2007 SEASON SUMMARY HOME JACK & ANN

Jack & Ann Take an Unforgettable Trip

Every season there seems to be one road trip to an off-lake regatta where the participants seem to fall into “The Twilight Zone”. As you listen to their tale of woe it almost defies logic. This is the story of two Interlake sailors, Jack Coleman and Ann Taylor, and their interesting adventure to the Great White North regatta in Traverse City. It started on of all places at the entrance ramp of US 27 from I-96 where a UFO (actually a left over tire tread from a truck) flew up from underneath the vehicle in front of our regattatiers and put a nice big scratch in the hood of her car. Instead of waiting to fill out a police report, the two Interlakers decided to keep driving since they felt the delay might not allow them to get into Traverse City that night to set up their boat.

Press on they did only to confront a more serious obstacle: smoke coming from the engine. It appeared, after stopping at a mechanics in Mount Pleasant, that the transmission had a problem. Would this stop our regattatiers? Hmmmmmmmmm — two incidents within two hours of one another is not a good omen and it had Jack whistling a tune of "I want to go home". "Not so fast" said Ann as upon further inspection the mechanic reported the transmission had some kind of leak/buildup on the bottom causing the problem. With a quick cleaning and a replacement part he could have them on the road Saturday morning. Would they be able to make the regatta? A call to Bob Sagan early Sat. found light winds and a delay to the start so our regattatiers were willing to gamble on making the event.

With everything on track, our two brave Interlake sailors made it to Traverse City, rigged and launched in-time to make the days races. Maybe every trip should start like theirs, as Jack and Ann found themselves in 3rd place going into the last race with only needing to finish to secure their spot. Nothing could stop them now, or could it? Wait!! What is that I hear? It sounds as though a tree is falling in the forest. As we know trees cannot fall in the middle of Grand Traverse Bay, but a mast can be an eerie substitute. Who could this possibly happen to? Take three guesses, however the first two don’t count. Suffice to say no one was hurt during the whole episode which seemed to be a microcosm of how the weekend was going to be.

Having encountered more than their share of obstacles on this trip, GTYC host and Interlake sailor Bob Sagan decided (maybe he felt compelled) to reward our two regattatiers for sticking it out through thick and thin . What a perfect way to get the guests to relax, he thought, by offering them a nice ride on the bay as he returned one of the barrowed service boats. (Author’s Note: Bob, what were you thinking?? Hadn’t you heard about and seen enough already to know you are playing with fire my friend??) Well as luck wouldn’t have it our crew found themselves stopped by the local police for not having operational navigation lights. Being unfamiliar with the boat Bob sweet talked (err.. stalled) the officers long enough to jiggle enough wires under the console to get the lights working thus staving off a big ticket. What an adventure!