Legend Lives On From The Chippewa On Down Of The Big Lake They Call

[Past-my-Prime]

On a 26 foot Grampian, sailed one year to the marina for winter storage on October 31. It was blowing 40 knots straight at us and the seas were well above my head, standing in the cockpit. The wind died down in those troughs. I had triple reef and had furled the headsail to a beach towel size. It was worrying: even the coast guard came out to see that we were ok — I waved them off (of course). My father in law no longer sails with me! He had previously equated sailing with watching paint dry but stopped that analogy after that day. In order to climb the waves, the diesel engine was needed. . . It took about 9 hours to go 20 miles.

This was Lake Superior within the bay of Thunder Bay, about 20 years ago. My current max comfortable sailing wind is 25 knots now!

[PitchlerBrick]

Wow, what an experience. My grandmother's second husband was Captain of Pittsburg Steamship Company's Laker J.P. Morgan Jr. He was in no way chatty. When as a kid I asked him about the Edmund Fitzgerald, he was very saddened and also had some opinions. All those men are resting together now so I will leave it be.

[Bmwsquirl]

good morning
I grew up on Lake Erie fishing ,swimming and boating.it was that love of water that took me to commercial dive school.
I was taught early about undertows, snags and wind direction.
nothing prepared me for what life would throw at me till I joined the coast guard.joined wmec 619 in Portland while it was
in dry dock.
when we finished we went up the willamette to the Columbia .we anchored that evening off Astoria because of seas on the bar.
next morning pulled anchor and crossed the bar 29' seas breaking every 9 seconds.i was right out of boot camp.when the helmsman
got sea sick I was pressed into service.as I locked myself to the helm I asked the captain if I could speak to him.protocol.
he said"yes" to which I told him "now might be a good time to tell you my dad won't even give me the keys to his car."
after he laughed he said"you'll do fine."
the worst seas we saw lasted for 13-14 days were 60' in the pacific south of the Aleutian chain.we all thought we were going to die.
a couple of guys lost there marbles.i knew we were going to live when I was on watch and saw a group of walruses on their backs like
they were on the beach in Hawaii.we had a 26,diesel driven lifeboat locked to the davits and deck with heavy threaded turnbuckles.
one of the small boats was ripped right of the ship never to be seen again.
as for the e.f. the divers were part of the piledriver ,millwright union in Cleveland.two of the members of the union lost uncles on the e.f.
that's my story and I stand by it
squirrel

[Laitch]

nothing prepared me for what life would throw at me till I joined the coast guard.joined wmec 619 in Portland while it was
in dry dock.

WMEC 619 USCGC Confidence

[Bmwsquirl]

thanks l
brings back some memories.had a small sign looking at the helo deck so hh52a's could land it read "welcome aboard the coast guard cutter confidence, the smallest aircraft carrier in the pacific fleet".one of my jobs was to go over the aft port side in a net and wait for the chopper to land and jump out run and tie down the aft of the helicopter.
all this for the pay of 480.00 a month then they took out taxes and such.livin the high life.
be safe l
squirrel