Time Lapse Video of the Michigan Schooner Festival

Click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adHcB1ZR8H8 to see Ken Scott's time lapse video of the Parade of Sail last Friday evening! Enjoy, Capt. Tom

More from the Michigan Schooner Festival

Sunday at the Michigan Schooner Festival

Early Morning Calm. From the left: Madeline, Appledore V, Inalnd Seas, Dennis Sullivan

Capt. Tom giving the pre-trip Safety Briefing

Sailing dory on West Grand Traverse Bay

Returning to Clinch Park on our final sail of the Festival. Appledore V is dockside in the photo.

Schooner Festival - Sept. 11, 2009

Dennis Sullivan missed the Parade of Sail, but made a fine sight on Saturday
The littlest schooner?

Arcturus, MHA's H-28

Madeline

Conditions were perfect for the first Michigan Schooner Festival in Grand Traverse Bay.

-Capt. Tom

September 10, 2009 - Donor Sail and Appledore V

"Come and get it"...Greg is ready to serve.

ISEA held a dinner sail for its donors (Captain Circle and above) on the evening of Sept. 10. We had 25 guests and a fine dinner prepared by Inland Seas' chef Greg Hatfield. It was a wonderfully warm evening filled with good friends and good conversation.

After we arrived back at out dock, the schooner Appledore V from Bay City came alongside to spend the night. She will join Inland Seas tomorrow for the Traverse City Schooner Festival (along with Dennis Sullivan, Welcome, Madeline and others).

Appledore V rafted off alongside Inland Seas. Capt. David Leanza is standing with the flag.

Student Ideas for Protecting the Great Lakes

Here are some suggestions from students in the Fresh Water Studies (ENV 105) class at NMC yesterday following Tom Kelly's session on the Environmental History of the Great Lakes:

1. Try to get the local golf courses to not use fertilizers.
2. Pick up any trash you find.
3. Use environmentally safe pesticides or none at all. Same for fertilzers.
4. Plant trees.
5. Stop over-fishing. Follow fishing rules.
6. Don't mow lawns. Convert to low maintenance vegetation in your lawn.
7. Be aware of your water use. Try to use less around your home.
8. Drive less. Ride your bike or walk.
9. Enroll in NMC's Fresh Water Studies Program! Share knowledge and raise awareness.

NMC & ISEA

ISEA has had a long working relationship with Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City. This has continued this week as NMC's Watershed Studies Class, lead by Prof. Colleen Masterson Bzdok sailed aboard the schoolship Inland Seas on Tuesday morning. The class trawled for fish, took samples of the bottom sediments, hauled a net for zooplankton, and used an Alpha Bottle to collect water samples for pH, D. O. and temperature determinations. They also measured the water transparency with a secchi disk (12 meters). We had very little wind to work with, but we did sail, and it was a beautiful day to be on the lake. A second Watershed Class will sail with us on Monday September 14th.

NMC's Water Studies Institute project finds the wreck of the Lauren Castle in Grand Traverse Bay. The tug Lauren Castle, which sank 5 November 1980 off Lee Point near Suttons Bay, lies in water more than 400 feet deep. For details go to http://www.km.kongsberg.com/ks/web/nokbg0238.nsf/AllWeb/F4F5D670781F6F4BC1257623004BD9FB?OpenDocument

And, finally, ISEA's Executive Director Tom Kelly will present a program today for NMC's new Freshwater Studies program entitled "An Ecological History of the Great Lakes."

Maintenance Work Continues

Bob and Allen exercising the portable bilge pump, drying out the forepeak. Remy drilling holes in the steel roof frames to fasten the plywood.

Plywood piece in place, with epoxy and fiberglass coating.

As the week ended Remy and Allen had the cabin top repair completed and put on a coat of primer paint on Friday afternoon. The deck was ready for our full Family Science Sail on Saturday morning. Greg was busy steam cleaning all the matrasses and painting the waterways. Bob H. also did a lot of painting. --TK

Watershed Center Uses ISEA Whaler for Aquatic Macrophyte Survey

Last week the Baykeeper John Nelson and the Watershed Center's Program Director Sarah U'Ren borrowed ISEA's 13' Boston Whaler for use in their macrophyte study of Grand Traverse Bay. http://www.gtbay.org/macrophyte.asp They worked the east side of Suttons Bay and the Stony Point area. They will soon begin work on East Bay using the Bay Monitor tug.

Reflections on the Astronomy Cruise

Pastoral Reflection
I had the recent opportunity to be a part of the Inland Seas schooner night cruise in order to study the stars from Suttons Bay. It was a wonderful experience which will take me a long time to ponder and digest deep within.

I could not help but to experience my littleness within God's greatness. I understood much more graphically what the psalmist would pray as he sings of the praises and the greatness of our God who is able to count the number of the stars, calling each one by name...an awesome, power-filled image of the singular, magnificence of our God. I'd highly recommend an Inland Seas schooner adventure at night. In one sense, it could only have been better if there were no instructor, only pure silence...to experience the vastness and greatness of our God. It was almost the feeling and experience of the prayer "Oh Lord, your seas are so vast, my ship...my boat so small.." Yet, He holds us safe within Himself.

I am grateful for the gifts we have at our fingertips here in Leelanau County..."Ask, and seek and you will find...knock and it will be opened for you." (Matthew 7:7-11)
-Fr. Jim Doherty, St. Michael Church, Suttons Bay

September 2, 2009 - 0730

No words are necessary. -Capt. Tom