PHOTO ABOVE - One of the many freighters (and pilot ships - on the right) that move through the DeTour Passage 24/7. This freighter is actually on the small side relative to some that passed through.

DeTour sits on the "DeTour Passage" the major shipping lane from Lake Superior and just West of Drummond Island. Large freighters pass through the passage 24/7. There is also an hourly ferry from DeTour to Drummond until 11 pm. That combination can make for interesting navigation and traffic patterns sailors need to deal with. We were fortunate that when we arrived only the ferry was motoring across the passage.

Which brings me to our experience last night. At about 2:00 am terrifying screams for help woke us. Our stern faced the gas dock and when I looked out a port I could see a 35-40' sailboat (ketch) drifting away from the dock. I went outside on the dock and looked closer. The crew were screaming for someone to call 911 (which Marjorie immediately did). The crew yelled that the captain was cut and bleeding. I could also hear him and knew that he was in serious distress.

I grabbed my first aid kit and ran around to the gas dock, which was a distance of more than 50 yards. I found the captain in the water between the dingy (a 12' Zodiac with a 40 HP outboard) and the bow of the sailboat. He was clinging to a ladder attached to the dock. He was conscious but obviously severely hurt. I reached down to help him up and could see that he had been struck in his face/jaw with the propeller of the outboard. Amazingly he had enough strength and will to help me lift him out of the water and onto the dock. He was bleeding severely and I gave him gauze and large wound bandages to place on his face/jaw.

He and his family had been on their 35' sailboat motoring in the DeTour passage on the way to a destination in the North Channel when the engine failed. Obviously concerned about the safety of his family given that they were stalled in a busy shipping lane at 2:00 am, he elected to tow the sailboat with his rather substantial dinghy as there was no wind of significance to move the boat out of the shipping lane via sails.

They made it into the marina and were even at the gas dock. What apparently happened was that the sailboat trapped the dinghy between the dock and its bow which forced this lightweight craft up, almost on the dock. He was thrown from the dinghy and when the sailboat moved away the dinghy probably came back over him with the outboard running. His foul weather jacket stopped the prop and engine.

EMT arrived about in about 10 minutes, which is really amazing as DeTour is really off the beaten path. The ambulance ride to Sault St. Marie hospital was an hour. We have since learned that he was air lifted to the U of Mich hospital in Ann Arbor. We truly hope he is doing better and that he'll fully recover.

On board were his wife and 3 young boys. Marjorie graciously offered and stayed with the boys on board their boat so his wife could go to the hospital with her critically injured husband. Family members from down state arrived at 9 am to help the wife and boys. We learned on Friday AM from his wife that the gentlemen had a successful surgery to repair the severe injury to his face and jaw. We hope that he and his family will have a speedy recovery.

We had planned to leave Thursday for Meldrum Bay on Manitoulin Island (about 40 miles east) to clear into Canadian immigration and begin our travel through the North Channel. We'll leave Friday instead as we need some rest before we navigate these unfamiliar waters.