The Neverlanding has landed.
A Canadian man’s nearly 70-foot homemade houseboat, dubbed Neverlanding, a wooden-framed modular building on a platform of barrels with a singular, 85-horsepower engine, captivated gawkers on the St. Clair River and southern Lake Huron late last month and developed a fan following on social media. A Facebook fan page called Neverlanding – The Houseboat of Dreams has nearly 14,000 followers.
But all great adventures must come to an end, especially when they involve homemade houseboats on barrels, the Great Lakes and the onset of wintry weather.
Huron County Sheriff Kelly Hanson said the Neverlanding made it to Port Austin early Tuesday morning, Dec. 2. “We had been monitoring him since we heard he left Port Sanilac northbound,” Hanson said.
“We took note that the boat was there” at Bird Creek Beach in Port Austin’s harbor, “and he was trying to make it ashore. He did get it into shallow enough water there to accomplish that.”
The sheriff then spoke with the Neverlanding’s builder, owner and captain, Steven Mylrea of Harrow, Ontario, Canada, “to see what his intentions were going to be.”
The sheriff said he even offered to have the department’s air boats break nearshore lake ice to get the houseboat afloat again on Lake Huron. Mylrea, however, “indicated he was pretty exhausted, and was second-guessing what he was trying to attempt.”
“I had a conversation with him,” Hanson said. “I questioned his judgment. (But) the fellow was a friendly individual.”
Mylrea told the sheriff he was trying to travel up Lake Huron, through the Straits of Mackinac and then down Lake Michigan “trying to get to Chicago by Christmas.”
And from there? Hanson said a Coast Guard report based on its contact with Mylrea indicated he intended to navigate the Neverlanding “through the American river system, through the country and eventually make it back to the Atlantic.”
Hanson said Mylrea was starting to have misgivings about how the changed weather conditions were affecting his boat and his travel, such as ice building up on the craft and concerns that the lumber may not hold up in extreme cold.
The sheriff noted that wave conditions can intensify quickly at this time of year, and that as Mylrea traveled farther north on Lake Huron, he may have encountered many iced-up ports with nowhere nearby to stop in case he felt he needed to.
“I think he made a good decision” to end the adventure, Hanson said. “In my opinion, that boat is not something to be considered seaworthy for some of the conditions Lake Huron can pose.”
U.S. Coast Guard officials earlier told the Free Press the boat was registered by Canadian authorities and met all required specifications for operation.
A local contractor volunteered to help Mylrea pull the Neverlanding onto shore − a task that was proving difficult and taking much of the day on Tuesday.
Hanson said he doesn’t imagine the houseboat will be trailered up and driven to Canada or somewhere else. “The boat’s too big; I couldn’t see it being hauled by anything. It will be on that beach until spring comes. I’m sure it’s going to be an attraction for people for a little while.”
Fans of the Neverlanding on Facebook weighed in on at least this chapter of the adventure’s closing.
“Damn! I was hoping he would make the trip all the way to Florida. Better to be safe than sorry,” posted Bridget Ford.
Added Steven Pietrangelo, with a winking emoji: “No big deal…just a bigger destination when the weather breaks….Thailand.”
Contact Keith Matheny: kmatheny@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Huron homemade houseboat hits hardship; captain calls it quits in the Thumb
Reporting by Keith Matheny, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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