I will post pictures as they become available. From start to finish.
Keep watching!
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R.T. Cook 3/2008 MLB 44-334
This is how I found her in March 2008. Just sitting in a cold and lonely field waiting for orders. Notice the wind off Lake Eire blowing the lines from the boat. |
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Front View MLB 44-334
Real Cold...32* wind chill -2 |
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Stern View MLB 44-334
Nice straight lettering.... |
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Helm MLB 44-334
Cold dark waiting for summer....calling out help me. |
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Vomit Closet....MLB-44-334
Nick Name the Vomit Closet. People saved from ships put in a closed room handed a bucket, real cold, wet, rough seas.....yuck! |
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Mast resting until it's next adventure.
One again she will be flying proud colors.... |
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The Ohio Naval Militia 2005
Working at Camp Perry in 2005 |
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This is how it's going to look in about 2 months from now.
Ken Bennett supplied me with a picture of the 44359 and I might have photo shopped the picture a little....notice the number might have changed to 44334. |
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Name Plate of the RT Cook.
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Total Fuel measuring chart
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Normal Temps for the engines
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She made it in the water on 4/10/2008. And she looks great and the Detroit Diesel's run great too!
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While I worked on the vessel a MayDay came in and the Coast Guard responds with a chopper...
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I moved her to the City Docks in Port Clinton Ohio. She is almost ready to leave. It was raining, snowing, wind out of the northwest at 35mph.
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This picture is for my daughter Sara. She loves Pirate Flags
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This is the flags that she will fly most of the time.
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Front Cover of the Decommissioning Ceremony Program
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Program
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Decommissioning Crew
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History Of the Name
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Start Of the Ceremony All Aboard, at their Posts
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Commandant Ozvat Starting the Ceremony
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Myself giving a short speech.
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Ruth Cook widow of Robert Thomas Cook receiving the ships flag.
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Fredia Herman, Flotilla Commander 09W-20-08. Note the plastic tarp duct taped to the helm area of MLB 44334. Just in case it rains, gets cold....
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Norm Herman with his usual smile...
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Saying Goodbye to Lake Erie..For over 40 years of service
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My Brother Johnny Driving Lake Erie...Sunny 70 degrees Calm Lake
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Norm and Fredia Herman having lunch and happy to be finally be on the trip after weeks of planning...
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Johnny enjoying lunch....enjoy it the real nice weather is on it's way... 18 degrees and snow.....
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Mast Flags....Proud Flags!
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Honda Generator...would prove to be a life saver...in a few days snow, frezzing rain, but the genset kept the heaters working, and the crew warm.
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End Of Lake Erie..... Detroit River light....what a wonderful sight. 44334 is gone....
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River Traffic... Cuyahoga
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The Detroit version of the Boy Scouts on the water...Sea Scouts. They Saluted us on the turn. We maned the rails and saluted them in turn...
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The Pere Marquette Number 41. This use to be the Pere Marquette Car Ferry from the Port of Ludington MI. She has a drop off or pickup somewhere...
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44' & 41' waiting for duty! Station Belle Isle was sure nice to us....
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44' & 25' at Station Belle Isle. Late in the afternoon.
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Station Belle Isle. 25 foot, 44 foot, 41 foot...
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Downtown Detroit
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Black River Marina in Port Huron. Station Port Huron was being dredged....I ran up the pirate flag for my daughter Sara....Arrrrrrrr
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Lake Huron 06:00hrs flat calm.... wonderful day forcast.
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Weather was so good and we had enough fuel we decided to go for St Igance. We are passing station Harbor Beach to our left..
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Harrisville Marina..7-9 foot out of the northeast while we are making the jump 35 miles off shore no land in sight. Oh and add freezing rain and snow.
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The 47 and 25 at St Ignace...what a group!
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St Ignace and Chief Mallory at 6am...He ran this boat for 10 years at Station Marblehead in Ohio...He was really excided to see his old boat again...
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Biscayne Bay in St Ignace.Me coming in here at night with all of the crew watching me dock, and then told just swing it around and back it in....ahhh
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Passing under the Mackinaw Bridge at 08:00 hrs from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan...On the down hill slide now..
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Well Lake Michigan forcast of 1-2 foot with wind from the east...south west at 25mph 5-9 foot
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Stern view notice the large swells going by and the angle of the bow going for the clouds in the sky...She just said Ok...wee this is fun.
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Ok now it's getting worse and the waves are coming over the bow...She loves it and is right at home...we were all wishing that we were also, at home.
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Not very happy faces in 10 foot seas...Lets head for North Port and wait for the wind to change...
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Safe and calm NorthPort Harbor....lets get some dinner and wait for the wind shift.
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06:30hrs 5/1/2008 Manistee Harbor...64.5 hrs run time, 500 miles and a tired crew of John Church, William Church, Norm and Fredia Herman. Great Job!
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Kelsey found the flag kit my brother donated...she is having fun...
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Station Manistee 47' MLB Open House weekend. A fun time for all.
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Basket Operations with the 47 and the Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City.
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Basket on Board
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HH-65 Dolphin is a twin-engined helicopter from Air Station Traverse City. Giving a show in the river...Swimmer in the door.
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Up close in the Door! Ready to jump!
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Swimmer Away!
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Rescue Swimmer in the water and OK!
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Recovering Rescue swimmer...
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They got so close I got water on the camera lens....
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Some of the work done this weekend. Power Pannel Rats Nest, all redone, and the 12volt also redone. It's now a nice clean area.
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I mounted the air horn works in the Head...
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The new Chart Table.Works Great!, and makes a great table for making lunch underway.
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The Floors Repainted and the Cabin Clean. The ensolite is next!.
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Charles "Eddie" Warlitner saying goodbye to 22 years of service in the Coast Guard. He made most get the vapors....
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Eddie and his wife get a bag full of Pennies from the Kids at the station as a farewell gift to help with the fuel cost for the trip home.
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Finally over and all smiles...Good Luck and a Job Well Done...
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The look in Eddie's eyes says it all, "my god I'm done." Chief Mallory is retirement is at the end of the month. One Gone, one next month....
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The Boat is on land in Manistee awaiting orders....
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After grinding for most of the day, again I need a sandblaster!
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Removed the rub rails...more rust and nasty tore up 40+ years rails....
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New rub rails, and we found all of the stripe lines for the old paint job. Measured and made a blueprint.
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We even found the red and blue stripe measurements....
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Norm Herman chasing all of the the treads for the studs to hold on the new rubber bumpers.
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Len and Norm drilling the new bumpers, and getting a pattern...
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Sunday morning awaiting the monday sandblaster....From the blue stripe down...bare metal.
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The Lady is sporting some new primer paint....06/07/2008
Also we welded 6 new studs to hold the rub rails in palce to replace the ones that broke off.
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Port Side...a few history lessons on the bow.....
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Port side stern....not to bad looking after 40+ years
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Starbord side stern...
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Starboard side...85-90 hot muggy day. Burned my eye lids from painting in the sun all day.
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We ran out of white primer...so close....next time it's 5 coats non-stop...special epoxy 2 part paint...
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Epoxy Bottom Paint mid afternoon...waiting 4 hrs between coats.
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First coat of primer on the Vomit Closet while waiting between coats of bottom paint.
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Len sanding the bow getting ready for primer. Great Job Len....
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On goes the black anti fowl paint..Greg is doing a gereat job. Someone has to take the pictures....
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First coat of black bottom paint done. One more coat more and this bottom is done.
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End of the first big day of painting. Looking like a lady again. We are really sore and tired. 6:30am to 9pm...not bad for the first day.
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End of day two of the big paint. The bottom is done with 6 coats of epoxy paint and over 70 hrs of labor buy 10 people.
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Boy do those numbers look great on the stern...Thanks Brace Industries for helping us and the US Coast Guard! Good Job!
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3pm Saturday we have run out of paint. Over $2000.00 dollars in paint and 3 gals short. The rub rails are starting to go back on...getting close.
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6/27 Len and Roger putting on the last piece of rubber rub railing. Job well done boys!
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6/28 She is finally Done! Small stuff to finish up but the major painting is done!
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Stern view of the compleated vessel. 28 days from start to finish.....Ahhhhhhhh
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When you see this coming to greet you, it screems, "Help is here, and we will save you!"
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The helm area is all hospital white. Just looks like I need something to save....
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Can't wait for monday morning...launch date, 30 days from hitting the ground. Close to 500+ hr's of labor, thousands of dollars of effort, ready....
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Hard to believe from 5/28 this is where we started.
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To the finished product 6/28...she is Beautiful!
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Moving day. Finally it's going in the water. Many people expressed doubt that we would be finished before July 4th weekend...
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Getting her loaded.
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We are under way..She can smell the water. Movers comented that if she falls off the trailer it will right itself and jump back on in 30 seconds...
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It's finally come to leaving the lot. We are really glad to see her go...she needs water...
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Making the turn into the Marina
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Getting loaded on the Boat Hoist. Final adjustments and in she goes.....
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This is John. And you will never guess the reason he is holding his head....He was moving forward with the straps and smacked his head on the lift..
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Going in the water.....notice John controling the bleeding. He needed stiches....
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In she goes...What a relief..she even started right up and strutted her stuff to the marina. The station personal came out and gave her a thumbs up...
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Finally at her slip....Smiles all around. Other boat owners came over and expressed a job well done, and a party was held that evening...she loved it.
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Ken Williams Driving the 44' on the way to Luningtons Fireworks. Calm day sunny 75....
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The other part of the crew, Norm & Fredia Herman enjoying the wonderful weather and the tirp down to Station Ludington
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The Badger Coming out of Ludington Harbor on the 4th of July.
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As the Badger goes by the Captain looked like he was going to fall out of the window looking at us. I'm sure he thought he was seeing a Ghost!
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4th of July Fireworks, Ludington Michigan. What a great night. Over 100 boats watched the sight.
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More from the 4th. No problems helped look for an overdue vessel on the way home. Docked at 2:17am...
A little tired the next day...
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New Tachs installed and replaced all of the warning lights...New glass on the cover..
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All working and new tach's working great!
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This is were Jack who hates when I leave him home sits. He keeps and eye on me and greets everyone that stops by to chat....
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Say can you find my daughter in this picture. She was helping, then she was gone. Notice the flip-flops on the floor...
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Just made the turn to Grand Haven 2/26/08. In town for the Coast Guard Festival...
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Grand Haven Coast Guard Station from the river..Large Boat Basin...
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We are docked and the station is in a cleaning mode getting ready for Higher Up's to show up for the Festival....
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359 & 334 tied up and awaiting orders....
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This is a rare picture...One that will never be seen again. Two 44' and Two 47' vessels awaiting orders...Wonderful Day!
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Knot Handi Work in Grand Haven
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Leaving Grand Haven...44359 and 44334 headed out for patrol. Nice picture by Don Geske...
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44334 moving toward Lake Michigan. Saying good bye to Grand Haven. Thanks Don...
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Wonderful Picture Don of the 44334 headed toward the Lake. Don was on another AUX vessel taking these pictures.
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Another view of the 44334...she sure does look great...she ran perfect, handled the weather like a pro, and brought us home...
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359 making her way down the river to the cutters....
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44359 underway with the Grand Haven Coast line in the distance...Going out to meet the Cutters and escort them into the river...
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Joe's Aux Vessel, Grand Haven going out to meet the Cutters...
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Another Aux Vessel cutting between the 44's....showoff...
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Here is an Action Shot of 44359 crossing the wake of 44334....he looks mean, and nasty...
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Cutter Biscayne Bay from St. Ignace starting her run for the river....
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Cutter Mackinaw starting her run for the river for the Parade and Festival of Ships...
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Started our trip home and we were stopped by Station Muskegon 30' MLB...wondered if we were under arrest...Nahhhh, they just needed to tow a vessel..
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Station Muskegon 304445 throwing the heaving line...They needed to meet there end of the month quals...and to just have fun towing a bigger vessel...
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So were hooked up and...Say do you guy's want to tow us home..we are really tired and need to take a nap.. They towed us for a while and waved goodby.
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On the way home, and on the way there the weather man lied. Calm winds, flat seas were no where to be found. Mostly 2-4's and straight on the nose....
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Len Mitchell driving us home...between the three of us in three days we traveled 182nm and 22.7 hours of run time. What and adventure...
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While we were helping Station Ludington on the way home near the Clay Banks looking for a jet ski, a 1938 DC3 kept flying overhead...it was beautiful.
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This is the Main Battery Mess. Going to fix it very soon. Easy fix, and then two systems, two battery banks....A bigger safety margin...
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Standing by to recieve tow line from MLB 47284. Nice sunny day with seas building....
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Take the shot! Tow line on it's way....
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Sir hold the orange ball...barking orders...no question on what to do...a reason for everything.
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Hooking up the tow line..this could be really fun in a very heavy sea..
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Paying out the tow line...notice the swells starting to get to the 47
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Towing us home to the harbor....the checkride being given was going great until the harbor....
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Say Dad look at all of these boats on the water...This guy here has a great spot...sure is a long way to carry fish
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This guy was looking at the north light house at night...headed straight for it. Station got the call a little after 2300 hrs...
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The boats stern drive is really broken, but the hull looks intact, and no one was hurt....except there pride and wallet..
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We recovered a 38' vessel and put it in a side tow. We towed him to the gas dock. We did alot right, and alot wrong in this tow. A learning experince.
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The towed vessel parked at the gas dock..He contuined on to Grand Haven...
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Finally looking down the channel were the 44 sleeps, it always welcomes us home...Get her cleaned up, ship shape and ready for the next adventure...
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New Coat of deck Paint....
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Deck Paint....needs touch up here and there...
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