I ran across this and, since Gordon Lightfoot is one of my favorites, I thought I would post it. It includes underwater video of the ship after it sunk.
I ran across this and, since Gordon Lightfoot is one of my favorites, I thought I would post it. It includes underwater video of the ship after it sunk.
My father took us to the sight in the UP, I think there was a marker, and as young boys we stared into the distant wave swept water. I didn’t understand until we got older, of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I have been in boats and in ships in Lake Michigan and Huron. I have swum in Whitefish Bay (man that was cold). The Great Lakes are things to be feared or so said all of our elders.
Have you sailed in Michigan or Superior when the wind was up? I, thankfully, always had captains who put into shore. I have talked to many, who upon sailing the lakes, wished for the oceans. Gorden sorts it out.
I sailed in a Port Huron to Mackinac race. A storm front came through at night and it was quite lively for a while. That is partly because Lake Huron is shallow. Most of it is 50 feet deep.
Weather forecasting is an important skill for anyone skippering a boat of any size in large bodies of water. I’ve been through a small hurricane in Mexican waters where forecasting is pretty poor. The wind pegged our anemometer at 60 for 12 hours. The waves were high enough that the sailboat stood up straight in the troughs and lay over 60 degrees on the peaks. A strongly built small sailboat will survive in conditions that will damage big ships. Part of it is that the ships are long enough to span several wave fronts while the small sailboat in in the trough.
In the trade wind belt of the Pacific, squalls come through about every two hours. It will blow 45 to 50 for 15 minutes, then drop to the steady 20 knots. That is why helmsmen are so important in the Transpac Race. You don’t have time to change sails so you use a heavy spinnaker and, when the squall hits, you just steer and hang on. We hit 22 knots in the squalls with a 40 foot boat. Overall, we went to Hawaii, 2500 miles, in 11 days 20 hours. That’s over 200 miles per day average.
sass