Ahoy mate! It has been a great July so far for sailing.  I hope everyone is getting out on their boat, or their friend’s boat, which is even better. It’s been a hot summer, but we’ve had some good winds so far.

This is a good time of the year to practice our man overboard drills. Probably one of the best things to practice with is a life preserver. You can just throw it overboard and see if you can retrieve it. There have been quite a few drownings in the Great Lakes this year, so the less time you spend in the water, the better off you are.

July’s topic, The Great Loop, was well received by our association. Hopefully there was some valuable information in there for everybody. My goal is that you are able to take away some valuable knowledge from our speakers, no matter how much experience you have.

This month, ice cream!

Next month, our speaker will be talking about composting toilets. Not something everybody loves to talk about and not something everybody wants to deal with either. It should be a great topic and there’s amazing new technology coming out for us boaters. I hope everybody has a fantastic August.

—Wayne Smith

This has been a crazy start to the sailing season, with the cold weather, mixed with the rain, and the heat.

Hopefully this summer will bring some decent weather soon for sailing.

I hope that every one enjoyed the guest speaker, from Double Action Divers. It was interesting to learn about the more that 2000 wrecks we are sailing over in Lake Michigan. Some are wrecks, some are pristine, some are deep, some are shallow, some have been found, but many have not been found.

Thank you to everyone who comes to the meetings, and interacts with the speakers. They all speak very highly of our group.

This month (July) we have 2 members from the Great Loopers, https://www.greatloop.org/ Randy Schmidt, and his wife Kristen Berg will talk about their experience boating the great loop.

—Wayne Smith

This month we will host Captain Bob from Double Action Dive Charters, who will speak on the great opportunities that Lake Michigan and Lake Erie provide when it comes to shipwrecks. Lake Michigan is the grave to nearly 2,000 vessels, and only 600 have been found. I look forward to seeing you at the next meeting, and thank you all for being good ambassadors to the sailing community.

Hopefully you have had a chance to get your boats wet and not just from the rain. I know this is a busy time of the year for everyone, but I wanted to make sure to relay the positive feedback that we have received from the speakers. They all have similar messages, that we are a great group that shows a genuine interest in the subjects covered, and that the questions asked are thought provoking.

Last month we hosted Bill Bloom, who sparked a lively discussion on retirement plans for living on a boat and what capital is required to live comfortably. Bill had an interesting point that we need to plan for the three stages of retirement, the Go-Go years, the Slow Go years and the No Go years. That is one of the things that is hard to judge for most of us.

—Wayne Smith