Finally, summer has come to Sitka
August 22nd. Finally, summer has come to Sitka. Dry warm days spent on the deck, scraping, sanding, silvercoating. Painting. Pressure-washing. Sunsets at eleven at night. sun back up at three.
Chris Stock a buddy from Philadelphia came up to take care of his new charge, the Sitka Spruce, an old Air Force rescue boat he bought off Thom and I. We all held our breath as he put her up on the grid.
For those of you who don’t know, the grid is a series of “bearers,” or wooden 12x12s, set on steel beams. At high tide you lash your boat to the pier and wait for the ebb. Then you have one tide change, usually around six hours, to complete your work. The goal is to scrape, power-wash, heat with a weed-burner, and paint in the space of one tide.
We all held our breath as the tide went down. Good money said the boat would crumble once the tide receded and gravity went to work. Indeed she did, a bit. The stern began to fall off, just peel away, like a piece of carrot cake. The shaft for the screw sunk deep down into one of the bearers. We braced it underneath, plugged holes as the tide came back in, and she was fine, for the most part.
Generally the months since the last entry has been filled with work. Work on the novel and carpentry jobs around town and getting Whitney installed. Taking advantage of any hints of sun to put on paint, rag on boiled linseed oil, and patch the roof. Got the deck silvercoated. It’s a little tough – you want to go out and play, catch fish, and go kayaking. But these sunny summer days are so few are far between, one can’t pass them up. And the result is a nice clean weathertight deck. Makes you sleep good at night (sorry dad I know that sentence makes you cringe).
Steve Hamilton stopped by the Adak and we took the boat for a spin . Steve grew up in Alaska in logging camps, and raised four kids on the boat.
He’s one of these guys who can put the end of a screwdriver up to a cylinder and hear whether a fuel-injector is called. I’m in awe of such people, me being the type who just keeps messing things up until he gets something right. Anyways Steve and I lived in the engine room for a couple days, and finally managed to take the boat out and dock her. Aside from almost ramming a 20 million dollar yacht, we did okay.
W and I took a trip back east, which was nice. More than nice, seeing family, friends, eating John’s roast pork sandwich and having a hoagie at Cosmis. Now we’re back, preparing the boat for winter. Stocking up on salmon at every opportunity, and making a bloody mess. Thom brings by fish whenever he has it, especially the big ones. Here he is with a lunker.
Hunting season started August first. We did the six-mile paddle on the kayaks over to Kruzoff and hunted the volcano, with no luck. Saw a doe and a buck way up in the alpine, and a bunch of bear tracks. The top of the volcano felt like a moonscape, or even better like Mars. Funny in view of all these images coming back from the Mars rover Curiosity. Looks quite similar.
And the Rooster, W’s cat has been making himself quite at home on the boat. He has long conversations with his friend The Crow. Seriously. He goes out on deck and makes these strange hissing sounds while the crow caws away. It’s something to witness. And Whitney has been making sure that he’s keeping … happy.
And otherwise it’s been all about getting out whenever we can, throwing snowballs, gathering beach asparagus, getting the Adak nice and cozy with Christmas lights and a freezer full of salmon.Colorado has been loving the outdoors, although the cat up in his furry grill has made him kind of grumpy. I took him on a kayak ride, which he did not enjoy as much as he could have, in my opinion.
Still, he manages to maintain. And the Rooster – he keeps everyone on their toes, enjoying his time on deck. We’re all hoping for a not-too-harsh winter. We’re pretty well-stocked up on wood, and the wood stove is working much better than last year. Not to mention that we’ve taken that cold corner of the boat out, and added more insulation. So – time will be the test, I suppose.
We had some folks over for fourth of July. The fireworks went off at exactly the same height as the full moon. Hard to capture with an IPhone, but it was, I tell you, magical. Come up and visit – we have room in the fo’c’sle – and witness such wonders for yourself.
