Don on board the Paul Tregurtha , thousand foot coal hauling ship in Duluth, Minnisota getting loaded with coal., originally uploaded by Don Campbell Models.
GREAT LAKE FREIGHTER TRIP- Here is a picture of me down below on the Great Lakes Freighter , The Paul Tregurtha, with the friends that also got to spend five nights and six days on board the largest Freighter on the Great Lakes. We got on board at St.Claire, Michigan at the power plant and rode up to Duluth, Minn. to get loaded with coal. Deb took this picture from one of our big picture windows from the owner of the ship’s master suite. That is where we stayed the whole trip and had our own waiter, cook and a fully stocked bar! Although we don’t drink, we had all the free pop we could drink, ha,ha.
Fresh baked cookies every morning and our own personal chef was at our service and made us what we wanted for meals. It was really a dream come true.
Our friend Bruce is the owner of the Chocolate Haus in Gaylord and he brought 4 buckets of carmel corn and 10 lbs of pecan turtles for us to also munch on. Did I mention I really did gain 10 lbs. on that trip, REALLY !!
For you new visitors , this trip on the Paul Tregurtha happened because a friend of ours is Paul Tregurtha’s cousin. We were asked several times to take a trip on a frieghter but never did.
Because I was making a model of the Paul Tregurtha, I asked our friend Bruce, if there was any chance of a trip on the Paul. Bruce called to Cleveland and made arrangements and off we went on the trip of a lifetime. We left the power plant at 5:00am in the pouring rain and thunder and lightning. Tornados had been spotted in the area but that did not stop the departure time. It was pouring so hard in the river it was hard to see much of anything. As we went under the International Bridge at Port Huron, the winds started picking up and lighting was striking everywhere around us. Fifteen minutes later we were out in the open water and we were rockin and a rollin!!!
Bruce had made dozens of voyages on these ships over the years and told us had never got sick. He laughed and told us he wanted to get sick sometime.
Well, it was his lucky day , as the largest ship on the great lakes bobbed around like a bobber , it was twisting 6 feet and snaking back and forth like it was going to break in half and everyone was getting sick, even Bruce !! And if that wasn’t enough, we saw a frieghter gaining on us from behind and the Captain decided to race him to the mouth of the St.Mary’s river so he could not get to the locks first. So they pumped out much of our ballast water and then we were really bobbing back and forth for the next three hours.
The good thing is after you get sick several times, you can’t get sick anymore, ha,ha.
We did beat the Freighter, ( The St.Claire ) to the mouth of the river first and we did make it through the locks just fine. Once we rounded Whitefish point it was sunny and calm and beautiful the rest of the trip. But I’ll be danged if the St.Claire wasn’t gaining on us again so the Captain gave it full throttle the whole rest of the trip to Duluth. He said he did not want to have to wait for other ships to load in front of him. So it was pretty interesting along the way.
We took just over 1000 pictures and explored every inch of that monster boat. We even went a few places we shouldn’t have, ha,ha. But the Captain was very good about it and handled it with a chuckle.
Have a nice Sunday with the ones you love.
