I lived on the coast most of my life. My memories of places, people and events frame these stories. I always start with something true…but, I sometimes wander off a bit.
Lobster Yacht
Spinney knew that keeping a small boatyard working during the winter months is not easy.
Nautical
what child growing up on stories of the sea by father and uncles can resist dazzling tales of Caribbean piracy?
Bristol 27
A friend owned a Bristol 27. A boat that could be comfortable for two on extended cruising but wasn’t something two people could liveaboard.
BPOE
Small nuggets of fact often are below mountains of folklore. Getting to the nugget usually is impossible. So it is with most sea stories.
Christmas Tree Hunts – II
A few years after the “Shotgun Christmas,” I was introduced to another Christmas tree hunt style.
Shotgun Christmas
Growing up in Manhattan, my idea of the forest was the little woods in the parks I played in. The lore of Christmas tree hunting was restricted.
Healing
My last stint doing bottom paint, wooding old varnish, was almost exactly twenty years prior.
Remembering
The healthy growth of forests was a later phenomenon, he told me. When he was young, there were few trees; wood got cut for heat.
The Woodbox
While we had been courting visits to grandmother during the winter had required heating soapstone bedwarmers on the stove and putting them in the bed before retiring.
Clipper
The Cap’n might have had an almost divine sense for what would work for his boat.
REO
Spinney, a dedicated deacon in his church, took the old testament injunction to heart: “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.”
Light Air
Sultry is not the usual term used for days on the coast. The realtors, tourist industry, and boat brokers want you to think about cooling breezes, glorious summer sunsets on the beach, and romantic dinners at outside venues.
The Pier
It had been a stylish “Little Black Thing” before the total immersion experience.
Entangle
Unlike a three-year-old, I realized that a good captain doesn’t trust a green hand without verifying the work done and undone.
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