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2008 Journey |
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The calendar indicates a new winter is upon us. Storm clouds form over the Olympic Mountains, yet already nature’s promise of rebirth begins showing signs of spring. |
| Crocus plants pop through the soil. Heather is in bloom. |  |
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Buds swell in anticipation. In a show of defiance, renegade forsythia burst into early flower. |
| Camellias thrust their red stop sign color in winter’s path. Maybe it is time to heed the coming of spring – stop sitting on last year’s laurels and prepare for this year’s adventures. |  |
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Millie needs periodic maintenance – filters changed, fittings lubed, zinc anodes replaced and a thorough cleaning from masthead to keel. In addition, few sailors can ignore the urge to add additional equipment – those few things that will make life aboard perfect. For Millie’s crew, this means the possibility of a wind powered generator which converts the breeze into electricity to replenish the boat’s batteries. All aspects are time consuming - research the best models, find the necessary mounting hardware, determine how the new component will tie into the existing electrical system, and find the best prices. Spare parts for all boat systems need to be inventoried and replenished. All these duties indicate that you don’t own a boat – it owns you. The calendar says it is winter but intuition says it is time to prepare for summer. |
| As she travels, Millie is always fascinated by the history of names – why a place was given its name and how names change as different people come on the scene. Near the location where the American Army established their camp during the Pig War, there is a small cove called Jakle’s Lagoon. Ironically, if a woman named Eliza had not acted on her intuition, it might now be known as Bryant Lagoon. |
| Frank Bryant was an American soldier posted to San Juan Island. He brought along his pregnant wife, Eliza (the second white woman on the island), and toddler son, Frank Jr. One day Eliza had a premonition that her husband, who had gone duck hunting, was in trouble. Intuition, by nature, compelled her to grab her son and dash off to check. When she reached the shore of San Juan Channel, Eliza saw there was no cause for alarm. Her husband sat astride a giant log floating in the water waiting for more ducks to wander within range. She waved. He waved – lost his balance, rolled off the log into the cold water, and didn’t resurface. |  |
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Horror struck and pregnant, she sat Frank Jr. by the shore and told the two-year old to stay put. Eliza dashed, as best she could, the three miles to the army encampment for help. When they returned to the shore, they found no sign of Frank Sr., and worse, no sign of Frank Jr. either. After a failed frantic search lasting until dusk, the soldiers helped a hysterical Eliza to her cabin. There in the chicken coop they found young Frank, sound asleep. (Imagine – a two-year old who didn’t do what he was told and wandered miles to his house.) |
| The ordeal took a toll on Eliza. The soldiers sent the despondent woman to a doctor in Victoria but she lost her unborn baby. Returning to the island, she lived alone with Frank Jr. for awhile before meeting and marrying another soldier, George Jakle. When the army left in 1874, George and Eliza remained, had several children, and had a lagoon named after them. In this case, intuition was a double edged sword, although shooting ducks while astride a floating log may not be the brightest of ideas. |
| Another island resident had a much more reliable intuition, this time for business – perhaps too good. John McMillian was an attorney transplanted to the Pacific Northwest from a limestone mining area in Illinois. He became aware of the quarry on San Juan Island, operated by two Englishmen who took over the operation after the British Army withdrew. Limestone can be transformed into lime by heating the rock to 3,000-degrees at which point it changes into a water soluble residue that is used in agriculture, cement, paper making, and the steel industry – a very valuable substance and this limestone was 98% pure. |  |
| After two years of negotiations, John purchased the quarry, kilns, and formed the Tacoma and Roche Harbor Lime Company. He added more kilns which, at their peak of production, consumed 128 cords of firewood a day with the total operation employing 800 people. Employees lived in company housing and bought supplies from a company store using company script. Lime was shipped in barrels and John soon had a separate company constructing those barrels using children, as young as seven, for employees - deplorable conditions but not unusual at that time. |
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Where John’s business intuition got him into trouble was not his harsh treatment of employees but his treatment of business partners. When he formed the barrel company, it was incorporated by the sale of two shares of stock, each costing $100 – one for himself, one for a partner. Wearing the hat of the barrel company, John contracted with John, head of the lime company. |
| After inventing a new type of barrel manufacturing machine, John the inventor sold the machine to John the barrel maker. Then John the inventor sold the right to use the barrels to John the lime company – a tidy sum that John the quarry man was only too happy to pay, but irked the other lime company stockholders. John, the majority stockholder of the lime company, voted himself a nice pay raise, the proceeds of which he used to buy more shares of stock from disgruntled minority shareholders. |
| John had things pretty well under control, except his shipping costs. He was paying the same rate as his competitors, a deplorable situation. By cashing in on the influence of his healthy contributions to the Republican Party, he was named State Railroad Commissioner with the authority to set freight rates. Surprisingly, the rates for John the Commissioner’s good friend, John the quarryman, dropped dramatically. |
| Finally, some liberal judge trying to legislate from the bench, agreed to hear a case brought by almost everyone involved except the Republican Party. Power and money prevailed, however, with John only having to give up his Commissioner hat. He returned to Roche Harbor in the unenviable position of only making a big fortune instead of a gargantuan fortune. Later, he built a mausoleum to memorialize his position as a fine fellow and admirable citizen. |  |
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Millie finds comfort knowing the people who say the world is going to hell-in-a-hand-basket are wrong. Things have always been messed up. Every generation has to learn these lessons; power always corrupts and greed is always at hand. Acknowledging that the present is no worse than the past does have its benefits - it means the same love and comfort we remember from the good-old-days is still here for our descendents. Millie’s crew experience that love while visiting grandson Forrest in Illinois. |
| Yes – they went to Chicago in January. No one said they were smart – just loving. |  |
April 14, 2008 Bump da bump da bump, |
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Bella Luna Blues copied with permission of artist Alayne Goodhart © 2008 |
| Of the many joys wintering in Friday Harbor, the best is the weekly Wednesday evening blues night at the Bella Luna Restaurant with its converted stage and dance floor. The performers are a combination of local talent and professional studio musicians who have fallen in love with the area. From Nashville, Los Angeles, and New York they come to the San Juan Islands and gather one night a week to play. Seattle – eat your heart out. |
| Bump da bump da bump, Da – d’wee da Bump da bump da bump, It’s now later that evening, Da – d’wee da bump, Got a little tickle in my throat, Da – d’wee da bump, I’m sure it’s from screaming like Janis Joplin, And not from gettin’ sick – I hope. |
Unfortunately, it is the flu. Not just for both of Millie’s crew but for almost everybody in town - a bout that seems to never end. It vacates one part of the body and just as you think you’re on the mend, it manifests itself someplace new. From head to toe and back – the visitor who never leaves. After four weeks it is reduced to a final small nagging cough which disappears during week five. |
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The weather and the crew improve, boat jobs are completed: engine fluids changed, components lubricated, spare parts stowed. The boat is serviced from the top of the mast to the bottom of the keel. Millie is ready to sail. Spring is here. |
| Grandson Quin’s name for Rich is Papa Boat. Papa is also the word used to denote the letter P when sending a radio message from far out at sea – a message that could be filled with static where P could be confused with C or T or B. Colorful flags are hoisted into the rigging of passing ships to send messages when radios are not available. Because messages can be quite lengthy, common ones like, “I am arriving from a foreign port so you can’t come near me to sell bananas or T-shirts or lobsters until I have visited the fine folks at the customs dock,” is substituted by one bright yellow cloth – the Quarantine Flag. |  |
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Flags, representing each letter, also have a message affiliated with it – each quite important. “I am currently being loaded with a cargo that will explode - how about smoking that cigarette someplace else.” The Papa Flag is blue with a white square in the center and shouts the message “I am ready to sail.” It is true, Nana and Papa are ready to sail. Their flag’s white center is made from a Buddhist prayer flag that flew at the Mount Everest base camp, a blessing for the heights of man’s journeys. Now it is ready to fly on Millie’s flag halyard – a blessing for the continued voyage of this little boat. |
| The San Juan’s are an ideal place to winter but now each weekend the ferry disgorges a load of tourists. Soon the streets will be packed during the week as well, and while these visitors financially endow this island paradise, they are a constant reminder that the outside world is too crowded. Millie pulls at her mooring – anxious for new adventures – but she must be patient a little longer. |
| Sometimes events happen that are worthy of delaying all else. Spring is new life and this one brings new granddaughter Kate. Escaping the internal bonds of her mother in record time, she begins a journey where the mind’s tie to mother is never quite undone. |  |
| Just as the first-day-of-winter-renegade-forsythia reminds us of the coming spring, the entering into hospice care of Alayne’s mother during this time of renewal reminds us of the balancing cycles of life. Lois awed everyone as she christened Millie with the mighty blow from a champagne bottle and now Millie’s crew is again awed to be in the presence of a woman whose faith allows her to say, “I’m packed. I’m ready to go.” We can only hope to have her attitude when we have the opportunity to learn the definitive answer to what happens after death. For now, sailing is on hold while we wait in limbo. Thank you Lois for being part of our life. |
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| The lyrics of the Wednesday Night Blues may speak of the troubles of this world but the music celebrates how these blues fit into the rhythm of life and it makes us dance. . To quote a movie Millie just saw, “Life is an occasion – rise to it.” |
| June 21, 2008 |
| Millie remembers two movies – “Little Big Man” and “The Outlaw Josie Wales”. Chief Dan George plays an aged Native American character in each who decides, “This is a good day to die.” He thanks the Great Spirit for his life and lies down under the sky to await death. In each film, the rain soon begins to fall onto his face – puddling over his closed eyes. Each time, he disgustedly rises onto his elbow and says, “Sometimes the magic works – sometimes it doesn’t.” His character then moves on to live out the rest of his days. |
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These scenes came to mind as everyone gathered around Alayne’s mother’s death bed. With regular good meals, the exceptional care, and the continuous love, Lois did not die – she improved. Not to the point where her heart valve repaired itself, but to the point where some of the clothes in her “my bags are packed and I’m ready to go” needed to be put back into her dresser for a while. |
| Since Lois no longer needing 24/7 care and after several weeks of her being out of danger, it was decided to split the care duties with Millie’s crew returning to the boat for the first part of each month and then helping care for mom the last. While this schedule puts all long voyages on hold, it does allow nearby short ones and still keeps everyone nearby mom for the time when she once again decides to “pack her bags.” In the mean time, Lois thoroughly enjoys beating Rich at pinochle and even though she claims she can’t remember how to play cribbage, she manages to clobber everyone. |
| The season has changed. From early spring, it is now the longest day of the year. In the Pacific Northwest, the sun is beginning to show its face and the prospect of a short jaunt into the Canadian Gulf Islands waits. In many ways, returning to Canada feels like returning home: it’s a place where immigrants are not required to homogenize themselves into a historical national identity, it’s a place where the theme song to the Saturday night broadcast of “Hockey Night in Canada” is the country’s second national anthem, |  |
| and it’s a place where a Calgary radio station held a contest to take the quote, “As American as Apple Pie,” modify it to, “As Canadian As…,” and then complete the phrase. The winner was, “As Canadian as possible under the circumstances.” These are all reasons why this caring place, which is able to laugh at itself, feels like home. |
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Waiting out the latest blustery rainy period in Bedwell Harbour, Millie notices several wooden sailing schooners arrive, anchor a day, then depart – each overflowing with a load of young people and their task masters. This Canadian maritime tradition is a common replacement for the land based summer camp. |
| Besides teaching sailing techniques, navigation, and boat handling; ample time is saved for sword fighting practice, the ever popular swinging on halyards, and general yo-ho-hoing. These programs help keep a vibrant heritage alive as well as get the kids out of the house. |  |
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An equally important tradition is Alayne rowing Rich around in Millie’s dinghy, Horse – so named because it’s the one she “rowed in on”. |
| And this year, Horse is joined by Alayne’s newest toy, Red Rider – an inflatable kayak allowing her an easier way to gunk-hole along the shore line. |  |
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Rich, always assuming that anything worth doing is worth doing easier, uses his color coordinated umbrella as a downwind spinnaker. |
| Have you ever looked at a city park inundated with Canadian Geese and said to them, “Go home!”? Similar feelings must occur on Prevost Island. Everywhere you turn, there is another bald eagle, symbol of the United States – soaring overhead, eating everything in sight, and, |  |
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spying on all your movements from seemingly every tree. |
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| Although eagles seem to be everywhere on the island, Prevost retains a little room for other critters and an amazing display of early summer lichens. |  |
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Ganges, the largest town on Salt Spring Island, is small by most standards. It does, however, contain all the necessities – grocery store, Moby’s (with some of the better pub food around), fuel, water, several restaurants, and its share of tourist shops. The island, known for the resident artists, offers many back roads to walk along and you never know where you’ll see a sculpture installation. |
| On one such walk, Millie’s crew comes across a sculpture of the proverbial fork-in-the-road; a conundrum with the only obvious choices being forward or back. |  |
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Back in town, the Saturday market is in high gear. Food and flowers share room with art work, trinkets, and stuff enough to fill anyone’s available space - a wonderful mélange of vendors, produce, and pastries line up for shoppers. It is a place for friends to howdee-doo as they pass in opposite directions. It is a place for Millie’s crew to experience, then to escape – back to the serenity of the marina. |
| Serene, yes – until the passage of Mr. and Mrs. Swan who decide to take the family out for a jaunt. How sweet and lovely they look as they tour the harbor – showing off and looking for handouts. |  |
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Then, bam, their real personality shows through. A family of Canadian geese, also on a harbor tour, has the audacity to venture within 50-feet of the swans and Katie-bar-the-door. Rich remembers the fear of being a little kid and being chased by domestic geese on some family friend’s long forgotten farm. Mr. Swan takes off, running on the water, toward the hapless geese, saying the avian version of, “I’m walkin’ here”. The geese flee, probably to a city park near you. |
| Peace is restored to the community. |  |
August 1, 2008 Watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade is certainly awe inspiring with building-sized, cartoon-character helium balloons floating the streets of New York. In Pasadena, the parade floats festooned with flowers and beautiful young women separated by hundred-member precision marching bands creates a sense of amazement at the organizational skills needed to put this production together. However, for the complete uplifting emotional appeal that a parade can give, you must see a small town Fourth of July celebration. |
| Friday Harbor’s contribution to parade lore has everything needed to wish the country a happy birthday: |
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dogs, |
horses, |
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young people, |
old people, |
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re-enactors, |
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reminders of our country's ethnicity, |
and pretty girls. |
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| Politicians are at a minimum and the numbers of fire engines are at their maximum. Having people promenade on a sunny afternoon, showing the positive prideful aspects of their community, is a true expression of patriotism. |
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The remainder of time spent on Millie J in July involves family visits. Justin, Jason, Jack, and Rich sail while their female counterparts keep the Friday Harbor economy in the black. |
| The remainder of time spent on Millie J in July involves family visits. Justin, Jason, Jack, and Rich sail while their female counterparts keep the Friday Harbor economy in the black. |  |
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Later in the month, grandson Forrest, who has reached the age where he can intern as a pirate, allows his mother to accompany him for a sailing adventure. Through the eyes of an 8-year old, fishing, kayaking, hiking, and even swinging in a hammock, take on a freshness and immediacy not common enough in the lives of grandparents. |
Thumbs up for fishing. |
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"Avast ye Nana, could you move the sunshade a little forward?" |
| The limb at the top of the world. |  |
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Keeping a sharp lookout! |
| Millie’s crew finds joy in the time allotted to younger family members. As they prepare to visit with Alayne’s ailing mom, they are thankful for the reminder of the continuum that makes up life. |  |
October 18, 2008 Millie’s crew is busy with fall activities. Blackberries become jam. Not your run-of-the-mill jam – this jam comes from berries that sucked up unseasonably early rain plumping to near explosion as they basked in the return of bright sunshine. The berries convert summer into sweetness. Now, giant apples are eyed as they hang unpicked on trees – the crew preparing for the day when it’s apparent the fruit’s owner has no plan to harvest. A quick request and a little labor will yield great pies and canned applesauce. It is a time for the fulfillment of spring’s promise. |
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This autumn also brings the fulfillment of Lois Bieber’s life. She passed exactly one month ago with daughter Alayne present, having drawn the over-night care giving duty. The passing was peaceful, Lois being rocked in her favorite green recliner chair. Millie’s crew lost a mother but was blessed to be able to care for this wonderful lady. |
| August and September were spent with Lois in a wonderful hospice facility. Millie’s crew spent each day tending to her needs, playing sudoku and watching Home & Garden TV – if anyone is planning to remodel their home, Rich now knows more than he ever wanted or could have imagined about current décor and colors. |  |
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Spending 12-hours each day affords plenty of opportunity to interact with the caring staff and other wonderful residents in the facility. 102-year old Agnes shuffles into Mom’s room. “I don’t know where I’m supposed to be,” in a plaintiff voice. |
| Then with a more direct, slightly more forceful voice and a quizzical look on her face, “I don’t know who I am.” This ancient woman would occasionally wander into the room, plop into the unused wheelchair, and watch TV. At bedtime, she could only be enticed to leave with a promise of hot cocoa. |
| Some of the patients are confused. In Mom’s section of the facility, no one has full blown dementia but some are in a mental state where memories of their earlier life are at the forefront. These people do not always understand where they are – they want to leave, go home, take care of children, and get work done. Staff call the ones who attempt to leave “runners” and clip a small transmitter to the back of their collar that sets off an alarm when they escape out an outside door. |  |
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Peacefully watching HGTV, learning that some kind of washed out lime green and dark brown are back in vogue, the corridor quiet is shattered by the loud “whoop-whoop-whoop” of runner Virginia making a break for it. (You can always tell when she’s planning an escape because she puts on her knit hat and gloves, and clutches her handbag in her hand.) Past the window above Mom’s TV, right to left, trudges Virginia, hurrying to catch a bus, followed shortly by an aide who catches up and gently tells her, “It’s late, Virginia, the buses aren’t running now. Come inside. Help me set the table.” One time, they reach Virginia when she is halfway up the gardener’s ladder – leaning against the back fence – hanging over the fence yelling, “Help! Help! I’m being held captive.” It’s sad, yet humorous because she is so determined and because it is so easy to distract her, also with the promise of cocoa. |
| Alayne, the artist, rebelling against sudoku, takes out her drawing pad and begins sketching willing patients and staff. Fran and Janet – singing karaoke, Jo – who when she saw her picture claimed Alayne had drawn her grandmother, Agnes – sleeping with her hat on and probably dreaming of marshmallows in hot chocolate, and Mom – resting in her chair. There are so many nice people who are thankful for a little attention. They all sit in a row, happily listening as articles from the local newspaper are read. |  |
| Surprisingly, spending time in this place, where a good day is measured by a successful bowel movement, is a wonderful experience and brings Millie’s crew even closer - thank you Lois for your life. |
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t’s too late in the year to embark on a long sailing trip; another winter spent in Friday Harbor is a happy eventuality. The absence of severe weather permitting, several short winter trips are planned and next spring the long distance travel of Millie J will continue. |
December 22, 2008 The waterfall in Friday Harbor clocks the change of season. Instead of the normal drip and gloom, real winter descends. The gathering of autumn’s harvest is ending – the time for consumption begins. Millie’s crew hunkers down to end the year. |
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Though the usual fall harvest is already stored in jars or the freezer, this year Alayne decides to expand her gathering skills and takes a mushroom identification class. Field guide books are now at hand no matter where you sit in the boat. An hour’s walk usually covers 3-miles. When hunting the fruits of the mycelium, ¼-mile takes the same time. |
| Walking around, you occasionally see little brown or white button looking mushrooms. In the grocery, you buy similar looking ones to add to soup or to top a steak. Though during a cursory glance they look identical, the ‘shrooms in the yard most likely are a different type that will kill you dead. |  |
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There is much more than general cap shape and color in proper identification - for instance, the under side of many caps reveals a series of flaps, called gills. One point in identification involves how these gills attach to the stem – are they free, adnate, sinuate, or decurrent. (Yes, there is a proprietary lingo used by experts that help restrict mere mortals to the grocery’s produce section.) |
| Is the cap smooth or scaly – does it have a fringe – does it have a ring around the stem – when you score it, does it bleed, and if so, what color? Then, there are the spores – you can’t just look at the gills to see their color. You have to lay a test ‘shroom onto a sheet of paper and wait for the spores to be released. Then you look, sometimes with magnification, to determine their color. There are so many peculiarities and this list is just a start. |  |
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Alayne and her accomplice, Diane, scour the woods and fields, accompanied by their collection bag bearers Rich and Dean. |
| Taking the time to slowly cover the ground (looking for telltale upheavals of dirt, knowing that certain mushrooms have symbiotic relationships with certain species of trees) is amazingly quite pleasurable and rewarding. The trips are mainly for identification practice but the eatable ones, with no similar looking poisonous cousins, are harvested for consumption. They are very yummy and we’re not dead yet. |  |
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Cruising on a boat often involves relatively short distances. During retirement, some Northwesterners make a career of going north to Alaska each summer and returning to the Puget Sound for winter. Yet for others, cruising is a reason to discover that the earth really is round. Yvonne and Bruno are such people. Wintering over on San Juan Island, these Swiss travelers began their slow wanderings 8-years ago and the crew of Millie J is enjoying each moment together. Yvonne doesn’t just cook a meal, she presents it. Bruno, besides being a very competent sailor, when pressed, will tell stories of his experiences as a hockey player for Switzerland in the 1977 Olympics. Their traveling style and grace is an inspiration to Millie’s crew. |
| As if sensing the change of season, arctic winds converge on Millie’s moist world to whiten the scenery. To avoid freezing pipes, water on the docks is shut off. Not wanting to un-pickle the onboard watermaker, water conservation is begun to make Millie’s 70-gallons of tanked water last over two weeks. A walk down the dock, past the shrine to the Bare-Breasted-Fish-Woman, reveals a clean canvass where wandering dock critters leave signs of their passing. |  |
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Each day the sun sets earlier and, like a man sleeping-off an excess of wine, gets up ever later. Millie’s crew recognizes the symptoms and springs into action with the only tried and true method known to bring back the sun – consumption of the Solstice Umbrella Drink. Traditionally, this is a not so subtle reminder to our sun that its prime job is to warm the day to the point where a nice iced umbrella drink is necessary to cool a person down. |
| For all the years of recent memory, this method has worked. Millie’s crew brings back the sun to the northern hemisphere as a public service. Having just performed the ceremony last night, even today, there is one minute more of sun than yesterday – proof positive. If everyone would join in, perhaps it would happen faster. Friends Gary and Xerpha could not find a glass to fit their umbrella but did the best they could. We remain hopeful for others to help. |
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Copyright © 2008, Richard Goodhart |
