After 25 years of
sailing, Roland and I are headed for dry dock. In other words, we are selling
our sailboat with no plans to replace it. For the last few years, we have spent
more time maintaining it than sailing it. As we grow older, we are also more
uncomfortable sailing in heavy weather (or even lightly heavy weather) than we
used to be. So the time has come to sell the boat.
But we are keeping the
memories.
Although this is a
writing blog, I’m going to detour from writing advice for the next few weeks in
favor of those memories. A detour, but not a change in destination. After all, one
of the purposes of this blog is to encourage people to write down their
memories. Maybe you can get some tips from reading mine.
Listed by year, here are
a few of the highlights:
- 1991—This
is the year we “caught the bug” while spending a windless day on Lake
Superior in my brother’s sailboat.
- 1992—We
purchased our first boat, a used 23-foot Beneteau First 235, which we
named Das Zeltlagermanie (Camp Mania).
- 1993—Our
first overnight sailing trip took us to Michigan.
- 1995—We
drove the boat to DeTour Village, Michigan with a plan to sail the North
Channel. The plan didn’t work out, but that’s a story for another post.
- 2002—Goodbye,
Das Zeltlagermanie, hello, Freizeit (Free Time). We moved up
to a new 34-foot Beneteau 331.
- 2003—A
trip to Milwaukee inaugurated our new boat.
- 2007—We
finally made it to the North Channel.
- 2008—Freizeit became our temporary home
after the remnants of Hurricane Ike flooded us out of our permanent one.
- 2011—Our
vacation took us sailing up the eastern coast of Lake Michigan. Although
we didn’t know it at the time, this turned out to be our last extended
trip. We planned another one—twice—but it was cancelled because of
equipment failures.
- 2016—Goodbye,
Freizeit.
The boat at the top of
the page is Freizeit, and the one at
the bottom is Das Zeltlagermanie.
Both boats created unforgettable memories.
Next week I’ll talk about
the “sail” that started it all.
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