M A R L I N B R E E - BREE'S BLOG: In The Wake of the Fitzgerald

On the northern track, the Big Fitz fights her way up the north shore and past Isle Royale.

The Fitzgerald hurries to her doom as she finds an unchartered reef.

The mystery of the sinking of the Fitzgerald has become a national obsession. Read Broken Seas.(Click on painting to enlarge it).

At anchor, Persistence rocks gently as author Marlin Bree emerges from a boat cover he built himself. The opening is velcroed shut when needed but opens up for fresh air below.

The Island of Doom lies on the northern shores of Lake Superior and has many legends as the author discovered when one day he sailed too close. Article is in the Nov.-Dec. issue of Small Craft Advisor magazine.

At the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, Marlin Bree takes a rest beside some of the big boats featured at the world's biggest boat show. He was at this international boating event to pick up a Boating Writer's International Grand Prize -- for writing about small boat adventures.

Persistence is towed behind the 1992 Suzuki Sidekick. Here Loris and I are on are way to Grand Portage, MN, along Superior's north shore.I'll be sailing Superior's northernmost arc, where I encountered the near fatal "storm of the century." This adventure became Wake of the Green Storm.

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Bold Sea Stories

21 inspiring and true boating stories to thrill you, lift your spirits, and, now and then, leave you with no dry eyes. Award winners!

Boat Log & Record

Here's a Free Spring get-ready-for-the-water Checklist and Guide. See why the Boat Log & Record has become the perfect small craft record keeper for thoughtful skippers. Copyable and good for two years!

Broken Seas

Dead on the Wind

Wake of the Green Storm

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In the Teeth of the Northeaster

Call of the North Wind

Alone Against the Atlantic

BREE'S BLOG: In The Wake of the Fitzgerald

Hatches blamed for sinking

August 31, 2017

Tags: Edmund Fitzgerald, Causes of sinking of Edmund Fitzgerald, Edmund Fitzgerald Hatches, Coast Guard report on Fitzgerald sinking, Lake Carrier owners association review of CG report, shipwrecks of Lake Superior, Lake Superior storms

You have to be impressed with the ore boat's massive hatch covers -- so heavy at 14,000 pounds each that they require a permanent crane to heft them about and close them. On a clamshell design, which presses them tighter to the hatch coamings, they are massively built and held in place by more than Read More

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