Sailing on Schooner Manitou

If you click on the image you can see the Schooner Manitou away in the distance on Grand Traverse Bay in Michigan. Seeing that ship suggested that we ought to sail on it ourselves. Two days later we did just that, and here some pictures taken in sequence with annotations here and there.

That's John helping to loft the sail!

And Monique watching the sail’s progress as it rises.

Or is she, instead, watching one of the crew climbing to the top of the main mast intending there to loft the main gaff topsail?

There it is, unfurled, but now seen from the port side instead.

For a while there Monique was much taken with the heights. You see her reclining on the starboard side (must stay with sea lingo here), camera ready to catch the unexpected.

Yes, she saw something. And John on the left (port) is looking at the same development. The maddening thing about being on a great boat is that it is so difficult to see it in the whole.

Brigitte, meanwhile was taking in the view. She is visible on the right.

Here a view from the forward hold up—this compartment being the one where the crew spend their nights.

And that’s me, having clambered back up, looking the way I normally do, unedited, now intently observing our captain in her most efficient handling of the boat as we prepared for another tack.

Then off to sail the blue waters of the Great Lakes...

The trip ended, at last, in a leisurely manner. You see Brigitte, Monique, and John relaxing. The sails have been lowered. We made two attempts to dock before succeeding; a sharp off-shore wind prevented our crew from throwing rope to the shore to hold us.

Therefore we had time to enjoy the experience, others to display spontaneous affection. Finally...

We said goodby to sky-blue waters, for the time being. But we shall return...

The Algonquian word for a Spirit Being is manitou. There are many, invisible, but yet they are associated now with animals, now with islands, now with trees—and sometimes with things like sailing schooners. But they are real, real persons, and you can relate to them. Yes. In a way, on this vacation trip, we found that out too.