North Channel Blog Thursday July 21 2011
“Shipping Channel”
As we were motoring across Lake Michigan in the early hours of a very foggy morning, I was busy keeping my mind occupied with calm and intelligent thoughts such as: “Is our radar working?” “Where are those blasted fishing nets and buoys?” “Will the boat following us be able to keep us in their “sights”? “Where is my purse? I want it near me in case we ditch.” Once the fog lessened into a perpetual heavy haze, I was able to think creatively and enjoy the ride.
About half way into our nautical journey across Lake Michigan - ( a one-hundred-and-fifty-mile trip that would take eight hours to our first destination) - our way points take us close to and parallel with the shipping channel. Each time we near the shipping channel, I always think about a comparison with the “Shopping Channel”. We always see a variety of vessels on our journey and it would be fun to imagine a Shopping Channel that sold boats.
There would be a wide selection of power boats. Some large – in the 40 to 60 foot range, a few larger, and some smaller – in the 30 – 39 foot range. A good mix between displacement and planning hulls, which means some boats can cross lickity-split and others go putt-putt speed.
You could buy many different styles of sailboats – styles too numerous for me to mention or even know the terminology of. I can only describe a wide array of lengths and also a wide number of sails-per-boat. Some have two, some have three and the longer sloops can have four or more. These longer sloops are spectacular to see. I cannot imagine handling all the lines on these boats.
Commercial boats would be fewer in number to purchase on the “Shipping Channel”, but someone with millions to burn would find some to chose from. These behemoths appear to be moving slowly, creeping through the water, when in reality, they are moving at a fast pace. The water they push with their bows is amazing, easily reaching heights of five to six feet, with their wakes spilling out for hundreds of yards. There are two basic types of large vessels to be seen on Lake Michigan: Lakers and Salties. You can identify the lakers by their low profiles and traditional pilot houses on the bow. Ocean-traveling salties have bulbs in the bow and pilot houses astern. The fleet of ships that ply the Great Lakes continues to shrink, with most, if not all, of them being self loading and unloading. These nautical workhorses carry iron ore, grain, coal, limestone, timber and the like to and from Lake Superior through the DeTour Passage, where the ships pick up and discharge their pilots.
Then there would be the homemade “boat” – if you could call it that – that we saw slipped at one of the marinas. This contraption did float but I’d say that it had a guardian angel somewhere. Made of wood, it had more bungee chords on it than a big-box-store hardware department.
Whatever floats your boat.
Ancora imparo
