unorthodox channel/navigational markers: Yellow traffic hazard blinkers.

      The Harbor is also marked on land with a bright strobe light on a tall flag pole.
      The entrance to this harbor is fairly narrow with some very large submerged boulders on the starboard side (south) making the entrance even narrower.
Approach slowly with someone at the bow to alert you as to where these boulders are or you will certainly end up a castaway at Castaways.
      If your boat is longer than 25 feet, you will have a hard time maneuvering in this tight little harbor.

      The restaurant was one of the better ones we had dined at around Mille Lacs. It had a salad bar and a wine selection of zinfandel, burgundy and rose... All chilled??
      The atmosphere was welcoming and the food was good. They had a game room with darts, video games, and a pool table. Castaways appeared to be packed on a weekday night. They serve a good hearty breakfast 'till noon. We recommend it.

      Fisher's Resort in Malmo, MN; has a roomy, well protected harbor that could easily accommodate a 40 footer.  The entrance to the harbor is marked with the ever present yellow traffic hazard blinkers. No "Red Right Return" harbor buoys on Lake Mille Lacs. This harbor was the easiest to navigate so far, appeared well dredged and at least 8 feet deep. The wooden docks were wide and well maintained. They have a gas pump but no shore power or pump-out.
      Unlike Lake Superior and Lake Michigan harbors, there is little radio chatter between harbors and boats and on Mille Lacs and no way to announce our arrival

or request docking instructions. So we guessed at where to tie up, and picked a dock running along the inside of the harbor's seawall. We guessed correctly because we found out later that they need room in front of their short slips to turn their large 55 foot pontoon charter boats around. Nevertheless they would have allowed us to temporarily tie up in front of their launches facing the boat ramp if we needed to move allot of gear on shore.
      Fishers Resort has everything you would need for a short stay. You can sleep on your boat (slip is $9 a night) and use their public bathroom and shower house. They have a public laundry and a café on the premises that sells snacks and 3.2 beer. Or you can rent one of their cabins for a night. The Cabins ($75 per night) are a little more rustic than Barneveld's except that they have cable TV. They  are very clean, and even though they are equipped with a small kitchen, dishes and cookware, each cabin has it's own fire pit, picnic table and a charcoal grill.
      Malmo is a small town 1/2 mile North of Fisher's Resort. Malmo has a small market, two gas stations and liquor store. There is a recreational vehicle path alongside Hwy 47 leading to Malmo from Fishers Resort that serves as a good walking path. Between Fisher's and Malmo is Castaway's.
      If you are on a strictly pleasure cruise and cooking is not pleasurable to you, the Café at Fishers Resort serves Breakfast from 6 am to 11 am, and burgers, sandwiches and fried chicken 'til 7 pm on weekdays. The resort is fairly empty during the week and has a small swimming beach on the outer side of the harbor's seawall. For sailing tips, ask for Larry, the caretaker, he used to sail around Washington Island in Lake Michigan and knows others who have sailed around Lake Mille Lacs.
      We had a good time at Fisher's and highly recommend it.

      We headed straight South from Fishers Resort into a dead calm. The lake was like a mirror and the temperature was well into the upper eighties, not wanting to miss our reservation at a resort in Isle, we decided to motor and we stopped at Hennepin Island for a sandwich lunch.

      Hennepin Island is a tiny o.33 acre, rock island West of Hawkbill Point. It is a protected national wildlife refuge and you cannot walk around on it. Not that you would want to, the Island is a rookery and the rocks are stained white with hundreds of years of bird droppings. Nevertheless, it is one of only four places in Minnesota where the Common Tern breeds and it is deep enough around the island to set anchor and do some bird watching. We mostly saw Ring-billed Gulls and juvenile Double-crested Cormorants, but patience rewarded us and we saw several Common Terns, both adult and juveniles. Some historians say that in 1680 Father Hennepin was kept captive on this island by the Dakotas in hopes he would die of exposure and hunger. Supposedly he was saved by Du Luth. However this entire tale has been in doubt for centuries.

North Lake Mille Lacs

Sailing Around