A Three-Hour Tour

The only thing better than having a boat is having a friend with a boat. Or, in our case, a friend who has a friend with a boat.

As I learned during my years of sailing in Madison, Boat People tend to accept the transitive property of friendship: Your friend's friends can be trusted as Good People until they prove otherwise.

So yesterday, when we were invited to sail on Lake Michigan by my friend Amarjot (whose neighbor Spence owns a 32' Catalina that he keeps docked at the Milwaukee Yacht Club), we came prepared. Like any good boat guests, as we stepped aboard, we handed our host a bottle of booze. We brought our own sunscreen, because it's just not cool to deplete your host's supply. We listened attentively to the pre-flight safety instructions, noting the location of the nearest exits in case of fire. We even donned life jackets, 'cause you never know. Even though we can swim, Lake Michigan is cold. Like, 60 degrees cold. Even a strong swimmer can't last long in water that cold, and we were not particularly interested in trying to disprove that theory.

The lake may be cold, but the weather was a beautiful, sunny 80 degrees yesterday, with only a few wisps of clouds in the sky and a nice light breeze out of the west. A perfect day for sailing!

As soon as we got out of the marina and cleared the seawalls, we hoisted the mainsail and unfurled the jib and let the wind and waves take us east. When I say "we" I mean Spence and his sailing buddy Mel. My sailing skills have rusted from years of disuse, and while I may have recognized terms like "leech line" and "boom vang," I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be responsible for identifying, or god forbid, operating them.

Ryan, however, had no compunctions about taking our lives into his hands when given the opportunity to drive the boat. He drove for at least an hour - for the end of our journey out, through most of the journey back to shore (including the jibe to get us turned around!). Here he is with our friend Peter, both enjoying the sun on our sail home.


Here is Corie, enjoying a tiny can of ginger ale while sitting on the starboard side of the boat on our way back to the marina.

Boat drinks can be so cute! And they can either alleviate or induce seasickness, depending on whom you ask.




Here is Amarjot. This photo is a little out of focus because, you know, we were on a boat. There were small whitecaps on the lake, so the sailing was slightly choppy (but by no means treacherous). Before we went sailing, Ryan and I joined Amarjot for lunch at an Indian restaurant downtown called Maharaja, which we discovered is owned by the same people who run a restaurant by the same name in Madison. The Maharaja in Madison was our favorite spot for Indian food!

And here I am in mid-smile, discovering that in addition to all the other benefits of sailing (relaxation, camaraderie, tanning), spending a few hours on a boat is a great way to dry your hair.

One of these days I'll have to talk with Ryan about the dangers of photographing women from unflattering upward angles (don't worry, he wasn't still driving the boat at this point). In the meantime, though, I want to send out a big thank-you to our host Spence, skipper Mel, and friend Amarjot for making our day on Saturday!