Shipping out is never easy for lake bound sailors
After two months in winter lay up, and in some cases less than that, the 2006 shipping season on the Great Lakes is well underway and with it comes a mix of emotions for the men operating the vessels. As much as the first robin marks the arrival of spring, the arrival of the first freighter to the Port of Calcite in Rogers City is a sure sign that spring is close in northeast Michigan. The Courtney Burton was the first to arrive late Friday night. It was loaded through the night and into the next day at O-N Minerals, before departing for Superior, Wisconsin. And so it has begun.
Most of the boats now have been shaken from their short winter naps and the sailors have been sprung from their homes. While bringing in additional income that being laid off does not provide, leaving home is never easy. Gene Gornau of Brainerd, Minnesota, a wheelsman on the Courtney Burton, was preparing to shift the boat so the stone shipment could be loaded in another hatch, was glad to get back to work, ?because of the obvious situation with the income, but you hate to leave home after being home for a couple of months. You get used to being home, and it is hard to leave.?
A small consolation was the limited ice and the fair sailing conditions during the first week of the season, although that changed drastically, almost to the hour of the beginning of the second week. The shipping season officially started in the northern Great Lakes March 25 at midnight, with the opening of the Soo Locks. ?IT ALWAYS was depressing going back,? said Ken Bellmore, who sailed for the American Steamship Company for 26 years before retiring last year. ?You miss so much.? Bellmore, 52, of Rogers City who had sailed since 1971 said, ?I know what they are going through.? Jim Forester has been working on the Great Lakes for 16 years, but would rather be home with his grandson in Toledo, Ohio. ?He gets mad at grandpa because I am not playing with him on the floor with his army guys,? said Forester on the Courtney Burton last Saturday, as the mild weather was changing back to winter conditions. Forester has been raising his grandson since his son died two years ago. His son was a diabetic, but was not diagnosed in time. Forester received the call about his son being sent to the hospital and could not get away until his ship reached port in Duluth, Minnesota. His son died just about the time his feet touched the dock in Duluth.
It is part of the sacrifice sailors make. They live in two different worlds. Unfortunately, one part of it goes on without them. Rogers City has a rich heritage in the maritime community and most every ship has someone from Rogers City aboard. Courtney Burton third mate Gary Thompson?s family of Rogers City has made a living on the lakes. His father, brother, and cousins all sailed. In a smaller town like Rogers City, Thompson said working on the boats is one way to make a decent living, and many say there is not much else to offer. He said getting the Courtney Burton ready for another shipping season and the first trip up Lake Huron March 30 was hectic. ?We had a lot of things going on and we were behind from the moment we got there,? Thompson said. ?We got out on schedule, though.?
AFTER MORE than six years away, retired captain Dick Sobeck of Millersburg is finally just starting to miss the part of life he spent on the lakes, but he said it was a lot tougher in the early days when there were no vacations. Sobeck, who left the Navy in 1959 and sailed the lakes for 40 years starting in 1960, would only get away when his ship docked at Calcite or Cedarville. According to Patrick Hart of Rogers City, the captain of the 610-foot McKee Sons, 30 days on and 15 days off is closer to the standard today. Hart was navigating the McKee Sons in choppy water Tuesday afternoon downward bound near Thunder Bay Island and said the most difficult part for him was
?I do enjoy the job, but I don?t enjoy the time away,? he said. Fortunately, he ends up sailing into Stone Port and Calcite enough that there are extra opportunities to see his family. Hart has been on the lakes since March 5. The Soo Locks closed January 15 and the McKee Sons went into winter lay up five days later, but was back out in early March. Some sailors pointed out some enjoyable parts of the profession, including the time on the water and the sites that not everyone gets to see.
?We had fun,? said Sobeck. ?You knew everybody.? He also enjoyed the sunsets and sunrises. ?They were beyond words.? So is the life of a sailor on the Great Lakes, where a nice income can be earned sailing the world?s largest freshwater lakes, but nothing can replace that desire to be with loved ones on shore. The sailor?s life is clearly not for everybody.