The Joy of Boating in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/Saint Paul
Welcome!
Welcome!
April 9: A little bit of ice still lingers on Lake Como. It won't be long!
I've been thinking about starting this blog for some time. I wanted to write about boating. Now that winter is losing its grip and the ice is melting I realize Ihad better get started! I have no big adventures in mind., no tall tales, and no fish stories.To be honest, it's been some time since I've owned a boat or even set foot in one. But why should I let that stop me!
I want to write about the little trips. Why not? If you like to bike or jog or walk your dog in the park, then you might just be right for boating. You get fresh air and you get exercise. None of the city lakes permit power boats. That's the beauty of it all. You row or sail or paddle. You can put in any kind of craft into any city lake. And, unlike the bigger bodies of water, you don't have to worry about turning your boat into the steady stream of wakes from all those power boats.
Most importantly, there is a strange phenomenon which takes place when you get out on water. Your primal instincts and intuitions kick in. You pay attention to the wind and the water. You become a "child of nature" at home (or at war) with the elements. You can even lose your sense of time and maybe, just maybe, you lose your cares.
And that is the muse behind boating the cities. You can capture that feeling of getting away from it all. You can take a little mini holiday, if only just for an hour or two. You can go out every day if you like, or every weekend. The point is that you are getting away. It's therapeutic. It gives you a different perspective, a chance to meet different circles of people and to reinvent the simple sense of play missing in most of our urban lives.
A little dinghy chained to a bike rack in uptown Minneapolis: urban boating at its best!
The twin cities are perfect for this. Minneapolis calls itself "city of lakes." Saint Paul has a lot to offer as well. Chances are that you if you live here in the cities, you are just minutes away from some body of water. My plan is to explore all of these lakes and to share them with you.
Along the way, I welcome you. Join in with me. Send a photo or two. Submit a story. I'd love to hear from you and share your experiences here. Better yet, maybe we will actually meet on the water!
The Joy of Choosing a Boat: Which Boat? What Boat?
No doubt about it. A boat is a very personal choice. More often than not, you can tell a lot about a person by his or her boat. A single seat kayak says it's owner wants to be alone. A six person day sailor says just the opposite. There's a lot of choices to be made. You can sail, row, or paddle. You can also cruise city lakes with an electric trolling motor. Then again, there's wood, aluminum, fiberglass, and kevlar. You can buy a boat, or you can build one. One thing for sure, every person who owns a boat has one thing in common. They made a decision to own one!
Maybe that sounds easy, but actually it's not. Last fall I bought a little duck boat for only $150.00. It was a perfect little boat for beginners. My students took it out and had a blast with it. I stored it at my shop over the winter. A lot of people saw it. Almost every man who came by asked about it. They all expressed a desire to have something like it. In every instance, I offered to sell it. Funny thing: they all had the same reply, "I'll have to ask my wife." Of course, none of them ever made an offer. This is the first rule about boats: You will never own a boat if you have to ask someone else.
Better to go out and just buy a boat. A hundred and fifty won't break the bank. And we all know, forgiveness is much easier to obtain than permission! Your significant other and a lot of your friends will come around. Just wait and see!
I chose to build a row boat. You can row in any weather. Canoes are great, but they work best with two people paddling. It's very hard for a single paddler to hold a canoe on course on a windy day. Sailboats are fun, but they can be difficult to transport and launch.
I also liked the idea if a very small boat: something between seven and eight feet long. You can put it on a car top carrier, launch it yourself, and store it anywhere, even inside your apartment if you wanted to. Boats under eight feet also require no license in Minnesota. They are easy to row and easy to maneuver in the wind.
I suppose that I could have bought a boat. There's a lot on Craigslist. West Marine sells a little polyurethane dinghy for a little over a thousand, but I had my own reasons. I've owned fiberglass and aluminum speed boats. They were just fine. But the best boat I ever had was home made. It was light and fast and totally unique. Most of all it was built by my dad. I learned a lot about boats from watching him. Most of all I learned a lot about my dad. Building my own boat brought on a special kind of nostalgia. I think I'm going to call it "The Prodigal."
There is no need to tell the story of the prodigal son, but building this boat turned out to be a variant. My dad and I used to be out on the water whenever we could. My ancestors were sailors and sea captains. It's almost a part of my DNA. The Prodigal becomes my own personal story, a way of coming home and embracing my own heritage.
