Evanston: first sail; open; wronged by algorithm; risk; a great hope

Several readers were taken by ZIP, the square rigger masquerading as a wooden Sunfish.  I thank Larry for permission to share his sail on Sunfish, a plastic one.

The first boat I ever sailed was a Sunfish on Traverse Bay, Michigan.

It was during the summer of 1970. I was 30.

A beautiful young woman impressed by my confidence, as well as my assurance that we would not drown, agreed to join me for her first sailing experience as well.

We easily sailed offshore for two hours without incident - then we had to get back to the dock. That proved to be a lot harder than we expected!

A zillion tacks later we made it.

Lesson learned: It’s a lot tougher sailing against the wind.

But we were both hooked on sailing during that beautiful day 49 years ago.

It is indeed tougher to sail against the wind.  I try to avoid it.  Not always with success.  I recall a biography of Robert Lewis Stevenson, who suffered from poor health all his too brief life, aptly titled VOYAGE TO WINDWARD.

From Jimmy and Jay comes the above recent photograph of Monroe Harbor in downtown Chicago.  The harbors have finally opened, but obviously many owners have decided not to launch this year.

I received a comment about one of my YouTube videos so I watched it.  When it ended YouTube’s algorithm tried to run next something titled, “Seasick Leaving Gibraltar”, by a middle aged couple of I know not what nationality or boat.  I did not watch.  Obviously I am beyond the algorithm’s understanding.  Or perhaps it has me confused with someone else.

Yesterday I learned of the first person I personally know to have died from COVID 19.

Carol and I have been well isolated since March.  That is changing.   Her office is reopening next month and, more immediately, we are flying to Savannah, where we will rent a car for the thirty mile drive to Hilton Head, on Sunday.  American Airlines emailed that our flight is nearly full and that we can change to another without charge.  The plane is smaller than a 737 with only two seats on each side of the aisle.  I do not like face masks, which cause me some difficulty breathing and fog up my eyeglasses, but I wear one when around others.  People in Illinois do. The virus numbers are decreasing here.  It will be interesting to see what people are doing in South Carolina, where the numbers, while still relatively low, are sharply increasing.

Last evening in THE SEASHELL ANTHOLOGY OF GREAT POETRY I came across ‘The New Colossus’, the source of the words on the Statue of Liberty.  I did not know the whole poem.  This country once was one of the great ideas and great hopes in the history of our species.

The opening lines refer to the ancient Colossus of Rhodes.