Thunder Bay


September 22, 2006

Walked out to past the lighthouse at Sturgeon Point to watch the sunrise. The sky was so red. “Red in the morning, sailors have warning.”

Drove route 23 into Alpena, a town right on Thunder Bay off Lake Huron. A flock of about twenty turkeys sat near the roadway.

We crossed the 45th parallel, which put us half way between the North Pole and the equator. . Ate at the city park looking out at the lake and got a hit on wireless service so we spent time on the internet. We looked out to the water and saw a three masted topsail schooner! It reminded us of the ship Hector that we had helped to build up in Nova Scotia. Both ships were launched in 2000. We drove into town and saw the sailing ship sitting across the river. We had heard on the radio that the public could take a ride tomorrow so we headed over to the NOAA Building to see about it. We were surprised when we went into the newly built building; they have exhibits about the significance of shipwrecks. We were able to explore shipwrecks in realtime via live video feeds, discover the Great Lakes’ rich maritime past and learn how underwater archaeologists work to preserve historic shipwrecks. There was an archaeological conservation lab and climate controlled artifact storage area. The best exhibit was the sphere. Four projectors shine on it showing climate changes, fires and lights, and views of our blue marble planet. There are an estimated 200 shipwrecks in and around Thunder Bay. A glass bottom boat gives tours of many of them. We enjoyed a sandwich then went to watch the S/V Dennis Sullivan, flagship of Wisconsin come back to the dock. (Do you know the flagship of your state?) School groups are going out for two hour trips and we got there to see it come in. Anticipating we might go on a sail we looked for some interaction from the crew, but never got any. We watched them tie off and still no interaction so we left. We walked around town. The courthouse had some beautiful woodwork and marble floors. We headed to Walmart. It poured down rain so we waited for that to stop, then did some shopping. Back to the park to do some internetting then back to Walmart for our movie.

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