039 - Heavy Industry Just Has a Look

Why can’t industry spend a few bucks to make it look pretty? It always looks like it’s in a state of disrepair or they’re squeezing every last nickel out of it. Why don’t they throw away the trash and rake the yard so it’s at least tidy? The Detroit River has many of these places, most look abandoned but some not, like the ones above. It makes for a very entertaining passage imagining what goes on in these places and the people who had the vision and ambition to build them. How did they sell the concept for such vast expenditures in capital? It’s really a marvel it ever worked but it would all the better if they looked a bit more tidy.

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051 - Med Style Anchoring – It’s so European

It’s complicated but it really lets you pack them in. Having done it now 3 times now, I hope I’m done with it. For us it’s complicated by the tender hanging off the stern and our stern anchor rode being 300 ft long in the bottom of a lazarette under a pile of other items. All the rode has to come out into the cockpit for attaching to a tree on the shore. It makes for a messy operation. Let’s see if I can explain. To anchor med style, you have to be able to backup well, which being a sailboat puts us at a distinct disadvantage (can you hear me saying powerboat would be better here too, but I won’t say it). You also ignore the winds as you will back into a parking spot between other boats anchoring the same way. You “simply” pick a spot, throw out the bow anchor in front of it, back into the slot and tie a rope to something substantial on the shore, and put out bumpers for your neighbors. That’s all you have to do. So we pick...

034 - USS Niagara

What a beautiful working replica of this historic ship. It is used today as a training ship and offers 10day expeditions for youth to learn the ways of sailing a Brigg. It is about as exact as you can expect. I loved their use manila rope, linseed oil, and other items that gives it the smell of an old ship – I don’t know what it is but it’s very familiar. Below decks were tight, it only had a 5ft ceiling in the galley area – how anyone could operate in that space long term was beyond me but the professional crew does. Galley stove and 5ft ceiling - how do they do it? Watching it sail was like stepping back it time. It passed us on the breakwater silently, tall, and majestic. It was easy to imagine the awe seeing this come into an isolated harbor like Presque Island 200 years ago. Something so big and complicated carrying so many men and cannon would change the balance of power with its arrival. It would intimidate the st...

047 - This Isn’t The Chesapeake Bay

We’re in a different place! The waters of Lake Huron are a Caribbean turquoise, so much so that had you told me I was there I would have believed you.

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