Our Morgan 33, Aquavit, has been happily cruising the waters of Green Bay this year, as our captains enjoy exploring Door County. She's been to Washington Island and anchored off of the Strawberry Islands and Peninsula Park. She's explored the harbor towns and inlets up and down the bay. Really, the boat's been having a pretty smashing summer.
Buried in her hold is a little barrel of aquavit. Indigenous to Scandinavian countries, aquavit is a caraway based spirit. The Norwegians, being a bit quirky, have long placed special reverence on aquavit that has been shipped to Australia and back. The temperature changes and motion involved with a trip that crosses the equator twice is supposed to imbue the spirit with certain subtities of flavor. This "linie" aquavit is greatly prized.
As this is Aquavit's first year sailing north to Green Bay we decided to follow on this tradition. We filled a small barrel with unaged aquavit, to be shaped by the flavor of the season! Come the fall, when we open the cask, the spirit should taste of the spirit of the lake and the summer of 2012. That is, of course, assuming no one finds and drinks the cask beforehand...
Buried in her hold is a little barrel of aquavit. Indigenous to Scandinavian countries, aquavit is a caraway based spirit. The Norwegians, being a bit quirky, have long placed special reverence on aquavit that has been shipped to Australia and back. The temperature changes and motion involved with a trip that crosses the equator twice is supposed to imbue the spirit with certain subtities of flavor. This "linie" aquavit is greatly prized.
As this is Aquavit's first year sailing north to Green Bay we decided to follow on this tradition. We filled a small barrel with unaged aquavit, to be shaped by the flavor of the season! Come the fall, when we open the cask, the spirit should taste of the spirit of the lake and the summer of 2012. That is, of course, assuming no one finds and drinks the cask beforehand...
We had a little party in Monroe to christen Aquavit.... A good time was had.
Ed tried to convince everyone that we needed a virgin to pee on the boat to make the christening official and avoid any possibility of irking the gods of the lake. Eventually, however, he came around to the fact that we had no virgins available who held any interest at all in peeing on a boat...
Marilyn went with the more conventional approach, showering the boat with champagne as horns and sirens where blared to ring in the boat's new name.
The restoration crew, of course, was on hand. Mark and Chris were instrumental to Aquavit's transformation. Mark's work on the forward hatch, especially, really pushed the boat to a new level. Charlie had a hand in the painting (okay... he had a hand in putting up the masking paper) And, Karl, did a little sanding on the edges. There's a lot to be proud of and these guys aren't shy about claiming it!
The Strzelecki sisters always have a good time.
Perry was finally able to retrieve the bottle of aquavit he won in the drawing from Strictly Sail
Some of the Northwest Sailing Association crew was on hand. When John Bardin heard that we had lost a crew member for Aquavit's sail north the next day, he stepped in. "It's a sailboat," he pointed out with noted English charm, "it would be a shame to leave her sitting on the dock!"
And the next day, Aquavit was off... leaving Monroe behind to explore new cruising waters a bit further north on the lake. http://www.olsonsclassicyachts.com/door-county.html/door-county.html
