You assume they had charts... ;-)

"katysails" wrote in message
...
| John...you cannot get lost on Lake Michigan. For Pete's sake, the ports
are
| marked on road maps. From what Max posted, I'm assuming he was coming
home
| from Pen****er to his home port...all the channels are clearly marked and
| easily seen. The only difficult channels to find are farther north at
| Arcadia and Portage Lake, and even then, you always know Portage lake by
the
| cloud that hangs over it (it's a weird anomaly).
| "John Cairns" wrote in message
| . ..
| I think they were lost and didn't have the nerve to admit it. I never
| realized it until recently, but there are powerboaters out there that
hold
| sailors in some high regard. Several weeks ago I was distributing
| literature
| for our sail club at a marina about 25 miles south of here, pretty small
| place with maybe about 40 slips, but there were 28 sailboats there. I
was
| walking to the sailboats and dropping the envelopes in the cockpits, a
| fisherman asked me what I was doing and I told him about the club, he
| asked
| me about the weather out on the lake! I was on foot, no indication that
I
| had been out on the lake(Erie) or that I could possibly have any more
| information than he did on the subject. He asked me about the waves that
| day, it was blowing maybe about 15kts. out of the west, he wanted to
know
| what I thought the waves might be like, he was on a smaller runabout,
| maybe
| 16'. I told him that the waves shouldn't be very big on this end of the
| lake, the western end, without explaining that this is something he
should
| have been able to figure out. I really wouldn't be surprised if they
were
| lost and thought that you, as a sailor, would be able to help them with
| directions, but in the end were to embarrassed to admit it.
|
| John Cairns
|
|
| Last Saturday, while returning home from a nearby port (35nm to the
| north)
| on Lake Michigan this happened to us when we were about 8nm from our
| port.
| I'll report the incident and let you all make your own judgments.
|
| It was a sunny day, 10kts. from the west, and we were making roughly
| 6kts.
| southbound, my wife at the helm. I'd just lain down on one of the
| cockpit
| seats when I heard the rumble of a couple of large gas engines
| throttling
| down. I peeked over the coaming to discover a go fast boat,
approaching
| from the rear, had slowed and nearly stopped about 30 yards off our
| starboard beam. I grabbed the binocs and took a look. The skipper
was
| a
| shaggy-looking middle-aged man dressed in a muscle shirt and his three
| passengers were all younger men dressed in heavy, dark
| clothing--sweaters,
| dark pants, etc. Not exactly what one would expect for an afternoon
| outing
| on the old go-fast. All were standing in their boat, the Panama
Jeanne,
| about 38' long. They turned toward us and approached at slow speed,
| came
| up
| behind us, and stalked us for about 5 minutes. Then they pulled up
| along
| the port side. During this time I went below and obtained our 25mm
| flare
| gun, loaded it, and stuck two additional flares in my pocket. A lot
of
| good
| it would have done, but it made me feel that I was at least doing
| something.
| The skipper then yelled something to us. We asked him to repeat and
he
| inquired as to the distance and direction to our home port. We told
him
| 6
| miles (a lie, but we could see the breakwalls of the channel in the
| distance). He then conferred with the other young men, and finally
| said,
| "You have a beautiful boat." I said, "Thanks." After stalking us for
a
| while longer they finally drifted off to port (toward shore), idled
| along
| for another five minutes, then sped off to the south.
|
| The experience was unnerving, to say the least. It certainly makes
one
| feel
| vulnerable when traveling at 6kts. My take on this is that they
thought
| a
| single woman was traveling alone, and when they saw me they decided to
| check
| things out further before reacting. It is possible they might have
| thought
| me armed, as my arm and hand were extended into the cabin, holding the
| flare
| gun, while I was standing in the cockpit.
|
| OTOH it could have been innocent, but such behavior is certainly
| suspicious.
|
| What's your take?
|
| Max
|
|
|
|
|
|