Tall Ships and Too Much Food

            I visit Wisconsin whenever I please,

            But there’s way too much food-- and too much cheese.

            I don’t live in Wisconsin, but I frequently visit there--and I can tell you this:  You can approach Wisconsin from any direction and as soon as you cross the border, the food is better, the portions are larger, and the service is friendlier.  And it doesn’t cost any more.

            My friends and I have argued for years as to why this should be true.  The state was settled mostly by the same mix of Germans, Irish, Scandinavians, Czechs, and Poles that settled the rest of the Midwest. They should have about the same food culture, but they really don’t.  The real mystery is why the tastiest local beer in the state should be brewed in New Glarus.  New Glarus was settled by Swiss Calvinists.  You’d think a really tasty beer would be brewed by Hedonists from New Orleans—not Calvinists from New Glarus.  After all, wouldn’t a beer which is that delicious tempt us to drink too much and lapse into sin?  Go figure.  Since I developed gout a few years back, I’ve quit drinking beer almost entirely for fear that a single glass might trigger an attack.  (Alcohol does not cause gout; in my case it’s caused by the blood pressure medication I take. Yet alcohol can aggravate gout.)   But for a draught of Spotted Cow, I’ll take the risk.

            Last weekend I attended a tall ship festival in Green Bay, WI, sponsored by Baylake Bank and others.   A large flotilla of sailing ships is visiting all major Great Lakes ports this summer, and last weekend it was Green Bay’s turn to host the watery hoard.  I live closer to Green Bay than to any of the other cities hosting the ships, and Wisconsin is a good place to vacation.  The festival was a roaring success and a boon to Green Bay.

            For me it was a mix of delights and disappointments.  Months in advance, we had booked tickets for a one hour ride on one of the ships, the Roseway.  But at the appointed hour, the captain canceled, citing unfavorable winds and currents.    Our money was refunded, and I still got some photos, but only of ships moored at the dock with all sails furled.  I had hoped to get a few close-up shots of ships under sail.  But we boarded several ships, talked with the crew members, so we still had an interesting experience.

            The Europa is the largest and oldest vessel-- a steel hulled barque from the Netherlands built in 1911.  Most of the rest were built since WWII, most are made of wood, and most are accurate historical reproductions of early 19^th Century vessels.  Four are replicas of ships used in the War of 1812.  And of course The Bounty, built in 1962 for a movie, is a replica of the original Bounty.  These 13 ships represent nine different kinds of rigging and vary in sparred length from 64 ft to 198 ft.  Some of the 1812 replicas had masts tilted back nearly 20 degrees from vertical.  I was told that this design allows tacking closer to the direction of the wind, and also allows better speed in light winds. 
   In the foreground of the above photo is the Niagra, a replica of the ship with which Oliver Hazard Perry won the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813.  It has a sparred length of 198 ft, a beam of 32.6 ft, draws 11 ft, and was built of wood in 1988.  It is brig rigged and its home port is Erie PA.

            I asked one captain, “What is it like to own a big sailing ship?”  He replied, “Just sit in a damp cellar and tear up hundred dollar bills."