12/24/11 WINDSLEDS ON THE BAY, AND THE HEROES OF CHRISTMAS EVE

WIND SLED ON CHEQUAMEGON BAY

...SAILS DISMOUNTED

Saturday, the Day Before Christmas.  25.5 degrees, wind WSW, calm.  The sky is mostly clear with patches of very high, puffy white clouds drifting lazily eastward.  The barometer predicts sunny skies and it should be a pretty day and a beautiful Christmas Eve.
        These wind sleds had just come off the ice on Cheqamegon Bay in Ashland yesterday afternoon.  Their sails are already off the masts and put away.  The ice looks smooth, and talking with the owners they said it was good sailing although the wind was not strong enough for a really fast ride. Evidently the ice is of sufficient depth for the sleds although I see only one fish shanty off the Ashland shore.  Wind sledding has always looked like a good sport to me, relatively inexpensive, and no noise, fumes or use of gasoline.  There were several more sleds already off the ice and on their trailers.  They are simple enough for a handy person to build for a few hundred dollars and one owner said he paid two thousand dollars for his commercial model.  These are as far as I could see one-person sleds.  I have seen much larger sleds on the Hudson River, and at one time  big wind sleds hauled cargo and passengers up and down the Hudson between New York and Albany, just as sailboats did. Wind sleds can reach sixty miles per hour or more in a stiff breeze.  They are not practical or safe on rough or snow covered ice so they are not seen that often on the big lake. 
        Even though present times are not the best, most of us are well enough fed, clothed and housed, and our children and grandchildren  secure and happy.  So let us pause and give thanks for the promise of “Peace on Earth, good will toward men,” as announced by the angels on that first Christmas Eve.  And let us remember the  heroes of Christmas Eves past, such as the rag-tag patriots under the command of General George Washington, who crossed the Delaware River on that stormy Christmas Eve of 1776 to surprise and defeat the British and their hired Hessians on Christmas morning at the battle of Trenton.  Let us also remember the heroes of the Battle of the Bulge, and the Chosin Reservoir, and the troops fighting for peace and justice in Afghanistan on this Christmas Eve, 2011.
        As we look back on our history as a nation we see many, many Christmas Eves when we were at war, and young men shivered in snowy trenches or sweated and died in steaming jungles.  God has promised us peace on earth, but like freedom, it is our task to achieve it, year after year, and century after century, in an endless quest.  Freedom is not free, and peace is only achieved through faith and strength.