Mornin Rick, you back from your trip i take it?

 

 

Yup! Flip flop weather.

 

Mornin Ken, Tick, Rider

 

Mornin John.

 

Mornin John...

 

Haven't been outside yet.... hopefully it's what the weatherman predicted and not me turning blue on the ride home

 

Breakfast almost ready then offta shuffle... hava goodun Putziz's!!

 

I will try to post some pictures of my tug , the CGC Raritan, on ice breaking ops in lake Superior. It will give me something to do today. My pics are old fashioned style so will have to figure out how to get them into my computer. I used to bring us alongside the Mackinaw and cut pressure relief ridges in the ice to keep the convoye of ore carriers moving across Superior and through the locks. My Captain was pretty proud of the fact that we held our own in a 110 foot tug alongside a full on ice breaker, as we kept the St Mary's river open year round as the nation need ed the steel from the ore freighters to fuel rhe build up of steel production to do our part in the arms race we were involved in at the time beore the downfall of the Soviets. A lot of good memories, and not so good, it was a tough life out on the ice. My building is on the South end of the St Clair river and the brash ice flows thruogh, sometimes blocking the current and causing flooding to this day, We navigated by dead reckoning and as a Boatswains Mate worked with the skipper to lay out courses as there was no GPS back then just an old radar left over from world war 2 radiating our brains a fooot or two from the wave guide lol. We all played and drank pretty hard in those days, some caused a lot of bad jou jou for us in the long term LOL. Not many of us left...Had a shipmate from Minnesota took over my duties at a
sar station on Harsens Island. A goood Christian and strong as an ox, a farmer and good as a backup when dealing with drunks and the occcasional dr.uggie back then. Chemicals could make em do strange stuff, and it still does today... obviously it's much worse now, see tennants struggling all the time.

 

Ya I got back Sunday evening. Last 700 miles were in the rain and dropping temps. Rain gear only works so long as the water seeps in. Leather sure is heavy when it gets wet.

Good trip tho. Hung out with Baker for a day and put some good solitude miles in.