Schoolship Season Ends
With A Bang
ISEA’s last
Schoolship Program of the 2013 season (our 25th!) was on the morning
of October 3rd with Kalkaska Middle School. We had a great trip with light winds and warm
temperatures.
This final trip brought our total
student population for this season to 4,119, giving a total of 98,809 students
since our founding in 1989.
The rain
held off for the final trip of the season, but it soon began to rain and
thunder, and this weather continued off and on for the next four days. Around 11 pm on October 3rd, Inland Seas was struck by lightning. Our deckhand, Ben Clark, was asleep in the foc’s’le,
just a few feet from the foremast that was hit.
He awoke to a huge BANG and then the sound of objects hitting the deck
above. He went into the pilot house
where he could see the deck and rig.
Nothing looked out of the ordinary, so he went back to bed.
The next
morning it was obvious that we had sustained a lightning strike to the
foremast. Little pieces of the R. M.
Young Wind Monitor (anemometer) were scattered on the deck and dock, and the
wooden disc that supported the anemometer was lying on the deck, blasted from
the masthead by the strike.
As we began
a thorough inspection of the vessel we found no structural damage except to one
of the topmast shrouds. The bad news was that many of our electronic instruments
no longer functioned, including the radar, the pilot house VHF radio, the graph
depth sounder, the wind and weather instrument displays, the pilot house GPS
and inverter. We may have to replace the
compasses also. This will run in excess
of $9,000, and should be covered by insurance after our $4,500 deductible is
paid.
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Thank you
for your help with keeping our ship sailing and safe.
Best
regards,
Tom Kelly
ISEA Executive Director
Master, Inland Seas
Update 10-23-13: The R. M. Young Company of Traverse City has offered to replace the damaged weather equipment at no cost. This is a greatly appreciated gift from this local company. Thank you. --Capt. Tom
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