Renewal

In my sidestep to care for my mother in her time of need, I took the opportunity to visit a long time friend of Laura's and mine. It was good to see Gina doing so well - happy, healthy, and shining bright as the star she is. I don't think I realized how emotionaly depleted I was from my efforts here, but spending the evening in company with my beloved friend has left me emotionaly recharged, my soul full again for sharing.

I am reminded of her efforts some three years ago when we first took Free Spirit into our charge. She went down to the boat with Laura and they mapped systems, made repairs, and got her ready to move from Ft. Lauderdale to her berth in the Glades. She and Laura spent 6 long weeks in the sweltering heat getting the big schooner ready, even going high aloft to take down the topmast. There Gina forever earned herself an open berth on Free Spirit - Thank you, Gina!

Update....

I've been in Alaska since Monday, helping my mother finish the details of my stepfather's passing. I needed to be here for my mom, as there were many details to take care of, not to mention the emotional strain and grief.

Though I was not very close to Glenn, his departure brings home the temporary nature of our lives, and the urgency of pursuing our dreams. It is easy to regret those paths not taken, the words you could have said, the help you could have been, the love you could have shown.

I find that I have few regrets for actions I have undertaken, and many for things passed by - the lesson in this appears to be that it is far better to act than to ponder, to live than to wait. We have only the very moment in which we live, fleeting and ethereal, gone as it arrives. There may be no other chance to be the person you wish to be, there may be no other time to express your voice, to share your life, your love, your smile. We must all live within the moment, looking also foreword into what will and back into the shadows of were. Goals may be what we strive for and attain, but we are forever bound to live the process, the journey.

This sidestep from my journey has given to me the opportunity to visit friends, renew bonds, and serve others, and for that I am grateful.

Sometimes, I am reminded, these renewals are painful. In Fairbanks, the tears of a friend were bitter raindrops on my heart as I saw that she had glimpsed the possible, fallen in love with the potential, yet was broken by the reckless brush of fate as the possible vanished into what could not be. May you find your path.

And may you find yours, kind and generous reader, and may it find you joyous.

A tool for the wayward

Sailors, vagabonds, travelers, and frequenters of the Internet cafe in general share a common problem. You want to use the computer (public) but find that a: your data is of course not handy, b: the applications you are used to are not there, 3: you are concerned about leaving personal info on the computer to be used for who knows what by who knows who.

A simple and elegant solution is to use a USB flash drive (512MB or larger preferred, but 256MB will work in a pinch) and install a suite of portable apps on it. That way, when you go to use a computer, you have your browser, with your preferences, and your favorites, along with your word processor / spreadsheet / whatever, along with all your documents. You can even add your own virus scanner, encryption, and security software. When you are finished, you remove your thumb drive, and Presto! it was like you were never there. You have your data with you, ready for the next adventure.

There are hundreds (thousands?) of portable apps out there, but some of the best can be found at portableapps.com.

A moment to pause and reflect.

As the carpet of life unrolls before me, I sometimes have the occasion to take a few moments and ponder the infinite. This is one of those moments.

Some of you have recently joined this blog. I would encourage you to go back to the beginning, and read at least the very first post. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life, but it is sometimes as important to focus on the destination as it is to revel in the process.

Some of you have watched our story unfold since long before the first post. To these, our old friends and faithful family, I would like to extend our gratitude. Your love, belief, and support are as much a part of this story as are our day to day triumphs and tragedies. Thank You.

Some of you have hosted us or helped us along on our journey. You have expressed your affection and support as much through action as words. To you we owe a debt of gratitude, and look foreword to the day when we can do the same for you and others.

Words fail me to express my gratitude to each and every one, and I only hope that I can be of equivalent service. To whom much is given, much is expected. I take some comfort in the knowledge that I have been a help and a loyal friend to many, but I remain humbled.

Before too long, our gypsy odyssey will draw to a close, and we will have our sea legs firmly under us. at this point, it is my hope than many of you will take the time to join us and share a bit of our adventures, whether your taste runs toward the tame canal cruise or the bold ocean crossing. It is much for this reason, the ability to share our dream with you, that we have undertaken this voyage of discovery. I hope you come along.

Farewell, gentlereader, and may the fair winds of fate find you rested and well.

Bay by the city

We enjoyed the bay as much as the city. I am reminded fondly of my trip here last spring, and the adventures we had... I wish I was sailing now, but the land will have to endure me for yet a bit more, I fear.

A pretty little ketch snugged down under mizzen and jib. I'm fairly certain that I recognize this little ship from an anchorage in San Pablo Straits this spring. She looks salty and ready to cross an ocean or two, not typical of the class racers and j-tubs usually seen here in the bay.

The boys made good use of the beach, such as it is. Castle building and flood management were the order of the day.

Mom watches the brood with satisfaction.

Blayde, demonstrating excellent follow through. He is metamorphosing into a fine and courageous young man.

City by the bay

San Francisco is a beautiful city, and has many offerings for the visitor or resident.
She has, for example, many wonderful parks and public spaces, art galleries, theatre, and culture / subculture galore. We took a day and visited the Fine Arts Palace and the exploratorium, both conveniently located on the North end of the city.

The dome, the centerpiece of the fine arts palace park.
A great teaching aid when discussing the interrelations between
physical and political technologies.

A waterfront view of the columns.

View through the arch.

SV Balclutha

Overall length	301 feet
Length of deck	256.5 feet
Beam	38.6 feet
Depth	22.7 feet
Gross tonnage	1689
Height of mainmast	145 feet

"A friend of my father was a ship broker at Cardiff, so being there at the time, I asked him what chance I had of getting such a trip. His answer was, ‘We are brokers for a new ship loading coal at Penarth for San Francisco, and she will sail this week. She is a ship called Balclutha and we can get you a berth …’"

"… we were towed away from the dock soon after we joined her … we headed down the Bristol Channel and Irish Sea under full sail. You may guess how I felt up aloft on a topsail furling sail. I don’t know that I had ever been on a yardarm before, but I had to … ."

Excerpted from a letter by Captain Norman Pearce, chronicling his experience as an able-bodied seaman on Balclutha's maiden voyage.

The full rigged Ship Balclutha has seen several carreers prior to her current berth with the national park service.

She was launched under the british flag as a Deepwaterman in 1886, and on January 15, 1887, with a twenty-six-man crew, Balclutha sailed under British registry from Cardiff, Wales, on her maiden voyage. She was bound for San Francisco. The ship entered the Golden Gate after 140 days at sea, unloaded her cargo of 2,650 tons of coal, and took on sacks of California wheat.

Because of the months-long ocean voyage, Balclutha made only one round-trip per year while engaged in the Europe-to-San Francisco grain trade. She arrived with a cargo three times, but also brought pottery, cutlery, Scotch whisky (from Glasgow and Liverpool) and "Swansea general" (tinplate, coke and pig iron) to San Francisco.

During the mid-1890s the ship called at other ports around the world; in New Zealand, for example, she loaded wool and tallow for London, England.



In 1899 Balclutha was transferred to Hawaiian registry, and she joined the bustling Pacific Coast lumber trade. For three years the ship sailed north to Puget Sound, Washington, and then across to Australia. Much of the 1.5 million board feet she could carry ended up underground, used for mining timbers in the Broken Hill Mine at Port Pirie, Australia.

Balclutha was the last vessel to fly the flag of the Hawaiian Kingdom. In 1901 a special act of the United States Congress admitted the ship to American registry so that she could engage in "coastwise" trade (i.e. between American ports). Soon thereafter, the Alaska Packers Association, a San Francisco firm which harvested and canned salmon, chartered her to carry men and supplies north – to Alaska.





When Balclutha went aground in 1904, the Alaska Packers Association purchased her where she lay for the non-princely sum of $500. After extensive repairs, they renamed her Star of Alaska (all Packer iron and steel sailing vessels had a "Star" prefix to their names).

During this career, the ship sailed up the West Coast from Alameda, California, carrying supplies and cannery workers. Star of Alaska anchored out in Chignik Bay, Alaska, during April. After the supplies were unloaded and the cannery workers had settled into the company’s camp ashore, only a shipkeeper or two remained on board. In early September, her hold packed with cases of canned salmon, Star of Alaska started the 2,400-mile voyage back to San Francisco Bay. She was considered a fast sailer, averaging better than twenty-two days for the trip north and fifteen days when homeward bound.

During the winter the ship was laid up with the rest of the Packer’s fleet of thirty-odd vessels in Alameda, where shipwrights performed maintenance and renovation. In 1911, the poop deck was extended to house Italian and Scandinavian fishermen. Later, additional bunks were added in the ‘tween deck for Chinese cannery workers. As Balclutha, the ship carried a crew of twenty-six men; on Star of Alaska, over 200 men made the trip north.

Star of Alaska was the only sailing ship the Packers sent north in 1930, and when she returned that September she, too, was retired.

He rcareer as a movie star began when Frank Kissinger purchased Star of Alaska in 1933 (for $5,000) and renamed her Pacific Queen. Kissinger took the ship south and, while anchored off Catalina Island, she appeared in the film Mutiny on the Bounty (Clark Gable and Charles Laughton also appeared in supporting roles). For a time thereafter, Kissinger towed her up and down the West Coast, usually exhibiting her as a "pirate ship." Pacific Queen slowly deteriorated, and she barely escaped the World War II scrap metal drives.

In 1954 the San Francisco Maritime Museum purchased Pacific Queen for $25,000. Assisted by donations of cash, materials and labor from the local community, the Museum restored the vessel and returned her original name. The ship was transferred to the National Park Service in 1978, and Balclutha was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985.

Bright Lights Big City

An unexpected change in plans, and our trek southward has been delayed for a short while. Meanwhile, we took a two day excursion to San Francisco, to explore and experience.

Drinking and driving is bad mojo, 'm'kaaay!

We stayed 2 nights at the Motel Capri. Clean, affordable lodging at the north end, in a great part of town. A REAL OUTDOOR PARKING LOT!!!! (very important if your rig is a bit oversized, like our van) and courteous staff. Highly reccomended!

Our Friend Peter Coleman donated a new camera to our expedition, so now we have super cool, waterproof, drop resistant photography!!! How kewl is that!!! THANKS PETE!!!!! You have no Idea how much this means to us!

Moving On.

Well, today is our last day in Sacramento. After dropping by to visit my Aunt, we'll be headed southward toward San Francisco. We won't get all the way there tonight, but we'll be out of town and on our way, looking foreward to the next chapter in our adventures....

We'll keep you posted!

Licking (the glass out of) our wounds, Part II

"Welcome to Sacramento!" said the guy in the the chopped low rider Toyota pickup as he drove away with our camera after having broken out our window to get it. (figuratively, if not in fact)

So begins our first day in SAC. Lovely. New window, $75 plus tax ("Welcome to Sacramento!") and a half a day. The camera must have been a disappointment, as it is probably worth less than $30. We were buying a new one anyway, just not yet. A few pictures lost, but not many, and none of significance. The same morning, the ethnically-engineered patch on the water heater gave way. New water heater, $300 plus tax ("Welcome to Sacramento!"). On the bright side, we got it all fixed, and we got to visit Charley and Lena , who graciously lent us the use of their driveway and their yet to be moved into house. Thank You!!!!!! it has been a soul restoring respite.

The boys are great providers!

Here they are, getting dinner again!! We're so proud of them!!!

They never complain, and they try so hard to be frugal with what they have.

As our remaining budget for the month is less than $100, we probably will only be posting cellphone pics for now. If you want to see better pictures, feel free do donate $320 for an Olympus 720SW, which is the camera we will buy when we get the filthy lucre to do so. We promise to take lots of lovely pictures when we get one!

Alternatively, if you were thinking about partaking in the great "buying me lunch" experience of 2006, now is the best time ever!!! Feel free to avail yourself of the paypal donation button at any time, it's open 24 hours a day! Every donation gets its own post honoring the donor and extolling the virtues of the resulting culinary menagerie!! What a bargain!! Also included are shameless plugs for (whatever you want to promote, just tell me in the paypal message, for donations of $25 and up only) , and a (tax detectable as an advertising expense) receipt for such promotional services, if requested!

We have over 20,000 impressions and counting, so you can be sure that the word will get out (at least as good as if you gave a homeless person a sign to wear all day, or something like that) (as a matter of fact, the comparison is strikingly apt!)

At any rate, I'd like to take this moment to thank our family, friends, and supporters everywhere. Sometimes it helps to be able to draw on the knowledge that there are many who wish you well and godspeed. So, thank you!!!

May the day prosper your spirit and mind, gentlereader!

Licking Our Wounds

The open road is good practice for the open ocean. Always something to fix!!! Most recently:

Water heater: Corrosion. Repaired.(I should have knocked on wood!)
New tire is flat: Cracked weld on rim: Replaced both with new rims.
Van Brakes: Worn out, rotors cracked. Replaced rotors, pads, calipers. ($ouch!!)
And countless other things.

Anyway, It keeps me busy and tests my ingenuity, so that's good. A good warmup for the boat!

Well, I've never worked on a gas water heater before, but I never met a gadget I couldn't fix....(I should have knocked on wood!)

When I hooked up the tank to city water pressure, It was like a lawn sprinkler. Pinholes from corrosion. Gotta love aluminum!!! I cleaned the tank and sealed the entire bottom with J-B weld epoxy. That should hold it for the few months I need it, until we move onto the boat.

The Gaping hole.... Now filled with a renewed water heater!!!

(I should have knocked on wood!)

Samoa, but without the Samoans....

Laura took a walk with the boys from our Samoa California campsite. They went to the Pacific coast, and made the children walk barefoot the burrs and brambles to toughen them up, accomplishing much the same goals as outward bound without the spendy fee!!

I'll let her tell her tale on this one!

We awoke our first morning in Samoa, just outside of Eureka, CA to a beautiful sunrise over the mountains of Eureka. The boys and I had heard a rumour that there may be whale sighting or stingrays at the Pacific in the early mornings. So we headed out for the "short" walk to the Ocean... We were on a spit of land that was bordered by the Bay on the East, and the Pacific Ocean on the West. The first event in this comedy of errors story, is that although the Ocean sounded like it was just over the next Dune, sounds can be deceiving :-) We ended up walking for about a mile and a half, over many dunes and through tic infested grasses. (much to Blayde's chagrin) We got to the ocean a little tired, hungry and cold, but the boys still proceded to play in the surf of the ocean. The first lesson at the beach was that you never, ever turn your back on the Ocean (or you will get completely drenched). The second was that when you are tired, hungry, cold and wet, you should probally NOT put your socks and shoes on over sand covered feet.... After much discussion, it was decided that they would walk barefoot for a while, until they dried off a bit, and we found a "grassy" area for them to regroup.

Drake, proving to all of us, that the situation could be dealt with, and even with a smile and positive attitude!!

The infamous "grassy" area... You can see a glimpse of dunes in the background of the kids.. As we were approaching this lovely grassy area, the boys started complaining that the grass was hurting their feet, and my response was to tell them to buck up, and maybe they should not have gotten their feet so cold and wet, blah... blah... blah... I ended up telling them to please just clean themselves up, get their shoes on and sit on their jackets. So, while Valin was cleaning up, he kept telling me that there were burrs poking him through his jacket, and I of course told him to, ya know, buck up ect. ect. .....



Hmmm...... See the "made-up" burrs...... This is after we had already started brushing them off. What you cannot see, is me behind the camera, eating humble pie :-)

Highway 101

Highway 101 on the northern end is simply indescribable. Alternating between breathtaking Pacific views and hobbit-groves of majestic redwood, it is worth the trip from anywhere just to drive it. Do it, you won't be disappointed!

A magical Pacific view.

You can just imagine what it must have been like for the explorers to find the coast at last. It is reminiscent of the land that time forgot, with the coast redwoods and the rugged coastline.

Flying the 3M traction Kite. we left numerous drag-trails in the sand as I dragged myself up the beach in the "zone". Good fun and great exercise too!

Mid drag on a 50 foot track!!

Lighthouse at Crescent City

In Crescent City, we walked out to the lighthouse. The view from the rock is spectacular, and the steep, barren cliffs are testaments to the power of the great rolling heap. As some of you may know, Laura loves lighthouses, so she was having a great time, of course.

You can see the breakwater for the Crescent City yacht harbor on the left, as well as the rocky coast that the lighthouse stands vigil on.

Laura by the great wind twisted tree on the rock. I LOVE the unique shapes that this kind of tree takes on in different sea environments.

The boys peer (carefully) over the precipice. Breathtaking vista from here!

Tide's coming in. The boys collected edible seaweeds and bull kelp, along with hermit crabs and Chinese hat mollusks. It was nice to feel the sea breeze, smell the sea air, hear the shore birds, and to see the vast openess of the great ocean. It will not be much longer now, until we are a regular fixture in this environment. I always feel at home in this atmosphere, and am soooo looking forward to that stage of our grand adventure.

A beautiful, if unidentified, rock flower. There were a veritable carpet of these along the edge that held sufficient soil. The amazing thing about this flower is that the ground all around the lighthouse was covered with this green plant, and this happened to be the only bloomed flower....

The secret life of redwoods

This was our campsite at the Jedediah Smith State Park. The campground was beautiful, along a river, and full of redwood energy. It was amazing to the kids and I to find out that, first of all the redwood pine cones are tiny compared tot he trees, and that less than one in a million seeds will make it to maturity.

The view down from the restrooms to our campsite,check out Blayde's size for comparison...

Here in the JSSP , we are camped among the redwoods. These majestic trees have borne witness to thousands of years and countless generations of humanity. Some of these trees are over two thousand years old, nearly half the age of their relatives, the giant sequoias. Call me a new age nutcase, but I swear you can feel the energy of these trees. Standing inside one of the hollow ones (sometimes the core will rot out, while the rest of the tree remains strong) you can feel the “energy” of the tree. I cannot explain it, but it is true nonetheless.

Each tree is a veritable city unto itself, teeming with wildlife, a squirrel skyscraper. Indeed, a felled one could build an entire (tiny) town with the lumber produced! Words Fail me to characterize the experience of walking through a redwood forest, so I would encourage each and every one of you who has not been here to make a pilgrimage to see these ancient giants.

Tamer and I had an amazing "Date Night", here in the midst of this amazing forest. We snuggled inside of a redwood (along with tons of EWWWWWWWW, spiders), and saw the brightest, biggest most beautiful full moon ever. We debated whether or not it really was a rare and amazing sight or if us Alaskans never have the opportunity to see such a majestic moon. At any rate, the campfire conversation was a welcome break from the chaos that we had been a part of!!

Cactus's Place

Laura, Jimmy McDade, Mallory Smyth, Dad (Bud Smyth)

Blayde, Drake and Valin with a horny toad.

Looking out from Cactus's grave site, at the valley below. His homestead was just this side of the group of trees on the right side. A fire had come through a few years back, and all that remains are burned remnants of what once was.

Jimmy McDade, Tamer, Blayde, Dad, Drake, Mallory & Valin

We came out to see Cactus’s old home where he was working horses when I met him twenty-five years ago. Of course, the house is gone, and Cactus has moved on to the great range beyond age, but it was a completing experience nonetheless. While we were there, Blayde found an old soda bottle capper buried in the dirt. He placed it on Cactus’s grave , so that he would always have a root beer handy.

You see, Blayde had heard the stories of how Dad and co. would go down to the bottling works as boys and drink the bottles that did not cap right. Sometimes, they would “fix” the cappers so that they would work less often than otherwise, thereby assuring an ample supply of free soda! This particular capper had been “fixed” as well, it looked like it would probably unseal many bottles when the lever was released. How it got here, to Cactus’s ranch, remains a mystery, but now it has found its purpose. When we had visited the relatives in Burns, it was explained to me like this.... Cactus's brother and sister (Bobby & Carol) told me that their (Cactus's) parents had at one point owned a bottling company in Burns where these events transpired.

We went to Andrews (Johnnie a.k.a. Cactus lived in Andrews) with Jimmy, our oldest living relative (born 1907) and got to hear many old stories from the past century. He spoke of the good old days, and I picked his brain a bit on ranching. Thank you, Jimmy!

I also had the occasion to meet a most interesting fellow, with the distinction of having flown the most combat missions in B-29's in WWII, and being the only person to have been court marshalled for flying a B29 in inverted flight. It was later found that since the G-forces remained positive throughout the loop that the aircraft was not, in fact, flown in inverted flight, so he was not too harshly penalized. He was notorious throughout the command, however, and was a peer and friend of Doolittle and many of the other famous flyers of WWII. He relates a story about the Enola Gay, and has serious doubts based on his own witness regarding whether the Enola Gay left from the base that it is said to have left in the historical record, or from another base entirely. Hmm....

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Pop

This posting is dedicated to James Clifford Smyth (Pop). It has been a wonderful thing for us to hear the old story's about Pop from his younger years. Some of the cousins definitely had fond memories of him and Gram. Pop's marker (I think made by my brother kraig), sits outside of Diamond on the back of a bluff in the Smyth graveyard where some of his ashes were scattered. It is certainly the kind he would have wanted, and reminded me of him.

The Headstone

Diamond

This is a modernized version of the school that Gram (Kathleen) used to teach at. Throughout the time that we were meeting our distant cousins, She was described to me perfectly; A "real" lady, a person that everybody "loved". I could not agree more, and wish that she was still around to teach the boys. If I have my stories correct, this may also be the schoolyard that Dad almost burned down when he was about 6....

I really need to find a use for this chandelier on the boat!! I loved it sooo much and it is very simply constructed. I never was very impressed with the fancy dancy crystal ones anyway :-)

We had stopped here to hear the story about Dad and Pop having to walk from around here to the main road, about 10 miles out. He was not certain that this was "exactly" the place, but worthy of a look anyway. Within about 5 minutes of touring the old house, Blayde found himself a genuine arrowhead. Of course, this led to those "treasure hunting Smyth's" to look a little more. We found an enormous amount of obsidian in this area in various states of construction. We only found 2 more actual arrowheads, but many tips and bases. This was also the place that we saw the only snake so far on this whole trip. Of course, it would be fun to say it was a really scary rattler, and we killed it for stew....But he was a harmless little grass snake.....

1929.... Wow.... The Diamond Hotel was once owned by Hyson Smyth.

Need we say more??

Blayde has spotting something big in the brush, some kind of a wild animal... The search is on!

We never tire of seeing the travelling rig.... Actually this picture was taken beside the old Diamond Dance Hall. Behind the van and across the street (where the road signs are), is where Dad and the family used to live way back when.

The Diamond Hotel (just down the street from the Dance Hall). We perused the gift shop, bought ice cream and sat out on the enclosed porch while the boys played cards. This is where my majestic chandelier was hanging :-)