Great Loop Waterway
Only days from becoming the first woman to sail solo around the 6,000-mile America’s Great Loop inland waterway, Mary Ellen Mangile was almost killed by eight-foot waves in a storm on the body of water known as the graveyard of the Great Lakes.
Even as she was battling to get her outboard motor restarted, she couldn't help but appreciate the irony in having traveled over 5,000 miles only to run into her biggest problem in the waters she knew best. The conditions were so poor; Mangile wouldn’t allow the Coast Guard to send out a craft from the U.S. Towboat Service though she was less than five miles from shore. She eventually got her motor to stay running and limped back into port.
Now, back on dry land, Mangile is taking a break before resuming her journey in late spring, when she’s confident Lake Erie will be in a more welcoming mood. Her journey began when she set sail in her boat Indigo Lady July 31, 2005, from LaSalle, Ont., south of Windsor. Since then she’s sailed solo across the Great Lakes through Chicago, down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico before breaking last winter.
Resuming her trip this past March, Mangile crossed the tip of Florida and headed north up the U.S. eastern seaboard before finally heading inland past New York City. Continuing up the Hudson River, she turned west at the Erie Canal in upstate New York, endured a freak October blizzard that stranded her for five days near Buffalo before Lake Erie’s ill temper sunk her hopes of finishing off the trip Oct. 21. Her 24-foot boat is docked for the winter in Dunkirk, N.Y. She plans to sail up the Detroit River this spring to LaSalle.
January 31, 2007 6:39 AM | Category: Boats