Community

How does an inanimate object draw people together in a community? I have been pondering this question since we arrived at the Nordic Tug rendezvous this year. Charlotte and I have attended each of them since the beginning, seven or eight, I cannot quite remember.

There are retired folk and working folk, engineers and physicians, and many successful small business people. They are from all over the Midwest and Canada, and they travel all over the world.

Most have put their heart and soul into their contrivances. The boats come with a steep learning curve; knowledge of machinery, navigation and ship handling needs to be studied to operate the tugs safely. Now many years into ownership it is difficult to remember how naïve we were when we attended our first rendezvous, let alone the first time we motored out of the harbor and crossed Lake Michigan.

The tugs range from 26 to 53 feet with most around 32 feet. Couples mainly pilot them. They, the tugs, are so cute you cannot miss one in a harbor. Most children squeal with excitement when they first lay eyes upon them.

Nordic Tug came close to dissolution when the economy tanked in 2008. We have become so attached to this chunk of fiberglass that it felt like a family member was in peril. With the hardship the depression brought for so many people it was odd to have such feelings about a boat, but a world without more of them being created seemed a diminished world.

And now that I think of it, it was not the boats I was grieving for it was the loss of the community of fellow owners and enthusiasts. This 2013 rendezvous in Elk Rapids, MI proved it to me again, though less in faces and boats it was not less in camaraderie. I marvel at the ability we have to dream and then to choose this magic carpet to realize it.