BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

My protective and highly-imaginative father feared my new boyfriend had devious connections. “Lives on a boat, knows all the best restaurants—might have mafia ties,” he warned me.

I reassured him. “A mafia man would have a fancier boat.”

The vessel for my liveaboard sweetheart was a 38-foot 1980 Marine Trader trawler named Mazurka.

The captain was a fiercely-independent “Yooper” from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula; Mazurka became Mark’s solution to living in a city of three million people. It gave him freedom, space and a dockside view of nature. He also had access to world-class culture and activities. On one of our first dates, he took me down the Chicago River and out the locks to Navy Pier, where we floated and watched fireworks right above our heads. I marveled at how spacious—how quiet—the city could be.

I soon learned that Chicago is a boater’s paradise. Whether it’s dropping anchor in Lake Michigan’s