South Bay Postscripts : A Look Back at People and Events in the News : 3 Men in Boat at Half-Way Point

Three South Bay men are having “too much fun” doing what some said could not be done--driving a 17-foot motor boat 5,700 miles around the eastern United States and Canada.

But John Bertsch, of San Pedro; John Cameron, of Rolling Hills Estates, and John Mirassou, of Redondo Beach, are more than halfway through their fantasy, water-skiing vacation and are expected to be on Mackinac Island, Mich. today.

The three left Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Memorial Day weekend and have followed a course up the Intracoastal Waterway to the Hudson River, through the Erie Canal and across Lakes Ontario and Huron. They said they hope to prove that the eastern half of the United States is technically an island.

The men had intended to cross Lake Erie, but were scared off by the “tropical” heat wave that blanketed the Midwest and horror stories of storms that often hit the lake. Instead, they crossed the Trent Waterways in Canada, which connect Lakes Ontario and Huron.

Last week, the men were preparing for what they expect to be the roughest part of the trip--the journey across Lake Michigan. After that, they’ll travel down the Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland and Tombigbee rivers and into the Gulf of Mexico.

They said they’re expecting the Pope and about 60 of their friends and relatives to meet them when they end their journey in New Orleans on Sept. 12. Pope John Paul II will be in New Orleans that day, but the Vatican says he has other plans.

The best parts of the trip so far, the three men said in a telephone interview from Georgian Bay, Canada, have been meeting many friendly people who have opened their homes, boats, refrigerators and liquor cabinets to them.

They have had a few problems. Their boat stalled in the Atlantic during a storm when visibility was only 100 feet.

“We had our foul-weather gear on,” said Cameron, 22. “We were down to about four beers. It was pretty treacherous.”

In North Carolina, “Cameron skied over an alligator--right over him,” said Bertsch, 23. “Of course I didn’t tell him until we were about a mile away. . . . He thought he hit a log and this thing just started thrashing about.”

He added: “It’s been one of those nonchalant, boring summers.”