• Monday-What'sUP November 14 - 06:20 pm

The Alder was in the Keweenaw this past Friday, headed out of Portage Lower Entry, near White City and Jacobsville, working to bring in the buoys for the winter season. Taana Kalliainen snapped these shots as it passed by. This Coast Guard Cutter travels around Lake Superior every November to remove the buoys, so that the winter ice doesn't destroy them. Then in the spring, they'll make the rounds again to place the buoys once again, so they can guide the boaters safely in and out of places along the Keweenaw waterways. Winter preparations on the Big Lake.

Another reminder that winter does comes back around.....

You go, buoy!

I figured it was about time to see the buoy tender at work. Thank you.

USCGC Alder was at the harbors in Marquette on Sunday, November 13 ....

The Alder is a pretty vessel but I still think the design of the Sundew was prettier. Used to love to watch it moving around Round Island. Those were the days! sighhh

Just read on Boatnerd News about a terrible fatal accident this weekend on another one of my favorite ships, St Marys Challenger (formerly Medusa Challenger). A 60yr old man got his arm caught in a conveyor belt, severing his arm at the shoulder. So sad.

sorry for this added post, Mary, but I need to correct an earlier error....the Sundew was in Round Lake, not Island. Thank you.

That's awful, Shirley! Slightly off topic, there was a fatal accident of a farmer, who was also about 60 in the Thumb area, who got caught in his combine - he was hospitalized for several days before he died. And, there was another combine accident down near Flint, but I don't remember if that one was fatal, or not. It's highly unusual, because I don't remember hearing of a single combine accident before, much less two in a short period of time.

Let me take this opportunity to toot the Coast Guard’s horn a little more. They do a tremendous job on a relatively tiny budget. Their traditional missions of search and rescue, environmental safety and cleanup, boat and marine safety, drug and migrant interdiction and other law enforcement, ice breaking operations, and aides to navigation have been supplemented since 9/11 to include a variety of defense readiness primarily focusing not just nationally but worldwide working to secure ports and shipping bound for the U.S.

They do all this with a total personnel roster about the same size as the New York City Police Department.

The Keweenaw is graced with a wonderful facility at Dollar Bay. By joining the Coast Guard Auxiliary there are huge opportunities for civilians to participate and assist in everything the CG does except law enforcement.

http://www.cgaux.org/

Here are specific links to the USCGC Alder:

http://www.uscg.mil/d9/cgcAlder/

http://www.uscg.mil/d9/cgcAlder/img/Photo%20Gallery/27NOVlake%20superiorgaleemail%20.jpg

http://www.uscg.mil/d9/cgcAlder/img/Photo%20Gallery/IMG_0051%20%28Medium%29.JPG

http://www.uscg.mil/d9/cgcAlder/img/Photo%20Gallery/DSC01428.JPG

http://www.uscg.mil/d9/cgcAlder/img/Photo%20Gallery/ice%20breaking.JPG

Maybe someone can help edit the tags show the pictures show directly.

I agree wholeheartedly with you about the Coast Guard, D.A. I don't think they get nearly enough recognition for all that they do. My brother-in-law was a USCC member during WWll.
Yes, Marianne, so sad about the farmers, their lives are hard too and unfortunately, sometimes thankless!

Lovin' the Marine Vessel Tracking on here! I can imagine sitting in the Harbour Haus and watching the ships go by. I'll be checking what I might see in Keweenaw Bay, too, when the wind gusts are high and they take shelter there.

Coast Guard. Best branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Shirley,

It was the USCGC Sundrew (WLB-404) that was first on scene after the sinking of the 600 foot laker, Carl Bradley on November 18, 1958 in Lake Michigan. She rescued the only 2 survivors after putting herself in grave danger.

http://www.carldbradley.org/USCG%20SUNDEW.htm

The Sundrew required a crew of 80. Due to technological advances the Alder only requires 50 crew members.

One thing that struck me, about both the mention St Mary's Challenger accident and one of the combine accidents here in mid-Michigan involved men who were 60 years old. Do people's reaction times magically slow for some reason when they reach that age, or something? I guess it also bothers me because my cousin, who rents my small farm in Iowa, in addition to farming a bunch of other acreage, just turned 60 the end of October. He was saying that he is slowing down some now, and that his son is going to help him farm more next year, including exchanging labor for rent of some my cousin's acreage. It may be hitting me harder because my husband and I both turned 60 this year. I don't normally talk about my age, but those three things, added to my husband and I... Then again, I had some friends who learned to fly solo in their late seventies, and who flew well into their 80's. Life is interesting. There I go waxing philosophical; sorry about that.

Yeah, I knew about the Sundew's involvement in the Bradley case, D.A...I have the book written by one of the 2 survivors. I also am aware that the Alder has a smaller crew requirement, but....how about the 30 who need the jobs that were eliminated?
Marianne, I have a 16 year jump on ya!:)

Let's give a CHEER for Jacobsville. One of our family pets came off the Woodrush W 407 when it was parked at the pier right about where the Alder is in that picture. Obviously years ago though.

Marianne and Shirley You are just a couple of school girls. I hit 80 this past summer. I think that in addition to slowing down in the later years we have a tendency to get a litttle careless doing something we've done for so many years. Older people trip on stairs they have climbed up and down on all their lives.

Talking about aging. I never fussed about my age until I turned 70. And I'm finding that I drop or knock stuff off the counter all the time. I believe a lot of it is the sense of depth. I do the dumbest things, always picking things off the floor.And of course everything takes longer to do maybe because of the lack of stamina.Never thought much about hauling big baskets of wet laundry up from the basement and hanging it on the clothesline. Getting older is heck but I don't complain too much. At least I'm on the top side of the lawn, if you get what I mean.

Good grief the Packers are ahead .... 45 to 7!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, I wasn't really complaining. I just was pondering the fact that these guys (in one case a sailor and the other a farmer) were each 60 years old when they were suddenly killed doing something they had been doing for years. I was wondering if something happens with your concentration or if it was a coincidence, or what. Dickingrayling, you may have hit on it, becoming more apt to be careless doing things you have been doing forever. The reason I kind of worry about my cousin is that his Dad (my uncle) died a sudden death before his 50th birthday, when my cousin and I were both in college. My uncle had managed to get back close to the farm house, and put his tractor in neutral, before he died. (We'll never know the cause of his death because they never did an autopsy, but I think it was likely an abdominal aortic aneurysm because my cousin's sister had one later, at about the same age as her Dad.) My cousin put his college on hold to take over all of my uncle's farming activities. He just went to school in the winter quarter and eventually graduated with his BS in Math from Iowa State University.

Mskatie, I'm with you on your last statement in your first post. :)

Sometimes age brings complacency to your job.
Not saying that's what happened to any of these folks, accidents do happen, but just saying......

Taana, that view brings back alot of memories. Remember swimming at Emil's beach, back in the day? Of course we weren't down there when there was snow on the ground, but sometimes the water sure felt like it.

This post is way over due, but I want to correct myself if anyone checks this later. I was wrong in my statement about having a book written by one of the Bradley shipwreck survivors....I was mistakenly thinking of the Morrell disaster crewmember, David Hale. I apologize....my 'excuse'...I'm 76yrs old.;)