New Boat In Town

Well, new to me anyway. Saw this boat when I was walking the docks that I seldom visit, on the far end of the harbor.

I can appreciate the hours put in on this boat. The builder fiberglassed every inch of the interior as well as the outside of the hull.

I’ve seen other boats where they’ve tried this, usually the builder gets in way over their head and the end results show it. This guy did excellent work, he/she even used fillets in the corners. Nice cosmetically but also makes for a stronger and more durable joint. It looks like he/she used micro balloons which keeps the weight down also. I’d like to see how it ages. That will be the true test of his/her skills.

Sure looks nice now.

In a different universe a long time ago (not so much really) I met a friend of Bill’s named David Lewis. David took us fishing on his boat which he called Chicken Shit Charters. This is currently the only boat in his fleet. After I sat down to write this I realized this photo offers two strikingly different approaches to marine recreation. Ahh diversity!

He seldom ventures out of the upper bay. The cockpit is functional and provides minimal protection from the elements. Not something that any real Alaskan would mention. It is more cockpit than the boat I used to fish from had.  We would launch via the tractors at Drift River which always supplies excitement, especially when we got back at the end of the day and had to get back on the trailer in the surf. The wind and surf would guarantee an interesting last 30 seconds of the boat ride.

The official mascot.

When I met David he was a Homer city councilman and was going through a recall election (along with a few fellow members of the council). They had proposed that the city consider declaring “Sanctuary Status” for minorities seeking refuge from the craziness popular during the last administration. A constituent had asked David to bring it up at a City Council meeting, so he did. All three subjects of the recall survived the election but not before all the good old boys got to display all their hate and bigotry.

It was not pretty. Little did we know that it was just a warm up for what I call “the great divide”; not this country’s greatest moment. It seems that a riff in the space/time continuum has allowed T**** to lead his angry band of brothers down a dead end spur. I hold out hope that that riff will bud off a new universe for them only. Where they can have the world they want and leave ours alone. That seems more probable than a merging of the current universes.

A good day is when politics doesn’t get in the way of enjoying life here in paradise. So once the rain lets up a little, I’m heading out for more time on the beach.

The weather really is perfect for it. Really, you should come see.

Stay cool and safe.