By Kristen Lowe - UpNorthLive.com - November 17, 2017

A crew from Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City rescued a man in Lake Superior Thursday morning. 

Around 5 a.m., they got a call around about a Canadian man on a freighter who needed to be evacuated. 

The coast guard said he had a medical emergency and had to be lifted off the 900-foot freighter. 

While Thursday's weather made the evacuation tricky, coast guard members say they train year-round for situations like this. 

"With an onset of winter here, we have been doing our due diligence on the ground from training, as well as training just to get used to flying in the more wintry conditions," said Lt. Ted Borny. "With the new aircraft, the Jayhawk helicopter, we have anti-icing and de-icing. On the MH 65, the previous helicopter didn’t have it, so we are a little bit more capable in that aspect which helps out a lot as well.”

The Traverse City crew was requested because the nearest Canadian crew was about eight hours away. 

Borny said they were able to reach the freighter in about three. 

The crew dropped the man off in Marathon, Canada. An ambulance took him to a Canadian hospital from there.