Great Beaver Outings

I'm a graduate of Oregon State University. The sports teams are commonly referred to as the Beavers. I think it's important that when you talk about the team, you remember to make that B, upper case. Otherwise it sounds like you're bragging when you say something like, "I'm celebrating a great beaver performance."

Punch and Pie!

This guy and his pie put it all in perspective for me. What happens if gay marriage is legal? Gay people get married. That's it.

Now, have some pie.

Backup, My Friend

We are the 'backup offer' for the Beneteau. The broker here sounds really disgusted with this whole process and especially the guys he's dealing with in Seattle. Apparently, boats are selling up there at the same pace as they are down here, which is something like a very slow walk on a treadmill to nowhere.

He said I could throw some more money on the table and see what happens. I think I'll let the offer expire tomorrow and see if anybody calls me back about this thing.

Who knew that buying a big boat was a process so similar to buying a house except there's more people involved and they all make you a little nervous?

Benny and the Fiddles

Not looking too good for that Beneteau 423. It turns out it's a repo and caught between Portland and Seattle right now.

Kris really likes it; especially for the nice touches the Groupe Finot do in their design. It's a sleek looking boat from the outside, and very liveable on the inside. Definitely a model on our list of what we'd like to have.

This one was on the market here in Portland and just got foreclosed on recently. Apparently, there is a broker in Seattle who handles these sorts of deals and he's got his hooks into it. I don't think the guys who handle repos are the best to get into a deal with. We may just let this one lapse; wrote an offer void date of Nov. 21. We'll keep looking.

Clarity?

I got a lead on a potential boat for us. A 40+-footer on the auction block that we might be able to get for a song. A really, really short song. Some may call it a ditty.

Keep your virtual fingers crossed for us.

My Chops: Busted

We sailed on Sunday and it was a beautimous day! Click that link to read all about it.

On a side note, since there was essentially no wind on Sunday, we mostly floated and told sea stories. The best had to be Shannon the Real Sailors recap of his Cascade Locks to Hood River race experience. The pictures there are great.

The story's even better when he starts talking about their attempt to recover from the mast-busting end to their racing day.

Apparently, they got out their pathetic little motor and could barely make any way against the Columbia waves and current. They limped into a little cove just out of the main river channel to recover their gear and situate themselves when a local came down and started yelling at them to get off his property. They explained what they'd just been through, if he couldn't tell from the wreckage strewn all over the boat and dragging in the water.

At this point Shannon ranted to us about the international sanctity regarding offering aid to a boat in distress. As polite as they tried to be, asking the guy if they could just use his little dock for a couple of minutes to get themselves situated, they found themselves staring down the unrelenting get-back grandson of former Lewis and Clark hosts.

Yeah, the guy told them to get lost because "the white man has been taking our land from us for too many years. I don't want you on mine." Whoops. They were on somebody's fishing reservation and they were not getting aid in the face of this disaster, no matter what.

So, best they could, back out in the Columbia to try and make way to a boat pull-out.

Studs Terkel Memorial Sailing Supper

For those of you who read this and aren't in the know, there's a sailor in the blogging community who is very fun to read and quite knowledgeable about the subject of making your boat float in the wind, despite his protestations to the contrary. Occasionally, he puts out a call to his blogging compatriots to respond on topic.

This post of mine today is in response to Monsieur Homme de Talle's request for proposals detailing who they'd most like to have a supper with from the sailing world. Knowing how limited our imaginations are, the man at the tiller offers us loose restrictions and this time he said our subjects could be dead, alive, real, fictional, as long as we were inspired to detail our reasons for wanting to spend some time with the sailors we choose.

Who would I most want to invite over to my house for dinner from the sailing world? I immediately thought of the characters who've most sparked the romance in me for the sea, travel in general, and exotic locations in particular. Sadly, just about the time of the Tillerman's call to action, Studs Terkel passed away, which, although not a conscious choice of mine, is the general direction I wanted to go with this one; to write something similar to what the man of the people would have chosen.

If you haven't read anything by Studs so far, seek something out and I guarantee you'll find a couple of the gems in the rough he's able to unearth in his man-on-the-street interviewing, researching, and reportage. Similar to Howard Zinn, writer of The People's History of the United States, Studs pursues the story from the other end of the spectrum that's heavily weighted toward the 'great man' bias.

So, who are my men of the people? Away we go and in no particular order.

Denton Moore, who wrote Gentlemen Never Sail to Weather, is a guy I get the impression would be a good companion for an evening supper. All I know of him comes from his book, which I found to be a page-turner. He's honest about the mistakes he makes and his own shortcomings as a captain, especially in regards to a couple of crew he takes on for different passages. I'd recommend it to anyone doing a circumnavigation, with the caveat that I haven't done one. He gives great detail about all of the places they spend time and I thoroughly enjoyed his adventures in Costa Rica, New Zealand, Tahiti, and across the Indian Ocean. He and his wife set out to retire in the Caribbean on a boat and become almost accidental circumnavigators.

Keith Broussard who I went to high school with in Biloxi, Mississippi. I was a military brat, so found myself in spots all over the country. This one place was a quite a contrast to my California roots. Keith was one of nine kids, third from the back of the line, and fifth out of six boys. His older brothers owned the Little Flower, a Biloxi-rigged shrimp trawler and they took me in like one of the family. I had a lot of exposure to the ocean, boats, and fishing and those guys are at the core of it. Would be good to have some seafood gumbo with an old friend.

Robb White, probably most well-known for Up Periscope, was the guy who I read at that 8-12 y/o highly impressionable age. I still love his novel Secret Sea, despite some colloquial and vernacular challenges, when he gets going about boats and sailing and warm tropic harbors, I get swept away.

Richard McKenna, the author of The Sand Pebbles, great movie with Steve McQueen and an even better book. McKenna's written descriptions of the operation and maintenance of the reciprocating steam engine onboard the San Pablo are the most beaufitul poetry. This is a man who obviously found joy and salvation in the feeling of competence he developed operating steam plants onboard Navy ships for his 30-year career. He writes only the way a boy who escaped to sea from Sand Point, Idaho could. I'd like to thank him for the words that helped me get through some long months of 6x6 watchstanding as I did my own stint for Uncle Sam.

Liz Clark, who truly sails like a girl onboard Swell, I'm very much enamored of her writing and doubly so of her photography. I've seen more incredible shots of simple scenes in her work than in any collection I've ever viewed. I willingly admit the photo attraction for me may simply be the subject matter of the equatorial Pacific illustrated by surfing locations I've always dreamed about, mixed with the context I bring knowing the shots are taken by this solo sailor exploring places and cultures I love, but you have to admit she has an eye for beauty in what are seemingly mundane daily moments. Her words are a wonderful companion; tales told with an open eye, full of hope, but feet flat on deck, too.

And of course the Tillerman. For the reason that most who participate in this little corner of the interwebs, this ostensibly-sailing related blog-posting-commenting community seem to be turning in a widening gyre with the little Laser closest to the center. It would be nice to meet you, my friend.

Pardon my sincerity. Back to the snarkiness, post haste.

Redemption Run: Taking the 170 out Tomorrow

Kris's birthday tonight, so some cocktails at Portland's oldest restaurant, followed by a late (ha!) night of dancing and some luxury at the Hotel deLuxe.

Sailing tomorrow! We are having a rare patch of clear November skies in Stumptown this weekend.

Swimming Lessons

An H2uh0 day on the water

http://loveandcoconuts.blogspot.com/2008/11/one-step-back.html

Dinghy Day Two

This could quickly become a habit, this messing about in boats thing.

Primero Dingho

Took the dinghy for her first sail today.

I like it.

It's a Wrap

...and not a moment too soon. If election season is going to take this long (truly started about six calendar seasons ago), then I vote we make it a six-year term. Hmm, with the caveat that no person named Bush can get more than one term.

I didn't vote for change, but I did vote for hope. I found McCain's concession speech to be gracious and statesman-like. It seems to me that if he'd have doled more of that out over the past six months, he'd have made it a closer contest. Nobody likes a cranky grandpa.

Obama has a tough row to hoe and I hope he's waking up this morning inspired and energized to get down to the real work. I would love for this to be a true era of Camelot for America.

Now, back to the sailing. I'm picking up the dinghy today! Sitting here waiting for the broker to call; should hear something before noon.

Unfortunately, I have a class that runs from 1600-2100 tonight, so Love and Coconuts will be sitting in the driveway at our house, where there are only doug fir cones to gather, awaiting that first sail.

I'm guessing I'll be calling in sick the rest of the week.

Dinghy Delay

Sigh. We have to wait a few more days.