We are deep into mud season here in the North Woods, that interminable meteorological period that has winter lingering and spring reluctant. My affluent farmer neighbors have escaped to a warm beach, maybe Gulfport or Biloxi, and it’s quiet at the Lake View Inn. Perfect time for me to work on my annual list. I hunch over the worn blue Formica bar top and draw two columns on the back of a napkin.
“Working on that list again this year?” Wally asked from behind the bar. “Does it ever help?”
“I like to start with regrets from last season in one column,” I replied, “so maybe I won’t repeat those mistakes this year.”
“Ah, regrets,” crooned my good friend Chuck Larson from down the bar. “I’ve had a few. But then again—”
“So, for example, the weekend of boating I missed out on last year for my niece’s wedding. This year, if it’s a daughter getting married, I might attend, but I won’t go deeper on the family tree,” I said.
“And I’m going to skip taking the old Ford to the Iola car show, even if my departed father rolls in his grave. This year I’m all-in on the boat.”
Here’s the reality of boating at our latitude. The traditional pleasure-boating season starts on Memorial Day weekend and ends on Labor Day. That’s 15 weekends for a working person. You can count on at least two of those weekends getting rained out, and a couple more “rained out” because your wife—in my case, the deputy medical examiner—is on call and can’t leave the house. Another two will probably be lost to an unavoidable social obligation, a wedding or a graduation or, worst of all, a birthday for a toddler grandchild. Forget about the big holiday weekends, when the launch ramps are mobbed and too many other captains on the lake are deep into a six-pack. If you have a 14-foot vintage runabout like mine, there will be days when it’s too windy and rough to launch the boat and have any fun. Next thing you know, the leaves are turning and you’ve still got a jug full of pre-mix in the shop, and you realize how little your hour meter has turned.
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“It’s going to be different this year,” I said. “In this column, I’m listing Plans for 2025. I’m going to start by getting the Bearing Buddy kit that I bought last year installed on the trailer, and the vintage spring cleats mounted on the gunwales so we can hang fenders. I’ve got four weekends devoted to wood-boat shows in Wisconsin and Minnesota. And I’m going to propose that we celebrate the grandkid’s birthdays on the boat!”
“That last one is brilliant,” Chuck said. “Do you think your Evinrude Lark could pull a small tube? It’s a vintage boat, so maybe you need to put them in an old tractor tube and pull that around.”
“It’s still going to rain,” Wally said. “And the wind will still blow.”
Maybe we’ll get a nice drought this year. Regrets? I’m hoping for too few to mention this season.
