How beautiful they were!

Hi Hubert

Sounds absolutely horrendous, not a good time of year on the Lakes. Pleased everyone was saved. Shows just what a great job you guys do.

Allan

As soon as I saw this picture and despite her name, I recognised the peruvian Unisol. I was then in charge of the Coast Guard Rescue Centre in Québec and we coordinated the Search and Rescue operation to lift the 32 souls on board, including the canadian pilot. The storm had made her lines to parted and she tried to proceed off shore from Chandler when she hit the reef. She broke her back almost on impact and fill her engine room. No other vessel could answer the Mayday call so we tasked two helicopter from the then CF base in Summerstown, P.E.I. But at the time of the tasking, we had freezing rain conditions plus strong gusts of wind....After 40 minutes, the freezing rain became ordinary rain, and the pilots were able to star their engines INSIDE the hangar (it was a Labrador type helicopter, with twin horizontal rotors). By doing so, they were able to get the rotor at their normal operating rotation speed without having the danger to see a blade cutting part of the fuselage in a gust of wind).
When the sea was breaking on the wreck, the spray was going so high that it was going directly on the helicopter's windshield, covering it with a white coat of salt. According to one of the pilot, it was like flying in milk! They succeded in removing all crew members from the Unisol.