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. These intrepid sailors realized their 330-mile journey had dropped them at the doorway of some of the most beautiful freshwater cruising anywhere in the world. As the numbers of boaters began to grow during the next 25 years, other clubs such as the Great Lakes Cruising Club were formed. These brought boaters together with the com-mon goal of cruising and discovering the Great Lakes.

Year after year, more racers found themselves lingering around to tour the North Channel Islands and Georgian Bay. Mariners learned, however, that the waters were poorly charted and had few, if any, aids to navigation. (Boaters cruising the upper Great Lakes prior to World War I could rely on little, but the charts created from British Royal Navy surveys, made before Canada became an independent nation.) Despite these handicaps, Arch Gibson, the founder of the Great Lakes Cruising Club, enjoyed cruising the upper Great Lakes during the early 1900s. During one of his adventures he met Grant Turner, a merchant in the village of Little Current, on the north shore of Manitoulin Island, Ontario. Turner, well acquainted with the North Channel and western Georgian Bay, was happy to share his insight of the area and navigational hazards with visiting yachtsmen. Turner took Gibson under his wing and shared the secrets of the area with his new acquaintance, forming the basis of a lifelong friendship.

Grant���s son Byron, now well into his eighties recalls fondly how Gibson and his friends from Chicago used to come into the Turner Trading Store, asking the elder Turner about good anchorages, and navigating around the maze of islands in the North Channel. Gibson began recording what he learned during his summer cruises and shared his knowledge with boating friends in a Christmas letter. During an informal gathering with several other boaters in May of 1934, Gibson and his friends decided to form a cruising club. It will be devoted to ���the promotion of cruising on the Great Lakes and their tributary waters among Corinthian yachtsmen [and] the compilation and dissemination of cruising information,��� wrote Gibson.

That marked the beginning of the Great Lakes Cruising Club, and Gibson���s Christmas letter quickly turned into its annual report. Grant Turner became the first Canadian Commodore in the Club and the original wool club burgee still hangs on the upstairs wall of the Turner Trading Store in Little Current. As club members visited spots around the Great Lakes, they collected details regarding harbors, services, navigational aids, depths and anything else they felt would be of interest to their fellow yachtsmen. This information also appeared in the organization���s annual reports. It wasn���t long before the club���s stockpile of information grew into the first edition of the Port Pilot and Log Book, now widely considered the definitive cruising guide to the Great Lakes area. (The latest edition contains some 1,100 detailed harbor reports, as well as information about coves and islets not charted by U.S. or Canadian chart makers.) Since the print version weighs more than 30 pounds and occupies four large three-ring binders, the club also offers a more portable three-disc CD-ROM set.

After World War II, the club expanded upon the Port Pilot and Log Book and began publishing a newsletter, Lifeline, to help members stay abreast of local news and events. The newsletter continues today, delivering updates about the club five times per year.

Membership isn���t the only thing that���s grown over the years; friendships have blossomed right along with it. Social gatherings and club-sponsored events are now commonplace. One of the first was in 1965, when the club dedicated a monument to Grant Turner at Little Current. All members were invited, and the occasion drew a big turnout.This became the first rendezvous���and established a tradition of gathering to renew friendships and enjoy good company. Since then, the club has held regional events and a series of shorter cruises to destinations such as St. Joseph and Lake Macatawa near Holland, Michigan. In addition to the annual meeting in Chicago, gatherings are held in Minneapolis, Duluth, Grosse Pointe, Sarnia, and Catawba Island. Rallies are held in lakes Erie, Superior, Huron and Michigan. Each winter there is also a gathering of club members in Florida.

The Great Lakes Cruising Club, now with about 2,500 members, operates out of a small Chicago office with a staff of two. The club is divided into 11 regions, each headed by a rear commodore. Within each region are port captains (volunteers appointed by the board of directors), who assist and provide information to visiting members.

The club recently established the Great Lakes Foundation, a nonprofit group that helps fund projects such as the University of Wisconsin���s study of the Great Lakes and its tributaries. Other grants have helped support construction of a maritime museum in Sandusky, Ohio; a health-care center in Manitoulin, and maritime museums in Chicago and Little Current.

For more than 70 years, the Great Lakes Cruising Club has provided service and friendship to boaters in the Great Lakes. When asked, why boaters join the Club, Toni Koranec, who has worked for the Great Lakes Cruising Club for 16 years replied that it���s ���the love of cruising, it���s in their blood.��� It���s difficult to imagine what recreational boating would be like in the Great Lakes without The Great Lakes Cruising Club. So it���s hats off to a great organization with a grand agenda. May the next 70 years be even better than the first.

Contact: Great Lakes Cruising Club, 60604-2284; (312) 431-0904; fax (312) 431-0908; glcclub@aol.com; www.glcclub.com.