Sailing on the Great Lakes with the Country Girl
and the Sailor Guy May 2003 ......the rest of the
story....
Yep got the Soo earlier than planned..I think we gained an hour going down and back. I guess the fact that there wasn't a ripple on Lake Superior had something to do with that. Pretty amazing actually a lake that size and it was as flat as a sheet of glass.No one seemed to mind though.
is was interesting..shift change for the railroad bridge at the Soo. Oh my that guy took awhile to get all the way up in the elevator. I sure wouldn't want to be going up there in the winter! Well actually I don't think you'ld get me going up in that in the Spring, Summer or Fall either! No Thanks!
Hmm some ship coming into the Poe lock..she was a big one!
almost there.................
both in ..going up and going down!
This is the guy giving the hands signals to let everyone know how far the ship has to go before its in the lock and they can shut the gate, he says it and uses hand signals, then the mate calls up to Anders to tell him then Anders repeats it back ..Anders has two walkie talkies hes using plus slowing the ship down! Its pretty neat actually.
There were alot of the crew standing outside today since it was nice and sunny. Lots of them using cell phones to call family and friends others just enjoying the view and answering questions to the people in the viewing stand.
a day in the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers.
We were in the St. Clair River around lunch time. It was a beautiful sunny day again and yes we were early to bouys 11 and 12 ...If you aren't getting this ...let me explain. I don't mind the delays when I'm on the ship..heck we could anchor for a week and I wouldn't mind (sorry Algoma!) but the delays when I'm waiting for Anders to come home or when I'm trying to get out to see him..those I don't like..so its working the wrong way so far...man we are like flying here!
Some boats I saw in the river :o)
okay I think Cathy lives here SOMEWHERE , I didn't see her though but we looked!
Jim and Julies place again..no sign though cuz we surprised them! :o)
More boats in the river! :o)
Hey look its fawn island and theres Sherri and Ron!!! TOOOTTT! TOOT! TOOT! ( look their house is now a pile of dirt! yikes!!!!
Okay Angie where ARE YOU???? :o)
Oh yes indeed they got a salute!! Lots of kids on this tour today all wanting to hear the horn bolow!!! So it did!
The J. W. Westcott now THERE is an important boat! Brings my sailor guy and all the other guys on the ship their mail from home. When the Westcott got pulled up along side us one of the crew went running out with a letter to put in the pail he got there just in time!
well look at this the Captain is actually steering the ship! Anders thinks its funny that the first time I went out there to take a trip with him I expected that he would be steering. Actually all of them think thats funny. Gee seems like the Captain would steer...I can't get them to understand that one though..:o) Course I SUPPOSE there are times when that would be somewhat difficult.
Some more boats! it was a busy day in the river today!
Exclamation point Alley and an actual Exclamation point! Okay look at a Chart of the lakes and tell me that the little lighthouse marks don't look like exclamation points.....:o)
Sun setting as we leave the river....
Okay no I didn't need to put in all the pictures of the sun setting behind The Detroit River light but they were just too beautiful to toss. I could of stayed there and watched in til dark but oh my was a tired from being in the river all day. We got to bed around 11 that night and I had another great sleep on the lake. I swear I could sleep all day on the ship. The rocking is just soooooooooooooo relaxing.
We got up to a cloudy sky approaching Nanticoke, those Towers sure can be seen from everywhere! We got off the ship in hopes to get in a game of mini golf in Port Dover but they weren't opened yet so had to settle for running errands for the ship and had to stop at our favorite pizza joint "Capt Billys" wasn't long before the rain started coming down and we were both pretty tired so took the taxi back to the ship to get some rest before we headed out. When the unloading is going on you really have to be really really tired as the Captains room is right behind it and its pretty loud!
On the way in Anders is on the phone alot calling the list of people who are going to come down to the ship with supplies, laundry, etc. Theres usually quite a list too!
getting the latches off the hatches.
Anders doing his Captain guy thing backing the ship into the dock.
Saw alot of these birds..Blue Herons Theresa? :o)
We watched the Hockey game that night before we headed out , back out on Lake Erie headed towards Sandusky by about 8:30. Yep they got the ship unloaded ahead of schedule AGAIN. The American Republic was scheduled to be in Sandusky the same time as we were so I was kinda hoping they would beat us there..but no such luck when they heard we were going to be there too the scheduled her somewhere else....geez I just can't get a break! :o)
yep me in love with the water again.:o)
walking around the ship a bit..its nice off the stern, the sound of the engines and the water is very relaxing and the view is nice too!
Cedar Point....oh my were people ever screaming there!!!!
now this is really interesting!! Anders heads the ship in the bay in Sandusky, then he has to turn her around in this little teenie area at just the right spot. Yep theres a guy on the bow spotting and this picture sure looks like we are running into something but for sure we didn't . Pretty fun spinning around though!
This basically shows how they load the ship in Sandusky, its pretty interesting really , I really enjoy watching the process of seeing the coal cars going up, flipping over etc. fasinating really.
Hey look its Mrs. Captain! ha! ha!
So this is the last leg of my journey before I head for home. We got to Detroit River light and Anders went to work. Things were fine , it was a nice sunny day but once we got in the river Anders got a few radio messages from a ship in front of him that the fog was settling in. Well it sure did! We were already in the river so nothing Anders could do about it for now so up the river we went.
This is what I was setting out the windows, in fact at one point what you see in the background of this story is what I was seeing out the window and this ship went by right smack in the middle of it. Can't see it there though can you? Neither could we but we heard the fog horn! Thank God for all those fancy instruments in the wheelhouse for sure. Anders had his eyes on them pretty closely.
once inawhile it would clear up so you could see something. But the background was how I saw the Amherstburg Channel, Grassy Island and a few other things too!
funny how you look out the windows but why? Can't see anything!
Once we got to Lake St. Clair the fog started to lift so Anders went down stairs for a bit to relax, that had been a rough morning! I don't think we were down there for more than 1/2 hour though when the mate called down to say the fog was coming back in. So back up we went.
Luckly it did clear finally so we got to enjoy the sites along the river. Lots of boat traffic that afternoon. The horn on the ship was being blasted more than not too!
This little one came out to the end of there dock to ask the Captain to blow the horn so of course he did and went out to give them a big wave too. :o)
This picture shows kids in the river playing in the waves the ship makes.
Heres Captain Hoey with one of the tour boats Diamond Belle. They were having a great time and he took some great pictures for us!
Yep heres Sherri on Fawn Island again! Can you see her waving?! :o)
And then theres Captain Ray's Ferry!
Yep and then we got to Lambton Generating Station again. We got there in the afterrnoon and headed up to Sarnia to go have a snack at Paddys :o) Found out that there was still a ship in the Slip that Anders was hoping to put the ship in later. So he'ld have to go to the North Slip instead to get the repairs done they needed. I was going to drive up and stay until they were finished but things were running slowly ( yeah now they slow down...grrr) So it was decided that I would head down to Wallaceburg again and get a good nights sleep before I headed back home the next day. So around 10pm Anders walked me down to the car..and we said Good bye for now and I headed back . I knew at the time I would be coming back out in a week to pick him up and bring him home for a month but it was still hard to leave. It was a great trip and I"m looking forward to going back with him in the fall. Much more looking forward to tomorrow because as I'm finishing this little story as I'm heading out to bring him back home!! yahoooo!!!
