21 July 2011 Airish

For a day I expected to be rather lonely, due to the weather, Amy & I managed to have some interesting interactions with the outside world.  For instance, I got to debate the usefulness of lighthouses in the age of GPS, getting deep enough into the discussion I had to drag up some esoteric information such as the various codes GPS is broadcast on and the functionality of WAAS & DGPS systems (thank you Wild Bill Erlenson).  In another instance, Amy & I received a standing invitation to visit a coffee plantation in Panama.

While escorting two of our visitors, Sarah & Craig, into the tower, and discussing their travels, I was asked how I could take off enough time to be a lighthouse caretaker, which led to me talking about the merchant marine.  This prompted Sarah to tell me she is a retired Panama Canal Pilot, and now the two of them run a coffee plantation on a mountainside near the Pacific.  This fed into talking (bitching, really.  A sailor’s one God-given right is to complain) about the vagaries of shipping long term and dealing with the USCG to receive professional credentials, and all of this somehow led into an exchange of email addresses and the invitation.  Randomness is the spice of life.

Although we only had eight visitors today, in contrast to the ninety we had a week ago, it was still far more than I expected to see.  As I alluded to, the weather, while sunny, was what my shipmate Preacher would refer to as “airish”.  After 0900, the breeze never dropped below 15kts, and the seas were rolling into the south side of the island steadily in the 4’-6’ range.  We used the weather-enforced isolation to best advantage, and got all the buildings cleaned, the grass mowed, and I painted the galley window & doorframe.  We also took a walk down the South Trail and got a few good pictures of the surf on the rocks.     

   

As the sun went down so did the thermometer readings, so Amy & I retired inside for the duration.  While I initially intended to pursue a quite evening, I was struck by a muse to create a pirate treasure map on Seguin, which I fueled with the soundtrack to Pirates of the Caribbean blasting on the sound dock, and a generous amount of rum.  So the quite evening failed to materialize, but fun was had regardless.  We go to bed with the temperature hovering in the mid 60F’s, the wind still blowing around 20kts, and the fog horn sounding in the background.

22 July 2011 Heat

I’m sure the main focus of our day was the same as everyone’s ashore: the heat.  While Seguin was probably definitely cooler than the mainland, it was still hotter than foxes fornicating in a wool sock out here.  In a perverse reversal from a month ago, Amy & I were scrounging for ways to cool the house down, instead of warm it up.

There were many folks who thought to come to Seguin to beat the heat.  Early on we got a call Anne & Greg, saying they were coming a day early to escape the heat inshore.  Attempting to get work done prior to their arrival, I was caught completely off guard by the Southport Yacht Club dumping 52 small children on us (a la Small Point Summer School) for an hour.  I had flashbacks to last week as I watched boat after boat disgorge children into The Cove.  I’m sure you all remember my rant from last week, so I will simply say that this group of kids behaved no differently than the last group of kids.

When Anne & Greg did finally arrive on Ghost Dancing, I had to launch the dinghy to row out to them, as Darcy & Lara were making a ruckus that was reverberating off of both sides of The Cove.  After the dogs had gingerly touched noses from the gunwales of their respective boats, the decibel level dropped enough, that I could invite Anne & Greg up to the Keeper’s Quarters for mussels & cold libations.  Because of the heat, even the rising tide didn’t trouble me, as gathering mussels took me into waist deep water on the east side, and provided another opportunity to cool off.

Smallest boat, biggest character

By the time evening rolled around the Cove was full.  Much to my amusement, Ghost Dancing, the smallest of the boats at 32’, occupied the Coast Guard mooring with the heaviest anchor, while two 40’ boats rafted up to each other, and made off bow & stern to the two small moorings.  The picture above was taken Saturday morning, but you get the idea.  We had an excellent time with Anne & Greg, the mussels yet again did not make us sick, and we swapped some funny stories.  Anne took the blue ribbon for her story about almost colliding with a whale, but you’ll all have to ask her for that tale.  I won’t steal the wind from her sails.

Now that the sun is down, the temperature is falling off rapidly, & 70F feels like 50F does usually, so I’m happy.  Amy & I by mutual decision agreed that I would sleep on the futon tonight, to prevent both of us from overheating.  It’s to the best anyways as I will be up on and off all night working on bread dough for the morning.    

23 July 2011 Eating or Feeding?

I have read two books recently, one concerning drinking and one eating, in which the authors advocated eating in groups, making it a meal an enjoyable social activity rather than a necessity for survival (one went so far as to say the main difference between animals & humans is that humans eat while animals feed).  Nowhere was this notion more perfectly illustrated than on Ghost Dancing this morning, where Anne & Greg hosted us for breakfast.

While I always enjoy a good heart-stopper breakfast the pile of steaming potatoes, sausages, and eggs, rounded off with hot coffee and fresh bread with butter, was a meal of epic proportions, made all the more so as it was shared in good company; we were definitely eating, not feeding.  The conversation revolving around the boats and boating (what else?) and the food, we spent the morning as pleasantly as could be, awaiting the arrival of the work party from the Friends of Seguin.  I will happily get up at 0530 every day to bake fresh bread if it means I get to participate in similar scenes.

Four-legged work party coming ashore

Unfortunately the idyllic repast came to an end, as they tend to, and we had to get down to the business of the day, namely a lot of sanding and painting that I had been aggressively dodging.  Fortunately Cyndy had mustered quite a crew of able hands & paws (including a young lady who was gracious enough to walk Mr. Darcy all day) that made the work light indeed.  By the end of the work day the crew had sanded & painted the remaining porches, moved all the staging out for use later this week, and done some weed whacking to help air-dry the tram trestles.  A special thank you to all involved, particularly Greg, who got the riding mower working again.

The weather was far better than yesterday.  When I awoke this morning it was cool & damp, with a thick layer of clouds hanging low in the sky.  With one or two brief spates of sprinkles however this all burned off and we were left with a pleasingly warm day, with the usual afternoon breeze to keep things from heating up too much.  For some reason we had very few visitors today, but with the amount of activity we had regardless, the low count of guests was more of a boon than anything else.    

So another Saturday ends on Seguin, with a gentle SW’ly breeze and a falling barometer, Darcy hogging the couch and twisting into various obscene poses, and Amy happily knitting something in the corner.  Can’t wait for tomorrow.

24 July 2011 Popcornian Response

I have always been a fan of making popcorn the old fashioned way, heating up a small amount of oil in a pan, throwing in the kernels, and gently shaking the pan until everything is popped.  A few weeks back, on a popcorn night, I fed the dog a couple of pieces of corn, and much to my amusement he loved it, smacking away at every piece I gave him, then begging for more.  A new game was born where (now much to Amy’s amusement) Darcy would hover next to me as I slowly doled out his portion of the popcorn feast.  The mutt has come to enjoy popcorn so much at this point that when he hears the kernels being poured into the pan, he immediately runs into the kitchen and patiently watches me cook it.  I’ve created a monster.

Darcy Dog eating popcorn

After a few intensely busy weeks, this weekend has been surprisingly sedate.  Between yesterday and today we have had maybe twenty visitors total (visitors we didn’t know, that is).  Just two weeks back a day like today would have had the boats out here in droves.  Not that we’re complaining though; how often do you get a warm, sunny day, with light winds, all to yourself on Seguin?

After giving a tour to three folks who showed up early, I lugged some tools down to the boathouse to begin my adventures with fiberglass, working on Dory.  I’m reasonably certain I haven’t worked with fiberglass since I was a kid.  Consequently today was a learning experience in many ways.  For instance, I learned that the folks at West System were not kidding about the “pot life”.  Around nine minutes in, and only half of my resin applied, I was wondering if I had put in enough hardener, when the container got scorching hot & started to smoke, and I had wasted a bunch of resin.  But after a few false starts, and more expensive materials wasted, I had finished 75% of what I was trying to accomplish.  It isn’t the neatest or prettiest job ever done, but I’m pretty sure Dory can be used to break ice now.

Happily we had a return visit from Dave Goodwin & Emily, this time he brought his brother, sister, and sister’s boyfriend.  Also this time, there were no other visitors, so we got a better chance to hang out.      They headed out after a couple of hours, with promises to return one more time before Dave ships out again, and Amy & I had the place to ourselves again.  Dinner, mandolin practice, some reading & writing, and another day on Seguin is done.

25 July 2011 Intact Digits

Any day that you do not chop off your fingers is a good day.  Working on metal ships for the last few years, I have learned many skills, but carpentry was not one of them.  Consequently when I got the material to rebuild Dory, and it was in planks that needed to be ripped into the proper size, I had legitimate fears for the future of my digits.  However, never being one to back down, I looked over the table saw, decided it had few enough moving parts I could sort it out (blithely ignoring the fact that the one moving part was a real doozy), and went to.  Incredibly I did not ruin any of my nice oak pieces, but I also retained all of my fingers.  As I wrote, a good day.

Dory in the boathouse, new inwale & gunwale pieces in the foreground

 Of course once I had the individual pieces cut it was time to begin sanding, and as the one Seguin palm sander is more aggravating than useful, I had to do every piece by hand, which is clearly time consuming.  But, when living on an island, time is one thing you have to consume.  Thus I spent the afternoon sanding down on the boathouse while watching the boats go by and listening to the sounds of coastal life. 

Amy spent the day knitting, sun bathing, and picking the first of the huge haul of raspberries we are expecting- the bushes are heavily laden with green berries at the moment, it is a matter of time before we are immersed in fresh island fruit.  Coincident with the berry harvest is a huge increase in apian activity.  There are bees everywhere right now, doing their thing, and not bothering anyone but the clover buds.  Another question for anyone who may know: do the bees come out this time of year regardless, or are the ripening berries & other plants going to seed drawing them?  Regardless, I am fascinated by watching them going about their business.

I did not get to do any staining on my wood pieces, and Amy had to cut her tanning short, as the sky began to threaten rain.  Far from a bummer, we are excited about the prospect of precipitation, as we haven’t had any for quite some time.  The garden will enjoy it and hopefully the well will have a bit more to offer as well.  With the weather turned from sunny & warm to cool & damp, we have ensconced ourselves inside for the duration. 

25 July & 26 July 2011 Bachelors

I have noticed that when Amy is not around, I tend to condense my entries into single post; I’m pretty sure I do this because she keeps me grounded & focused, and when she is absent my mind tends to wander more.  That said, Amy clearly is ashore at the moment, to go to a job interview, in preparation for reality to come slamming back in five weeks when our stint on Seguin ends.  This summer has flown, absolutely cruised by, and I suspect I’m going to leave scratch marks in the beach when they pry me off of here. 

Enough moping about events that have yet to happen.  On Tuesday Amy & spent a quite morning puttering around the Keeper’s Quarters, doing little bits of cleaning, straightening up, and packing.  Father & his brother, Uncle Kevy, came out around lunchtime to visit for a few hours.  We ate lunch, wandered around a bit, Dad & Kev helped me rip the final two pieces of wood for Dory (the gunwale pieces being 13’ long in a continuous chunk were too big to handle myself), then we packed up Amy into the Lovely Linda, and ashore they all went.  Darcy & I enjoyed a quiet evening of sanding down the gunwale pieces, mandolin playing, & reading, and went to bed prior to a massive thunderstorm that rolled through around 2200.

I woke up Wednesday morning, not to Amy’s smiling face, but to a heavy & stinky dog lying across my chest.  Obviously I got up early, made coffee, and started a surprisingly productive day.  After breakfast & filling the cistern, we walked down the North Trail to find the connecting part of the loop, which is the last trail I need to clear.  We blazed a path I will cut over the weekend, than headed back to the south side, and I cleaned the Whistle House before lunch.  Around ten visitors showed up in a single wave around lunchtime, and then I didn’t see anyone else for the remainder of the day.  I spent this afternoon mowing, and then the usual swim, shower, & mandolin practice. 

Tomorrow Darcy & I go ashore until Saturday morning, to join Amy, and go to Seguin Summerfest.  It’ll be nice to see Amy, my folks, give the dog a bath, & get a hair cut, before returning to the island again.