This is the sort of day where I’d do an Ann Althouse-ian photo blog post, but for the fact that (a) we didn’t bring a camera and (b) it was a very overcast day. But I want to show you our boat anyway:
No, that’s not us. That’s a picture from the Catalina website.
And here’s the marina that we moved the boat to this year, Southport Marina at Lake Michigan, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, just across the state line from Illinois. This was a big step up for us, as for many years we’d kept the boat at a small marina in Pistakee Lake, part of the Chain O’ Lakes northwest of Chicago. That marina, Bayview Marina, is a small marina with no services except a porta-potty (it was an upscale porta-potty, though, with a flushing mechanism), whereas Southport Marina is a proper full-service marina (electric, water, cable TV, Wi-Fi, multiple washrooms with showers, and a pool) next to a lakefront promenade and the farmers’ market, museums, and restaurants of “downtown” Kenosha.
Today was our first outing for the year — for all of 1 1/2 hours, with getting into and out of the marina for the first time a challenge to begin with, and then a bit of sailing along the lakefront — we didn’t have much time as we got a late start and needed to be at Buffalo Wild Wings at 2 pm for the Germany-Ghana game. (With a hull speed of 6.2 knots = 7 mph, we’re not going to be able to go very far in this boat anyway.)
The funny thing about the boat is that, well, I grew up sailing, or rather being sailed, with Dad at the help almost every summer weekend, and it seemed natural that we’d get a boat, after some time spent renting the small boats on Lake Arlington and a larger boat on Pistakee Lake, though for quite a number of years the labor was divided, with Martin managing the sailing and me managing the baby/toddler/preschooler. Now I full well could do the sailing along with Martin — but, hey, now I have a 11 & 14 year-old (both semi-experienced sailors from “sailing camp”) to do the work while I relax. (I admit — I feel a bit as if I’ve earned it.) Is it bad, or too conforming to stereotype, to be so lazy?
The boat itself isn’t anything to write home about — at 25′, it was the largest “trailerable” boat and the smallest boat that has a separate head, though with a camping toilet rather than a proper marine toilet. The main thing: from here to the next larger size is a major jump in price. So every now and again we go to the sailboat show at Navy Pier and look longingly at the larger boats, and at some point I looked at used boats, though then you reach the point where you need to either commit to spending a lot of time or a lot of money (or both) — the bigger the boat is, the more “stuff” you need compared to a simple boat with an outboard engine.
And here’s a confession: we sailboat people are small in number, and significantly outnumbered by powerboats — at least we were, in the Chain O’ Lakes, though there seem to be a fair mix of both at Southport. But I have just never understood the appeal of power boating. Sure, you get to your destination faster, and with little effort, but unless you’re going to pull someone on water skis or an inflatable, I just don’t really see the point in it. How is it relaxing to have a noisy motor all the way? (Besides which, every time gas spikes, there are stories in the paper about people who can’t afford to gas up the boat for the afternoon any longer.)
So that was my day.
What do you like to do in the summer?
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