Rick and Mary?

Actually, I have been trying to get in touch with both of them and have been uncessful. I hope everything is okay with. It is not like either of them to not return emails.

Tracie

I know that they were moving up here to Ohio for the Summer (Lake Erie) after the Atlantic 1000. Maybe they haven't had any success getting their network set up at that location? Or maybe they are enjoying the lack of internet access?
Jack
Fort Loramie, Ohio

Put-In-Bay is remote...but it's not THAT remote! I hope we hear from them soon.

You guessed it. We were told there would be no problem with internet access, but were badly misled.
We are now using poor dialup service on a telephone line that goes out for days. Sorry about that.
THey still promise DSL Soon, but no one knows when.

Meanwhile Gen (our new girl) is handling the store and all the email, but does not do any reporting on stories.

Since I am just now back on (albeit slowly) tell me where I would find such stories, Matt. Got my email and nothing there.

Rick

Rick,

There are several posts and pictures on your forums:

Catsailor forum posts about the Alter Cup

There is always the US Sailing site:

US Multihull Championship

While you are making updates... here is another of interest:

Youth Multihull Championships

Well, it sure SEEMS remote here. We haven't stayed up here for nine years, and we thought things would have advanced a little more on this island. It took us almost two weeks to get our phone service hooked up again, and after that it has been lost a couple times due to various problems. It was almost three weeks before we were able to figure out how to get and send e-mail.

Apparently, we won't be able to get DSL for our computers until late July, so we are using a dial-up service -- but there aren't very many lines available to Put-in-Bay, so it is often hard to get a line during the day. I haven't been able to work on the computers and internet at night because if a light is on inside after dark, the place fills up with throngs of flying insects -- it's like being under siege.

So finally yesterday Rick went to work with the duct tape and covered every conceivable entrance point. This is the first night we have been able to keep the bugs at bay outside the windows. The down side is that no air can get in, either, so I am feeling a bit faint right now.

It's been hard to work outside, too, because it seems to be rainy and cold up here a lot. The locals say this was the rainiest spring they can remember. Rick cut down a bunch of trees and I tried to burn them. I empathasized with the people on Survivor, because I couldn't keep a fire going even with lots of paper and lots of matches.

We finally got a satellite TV dish installed, and it works except when the wind is blowing one of the trees across in front of it. Guess we are going to have to cut the tree down.

We tried to get wireless DSL from an antenna not far from us, but too many trees in the way.

Sooo, I have been hibernating and reading books and trying to get acclimated and telling myself that I deserved a month's vacation.

But now that I have stayed up all night and confirmed that we have defeated the bugs, I am back and starting to work on the next issue of the magazine.

As far as the catsailor.com home page not mentioning recent current events, obviously we know the web sites that have the basic information like results and photos (and so does everybody else), but those web sites don't have stories, which is why Rick asked where to find stories.

Our two, double-stacked Waves have been sitting at the Put-in-Bay Yacht Club, unpacked and unused, since we got here. I was hoping we could do some island-hopping, but the weather has just been too crappy and unpredictable. Before the end of the summer, I hope we can do a story and photos about these beautiful islands here in western Lake Erie.

so is the catsailor operation moving permanently to the great white north? 😛

No way, Maugan. I wanna go home right now. Rick wants to stay up here until October. Either way, we won't be here until the North turns white. I'm not into ice fishing, which is the big pastime here in the winter.

Mary and Rick, Just want to wish you a great Summer! Hope it warms up for you! Brian

Hi Mary
From your description of your experiences up there, I have only one question for you...Why in the world did you go up there? Don't we have enough bugs in Florida to keep you happy? LOL...wait...that was two questions...LOL

Bob

Hey, the last couple of weekends up this way have been awesome. Sunny and windy both days, and the water was pretty warm (70+) in Lake Erie for the Around the Bay race two weekends ago. The rain flushed out a lot of debris into the lake, though.

The fish flies (May flies) were pretty impressive at North Cape Yacht Club. I don't want to think what they're like at night.

Right now, it's mid 80's, low humidity, and honking out of the SW. Time to play hooky from work . . . .

Bob,
We're just trying to resume our normal pattern of spending the summers in Ohio and winters in Florida. After we got Rick's Place in 1995, we were (or at least I was) stuck in Florida all year round tending to the motel. Now that the motel is sold, we're trying to get back to life as usual.

Rick and I are both from northern Ohio and spent most of our lives sailing on Lake Erie and inland lakes throughout the Midwest. Most of our family is up in this area. This is really "home," bugs and all.

And just so the northern sailors (like Matt) won't be mad at me for painting a grim picture, I must add that the summer and fall up in this part of the country are absolutely gorgeous!

And with CRAM, CRAW and OCRA, there is plenty of great racing going on. Hobie Division 10 is trying to make a comeback, thanks to Jeff Rabidoux in Detroit.

It's nice to be back on the northern coast of the United States -- and the water isn't salty!

Now, if we can just get communications established with the outside world......

Ugh, I'd rather sail in salt water over fresh anyday. Sand between my toes is far better that mud and dirt, or worse yet red clay if your lake sailing in the south east.

Tracie

How's this for sand, Tracie?

BTW, that's Lake Erie.

Matt, is that Maumee Bay State Park? Looks kind of familiar.

Actually, it's Port Burwell Provential Park in Ontario, on the north shore of the lake.

The photo is from the regatta we had there three weeks ago.

Here's another shot of the beach taken that Friday night:

(thanks to Stuart Crabbe for the photos - www.crabbe.ca)

Ah, those long northern twilights. I grew up every summer in Canada, though farther north (the north shore of Lake Huron). Sailing up there is mostly rock shores and water, but the twilights will last until past 10pm in June. It makes me nostalgic.

Mary, the rest of the year I was growing up near Dayton and learned to sail on Cowan Lake. I wonder if catamarans ever took root on that little lake. I know they still have active Lightning, Highlander, Snipe fleets among others.

David
H20

David,
I think there must have been a Hobie fleet there, because they hosted a regatta there every spring when we were racing Division 10 in the 1980's. We never were able to go to it because we didn't get to Ohio that early in the season. The fleet must have died, because Cowan Lake isn't on the OCRA schedule.

Hobie Fleet 47 was on Cowan Lake - and still kinda exists in that part of the world.

They still have a regatta the first weekend of May at Caesar Creek State Park, which is not that far away.

It's on the OCRA schedule (www.sailocra.com).

I haven't been to it since 1986 simply because there's a CRAM regatta that same weekend that's only 15 minutes away from my house (Cass Lake).