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Around the World of Sailing
29 August 2001
This weeks features:
Finish Line
Water Level Update
Here is an informative feature that used to appear in the
Friday edition of Sailing Daily. Below you'll find water level
info that pertains to Lake Michigan and Huron.
For information on other lakes see:
http://huron.lre.usace.army.mil/levels/weekly.html
Reference Point
Inches below Chart Datum 0
Difference from last month -2
Difference from last year -4
Difference from long term average for August -23
Difference from Record High -54
Difference from Record Low +10
Forecast for 17 September 2001 -2
Rowing Reporter
The Rowing Reporter is a weekly column of commentary and
observations by Ike Stephenson, Marine Informationist. It
concentrates on the home waters of Around the World of
Sailing, Lake Michigan and Muskegon Lake.
****************
What's Good About Muskegon
Outside Magazine recently published what they admitted was
a subjective list.
The subject of the list was qualities that make an
outdoor-sports town a superior one.
After 5 years in Muskegon it's this reporters contention
that Muskegon is a superior water sports town.
It has a seasonal farmers market. This being a sailing town it
is near a sail loft.
There is an artsy movie house, the beautifully restored
Frauenthal- you can see water from the front door!
You can get international magazines, including Yachting World
published in Britain at Barnes and Noble and Torresen Marine.
The main outdoor music venue is Heritage Landing- also now
proven as a venue for the Tall Ships event.
There's a dog beach as part of Pere Marquette beach. You'll
see it all here. Teach your dog to swim in Lake Michigan.
There's an alternative weekly- The Paper. Being from Grand
Rapids their writing isn't too wet. The minor league baseball
team is even influenced by water- they're called the Whitecaps.
A good stop before the water warms up.
Although a national leader in cloudiness during the winter,
Muskegon does provide plenty of sunshine in the summer. Big
trees are around, if it wasn't for them and lumbering we
wouldn't be having this discussion.
Most importantly in this case is the water that Muskegon
possesses.
The Muskegon River flows into Muskegon Lake, which heads for
the channel and into Lake Michigan.
The water hosts sailing races, tall ship festivals, a World
War II submarine, the Milwaukee Clipper, the Mart docks,
commercial ships, fishing tournaments, swimmers and more.
The water is what takes your magazine stands and baseball
teams and makes them supporting aspects in a great outdoors
and water town.
Muskegon Lake usually de-ices in March. This year commercial
shipping began 19 March. Then comes commercial fishing and
the first hearty sailors. By Memorial Day the recreational
fleet is full strength. This year the end of June saw over
100 boats visit for the Queens Cup. Then came Summer
Celebration and the chance to watch top quality fire works
from the water. August saw 20 tall ships docked at the new
and still to be improved Heritage Landing.
If being near the water, having a relationship with water, it's
events, and vagaries is important you should put Muskegon on
your list of places to visit and perhaps to live.
******************
Weekly Weblog: Good Sailing On the Web
How fast was schooner America of America's Cup fame?
Perhaps not as fast as we believe according to British
Sailing writer Adrian Morgan. He has a 3-part myth of
America series at
http://www.madforsailing.com/SAIL/Articles.nsf/LookUp/D31FC388EA55992080256A98003E91C4?OpenDocument.
American John Rousmaniere counters this with a defense
of America's qualities at
http://www.sailnet.com/collections/learningtosail/index.cfm?articleid=rousma0054&tfr=fp
Up in Maine a schooner Captain is in trouble for firing
a gun on a bothersome PWC. See the Bangor News story
http://www.bangornews.com/cgi-bin/article.cfm?storynumber=38766
In Michigan PWCers maybe becoming more well behaved.
Article at
http://detnews.com/2001/outdoors/0108/03/h04-260496.htm
Mentioned last week the Canadian schooner Bluenose was the
America of the International Fisherman's trophy. Similar to
the America's Cup this competition was between the USA and
Canada. What was different was that competing boats first
had to fish an entire season on the Grand Banks.
Interesting history at
http://www.bluenose2.ns.ca/english/history.html