WW: Neat sailing pram

(Encountered this remarkably serviceable dinghy moored to the seawall back under the trees. Sort of boat I grew up in, before about the age of 10. The design is classic: pram-faced, with simple, clean lines, daggerboard trunk, hole-in-the-wall mast step. All in good shape.

I don't know if this boat floated in on a storm and was tied up here so the owners might see it, or belongs to whoever lives on the bluff above, but as you can see it's been pretty neglected for some time. Shame, really; she's a fine little build, with topflight materials. You don't see many hulls equipped for serious rowing these days.)

Arriving

With a motorboat you get there faster,
but with a sailboat you’re already there.


(Winslow Homer's Breezing Up courtesy of the National Gallery of Art [US] and Wikimedia Commons.)

Tandem

Let us walk alone together, comrade sojourner.
We will be like pebbles in a bag, polishing each other bright.


(Ship's dogs, ca. 1920, courtesy of the US Navy and Rawpixel.com.)

Street Level Zen: Home

"A man is never lost at sea."

Ernest Hemingway


(Photo courtesy of Paul Harrison and Wikimedia Commons.)

WW: Oyster boat

(Dredging on the high tide.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

Thanksgiving Recipe

"Gratitude to squelch my anger, and tenacity to overcome the obstacles."

Henry Winkler's recipe for success. Note that the first one is bodhisattva awareness.



(Photo of Yorkshire coble "Gratitude" ["There's Gratitude for you!"] courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and a generous photographer.)

WW: Schooner Zodiac under weigh

(Local charter and school ship, 127-foot Zodiac, built in 1924 for a wealthy industrialist, outbound from her homeport of Bellingham, Washington.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Swingin' on the hook

(I've never seen so many boats anchored off Fairhaven [Washington], where the marinas are all at capacity. Most of the newcomers appear to be transoceanic; a few look like homeless people. Both, I'm fairly certain, are down to COVID; the ocean-crossing crowd are beached by closed harbours overseas, and have nowhere else to go.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Schooner

WW: Navigation light

(This is a ship's larboard navigation light. When they change them the crews tend to drop the dead one overboard, so we often find them washed up. They're actually quite striking amidst all the grey. This one's about the size of an overripe summer squash.)

WW: September afternoon

WW: Home port

(Open in a new window to see it larger.)

WW: Freighter in the mist

WW: Marine railway

WW: North Coast homeport

WW: First Nations canoes

WW: Spring afternoon

WW: Seafaring lizard

(My nephew and I went fishing all day a few weekends ago. We loaded the boat in his truck, drove across the county, launched in a large lake, motored about two miles to an anchorage, and fished for several hours. Then we repeated the process in reverse. When my nephew pulled the boat out of his truck that evening, he found this stowaway – a Northern alligator lizard – that must have been there the whole time.

Note typical belligerent pout.)

WW: $5000 boat

(Had a long chat with the fellow who drew and built this motorsailer. Whole vessel cost him $5000, including a woodstove he also drew and built. Can't comment on the seakindly of his design, since I've never sailed it, but you can't argue with the price. Looks great belowdecks, too.)

WW: Running