Blueberry Push-Pop, Lulu Lemon, Long John Silver, Bluegill, Candy-Stripe, Frenchy

Dan should have been here this weekend. Yesterday, we launched the Trans Superior sailboat race, which after eventually getting off to a fine start, became mired overnight in the lee of Whitefish Point. Reports of the launching of the newly refurbished Arthur Anderson of Edmund Fitzgerald fame, from Superior, WI, morphed into tales of another failed rescue mission, at least in my own fevered imagination, but this talk now seems way overblown.

Back to reality now or at least moving a little closer to home, a much more modest sailboat race was held in the bay today, right outside our cabin. Six Sunfish competed in a two lap regatta around a triangular course. The regatta launched from Cedar Point and came halfway across the bay to Birch Point. In the above photo I caught the fleet as it was just getting underway, after the firing of the starting gun. Let’s be clear about one thing here, this is the UP, so that was certainly no starter’s pistol that was shot.

There was a large lawn party underway before the race, but we were not invited. Something about a lock getting shot off, almost a century ago. Watching from afar, on the beach, some of the “kids” took to nicknaming the boats based upon the color of their sails. Anne nicely caught the most exciting moment of the race, when on the first lap, at the first buoy, Bluegill turned turtle and flipped. No one goes to a NASCAR race just to see who wins. We later learned from two team members, Dashie and Charles that the boat that we had nicknamed Bluegill was actually called Tout de Suite and its accident was precipitated when another boat cut it off illegally. At least that’s their story and they’re sticking to it. As near as we could tell, here are the finishing stats: 1st place Frenchy, tied for second was Lulu Lemon and Long John Silver, 4th was Blueberry Push-pop, 5th Bluegill (Tout Suite) and finally Candy-Stripe in 6th. It was fun and I put out feelers to see if anyone would want to sell their boat.

Team Tout de Suite Also-Know-As Bluegill Righting Itself