I normally take my wife to work and pick her up, she works the afternoon shift. Since it has gotten nicer I have been leaving early and going down by the river, near the mouth of the lake. I sit and listen to the Redwings, Pistons, or Tiger games while fishing for Pickerel. I see a lot of lake freightors pass by and often I will see someone on deck, or looking out an open hatch or door. When I do I will take one of my lights, usually my Inova T1 or Streamlight Stylus Pro and flash them a few times. It is impressive how many carry a flashlight, it seems that about 95% will flash a light back within a couple of seconds.
Flashlights and Great Lakes freightors
- Thread starter Lee1959
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Uncle Bob
Enlightened
Kinda like waving at locomotive engineers when you were a kid! 
Cydonia
Enlightened
They probably wonder what the heck you are signaling them for :shrug:
Actually, it was two occurances with seperate ships last year where a guy did it first that started it all. They saw my lantern or headlamp and flashed me. I just took it as something they do often to entertain themselves. Rather like the old pumping of the fist to see if a trucker will sound the airhorn trick.
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Aloft
Enlightened
I used to sail the Great Lakes myself during my afloat days in the Coast Guard. Never was without a flashlight aboard ship. I really wish that LED lights like the Inova or Arc were available then (85-86), but no such luck ... a big maglite at night, a mini-mag during the day. Why during the day? Well, when below decks, you never know when the lights will go out, especially on a Coast Guard Cutter that was commissioned in WW2. In fact, on some recent cruises (on actual cruise ships for vacation), I made sure both my wife and I, as well as a couple with whom we travelled, all had small LED lights to carry in our pockets. Old habits are hard to break!
