Saving the Great Lakes Forever” Conference kicks off May 6

People from around the entire Great Lake Basin will be gathering for the 2011 Conference “Saving the Great Lakes Forever” which kicks off on Friday, May 6, at 6:50 p.m. at the historic State Theater in downtown Traverse City.

Hosted by the Flow for Water Coalition, the Great Lakes Water Studies Institute at Northwestern Michigan College and Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, the conference will focus on learning about the abuses and threats facing the Great Lakes. The conference will also provide solutions to stop these threats and to protect the citizens, communities, local agriculture, and businesses who depend upon the waters of the Great Lakes Basin.

Friday night's kick-off will feature a presentation by Maude Barlow, internationally recognized water advocate and former Senior Advisor to the President of the United Nations General Assembly. Ms. Barlow is the author of 16 books. Her address will offer a unique perspective on how each of us living within the Great Lakes Basin need to come together to protect the waters of the Great Lakes.

A screening of the award winning documentary “Tapped”, an unflinching look at the plastic bottled water industry, will follow Ms. Barlow's presentation and the evening will conclude with an afterglow party in the “Dome” at the Park Place Hotel for networking, live music, and refreshments.

The conference continues on Saturday, May 7, at Milliken Auditorium and Scholar Hall on the campus of Northwestern Michigan College. Registration opens at 8:00 a.m. Welcome and introductions begin at 8:45 a.m.

Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food and Water Watch and one of the world's leading experts on water, energy, food and the environment, will speak at 9:00 a.m. Her address will be followed by breakout workshop sessions on a variety of water-related hot topics. The event will conclude with an expert roundtable discussion: Solutions for Saving the Waters of the Great Lakes Basin.

Tickets are $25 per person for the 2-day event or $40 for two.

Tickets can be purchased on-line at http://www.flowforwater.org./

Inland Seas Annual Radio Inspection

Thanks to Lee Hepner for our Great Lakes Agreement Radio Inspection.  (we passed)

--Capt. Tom

A Snowy Day At Suttons Bay

The topmasts are up and we are ready to reave the running rigging.  However there needs to be a bit of melting first. 

Ponder the ways of April...the record high temperature is 86 degrees F, the record low is 3 degrees F.  We are 30 degrees above the record low.  So maybe this is not so bad. 

Pram Builders Graduate - and Get Ready To Set Sail

The young pram builders at the Inland Seas Boat Shop received certificates of completion this past Saturday and were each given their own PFD (life jacket) and a scholarship to the Northport Youth Sailing School where they will learn how to sail the boats they built.  More photos are available at ISEA's Flickr page.

Thanks to the ISEA Volunteer Boat Builder Instructors, their leader Chuck Dickerson, and the Collectors Foundation who funded this project.  Thanks also to the parents, grandparents, and friends who brought the students to class each Saturday!

Hit the Beaches for the 2011 ISEA Beach Clean-Up

ISEA Spring Beach Clean-Up, May 23 - May 10, 2011

Beginning this weekend, April 23rd, and until May 10th, you can help clean up the beaches of the Grand Traverse Bay region (river and stream banks are included).  Just go to the ISEA web site schoolship.org and download a Beach Clean-Up data sheet. Then gather some friends and pick up and record what you find. Please recycle everything possible.  We would also like to get photos of your group.  Send photos to tkelly@schoolship.org.  For more information on the Beach Clean-Up, call Sally Somsel at 231-946-8090.

Inland Seas Back Home In Sutton Bay



Underway through skim ice



Arriving back home. We took the cover frame off in the afternoon.

Yesterday we brought the schooner back to her home port in Suttons Bay.  It is sure nice to see her at the dock again.  -Capt. Tom

Maritime Festival Planned for Escanaba on July 6, 2011

A new Maritime Festival will take place in Escanaba this summer, featuring Inland Seas and Madeline.
Read about it in the Escanaba Daily Press.

Life Raft Inflation Video (similar raft is carried aboard Inland Seas & Manitou)

This video of a Viking IBA (inflatable buoyant apparatus) shows a raft similar but larger than those carried aboard Inland Seas and Manitou.  The raft in the video is a double (2 rafts connected together).  Ours are single.  See below. The orange squares are stability bags that fill with water and help stabilize the raft.--Capt. Tom