The Great Lakes Cruising Club has worked with Mariners Learning System to provide members a way to enhance their boating knowledge on-line from their own homes.
GLCC News
The US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) is developing future clean-boating requirements for all recreational boats in the next few months, and they need to hear from boaters.
Researchers have discovered the shipwreck of a 60-foot sloop in Lake Michigan, off Saugatuck. The wreck may be from the 1820s or 1830s.
02/08/2022 Corrected broken link. JM
The March issue is now available HERE.
Thinking of chartering either in the Great Lakes or elsewhere? The Caribbean? The Med? Like to receive a discounted rate on your charter vacations?
02/08/2022 Corrected link to profile. JM
The 25th Annual Lake Superior Mid-Winter Dinner Meeting was held Saturday, January 15, at the Fort Snelling Officers Club, St. Paul, MN.
Each year Golden Wrench Award is given at the GLCC's Lake Superior Mid-Winter Dinner.
04/27/2023 Updated link. JM 02/08/2022 Updated link to profile JM
This is Your Opportunity to get your "Boating Stuff" for sale in front of a captive audience (GLCC members only).
The cruise ship that has made national news (for suffering through a wild storm off Cape Horn) will be familiar to GLCC cruisers. She is the Clelia II, shown in the Jim-Wooll photo (left), approaching the dock at Little Current.
A new buoy to test for wind strengths on Lake Michigan will be stationed 6 miles off the Lake Michigan east shore. The buoy is designed to gather data for use in deploying offshore wind turbines.
Port Captain Gerry Krause passed away on November 14, 2010.
The December issue of the Lifeline is now available HERE.
Marge Beaver of Muskegon has just published a 208-page hard cover book, Above the Lighthouses: Lake Michigan, featuring all the 100 lighthouses on the lake in full color aerial photos. Area views show why each lighthouse site was required for safe navigation..
Now that the season is ending (and before the memory fades), please send in your updates to the harbor reports.
Changes may be in the offing for Mackinac Island ferry service. News story here.
GLCC member Roy Eaton has prepared a history of his North-Channel Cruiser's Net. You can download the 2-part history by clicking on:
A good new full-color cruise guide is now available, covering Chicago to Paducah, Kentucky. Details here...
Cruise ships will be back on the Great Lakes late next summer, after an absence of several years.
Photos of the July 25 party honoring new GLCC honorary members, Dr.
The GLCC fleet gathered for the Wilderness Rally, Burnt Island, Beaverstone Bay, July 27-29. It was a windy affair, with plenty of anchoring practice.
The latest soundings indicate that the water depth in the channel into Beaverstone Bay from the Collins Inlet is 5' 6".
U.S. foghorns are increasingly becoming boater-activated.
A new 250-slip marina is underway in Port Hope, Ontario, with completion expected in 2-3 years.
There's a new historical exhibit on the Challenger, the oldest "Laker" still operating on the Great Lakes. She is 104 years old this year.
The Michigan DNR has a new website to help boaters find and map lake launch ramps and access sites throughout the state—especially helpful for trailer sailors.
04/27/2023 Corrected link to harbor report. JM
Here's a good travelogue article on the St.
Our GLCC Fleet Surgeon Gail Bowdish is featured in an article entitled “You Can Only Blame Yourself” in the May issue of SAILING.
Torresen Marine in Muskegon will be finishing up the largest solar-panel installation in Michigan, in time for Earth Day, April 22.
Photo by Mel Wallbank, showing the Alpena stuck in an ice jam off Port Huron, March 20.
Toronto native, Diane Reid, is preparing for the gruelling trans-Atlantic singlehanded sailboat race, the 4000 mile Mini-650, for boats 6.5 meters (21 feet) long. Her first trial sail aboard her new boat will be off Toronto, April 7.
On May 29th, 2010 at 1:00 PM, GLCC members and friends are invited to attend a Celebration in remembrance of Al (Skip) Penniston, a long time GLCC member and Port Captain. This event will be
04/28/2023 Corrected link to article. JM
A great new group boat-insurance plan will soon be available to GLCC members. Click here for details...
Port Captain James Morrin has posted a news update on the Chicago Harbor System. Details here...
A Port-Huron/Sarnia group, The Mariner's Coalition, has produced a handy business-card with border-crossing contact information, as well as a CD-ROM explaining customs and immigration regulations for Canada-U.S.
Attendance at Strictly Sail in Chicago, January 28-31, was surprisingly strong, and the GLCC booth did very well signing up new members. Read more here...
About 90 members and guest attended the GLCC's Lake Superior Mid-Winter Dinner on Jan. 16.
The Toronto International Boat Show was a success for the GLCC. Read more here...
GLCC member Roy Eaton of Little Current has been honored as Volunteer of the Year by the Canadian Safe Boating Counci (CASBA).
Scientists are developing batteries based on paper, made from fresh-water algae—the stringy stuff that washes up on beaches and clogs your water-intake strainer.
A WWII Navy Hellcat fighter plane was pulled from Lake Michigan last weekend, the second trainer plane to be recovered this year, and the sixth since the end of the war.
The Lauren Harris sketch, "Old Stump, Lake Superior," sold for $3.5 million at auction.
The on-line Great Lakes Echo is cataloging recent songs about the Great Lakes, and looking for songs they may have missed.
ScienceDaily (Nov.
Michigan Tech University will soon be building a new research center for studies of the Great Lakes. Details here.
Tiara Yachts of Holland, Michigan—in a year of slow boat sales—has formed a sister company to build wind turbine blades. Info here...
November 7-10 is the anniversary of the Great Storm of 1913, usually considered the worst Great Lakes storm of recorded history.
President Obama has signed into law a $475 million Great Lakes clean-up bill. News story here...
Nearly 100 GLCC members and guests attended the recent Annual General Meeting and Change of Watch Ceremony at Windsor, ON. J.E.
GLCC members Bill and Sylvia Mueller spent the last 19 years building their 52-foot cutter Eos, and have now successfully embarked on
Ohio Attorney General to appeal court decision on Lake Erie waterfront land rights.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate voted Thursday to provide $6 million for continuing efforts to thwart the Asian carp from penetrating the Great Lakes in what environmentalists fear would destroy much of the existing wildlife in the world's largest surface freshwater resource.
A group of eight Lake Superior islands, totaling more than 4,700 acres, will be protected under a recent $7 million bi-national purchase by the N
Roy Eaton, who broadcasts the Cruisers Net in the North Channel, has posted its history from 2004-2009. There were over 5800 call-ins this summer from over 1000 different boats. With new equipment his reach is much further.
16 boats and several cars attended the Lake Superior Rally, August 7, through Sunday, August 9, at the friendly Madeline Island Yacht Club (MIYC), La Poi
Scientists are examining what they are calling "fundamental changes" in the Great Lakes ecosystem. News story here...
2/8/2022 Corrected link to furter info. JM
On June 18, Michigan boat-broker Michael Vorce plead guilty of fraud, securing loans for at least 30 expensive boats with fraudulent documents and titles, while really owning just 4 boats.
An ancient caribou hunting site has been discovered on the bottom of Lake Huron. Details of the find are here...
As of next September, 2009, boat operators in Canada will be required to have an "Operator Card," as evidence of knowledge of boat operation.
A new, very sharp water plant has invaded the Trent-Severn Waterway. Since it spreads downstream easily, it may find its way into Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario.
A PBS documentary on the Great Lakes is scheduled for production in 2009 & 2010 and will be aired in 2011.
The Community Foundation of St. Clair County, Port Huron, MI, will give GLCC Commodore Jim Acheson a lifetime achievement award on June 11.
Don't be confused—this newcomer group is the "Great Lakes Cruising Coalition," designed to promote passenger cruise liners on the Great Lakes.
A different sort of cruise began on Lake Superior at Two Harbors, April 6.
Need a taste of cruising the North Channel?
The Google Earth internet viewer has now added the Great Lakes to its "oceanic" views.
The ice-breaking season on the Lakes is ending the week of April 13. News story here...
A report covers the complexity of global climate change, as reflected in the Great Lakes. Read the news story...
Scientists are now examining recently discovered "sink holes" under Lake Huron, with unusual life forms. Read the news story...
Winter colors the landscape white in this image of Lake Nipigon captured by the MODIS on the Aqua satellite captured on December 22, 2008. In this image, the lake, which resembles a large white splotch, is covered with ice and snow.
- George Bartlett Midland, Ontario GB-22
Here's an overview of the state of the Great Lakes, by an easterner (feature writer for the Christian Science Monitor). An interest
Here's evidence that the GLCC web page is very easy to use—even a boat cat can handle it. For newcomers, there's lots of basic information under the "Help" button at the top of this page.
Happy Thanksgiving
to all Great Lakes Cruisers...
Take a tour of the first Thanksgiving ship, the Mayflower...
Many think of the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking as the greatest Great Lakes tragedy. But a far greater storm occurred in 1913. Story is here...
New breakwater lights in Muskegon serve dual purpose—intended for safety but a boon to navigation. Story here...
Here's a projection of what the Great Lakes will look like in 1000 years, if current trends continue. Open the full-size image.
The 100-foot USS Dexter, built in 1925 as a rum-runner patrol boat, will be scuttled off Chicago to become an underwater diver's site this fall. The photo shows the Dexter being launched at Defoe Shipbuilders in Bay City, Michiga