Chasing Waves: How a Dexter Man Spent a Lifetime Answering the Call of the Great Lakes

Photo: Author/adventurer Pat Winton with his new book, “Chasing Waves.” Courtesy of Cindy Pine

Back in the mid-1940s, the wild and mysterious Lake Superior claimed the imagination of a small boy, and he never lost his fascination for Big Waters. He grew up determined that one day he would explore their waters and captain ships of all sizes as he explored the Great Lakes—and beyond.

Pat Winton not only fulfilled his dream, he’s written about it. The newly released Chasing Waves: A Journey to Become the Best Captain on Fresh Water is an action-packed coming-of-age story—but the coming-of-age didn’t occur in his childhood, but his retirement years. Full of glossy color photographs, maritime charts, maps, history, geology, natural wonders, Great Lakes lore, and heart-thumping boating adventures, this is excellent reading for anyone who loves boats, adventures, and/or a quest to be the very best.

“Two themes have run through my life: Excel and Be The Best,” the 85-year-old Dexter resident says with satisfaction. “This book is an accomplishment I’ve waited a long time to fulfill. I’ve kept meticulous logs, albums full of photographs, and notes for many, many years.”

Pat Winton had several near-death struggles with Gitche Gumee (Lake Superior) before he left home at fifteen. He completed high school with honors while working to support himself, then earned a scholarship to, and a degree from, General Motors Institute (now Kettering University). While in college, he found “the love of my life” and learned that Elaine Killey welcomed adventures and personal challenges just as he did. They married soon after his graduation.

Winton’s early career was in the auto industry. He and Elaine raised three children during the years Pat was earning a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. Eventually he became co-owner of an international company manufacturing automated machines for producing small electric motors—“skills that would prove very helpful when Elaine and I bought our first boat and the others that followed,” he points out.

“When I’m asked what attracted me to boating, I always say it was a fascination with technology and the precision required to operate a vessel—as well as the challenges Mother Nature and Big Waters repeatedly threw my way.”

         The couple’s life by and on the water began when they built a cottage on an island in Michigan’s Sage Lake. Decades later, when they sold the cottage, they realized they wanted to pursue water-bound adventures by exploring the five Great Lakes and as many inland and ocean waterways as possible. “There was only one way to take on those challenges,” Winton says. “I had to become a highly accomplished captain, and Elaine had to do the same as first mate.”

         A chance visit to Catawba Island and the Treasure Cove Sea Ray dealership brought Winton’s old memories of adventures on Lake Superior flooding back. Before the day was over, the Wintons became boat owners and never looked back.

         Many men regard retirement as a time to relax and settle down, but as soon at Pat retired at 65, he transformed his boating hobby into his second career. He earned his U.S. Coast Guard Captain’s License, with the authorization to captain any and all ships under 100 tons, and he and Elaine sailed a series of bigger and faster boats with increasingly more sophisticated radar systems. “My goal was to become the best captain on the Great Lakes, and Elaine and I made every opportunity to meet that goal,” he says.

They led long-distance group boating get-aways, evaluated yachts in production, were hired to move large yachts long distances, and explored the Great Lakes, Mississippi River, and both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans—“often under some hair-raising and extremely adverse conditions,” Winton admits. “We enjoyed our adventures in what were probably the golden days of boating, when gasoline was cheaper and more people were venturing onto new waters.”

When Elaine’s health began failing, Pat sold his last Ele-Ana (“named for the two women in my life: my wife Elaine and our daughter Deanna”), moved back to Michigan, and launched his third career, at the age of 82: creative writing, with the encouragement of a local writing group.

Chasing Waves isn’t Winton’s first book. Last year he wrote his memoir Farmed Out in Ontonagon County, describing his early years in a tough-as-nails Finnish community in the Upper Peninsula that subsisted on the lumber industry, trapping, hunting, and fishing.

“My wife of sixty-two years and the mother of our three children is now with the Lord,” Winton writes in his Chasing Waves Afterword. “I sorely wish Elaine could have been whispering in my ear as I wrote, so I could include her words and memories in the tales of our nautical escapades. But no adventure was undertaken or completed without her love, encouragement, laughter, tears, and constant support.”

His third career has introduced him to new adventures, in publishing, marketing, and sales. And it has not only brought him new friends—he is now a member of the U.P. writers group and a contributor to the U.P. Reader—it has also brought him romance. In September he married again and is beginning a new series of adventures. But he admits his heart still calls him back to Big Waters.

“When I was seven years old, the mysterious Lake Superior took ahold of me, pulled me under her cold and beautiful waters, and then released me to live another day. I have always believed it was a miracle that I lived, and I believe that was because She—Gitche Gumee—wanted to claim my attention and imagination. I have never lost my fascination with Big Waters.”

         Chasing Waves is available through Amazon, or Winton will autograph copies if contacted through his website, www.PatWinton.com or email, [email protected]