Nater is in the wheel house ...boooyaaahhhh

After a quick drive up to Port Huron and another motherland tour of Port Huron, we met our contact person and boat mates at the United Way of St. Clair County.  A jaunty group for sure as we made our way to the DTE docks south of St. Clair.  Once at the gates it was a very quick and pleasant gate check through Homeland Security and bingo here we are.  Let me say that both Nater and myself are amazed at the size of the Paul R. Tregurtha.  I hope the pictures give you a little idea at her size. 

     After we settled in and had time to talk with our shipmates, who just happen to be as nice and gregerious as ol' nater, we were called for dinner in the officers mess.  The menu included, meat loaf, fiesta platter, chicken courdon blue, mixed veggies, stewed tomatoes, bread, iced tea and water.  Pretty darn yummy.  The guys who work on freighters sure do eat well.  At the moment we are sitting here at the DTE plant unloading coal for the next five or so hours, then off to Monroe.

That's about all for now.  Stay tuned for more adventures including, Tim's the King of the World, Nater stears the ship backwards and  Tim acts as foghorn leghorn.

LINK

www.marinetraffic.com/ais/

The Day Before The Adventure Begins

Sitting here getting more excited with each passing tick of the clock. Come on phone ring, ring darn it! It's June 29, 2013 and that is what tomorrow will be like as my mother (Nater as she is commonly referred to) and I wait for a phone call from the St. Clair County United Way office telling us its time to go. Go where you might ask? A few months ago Ol' Nater entered a raffle for a trip aboard a working Great Lakes Freighter and won. For those of you that are not familiar with the Great Lakes, They are BIG, unsalted and quite fun to be around, in or on top of. The ship we will be departing on is the Paul R. Tregurtha. She not only carries coal and ore from Duluth to the Detroit and Ohio areas she also happens to be the largest ship on the Great Lakes. She measures in at a staggering 1013'6" and can carry as much as 64,000 tons of cargo. Not to Shabby. As I write this we still have no idea where we will be traveling to. What we do know is that we will be on board for up to nine(9) days. If you would like to follow where we will be at anyone time use this link to an AIS tracking website, find the Paul R. Tregurtha and that's where we will be. The address is: I will have more pictures and videos when I can find a signal to post. Since we will be out on open water in the middle of nowhere expect posts to be when we are in port. Check back often for updates. Thanks for reading and let the adventure begin. Tim