Launch Day!

Splashed my Cal29 today, smooth trip upriver, 35 minutes to clear the lock, dodged one barge, got to the open lake, another hour and she's in her slip. I'll step the mast later this week, my club has a gin pole and a steward who knows his stuff. I know, I hired him when I was Commodore, more than a few years ago. One of my better decisions, at the behest of my House Committee Chair. We did a lot that year. I should be sailing by the weekend. Even when it's a powerboat, it's still fun to be on the water. I saw something today I had never seen before. There are a multitude of bridges on the Calumet River, and some ships/barges need them to be raised for clearance. Not a prob for me. As I was passing under a railroad bridge it sounded it's horn three times and started lowering, meaning a train was soon to pass. In all the years I have traveled that river I've never seen that before. Pretty cool. If you've ever been to Chicago you may know that we have more railroads here than any other city. We just shrug and wait for the train to pass. I live a half block from the BNSF main line, three sets of tracks into downtown Chicago. It's also a commuter line which I rode for many years in my working life. Just one line of many which we have here. You board the train in the morning, read your newspaper, or chat with fellow commuters, and in 30 minutes we're at Union Station, 10 minute walk to work. The civilized way to travel. David Dobbs CAL29 411

On 6/13/2016 9:22 PM, david dobbs tm… [at] yahoo.com [Cal_Boats] wrote: > > > I'll step the mast later this week, my club has a gin pole and a > steward who knows his stuff. ******* I live a half block from the > BNSF main line, three sets of tracks into downtown Chicago. It's also > a commuter line which I rode for many years in my working life. Just > one line of many which we have here. You board the train in the > morning, read your newspaper, or chat with fellow commuters, and in 30 > minutes we're at Union Station, 10 minute walk to work. The civilized > way to travel. I broke down and hired a crew member from the local tourist schooner to be my second person when stepping the Cal 20 mast. The alternative was waiting until I found a "volunteer." All my friends seem to be fragile or impaired somehow. It makes me grateful for good health and fitness. The hired helper let me get the mast up right away, and I was sailing a couple hours later. And also, speaking of commuting, I am grateful that in the 51 years since I left high school, I've lived within 1-1/2 miles of my workplace for all but 2-1/2 years. That makes it possible to walk or bike to work, a considerable advantage. Last Friday I had to drive downstate to Ann Arbor for a conference. I encountered the morning and afternoon freeway commuters. Whoa, not for me. There are lots of news articles about the Millennials, who reportedly are forsaking suburbs for cities and cars for walking and mass transit. It makes me feel very avant-garde. The Europeans had this figured out long ago, of course. Now we need to figure out a way to convert those Millennials into sailors. The activity is low-impact, knowledge-based, participatory, and relaxing (90% of the time). The entrance cost is pretty low, given the surplus of used boats. Then I'd have a pool of fit sailors to help me step my mast. Chris Campbell