Page 35 - 2009 Lake St. Clair Guide Magazine

My Tug Trip from Brooklyn... continued from page 32... Best sunset view on the lake!
Jacob is still in high school, Mike, used to work on Navy ships
so he was very good to have, and Rich who is in sales and has Lots of Dockage
his own boat, piloted quite a bit on this leg. My dad, who’s dad
was a commercial fisherman, decided his job was to supply us cbyaoyCrubrarylolfaooftouo!rtd
with plenty of good old stories to keep us entertained.
10 TV’s including 4 Big Screens
Even though we cruised at 8mph, there wasn’t any time to be for all sporting events
bored since there was always things to do to keep busy. I would
definitely do it again, it was a great experience. I took a 42’ Great lunch & dinner specials
Live entertainment
wood sportfish from
Baltimore back here a Boat wells starting at $500
few years ago, so most
of this trip I had already 20 Transient wells available
done before. All in all,
everyone thought it was Gated & secured boat/trailer storage
a pretty incredible trip.
Phone: 586-725-2100
After sharing stories
7479 Dyke Road (M29), Clay Township, MI
with our friends, two
See map pg. 4 & restaurants pg. 16 for GPS & more info!
memorable moments of this journey really stuck out to all of
By Boat...Look for the yellow seawall on Bouvier Bay
us. The most exciting time was going through the Welland
it, and as we went under, we couldn’t put a finger between the
Canal. We got to the canal at 10 a.m. We had to wait for a bridge and the top of the boat. As we were all cheering, a train
went over the bridge....
couple hours until more boats our size arrived, so we could all
The tug is called the Wildflower, (originally named Chipola
make the 28 mile trip through the locks together. Freighters when built) and is a 1940 Navy tug. It was built in New Orleans
and Avondale shipyards. It was originally used in Virginia for
have the first right to the Spectators watching us pushing around Naval ships and was retired in 1947 and sold to
locks, so we finally started a local shipyard in the Chesapeake in Baltimore where it began
our journey around 2pm. travel through the locks its refurbishment as a
live aboard. It then went
Once in the locks, you on to New York in the
mid-90’s.
cannot stop for a break,
She is 76’ long, 22’
or pull off anywhere, you wide and draws 8’. She
weighs 145 tons! It has
just have to keep going. a 12-71 Detroit Diesel
engine. The original
We finished going through engine was much larger,
12’ long, 8’ tall, and weighed about 30,000 lbs. We got about 1
and were into Lake Erie at mile per gallon at 8 mph, that’s with running the 20kw generator
all the time...Pretty good economy for its size.
2 a.m....we remember the

time well because we all needed a beer by then and all the bars

were closed!

We had to have, by the
rules, three crew mem-
bers for our size vessel
to travel through the
locks. Lines would
be dropped down to
us, and then the water
would start coming
into the lock and we’d
have to continue to pull up the slack. We would be raised up 50
feet within 8-10 minutes. There was a lot of turbulence for the
boats. We traveled through the locks with a 125’ tall ship, a 125’
Yacht, a 40’ tug boat, and a 38’ Carver, which was the smallest
boat.

The most stressful moment came There are two full heads, one with shower stall and other with
when we approached a railroad
bridge on the Erie Canal. They bathtub. Stateroom is up in pilot house (captains quarters),
gave us a height, which has a 1’
deviation. We felt we could clear master suite and a small cabin in the main level, and a large bunk

room down below. It has a large galley with full size fridge,

freezer, Continued on page 36.......

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