Well, we have choices. I think that I will whine about the smoke for one paragraph and then do something different. We have been waiting. The weatherfolks keep revising their forecasts numerous times and keep pushing back the relief. First it was Monday, then Thursday and now Saturday. Geez.

But enough! I‘m taking matters in my own hands. It was so much fun telling you about the sailing adventure on Thursday that I thought that I would continue. A story time.

It all started because I had met Bill here on Vashon, one of the first folks that I became friends with. He passed away last year. But at the time he introduced me to his old college roommate who had a project going on down in the Portland area. I went to look at Sam’s project. It turned out that Sam and a friend were building a nineteen century sailing schooner in their “backyard”. They had been working on it for maybe three or four years when I came along. What an outrageous project, I fell in love!

I was working up here on Vashon Island during the week and every weekend I would drive down to Sauvies Island near Portland to work on the boat. She was named the Lizard King and registered as a US vessel. This was a no BS ship, small but still.

On my first work weekend Sam handed me an oar and a piece of wood and said to make another, a mate. Well, I took it seriously and it took me all weekend to pass my test. My oar turned out to be identical in size, weight and balance. So I was in and joined in the construction.

Later, maybe the next year, we launched. Sam motored up the coast to Seattle and set up shop on Vashon to do the rigging which took a year. Everything was authentic to the times: linen sails, hemp lines and a hundred handmade blocks (pulleys). It was one giant history lesson.

So, she finally sailed away off into the sunset and Hawaii. I didn’t go on that maiden voyage but was able to crew on the 26 day trip from Hawaii to The Golden Gate Bridge which I wrote about yesterday. My other experience with blue water sailing was aboard two US Navy ships a few years before.

This trip things were very primitive compared to the Navy ships. For instance we navigated with sextant and stopwatch the whole way, for real. There is probably an app for that now. There was no refrigeration so if you caught a fish you had to eat a fish. There was no showers or laundry just a bucket tossed over the side. We had an engine but only used it at the end in San Francisco Bay. And the kicker was we had no radio transmitter or radar. Like I said it was one giant history lesson.

More tomorrow.

historic loves, Felipé.