2015 Getting Started

Last year Coast Guard repeated day after day, when we most needed the weather report from Sea Otter, “NOT AVAILABLE” or the REPORT of the WEATHER FROM THAT LOCATION will not be forthcoming any time soon. Many crossing this body of ocean complained to Coast Guard. It was latter evident that the buoy had been bashed under and lost in ferocious and tumultuous sea conditions. The buoy was repositioned and again lost to even another vicious assault. It has been said that combers can crest at over 100 ft. and the buoy and anchor systems are no match for MOTHER NATURE’S mighty rage.         

We have left our land locked tin box that is hard aground in Palm Springs. When we are there in the winter we listen to the Pacific North West weather and the rain fall is reputed to be a record breaking. We shrug our shoulders and count our blessings. In Palm Springs it seldom rains and the world north does not exist.  The only weather concern is the possibility that the bougainvillea in the front yard might freeze in December/January if it is not covered up from “Jack”.

The reality is that our real home is but a twenty hour drive north.  We hope and know in are soul that “OceanAire” will be Patient and waits our return. IT IS THE CALL OF THE NORTHERN WATERS as the winter equinox passes.  It drags me from my bed in the early morning, before dawn to dream the dream of Fury North.  Penny is wise and will ignore the call but even she with all her willpower and wisdom, like the snow geese, the monarch butterfly, the swallows and humming birds, will flee north. When driving home from south the call of home becomes stronger and stronger the closer we get. The force is almost primeval, like the drive of the salmon to spawn or the snow geese working their way to the high Artic waters to gather in the thousands. We can’t help it!

This was a good year south. I have indulged my passion for boats and some of our former yachts. I was fortunate enough that my old friend Jim McLeod gave me a collection of many fine tools such as bench sanders, small band saws, routers etc. I used these to make radio controlled models of our old boat “Castle Rock” and our current


"Castle Rock" & "Oceanaire 1"

vessel “Ocean Aire I”. What yachtsman do you know has a model of a favorite former great yacht or the new and present girl that he has today?

 

 

 

I try and control my pace down the sheds and docks to get to our girl “OA”. She is still afloat. She ignores me; I am but a lost lover to her.  She does take notice of the light click of the latch on the side door. I now have here attention, and she knows her old best friends have returned. On with the fuel to the old grandmother oil stove and there is purr and mutter of the flames in the pot and the heat radiates through her chilly belly. I can see the lick of the flame through the mica window and know it is at the perfect setting. A glass of chilled scotch for me and Penny a glass of white wine. We are home again and all is forgiven. On  board it is a bit cool as she has  stored winter in her drawers and cupboards and has not quite ready to forgive us completely yet. She will warm up when the call of Fury Cove is set in her timbers.

I want to rush away with OA but there things to do, house stuff, reality tuff, people stuff and money stuff. Drew our son has kept a keen eye on the old gal, and run a hose on her to wash the winter grim off before we came back so she does not look to discussing and grungy after her hibernation. Before we go south for the winter, while still fresh in my mind, I mark all the valves and fuel lines with blue tape and note them in the log. I close them off for the ships safety. I must now relocate them and return them to their open position. Owning a large old wooden boat is a humongous enterprise. She is a yacht and we expect her to be so. When we leave she has a summer of fussing on her, painting, varnishing and polishing. Owning a fiberglass yacht, the finish will hold for a time if not attended to before disintegrating perhaps two seasons, maybe three of four. A wood vessel is a fragile mistress; she without tender care in one season, can in some cases have the cancer of rot hidden deep in her timbers and frames will disintegrate her before your stare. If you do not believe, place the family wood air loom uncovered in the yard for the winter.