PHOTOGRAPHY BY ETHAN MELEG

During my youth, when I first became enamored with sailing the Great Lakes, I would hang around Michigan���s Black River Yacht Club, where the Black River empties into the St. Clair. If I was there at the right time on Sunday morning, I stood a good chance of being asked to fill in for absent crew on one of the Six Meters that gathered there every weekend to race.

It was September 11,2002, not an insignificant date. Because of my natural tendency to over-think situations,I was prepared for tight security as we re-entered U.S.waters after cruising in Canada for the past couple of months. But the easy-going, casual reception we received at U.S.Customs on Drummond Island was a prelude to discovering how unusually friendly people in Northern Michigan can be to total strangers.

Photography by John Rees

There may be no better place in North America to cruise than in the Great Lakes. Yes, the Florida Keys are swell, Maine is a great place, and the Pacific Northwest is stunning. But the variety of cruising available on the Great Lakes makes the region the winner, in my opinion. Even as far back as 1898, when the Chicago Yacht Club organized its first annual sailboat race to Mackinac Island, cruisers began to discover the area's beauty.

The Great Lakes supports more boating activity than any other body of freshwater in the world. This heavy recreational and commercial marine traffic, however, can take its toll on the lake's ecosystem. Responsibility for the health of the Great Lakes is split between several states, and of course between the United States and Canada, causing a host of jurisdiction issues.