The wind howled across Lake Superior all weekend, but that only made Captain Siri Anderson more eager to get on the water. As founder of Sail the North Shore, she spent the blustery Sunday in Grand Marais’ harbor doing what she loves most, teaching newcomers the thrill of sailing.
“I love sailing in big wind,” Anderson said when I caught up with her the next day. “We don’t have it often, and when we do, sometimes it’s too much. Yesterday it was perfect for harbor sailing.”
The crew with her that day had never stepped onto a sailboat before. They came simply curious to try it, but by the end of the ride, their curiosity had turned into genuine enthusiasm.
“It’s often true that I take people out that have never done it before and then they want to buy a boat,” said Anderson.
Sailing is often considered a hobby reserved for the wealthy, but Anderson’s goal has always been to make it accessible to everyone. Her own first sailboat came from a Lutheran Church auction, purchased for $300 along with the trailer.
Anderson recalled, “The only thing missing was the tiller, and I used a broomstick.”
She brought the boat home to Minneapolis and spent time learning from experienced instructors on lakes across central Minnesota. Anderson also had a childhood friend from elementary school whose family owned a boat in Bayfield.
“I understood sailing from the Lake Superior perspective,” she said. “I’ve always been a winter wool sweater sailor. I don’t think of it just as a hot activity. I think of it as something you do dressed in layers.”
These days, Anderson invites people to come aboard and learn to sail in Grand Marais on her So- Gnar, a 23-foot day-racing sailboat that seats seven. It is the American Sailing Association’s top choice for learning how to sail, and she was able to get a great deal on it.
Her connection to the So-Gnar began years earlier during a visit to Grand Marais, where she reached out to Scott Smith, who was selling the boat, to see if she could rent it for the day. Smith had purchased the boat from the Angry Trout, which was formerly a sailing charter company.
Smith, now a retired attorney, didn’t have insurance to allow a rental but offered to let Anderson take the boat out. He even recruited a friend, David Suchy, who shared an interest in purchasing the boat to join her. Anderson soon realized that Smith wasn’t eager to sell, he simply had back issues that kept him from sailing as often as he wanted.
Though she had just met Suchy, who was a couple decades her junior and fresh out of college, Anderson took a chance and asked if Smith would sell the boat to them both at a significantly reduced cost, on the condition that he could continue sailing it as much as he wanted while it remained in the harbor.
“He said yes, so I got a very good deal on the boat and a new friend. David and I owned the boat together for more than a decade, and it was a great partnership,” Anderson reported.
Years later, a friend of Suchy from college called and offered him a job as a charter sailing captain.
“He said, ‘Oh, you don’t want me. Hire Siri. She likes people,” said Anderson, who had never thought of becoming a sailing captain before. “I accepted that offer and got my license, and the rest is history. Only 7% of all licensed captains through the U.S. Coast Guard system are women, and I’m one of them.”
Suchy sold his portion of the boat to support Anderson, so she was able to commercially insure it, and she sailed out of a charter company in Bayfield for three years, then moved to Grand Marais permanently after falling in love with Bruce Block, a romance Anderson said was “facilitated by sailing.”
Anderson recently purchased a power boat for days when the wind isn’t strong enough to sail and looks forward to taking people on harbor tours or excursions up and down the shore.
“I can take people tubing or water skiing, if people want it,” she said. Next season, Anderson hopes to expand her offerings to include weeklong adventures to Isle Royale and day trips to Suzie Islands aboard the Escapade, a Canadian Sailcraft C36 that sleeps six and includes a full kitchen, bath, and hot water. Interested parties can book now by reaching out to Anderson.
For those who may be nervous about sailing, Anderson admits it can be dangerous, but she emphasizes that anyone can learn to be safe on the water and encourages everyone to give it a try. If there is interest in group classes, she may begin offering them at a reduced rate. (Locals, reach out if that’s something you’d jump on!)
Beyond the skills, Anderson sees learning to sail as an opportunity to be fully present on the water. Sailing offers many benefits, one of which is grounding—er… whatever the equivalent of that is on water. Anderson believes that cell phones and digital technology can be a danger to kids these days, and being on a sailboat leaves no room for distractions.
“It’s not like a power boat. You have to be active. Your hands are on the lines. You’re doing things, you’re moving, you’re holding, you’re turning, you’re pulling, you’re lifting, you’re doing something,” she explained. “It gets everyone involved and present. One of the things I love about sailing is that it’s like meditation. It makes you be present in the moment. You don’t have a choice really, and that’s healthy. You’re in your body, and you’re feeling it.”
Anderson described sailing as science, technology, design, magic, and logic. Though she has sailed in Zanzibar and Australia, and despite the fact that the wind in Grand Marais isn’t always sail-worthy, she loves being part of the local community.
“I’m a North Shore person. We have a family place up here, and I’ve always loved it,” she said. “It’s like the East Coast but without the salt and without the crowds. I like the weather, the variability, the lack of pretension, and just the relaxed nature.”
For those who have lived in the area but never ventured into the harbor, Anderson would love to show them around.
“When you get out there, you just experience the lake and land in a different way,” she said. “You see it differently once you’ve been out on the water. I know from my own experience growing up coming here that it has been hard to do that, hard for regular folks to get onto the Big Lake. So, I love being able to bring that to people.”
Sail the North Shore runs through September 15 and is now accepting bookings for 2026. For more information, visit sailthenorthshore.my.canva.site.
