First Officer's Entry:
We went on
the glass bottom boat/sunken ship tour today. It didn’t suck. We also went to
the museum at the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The boat tour cost $30. The museum was free.
The museum was worth the $30 and the boat tour was worth the rest of it.
We got to
the museum at 10 a.m. and our boat tour was scheduled for 1 p.m. We went into
the museum to kill some time and spent the full three hours there in complete
amazement. The spectacular displays, exhibits, and incredible technology transported
us into an undersea world without even getting our feet wet.
To be fair,
the boat ride was good also. It’s not glass bottomed per se, but does have two
viewing stations, each with three large windows in the bottom of the boat. We
passengers were encouraged to take turns at the viewing stations at each of the
three wrecks we visited. The two photos that follow are representative of what
we were able to see, ghostly green images.
The crew
member would describe the wrecks to us as boilers, anchors, cranes, and hulls, but I
would see them as ghostly green figure one, ghostly green figure two, ghostly
green figure three, ghostly green figure four and etc. To be fair, these are
shallow-water wrecks and there’s not much left of them. I’m sure there are
bigger, better wrecks out there in the deeper waters, but you can’t get to them
in two hours and couldn’t see them even if you did.
But the
museum was really good.
Captain’s Log:
As you can
tell from the First Officer’s log, sometimes the hype is better than the reality.
We were surprised that the water was so shallow over these wrecks. The ship
captain claimed it was only 14 feet deep with only 4 feet between the glass
bottom and the sea bed. I kept wondering why the movement of our ship didn’t
stir up debris and obscure the wrecks. Frank is still sure the water was deeper
and that the captain misunderstood our inquiries. Be that as it may, we did get
to see a pretty nifty crane that toppled over trying to recover some cargo from
a wrecked vessel.
Even though
we were disappointed to view only three wrecks in two hours, I really enjoyed being
out on Lake Huron, my first time out on any of our Great Lakes, cutting through
the waves and feeling the spray. It was a beautiful day until the very end of
the tour. As we pulled up to the dock the captain pointed out thunderheads in
several directions. He announced that the 4 p.m. tour would be cancelled due to
weather. Thunder Bay lived up to its
name today.
Inside the
museum a full-sized schooner looms tall with lightning, thunder and the shouts
of seamen roaring overhead. The side of the ship is cut out to allow a tour of
below decks. It’s apparent that this commercial vessel was no pleasure cruise
for the crew. Out on deck above the kitchen and quarters, with the flashing and
thundering all around and the voices of the crew, it seemed as if the vessel was
actually lurching in the storm.
We stopped
in at a theater on the first floor showing a continuous round of three to
fifteen minute films about the sea faring life and the work of the underwater sanctuary.
One hundred wrecks have been found and there are an estimated 90 wrecks still
to be discovered in Thunder Bay. NOAA’s (National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) job is to protect them all from vandals
and share the knowledge that comes from studying and recording the locations of
these relics.
All in all
it was a good day, and we really enjoyed ourselves. You can see from the
pictures below that Frank enjoyed the boat ride as much as I did.
Tomorrow we’re
leaving Hillman to go back to Alpena to pick up the east coast highway on our
way to Mackinaw City. Lake Huron is so vast that I know I’ll keep thinking we’re
on the ocean instead of a fresh water lake.
End Captain’s Log
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