When a reporter asked the late Eric Hiscock about the dangers of wandering into foreign lands, of encountering thieves and pirates, Eric’s answer was, “I don’t think Susan and I live in the same world as I read about in the newspapers.”
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| Our route across the north of the USA took us close by the Devils Tower National Monument. |
Our whole life, including the past three months we spent touring the USA to introduce our latest book, definitely makes us feel the same. When we were cruising we assumed the reason folks were friendly was because most we met were sailors or folks interested in the sea – thus had common interests. But on this trip we were often far from the ocean and still had warm open welcomes from each person we met. On the other hand, being us – water rats down to the bottom of our souls – we usually ended up pretty close to some wet stuff as we flew more than 20,000 miles and drove another 7,800 to speak at bookstores and boat shows and gams.
Our northeast US base was in Groton Long Point where we stay with Peter Legnos, a boat builder we first met back in 1970 in Cartagena, Colombia when he was 18 years old.
When we had to drive from Central California to the east coast so we’d have our camper to use while we were working at boat shows, we decided to take a few extra weeks and finally see some of the USA. Seems over the past 45 years of voyaging we’d never really explored my homeland nor been to any of the Famous National Parks or monuments. So first we drove first to northern Montana and as we did so we followed the beautiful Tuolumne river through stunning Yosemite, then continued northward along the winding narrow valley of the Little Salmon River. In northern Montana we met up with boatbuilding friends who lived near us when we built Taleisin. Bill and Mary Eisenlohr shifted from boatbuilding into car restoration, then into restoring antique wooden power boats. Larry’s youthful hotrod heart was definitely stirred by the sound of the 350 hp. Chevy V8 engine in the classic Chris Craft commuter boat Bill used to show us around Flathead Lake.
Now Peter has a full grown high-tech boat building business and a full grown family. Ali, his daughter joined us for an evening on the water.
Though we couldn’t find any water to camp by after being awed by the Going to the Sun Highway in Glacier National Park (and exhausted by the difficult and treacherous driving it presented), we did find beautiful rivers running through Yellowstone, and we had to visit the world famous “Old Faithful” geyser. So glad we did because otherwise we would have missed one of my favorite sights of the trip – the wonderful lodge, circa 1904 – built of all local timber in an amazingly organic style that I wouldn’t have expected from designers of that era.
Sher is the owner/operator of the Mystic River Foundry where all the patterns we used for Taleisin’s hardware now have a home and are available for folks who want to use them.
Even when we decided to stop for a few days in the middle of the Montana flatlands, we managed to find water. This time in the tiny town of Choteau where locals invited us to camp next to a little stream right in the town park, just a block from downtown. “If you enjoy our park, please help us maintain it by putting $5.00 in this box for each night you stay,” read the tiny sign.
You can see our lovely little Seraffyn at the dock behind the shanty singers who entertained us at Scituate, Mass.
Lake Michigan, Niagara Falls, then of course the river and island studded northeast Atlantic coast where we stopped being tourists and really set to work, talking with sailors and cruisers at several boat shows. As we mentioned in our last newsletter, we did get in a bit of sailing – on board a very special boat, little Seraffyn of Victoria.
The Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival always seems to attract a wonderful array of boats. The weather couldn’t have been better.
We had some very special encounters at the boat shows. Dozens of folks we’d met during our cruising years came by to reminisce and tell us more about their lives after our paths diverged. One of my favorites was Phineas Sprague. We met him in Malta back in 1975 when, at the age of about 20, he sailed in on Mariah, a 65 foot Alden schooner accompanied by his slightly older brother and a few young friends. He rowed over to Seraffyn and said, “I hear Larry can splice wire. We desperately need our bobstay fixed. We can’t find the right end fittings here.” We understood his problem as the fittings for swages and those such as Norseman have to be exact fits and throughout Europe this meant metric while those from the US are all imperial sizes and can’t be mixed so Larry said, “Go buy some wire, get extra just in case you want to do up your shrouds too. Instead of me splicing it up, I’ll teach you how to do it. You do the bobstay and I’ll make sure it’s right. Then you can re-rig your whole boat any time you want.” Phin, his brother and half a dozen cruisers from other boats settled in for splicing lessons on the foredeck of the schooner that afternoon. When spring came, he sailed off and we lost touch. Now Phineas, father of three, owner of a big boatyard in Portland Maine, told us the next step of his schooner adventure. “We left Malta and got safely down the Red Sea. Then when we got out into the Indian ocean we ran out of wind but the sea turned absolutely wicked, like a washing machine of over-falls. With no sails up, the boat started rolling gunnel to gunnel, the spars whipping back and forth. Then the lower shrouds started to come apart, strands of wire popping. We got some halyards rigged to try to help support the spars but the strands kept breaking. So we dug out the spare wire we bought in Malta and set to work splicing up new lowers – my brother barfing between each tuck but we got them done, got them set and the spars kept standing and stood all the rest of the way around the world.” Phin assured us he has passed on the skills he learned from his voyaging.
The sail past on the last day of the festival kept everyone on shore well entertained.
Just one among dozens of fine stories folks shared with us during our boat show visits. But this newsletter was supposed to be about the landsmen we met, the land adventures – such as driving an extra 600 miles to hear our absolute favorite guitarist, Tommy Emmanuel play in a beautiful little Ohio town. His concert drew folks from all over the country and was played in a wonderful, recently restored hall in downtown Newark – a town right out of a John Grisham novel, court house in the center, bronze war memorial statues, friendly people at the corner drug store. (We are Tommy Emmanuel groupies, having seen him live in concert in four different countries now.) No water anywhere in sight as the town fountain was undergoing maintenance. But now we are back at home in New Zealand, the water at our doorstep. Been here four days and already have opened Taleisin and found an unwelcome pair of guests on board, two swallows who had begun building a mud nest on top of her bronze barometer. Glad we came home when we did as they had not yet laid eggs so Larry had no qualms at all about ousting them. (He is such a softy I wonder what his reaction would have been if there had been live chicks in that nest.) Two hours’ work and the last vestiges of the visitors were gone. Later that evening we began planning her spring refit.
Fair winds,
L and Larry
P.S.I’d like to thank everyone who made our US tour very special, including the people who helped make us welcome at the SSCA Gam, at the Newport and the Annapolis Boat show, and at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. We really enjoyed meeting all of you who came by to say our writing and seminars you to go sailing sooner, simpler. A special thanks to Tory Salvia creator of www.thesailingchannel.tv for hosting us at Annapolis and also working with us on our next video project. Then there were the people who came up and told me how much they enjoyed reading Bull Canyon, a Boatbuilder, a Writer and Other Wildlife, and learning of how Taleisin came to life. Several asked if this book is available as eBooks. Yes, you can find Bull Canyon and all of our sailing books on Amazon’s Kindle and most are now available as an iBook.