Day 67 - Lauren — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 0, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $18, daily high temperature 78*F, total days in PSJ = 24 and counting.

The day started with a brisk walk back to Linda and Huen’s house to retrieve our sunglasses. There was another pair in the lost and found pile also. The house was all cleaned up. Linda mention her stove died overnight and would not work today. Lucky thing they were able to cook for so many people the day before.

The potential weather window has the dock in a frenzy. Maybe Tuesday will be the day to cross. We paid for our slip for the month. We are paid through December 3. The cost is $18 per day or $9.00 each. This was a very good deal with the Looper discount and no electric fee.

This is the gulf on a good day.

Small world alert – at the Looper Thanksgiving feast I chatted with John Halter on the trawler Mitzvah. He is not Jewish but the former owner was. Mitzvah means celebration so he kept the name. John is from Duluth, Mn and in the 1980’s was assigned to the Coast Guard station in Hull, Ma where I grew up. My father had retired from the Coast Guard and was the Harbor Master. My father would go the Coast Guard station each morning for coffee. That is where they met.

John Halter of Mitzvah was stationed in Hull, Ma. In the 1980’s

John tells a story of being stationed at St. Ignace, Mi. Back in the day you could take friends and family out on patrols. It was late spring and they took their favorite barber along. On the way back they encountered a five mile long ice flow. It would takes hours to go around it. The barber suggested ramming the ice flow to crack it in half. The helmsman pushed the throttles to full and they hit the ice flow and went right up on top with the propeller out of the water. They had to chop the ice with axes to refloat the boat. The barber’s comment was – “I thought your boat was heavier than it is.”

Bonus photo – Lauren Brouwer graduated from high school in Sydney, Australia. She is hoping to get accepted to UTS (University of technology Sydney) to do a bachelor of communications degree majoring in Journalism and also a degree in International Studies. The temperature was 98*F when this photo was taken. Lauren is the daughter of Erwin Brouwer who was the Managing Director of Rust-Oleum Australia.

Bonus photo #2 – for all you potential Loopers

Carl ( Chef ) Wooden – quote of the day.

Oh, swiftly glides the bonnie boat. Just parted from the shore, And to the fisher’s chorus-note, soft moves the dipping oar! (Quote by – Joanna Baillie)