by Lee Högman
The lure of the water finally became too strong for me to resist a few years ago. I had grown up partially on the water and not owning a boat had really started to get to me. My US Air Force career had ended, having deposited my wife, our two kids Justin and Amanda, and me in SW Illinois, near St. Louis. Throughout my 20 years in the USAF, I had been on all types and sizes of friend's boats, mostly fishing and cruising the lakes from Arkansas to South Carolina and back. I was really ichin' for my own boat.
My wife Vicki, on the other hand, was not at all interested about owning a boat or for me to get involved in yet another hobby. I tried to impress her with the facts that both my son Justin and I were done with scouting after he had earned his Eagle badge, ice hockey would soon be over as well, and my involvement in Civil War Reenacting only took up 1 weekend a month. What else was I supposed to do with the now-open weekends - work on the house?
Well, after completing the downstairs bathroom-remodeling project, I started looking for a boat of my own. I looked at fishing boat after fishing boat to no avail. The boats were either too expensive to buy or too expensive to fix. Besides, my wife and daughter both complained that they would not enjoy a fishing boat anyway. Pontoon boats followed suit and the idea quickly went away since my bride was not convinced that we needed a boat in the first place. Then I mentioned to my wife that I was going to look at sailboats, which was immediately met with the age-old question, “Are you NUTS?!? What do you know about sailing?” I went through the explanation about how I learned to sail when growing up, both on lakes in Maryland and at the Massachusetts shore. My wife summarily dismissed my announcement as mild lunacy and let me go off on this tangent just as long as I wouldn't hurt myself. I guess she figured that the thought would quickly fade, just as the fishing and pontoon ideas had…
After looking at several boats, I found what I knew would be my boat in early July, 2001 - a 1982 MacGregor 21, just on the other side of St. Louis. The previous owners had bought it brand new, sailing it exclusively at our nearby Carlyle Lake and now needed to sell the boat. The mast even still had a Carlyle Lake sticker from 1989 attached. The boat was in excellent shape and the price had recently been dropped. I managed to convince Vicki to go with me to look at this latest find, only having to bribe her with dinner downtown to go. After inspecting the boat and much discussion, Vicki relented to what she considered to be one of my greatest follies to date and we bought the boat, only 4 days before her birthday.
Since I had reservations at the lake resort the following weekend to celebrate Vicki's birthday, I wanted the boat ready to be part of our resort stay. Both Justin and Amanda thought I had lost my mind and stayed out of sight throughout the week. I inspected and tested everything I could, cleaned, washed, and waxed the boat, and took care of all the paperwork for titling, registering, etc. by week's end. Friday night, Vicki and I packed the van, left the kids with food, money, and instructions not to hurt each other or destroy the house, and headed for the lake with our “new” boat in tow.
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Early the next morning (since I could hardly sleep anyway) I got up and rigged the boat on its trailer in the resort parking lot near the boat ramp while my birthday bride slept. I had read and re-read anything I could find about stepping the mast and rigging the boat and the process actually went rather smoothly, which concerned me, because things don't normally go smoothly without something bad happening. Anyway, I eased the boat and trailer into the water at the ramp and then got to a slip without any problems. I didn't even have to deal with bystanders, since the sun had only recently peeked above the horizon (to this day I think that's why nothing went wrong at first…) Then I decided to lower the swing keel to check it out, since I couldn't back when the boat was trailored - it wouldn't come down! After several attempts to no avail, I put the boat back on the trailer and searched for anything that could be holding the keel up. After 2 hours of going over the boat looking for the source of the problem, answering several questions from the growing number of by standers, frustrated and on my back under the boat, I gave the keel a mighty smack with my fist. The keel immediately dropped into the slot in the trailer. And the crowd applauded…
Red-faced, I quickly re-launched the boat, got it slipped, and went to wake my girl. Vicki had already gotten up, eaten, and was ready to head out on the boat. She had settled on the thought that I had come down with some sort of mid-life or mid-west crisis and that I would get over it just as soon as I realized I couldn't sail our boat. (I skipped explaining what had happened for the time being.) We loaded the boat and headed out under motor power after Vicki had me confirm with the marina staff that the lake patrol was indeed on the lake today. Once out in deeper water, I shutoff the motor and raised the sails. Since there was almost no breeze, the sails went up with little effort - everything seemed to be going so well, I was beginning to worry.
I went over everything again on the boat, explaining to Vicki how everything worked, all the safety gear and procedures, etc., ad nauseum (we had covered it all twice before at home). Vicki got bored and quickly settled in and started reading her book. Then the breeze picked up. My bride's tranquil, content expression quickly turned to horror as the boat started to lean with the breeze. She began to hit me with question after question about what was happening as we picked up speed. The farther the boat heeled, the louder, more frantic, and higher-pitched her questions became. Only after several minutes of sailing did she calm down. To her, this experiment in temporary lunacy all of a sudden had a direct impact to her immediate safety. All was fun and games until the boat started to roll over. What had she gotten herself into anyway? The breezes the rest of the day rarely got over 5 knots, which was good for our first sail with a case of nerves. We managed to sail for several hours and the tension eased a bit - at one point I joked that I wanted to make sure our number of landings at the dock equaled our departures, but Vicki didn't find anything funny about my statement.
My wife remained nervous throughout the rest of our first season of sailing. Only after several trips did she actually really start to enjoy the experience, which included some 15 knot winds and our “Cool Change” on its rail. I even convinced my bride to take the tiller on a few occasions, which provided a sense of control for her in the boat. Our son and daughter had no problems at all, adapting to the boat and the whole sailing thing, which was a relief. Both teenagers brought friends that also had fun on our outings, even when the breeze died completely as it often does in August.
Now with 2 seasons under our belt, we are all truly comfortable with sailing. Vicki has learned a lot and as I confess, I have learned a lot as well. Justin and Amanda have been out several times and are showing interest in learning to sail. Vicki has even offered some suggestions for equipment and gear for both our boat and our selves for Christmas presents to make our sailing better next season. Vicki has even asked me when I think we'll be able to put the boat back in the water and hasn't talked about the upstairs bedroom remodeling project for weeks.
So, I have my list made out for Santa, but I have to remember where I put it. We've got several projects for the boat and I want to be ready when the weather warms up… I'm even looking forward to some presents under the tree that are filled out for, “Cool Change.”
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Peace, Love, Joy, Health and Happiness to All, and to all, an early Spring!!!
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