Swashbuckling on Chicago's Lake Michigan

Five new employees started all around the same time last month, so we decided to combine our welcome parties into one big hurrah. Travelling to the eastern seas of the Midwest (i.e. Lake Michigan) we sallied forth into the unknown waters of pirating. Below, a few of my fellow welcome party recipients share their favorite parts of the adventure.

“DMC now has one more area of expertise to add to its repertoire; sailing tall ships! We were trained by what we are sure was a real-life pirate (we could tell by his hat, boots, and occasional “avast!”) to hoist sails and coil ropes… although we’re still not sure the complicated rope coiling wasn’t just a distraction to keep us from taking control of the ship. Andrew, Nicklas, David, and I hoisted our sail in record time, beating out the rest of the DMC team by at least fifteen seconds and officially qualifying us as “salty sea dogs.” With this gang of expert pirates on the loose, Chicago had better look out!” – Erin Meyer

“The crew of the tall ship Windy was what really made the experience great. They made us man the ropes to raise the sails and insulted us in classic pirate style as we did so. After we were well at sail they told true stories of the pirates who took advantage of the merchants coming through Chicago long ago. At the same time, the sunset was making the Chicago skyline as beautiful as I have ever seen it.” – Nicklas Thystrup

Not only was this my welcome party, but it was also the first party that I was in charge of organizing at DMC, so it was both exciting and stressful! DMC really showed its culture at a few points throughout the adventure.

First, when everyone boarded the boat, all of DMC made a bee-line to the bar to make use of our open bar wristbands. We had free alcohol for the entire cruise, and we were gonna use it. Second, I loved that so many DMC-ers were thrilled to join in on helping the sailors hoist the sails, to the point that a small child ten feet away sat there grumpily eyeing us for taking up all of the spots holding the rope. We’re either all children at heart, really bad at sharing, or both.

Overall, it seems like everyone had a great time. Getting the main pirate to announce a warm welcome to all of our new employees was a major bonus!