Quite a mixture in the archives today, so I had a hard time picking which photos to feature. This is what I came up with... starting in 2003, with a photo from David Cloutier. Since it's the opening day of rifle deer season here in the U.P., I thought this would be a good way to wish all hunters a safe and successful hunt.

We move on to 2009, when Ed Chaput shared a photo of the Edmund Fitzgerald at the Soo Locks, with a young Ed on board. Sadly Ed passed away in December 2014 and we miss his insight and stories of his days sailing on the Great Lakes.

Keeping with the previous boating thread, Sally Waters, of StixNStonzArt.com was on hand at the Jacobsville/White City pier in 2016, to watch the USCGC Alder go by on its way to take up the buoys for the winter season.

Back to the hunting theme…our last shot was featured along with Sally's shot above, in 2016. Don't worry, we're not really gone hunting and the Pasty Cam won't be absent for the next two weeks. ;-)

In looking for a video feature for today, I came across an interview with one of the crew members aboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Alder. It's pretty interesting to hear what they do aboard the boat and who makes everything happen. Enjoy!

Opening day...Good luck and be safe!

Good luck hunters! Enjoy those times in deer camp ~ the memories are priceless.

Sheesh.... has it been 3 years already since Ed passed away?? Doesn't seem that long.

To echo Alex... Good luck today and stay safe!

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Many of you may have already seen this report from Ed Chaput regarding the maiden voyage of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I found it very interesting. Especially funny was one sentence in the following paragraph that noted they had trouble starting the standby generator, in that it would not respond to "verbal commands". I can only guess what those verbal commands might have been.:

"The first trip west across Lake Superior was not uneventful. Much of the trip was into a strong headwind and difficulties encountered were credited to the newness of the ship. During the midnight to 4 a.m. watch, for some unexplained reason the electric control center in the engine room started sparking and caught fire. Third engineer Carl Makinen and I rushed to start the manually cranked standby generator. When the unit would not respond to either our physical or verbal commands, the ship started to drift aimlessly in the night; the complete lighting system shut down and gave all on board that old Titanic feeling. The power outage lasted only minutes and was fixed mysteriously by the chief engineer and the factory agents."

Edmund Fitzgerald Maiden Season
by Edward Chaput