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Incredible voyage
Here's some reading for a dark and stormy night, but only if you are safely tied to the dock. Marlin Bree's Wake of the Green Storm tells of his incredible voyage in a 20-foot wooden sailboat across Lake Superior's north shore. Early in the journey, on July 4th, 1999, he was caught offshore in one of the most violent summer storms of the century with winds clocked at 100 miles per hour. What's incredible about this experience is that not only did Bree survive, so did Persistence, his boat. But wait, there's more. Not only did they both survive, but then the author did something completely unpredicable and tremendously unexpected...he continued the voyage!
Follow along with Marlin Bree as he cruises the Great Lakes' most remote shoreline, reliving its history, exploring its lore and pondering its mysteries. All this, a personal experience of Lake Superior legends by a man who, by chasing them, became a legend himself.
--Great Lakes Cruiser>/b>
Book is a must for any Lake Lover's Library
"In addition to his own near-fatal cruise, Mr. Bree gives the most detailed account I've read of the dramatic sinking of the Grampa Woo and relates other tales of shipwrecks yet more distant in time like the rather amusing wreck of the expensive yacht Guinila near Rossport Harbor in 1911, and, the tragic sinking of the Daniel J. Morrell on Lake Huron in 1966 (The gripping story of the Morrell's sole survivor, Denis Hale, covered with ice and adrift for several cold November days in a small boat, will leave you with a new respect for the men and women who crew the big ore boats). And besides the wrecks, there's the story of the islands themselves: Silver Islet, for example, a tiny island artificially enlarged to ten times its original size that yielded a million ounces of silver between 1872 and 1874; and Talbot Island, nicknamed the Island of Doom for reasons you can read about yourself, because this book is a must for any Lake Lover's Library."
--Reader Weekly
A magazine article based on Wake of the Green Storm won a top award in the Boating Writers International's 2003 Writing Contest.
SUPERB JOB
Bree's account of the strength and ferocity of the storm and his struggle to keep his boat under control offer the reader a glimpse of the terrifying strength of the lake and its weather and the vulnerability of one man and his little boat. Bree vividly describes the beating that he and Persistence endured and his relief when he finds shelter in an island's cove is palpable.
Bree does a superb job in contrasting the beauty of the islands and the hospitality of the people he meets with Superior's power and capricious nature. His historic recounts of boats and men that failed against the big lake's might are an added interest for the reader and further illustrate Superior's unforgiving nature.
Bree offers the reader familiarity and connection with the people he writes about and an honest and realistic account of his strengths and vulnerabilties along his journey. It is easy to understand why he has such a deep and lasting respect for Lake Superior.
Northern Breezes Sailing Magazine
Reviewed by Michele Pufahl
Author's note: The outstanding regional sailing magazine, Northern Breezes, is skippered by veteran sailor, Capt. Thom Burns. The author had the pleasure of sailing along the Superior's Shipwreck Coast with Capt. Burns in a 35-foot catamaran.
"We're going over!"
Excerpt from Wake of the Green Storm
The boat teetered dangerously. The wind screamed like a banshee. I saw water slosh up through the open centerboard case.
I could feel an icy chill in my heart. We were turning over, slowly, oh so slowly.
I braced myself. We were not coming back up.
We were caught in the teeth of the storm. Out of control.
If the wind could get a grip on the high side of my hull, it could shove my boat over. We'd capsize all the way, rolling upside down, mast down, bottom up. She'd never come up from that.
I'd be underneath.
Somehow, I pulled myself up and tore out of the dodger, grabbing the high, windward lifelines. Rain pelted my face as I faced my enemy.
The lake was cold and gray, its surface scoured flat by the terrible wind. Long contrails of mist whipped across the water like icy whips.
I turned in time to see four heavy rubber fenders tear away from the cockpit and fly away.
My boat balanced on its side, reeling with every gust. The mast spreader dipped into the water, then rose a little unsteadily.
Hand over hand, I cralwed back to the transom. My hand closed in a death grip on the tiller.
Another huge gust tore into us. I felt us go down farther.
No! I threw myself over the windward lifelines as far as I could, but the boat was still on its side and out of control.
I could only hang on.
(copyright Marlin Bree)
After the Lighthouse of Doom:
Fog and winds roll in
Excerpt from Lost in the Fog chapter
The wind started to blow from the southeast and the boat slowed and swayed with the gusts, creaking, groaning, and clanging. The waves were hitting us off our starboard bow, giving us nasty little shoves and splashing some of their whitecaps aboard.
I glanced below just in time to see a little slop of water shootingup through the open centerboard trunk.
A chill settled in my stomach. I had barely entered the open waters and already I was having problems.
I double-checked my chart, bringing out my dividers. I was on a course of 102 degrees, heading mostly easterly, doing 5.9 m.ph. I had just changed from a heading of 82 degrees off Grebe Point, trying to avoid a big pile of reefs off Bettle Point.
An hour of this and I'd be heading into Simpson Straight, on my way to Lake Nipigon. I'd be in the protection of the islands -- and off the open waters of the lake.
I was just putting down my chart when a white bank rolled in with the wind. All my landmarks disappeared.
Total fog. I could barely see beyond my bow.
My adrenalin surged again. A small voice inside my head warned: Danger! You should get the heck out of here.
I shook my head, trying to center myself. Sailing Superior is as much a mind game as physical. You have to keep a psychological advantage -- and not give in to fear.
Now..where was that bloody channel?
(copyright Marlin Bree)
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The "Green Storm" erupted out of the Boundary Waters Wilderness area and swept out onto the northernmost arc of Lake Superior with wind downbursts estimated at up to 130 mph. The author was heading for Thompson Island at the mouth of Thunder Bay.
WAKE OF THE GREEN STORM:
A SURVIVOR'S TALE
Roaring out of nowhere, a derecho with downbursts estimated at up to 130 mph. tore onto Lake Superior to overtake a lone sailor and his wooden boat.
Caught in a wall of wind, spinning out of control, author Marlin Bree fought to survive "the Storm of the Century" -- Superior's version of The Perfect Storm.
Join Marlin Bree in the cockpit of his small sailboat as the monster storm closes in on him and he fights to save himself and his small sailboat.
After surviving the killer storm, Bree seeks refuge in a remarkable island on Superior, where he meets other Green Storm survivors and he shares experiences and stories with them. Shaken but determined, the author resumes his voyage in his 20-foot home-built sailboat into the island archepelego of the northernmost arc of Lake Superior.
Bree's remarkable adventures range geographically from the old fur fort in Grand Portage, Minn., across the U.S. and Canadian border, and into the northernmost arc of Superior, a wilderness island archipelago that will soon become the world's largest freshwater conservation area. Bree's voyage ends happily in the picturesque Slate Islands, off Ontario's rugged coast.
Interspered with the author's own adventures are the stories of other boater's experiences in the July 4, 1999, storm as well as tales of heroism and survival of boaters in other Superior heavy weather. This includes the remarkable tale of the destruction of the excursion boat, the Grampa Woo off Isle Royale (and not far from where the author sailed) and the incredible reconstruction of the survival of a man deserted on a storm-lashed, ice-coated life raft.
Here are more remarkable stories of dangerous storms, shipwrecks, seafaring and an island of silver on the notorious waters of the world's largest freswater lake, told by a master sea storyteller. Wake of the Green Storm is the inspiring true tale of seafaring in a last frontier of wind and water.
The book was on Amazon.com's regional best-seller list for more than one year.
Wake of the Green Storm: A survivor's tale. ISBN 1-892147-04-1 / quality trade paperback / 48 drawings, illustrations & charts / 6 x 9 size, four color laminated cover / 224 pages. $13.95 U.S. / $20.95 in Canada Available at most booksellers everywhere, and, also available personally autographed from the publisher at 1-800-669-4908.
The Green Storm:actually a rare Derecheo!
NOAA web pages, with expert comments and radar imaging, show details on the July 4, 1999 "Green Storm" that engulfed the author on Lake Superior. Click on the Quick Link below. The text tells about the storm and graphics as well as charts show the heavy weather going through the area. In particular, the author Bob Johns points out that a derecho is not a single straight line wind but is composed of a family of downburst clusters. The July 4 "Green Storm" was a very long-lived derecho and one of the farthest north progressive derechos to have been recorded. To see the specific storm described in Wake of the Green Storm, click on the hotlink below (in blue type). Scroll down to HISTORIC DERECHO EVENTS. Look for Independence Day Derecho Events. Scroll down to July 4-5, 1999 The Boundary Waters-Canadian Derecho: ND, MN, ON, QB, NY, TV, NE. You'll see specific links showing radar imaging, maps, pix, and a description of the rare progressive derecho. (Note that NOAA plays it safe on its reporting, refering only to recorded wind speeds where they had instrumentation; however, elsewhere, NOAA also says that derecho downburst windspeeds may be twice that of the speed of the derecho. The ground speed of the derecho was recorded at 80 mph. Minneapolis Star-Tribune weathercaster Paul Douglas, in his book Restless Skies, reported that downburst going through the area were in the range of 130 mph.
After the storm: Persistence rests in CPR harbor's clear waters after surviving the Green Storm and, later, going up on the rocks.
The author's adventuresome voyage continued eastward, past the Island of Doom, to Rossport, and, the beautiful Slate Islands. The entire voyage is covered in the book, Wake of the Green Storm.
More Great Reviews!
Follow along with Marlin Bree as he cruises the Great Lakes' most remote shoreline reliving its history, exploring its lore and pondering its mysteries. All this, a personal exprience of Lake Superior legends by a man who, by chasing them, became a legend himself.
--Great Lakes Cruiser magazine
...the only boater to date to report at length on what happened on Superior during tyhe historic storm. This Bree does with unusually fine craftsmanship.
--Ken Wisneski, Stillwater Gazette
Recommended. -- The Library Journal
Bree has a delightful voice and his adventures on Lake Superior offer SoCal boaters a rather different slant on sailing. Equals any oceanic adventure. --San Diego Log
Recommended for anyone planning a cruise in the area or just looking for a sailing read when confined to the harbor. -- Good Old BoatMagazine
A good Great Lakes tale, narrated by a sailor who obviously relishes the telling of a good story.
--Soundings magazine
Read Marlin Bree books. They are very fine and well written cruising narratives. Also very good on the history of ports around the lake, especially in terms of maritime history.
--Jerry Levy
In a real dark night of the soul,
it is always three o'clock in the morning.
--F. Scott Fitzgerald
Excerpt from Wake of the Green Storm
It is 1:30 a.m. After sleeping only a few hours, I am propped upright in my sleeping bag against the starboard side of my bunk. The chill cabin is bathed in the red glow of the battery panel's tiny bulb. It keeps me company. Below me, water in the bilge is rising.
Things are catching up with me. I cannot sleep. The painkillers aren't working. I am so stiff at times I think I am going to fall over on my face. Over the sound of the cold waves and the swish of the rising water in the bilge, things whisper to me in the night.
What if I'd wrecked my boat? What If I fell overboard and had to survive in the frigid water. Once those waters touched me...
I took a deep breath. My fears were overreaching my mind.
In freezing waters, survivors adrift on an open liferaft watch helplessly as their boat breaks in half during a November gale
Desperate plight
of shipwrecked men
Excerpt from Wake of the Green Storm Copyright:Marlin Bree
In a hard November snowstorm that had blasted across the lake, the ore boat the Daniel J. Morrell had fought her way in 25-foot seas until she suddenly broke up. Tossed into the lake was young Dennis Hale, dressed only in his jockey shorts, a pea coat, and a life jacket. Somehow, he managed to survive a 50-foot fall into heavy seas, but he found his problems were just beginning:
The men were exposed to the driving winds and freezing spray. Soaked and desperate, they could only huddle on the grating between the life raft's two pontoons, trying to stay warm.
By dawn, two were dead. Only Dennis Hale and Charlie Fossbender were left.
Dennis lay on his left side, his head cradled under one arm, on the partly collapsed storage compartment. Fossbender was behind him, facing away, curled with his legs up. Both men were shivering uncontrollably.
At about 2 p.m., Fossbender raised himself. "I can see land," he said.
"How far away is it?"
"Quite a distance."
Two hours later, Fossbender died. Dennis was the sole survivor, and, he was freezing to death.
Desperately alone, Dennis thought up ways to stay alive. He tried to move parts of his body even a little bit to keep up circulation. He put his fingers in his mouth so they would not freeze. He did not urinate for fear tht the warmth hehad in his groin would escape -- and he'd die.
The raft ran aground on rocks several hundred feet from shore. Dennis could see lights from a farmhouse. To get help, he fired several flares, holding a broken flare gun together with his bare hands. But no one saw them. He yelled hoarsely when he heard the sounds of people. But no one answered.
He tried to move from the raft, but was almost paralyzed by the cold. His unused muscles knotted with cramps.
In pain, he could only lay and watch. He nursed himself through the long day with hope.
By nightfall, the wind rose again and cold descended on his numbed body. Breakers rolled over the raft.
Dennis drifted in and out of sleep. Ice coated him.
The next morning, right after dawn, he awoke with a start. He saw the farmhouse lights come on. He yelled and yelled gain for help, but no one answered.
It began to snow. |
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