A sailor’s response to the Milwaukee Boat origin story / “review”

This article is a response to THIS story/review, allegedly written by one of the owners of the infamous and long-beached Milwaukee Boat.

Since October, I’ve often found myself thinking about what could have gone so wrong for so long, and behind such a veil of mystery, that the owners of that abandoned boat near Bradford Beach never came forward about their contribution to our lakefront scenery. While abandoned boats are not uncommon in coastal cities far south of here, they are less common on the Lake Michigan shoreline. The spectacle seems like an event exclusive to a maritime museum pamphlet, or a Gordon Lightfoot song, rather than something that could happen in present day. We like to believe these enduring archives have sufficiently addressed our human hubris and follies to the extent that we have learned well from such historical mishaps. A recent Boat origin story / Google Maps review allegedly posted by Sherry Wells, one of the owners of the abandoned ship, indicates that this is not the case.

So what happened out there that fateful day last October, when the S.S. Minnow/Deep Thought ran aground on our shores? As someone moderately familiar with Lake Michigan past and present boating, I set out to find out.

April 23, 2025

The story begins with a MacGuffin: “It was due to the incompetence of the marina that we became stranded.” First, I’m not really sure how this is possible. Having been a resident at McKinley Marina for several years, I can say with confidence that they have never demonstrated incompetence in my personal dealings. They are responsive and accommodating throughout the year and proactive in their communications.

The review does not elaborate, but I suspect the owners may have found themselves out in a rainstorm (the review calls it a “gale,” but this term is incorrect), radioed into McKinley, and were told that no slips were available. Most marinas require reservations if a vessel comes into port from elsewhere, simply because they prioritize their residents and need to keep their patronage and security in mind. Unannounced boats cannot enter a marina and pull up to a random dock without being discovered eventually. Once docked, you can’t really do anything else, as the marina issues keys to come and go. It would have been better for the boat to enter the breakwater outside the marina and drop anchor in the calmer waters near the Milwaukee Art Museum.

If the boat had sent out a distress call, the Coast Guard, which does have a station in Milwaukee, would have likely been the ones to respond. I surely hope the marina the reviewer refers to did not recommend the boaters head out into bad weather; instead, this strikes me as improper planning and maybe unlucky timing at best. The reviewer admits to have run out of gas in one engine, but not the other. This would not render the boat useless, as these boats can still operate with a single engine running. This may have spooked the boaters enough to alter their ability to make the right decisions during the events that followed.

The first 14 photos of the boat capture the ship from all angles that were possible without getting in the water. There’s a nice kayak on the bow in those early shots, indicating that the owners probably had spent time on the water before.

October 18, 2024

But Lake Michigan is not to be taken lightly. I have been in some tense crossings on this body of water and have developed a sailor’s respect for the elements that are only born of surviving the utterly terrifying. Lucky for most modern boaters, terrifying events can be avoided or accounted for by developing a navigation plan. Most phones come equipped with a little weather radar that tracks wind and rain across a 12- to 24-hour timeline. While not always accurate enough for serious sailors, it’s good enough to determine if today will be a comfortable or an uncomfortable day on the water.

On October 13, 2024, port conditions in Milwaukee were unfavorable from about noon to about 9 p.m. Winds appear to have been consistently coming from the west that afternoon at about 30 to 35 knots, with some gusting. The review says that the owners had been in a “gale” for hours, which leads me to believe that they had plenty of time to seek refuge in the breakwater but somehow couldn’t make it there. For reference, Sherry’s claim that “it’s like a Cat 1 Hurricane” is also false. Category 1 hurricanes must clock wind speeds upwards of 75 knots to be classified as such.

At this point, I’m thinking this review has been dramatized to conceal a lack of aptitude and conventional wisdom. If the boaters had been looking for a pier as their sanctuary and were denied access, it is possible they made a hasty decision to drop the anchor instead of making the level-headed decision to tuck away inside the breakwater (which has no barrier to entry) and ride out the storm. The review does not mention that the anchor was tucked inside an anchor locker at the bow, and those first 14 images indeed show the anchor gathered in an unprofessional bundle at the nose. I imagine the setup was incomplete to begin with as the boaters had not considered it to be worth their attention. Here’s a tip: before you ever take a boat out on the water, make a few backup plans. Also: check the weather.

October 18, 2024

The review does not say when the owners launched the vessel, nor how far away from shore they were when the winds started to concern them. But those early photographs reveals a Ray Marine radar mounted on the bimini, a tool that acts as a doppler to provide sailors with information about weather, land, and other boats. Furthermore, a boater always keeps the radio on and tuned to channel 16, which updates boaters on weather conditions and Coast Guard advisories. It is over this station a boater might hear the Coast Guard issue a “small craft advisory,” used to warn small crafts (defined more by the captain’s experience than the size of the craft) when winds hit consistent speeds of about 25 to 35 knots. Within this range of wind, it is still possible to operate a vessel, but it is not as safe or as comfortable, particularly if there are other factors at work or if the crew doesn’t have the right training or experience. Rain, downed engines, and uncooperative marinas do not paint quite as chaotic a picture as the non-sailor might imagine. Being unprepared or negligent in matters of crew safety, however, are more likely causes for disaster on the water.

December 17, 2024

One can be an inexperienced boater, but not for long. It is not a hobby for the ill-prepared or for anyone without the ability to assess risk during moments when both crew and vessel are under intense pressure. At the very least, all crew should have been wearing life jackets as soon as the weather turned unfavorable. After closely reading the testimony and applying a few principles of good sailing to the story, I actually believe this version of the truth. Maybe not despite the glaring plethora of bad practices in the review, but because there are so many. We like to think of boats the way they are in Jimmy Buffet songs: relaxing ways to escape all your land-based troubles and free yourself of pedestrian concerns. I’m sorry if I’m the first to tell you that this is pure illusion.

February 13, 2025

Let’s talk about the climactic moment, the final moments afloat, before the boat washed ashore: the Rogue Wave.

The review writer, Sherry, claims to have been knocked overboard by a rogue wave when heading towards the bow to release the anchor. The captain, Rick, chose to save her, thus sacrificing the boat to the elements. This is credible. But again, the statement reveals more about the boaters’ inexperience and unpreparedness—and, in me, does not inspire much sympathy. Waves and wind come at you fast on a boat, and it takes a keen sense of timing and very clear communication between crew members to handle a boat with only two people in such conditions. Rogue waves happen, but given the rest of the statement, I’d bet my foul weather windbreaker that this was just a regular wave the crew was unprepared to ride.

Sherry says she tipped over the edge and held onto the cable that runs between the stanchions (which she should have been clipped to with a life vest). This caused precious moments of time to be lost in the rescue mission. At this point, the momentum of the waves was likely to have run the boat too close to the shore to drop anchor. Lake Michigan does not get very deep very quickly. It is deceptively shallow for a long time, which is something only boaters care about, since running a vessel aground is in the top three “boating situations to avoid at all costs.” To avoid this, every boat is equipped with a transducer, an electrical sensor used to measure depth. It sounds like the owners were trying to anchor too close to shore before the rogue or regular wave hit the bow, and that the necessary considerations for each other’s safety just…weren’t first priority.

March 14, 2025

Everybody knows what came after this. Who knew the unusual sight on our shores would become a local pilgrimage? Strange things have a way of drawing us to them. But in the mystery of the Minnow, it is not a tale of the strange as much as it is a tale of plain ol’ foolishness. We’re grateful nobody was seriously injured. Nevertheless, I urge Milwaukeeans not to elevate this incident to lore-like levels without understanding that it was caused by extreme and dangerous negligence that led to even more extreme and expensive negligence.

In the end, if all that was lost in this saga was a fishing boat and some dignity, and all that we gained was a weird landmark, maybe that’s okay. Far worse things can happen on the water. Ask a real sailor.