No Chicagoan will refuse an offer to go sailing on Lake Michigan in the summer. In this instance, my girlfriend's aunt invited us to join her and her boyfriend George on his sailboat. Within an hour, we were standing at the Columbia Yacht Club waiting to board the boat...aptly titled The Sunset Grill. We both took a seat as The Sunset Grill made its voyage into the choppy waters of Lake Michigan. Within thirty minutes of sailing, the winds on the lake shifted and The Sunset Grill was running nearly parallel to the water. George sprung to action and lowered one sail and then raised another in an effort to keep The Sunset Grill afloat. The jib line then came loose and got lodged on the engine's propeller. George decided to reverse the engine to unfasten the line, but the key broke off in the ignition switch. For the first time, George's resolve dimmed as The Sunset Grill continued to drift farther away from shore. A call was made to the Coast Guard who promptly showed up but did nothing other than to verify that we were wearing life preservers and weren't intoxicated. The Coast Guard then radioed for a tow boat to bring us back to shore. When the tow boat arrived, there was one guy on board and he struggled to pull his boat close enough to us and sling a rope toward our boat. It took nearly 45 minutes for the tow boat to connect to The Sunset Grill. Finally, we were headed toward shore. That proud "I'm on a boat!" feeling I had when The Sunset Grill first embarked on Lake Michigan completely evaporated into shame as the tow boat dragged us to the marina. When we finally reached firm ground, George promised to treat us to dinner at the Yacht Club where he admitted that this had only been his second time sailing.