• visit friends
• buy some gear at Hamilton Marine
• eat smelt
• buy some lead
• find Steve
With snow blowing in it was questionable whether or not driving 5+ hours was a good idea. As anyone who lives in NYC knows, getting out of this place on a Friday afternoon can add hours to any trip...but for some reason it never stops people from making their escapes for a peaceful urban-free weekend. Nor did it stop me.
I landed in Portland after a 7 hour drive and got to my friend's house as she was going to bed: check.
We woke up to snow flying and cold temps. Perfect weather to go shopping, Hamilton Marine it was: check.
Six hours and inches of snow later it was time to head up north to catch the night tide.
We headed back to Portland after the tide had gone out.
The word on the river was that the smelt weren't biting, but we were hungry for a fish and what else is there to do on a Maine's winter night?
Around 10 pm we caught our only fish and fried her up in a beer can. She was a beauty and a tasty fellow: check.
We headed back to Portland after the tide had gone out.
At 7:30 am I was to meet a guy in the parking lot of Whole Foods to buy some lead. I am still on the fence as to how to best wrap up this keel ordeal, but had to make a descision of how much lead to buy- 300 pounds, 400 pounds, the full 450???
300 hundred pounds was the final descision. This means that I'll probably end up with a keel filled with 300 pounds of lead and 150 pounds of concrete. There, done: check.
The next project was to find an allusive man named Steve. My buddy and I met a dude named Steve last year around the same time while I was looking for a project boat. I found a guy on Craigslist selling a Flicka project. It turned out that this guy owned over 50 sailboats in all states of disrepair. The Flicka was beautiful, but the logistics of moving the boat, the money that I would have to put into her, and the condition that it was in put me off.
What Steve had though was a sailboat junkyard with tons of used parts that he would sell for a song - sails, lines, chain, deck hardware, anchors, spars, rigging, etc. I had just sold my boat so I had no need for collecting more junk at that point. Fast forward to now, I have the need and Steve had what I needed. But how to locate some dude who's address was forgotten, number misplaced, and Craigslist add long expired? Technology.
At Steve's place we shot a thousand pictures of various cool boats, project ideas, and this insane space littered with countless sailboats.
I never thought that geotagging photos was that useful of a technological advancement until this moment. Within a few minutes we had our destination determined.
After buying the lead my buddy and I headed out hoping at the very least we could establish contact with Steve again.
But what we found was a heart breakingly gut wrenching scene.
Nothing, nilch, nada. Just a small clearing in a Maine forest. It was like we had drempt the whole thing. Not even a sign that there was ever a sailboat that had washed up there. Unbelievable.
We stood in the space for minutes reckoning what had happened, what could of happened, and how on earth all those boats just went away. Then we were both struck with a profound sadness and grief... What ever became of that Flicka? The potential of that little seaworthy vessel. I was kicking myself that I didn't save her when I had the chance.
Big mistake: check
My only hope is that she's in a better place.
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