A Splash of Color on a Bleak Winter's Day

Sail boats at a marina in North Texas

Boats this size can sail on the Great Lakes with
 an eye on Marine Warnings for 6-8 foot waves or above and fast moving storms

I like change. In fact, I have been known to embrace it. But somethings just are not the same as the genuine article. I'm talking about the difference between a puddle and a lake. There again, I am not a negative person. When I have posted to this blog it is nearly one hundred percent positive for the city of Dallas, it's park system and all the things that are available here as a great city. But.....I have watched the Marine Industry in the Dallas Market for many years. And the sailing clubs that are on the larger puddles in North Texas, including beautiful White Rock Lake, make up a lot of the sail boat market. What I don't understand is when do these boats actually meet the water and sail away for the day--or two--or even three? I see the boats canvased in the fall, uncovered in the spring, sit most of the summer and then recanvased in the fall.When I see regattas, they are in dingies with a short pole mast. This past summer, I saw a young chap and his friend with an old catamaran actually doing what sail boaters do with boats. He did it a couple of times and that was that.Later,when I saw him, he wanted to sell me a change in my electric provider. That was telling me that he was done taking his catamaran out on the puddle again. His interest had changed that fast. Boats are a lot of work any way you look at it.  So this year when the annual Port Huron to Mackinac race is run on Lake Huron or the Chicago to Mackinac race is run from Chicago, on Lake Michigan and through the Straits of Mackinac, my heart pounds a bit more than normal, or better yet, hoping so see one more time, beautiful and romantic era  the three-mast skooner Arkansas Best Freight sails out of Saugatuck, Michigan in the summers, if they still have that unusual flagship for a trucking freightline company. I'd have to put that on my bucket list for sure. So, there isn't any disrespect to the lakes here in North Texas. It is water that we need. It can be recreational to a limited extent, but when it comes to sail boats.....well, you can't beat the Great Lakes and I say that with love. A very,very large amount of love!