Glen-L.com

This was actually my Second day of the same week of my first trip to the Pacific NW from way down in the Ozarks.
Get your grandsons to read this out loud. And maybe they will have both Oars in the Water throughout their lives.

Arriving at Bangor, on Puget Sound, Washington state, from Southern MO, in the spring of 1946, my brother and I went off exploring. We went two miles down the road and downhill to the beach.

We found an Ocean Beach and a big Dock with holes in it you could fall through.
Laying on those Creosoted Decks we peered down through the holes and saw all kinds of brightly colored Marine life. Whatta place!

From way out at the end of that hole filled Dock, looking back at the woods, we spotted a Boat up on the Beach.
It sure didn't look like it belonged to anybody. Even if it did.....?

We eventually reached the new Treasure, and got er' all dug out.
It was so far up on the beach the tide and waves had filled it with sand.
No problem for a couple of farm kids. Digging in all that sand, dead Kelp and shells was a little more difficult than digging worms outta the Manure pile though.
We dug it out and dragged it down to the water.
We could only find one oar though.
So my brother got a stick.

Being farm boys, with a Creek handy, we never considered that big Ocean (Puget Sound) might be deeper than our creek.
So off we went....one oar and a stick. We were headed back up the beach to get under that Dock and see what all that bright colored stuff was. We saw fish too.

Our progress was slow going up the Beach. Me paddling on one side and my Brother 'poling' along on the other side.
My brother never told me his stick wasn't touching bottom any more.
I kept paddling.
We were going against the Tide so my paddling was offset by the water coming offshore. The boat was going straight, but backwards.
Soon we noticed the Dock was getting further away. The shoreline was going by at a heckuva rate. Whoa up here! What's this?
What's a couple of farm kids know about Tides?

We tried to make the Beach. We succeeded in making the boat go round n' round, but no closer to the Beach. I thought maybe we were headed to Japan but didn't know it.

By now we are a couple of missing kids. Several hours have gone by.
At that time around the beach, and way out of Banger there were still Cougars and Bears.
My uncle who owned the place, told me he'd heard a Cougar Scream not long ago.
My dad, and my Uncle neither one would go into those woods!

The hunt for the two kids is in progress.
We had no idea about that though. We were way out in that Ocean and things were not looking good.
I began to realize that me, being the older of the two of us, should be getting us back to safety somewhere. I also knew who was going to catch hell if we ever got back.

I did actually think nobody owned that boat, so it wouldn't matter where I left it.
I really didn't think much about where I'd leave the Boat. I just wanted to get to those woods on the Beach.

Down on the farm, deep woods were no problem. A walk through the woods always let you out on a field or somebody's farm. I think I looked on all those woods the same.
However these Woods weren't getting any closer. In fact.....

Somehow we'd left the Beach and were way out in the Sound. Not even within Hollerin distance of the Beach.

Soon I was exhausted and a bit distraught that our new Boat is filling up with water and we've no bucket. Or even a Hat between us. My brother was crying.

I got up on the bow. Sat down right on the Prow with my feet dangling in the Water, one on each side, and began to paddle for all I was worth toward the beach.
Like a really inexperienced Canoe guy, first a slash down one side and then the other.
It was good thinking but a wasted effort. There wasn't enough Horse Power on that one Oar. The boat was pointed towards the woods but we weren't gonna hit those Woods. The Beach we were headed for (not knowing) was Port Angles. Miles away.

No doubt people were watching us with Binoculars. You can imagine what they were saying about those two nuts. Maybe some of them called the Sheriff.
We didn't know that. Had I known, I might have put my shirt on the Oar and waved it as a Distress signal.
Farm kids just don't know enough about getting lost at Sea. Good Farm kids don't ask. They just go and enjoy the experience.

Right then I was about to give up. I was gonna lay down in the boat, water or not, I was exhausted!
I had the Oar, and was sitting down in the boat when some guys pulled up in a Motor Boat.
They asked us: "where are you boys headed?" (Smart Alec!)

Looking back, I'm guessing Mom had called the Sheriff for some help locating at least the youngest of the two boys who were lost. We didn't know anything about that part of the story though.

I didn't know what to tell these two guys in the Motor boat. I didn't know where I was or where I'd just come from.
So I told them we are headed for them woods yonder, and then to home in Seattle. They began to laugh at us.
Great I thought. A boat full of malevolent Pirates. I was about to ask questions...when they took over and rescued us.

But they put a bow line on our boat, took my brother into their boat with them to calm him down and towed me back to the Beach at the Dock where we'd started.
The whole fam-damily was there.

Well....you'd think there'd be a grand reunion with hugs n' kisses..right?
Crap no. This is an Irish/Welsh family.
My brother got the hugs. To this day I think he was the only one they wanted back!

They both knew who to blame things like this on.
By the time dad got done with me, I needed some drugs!
Right in front of all those people too.

Dad's lesson was too late in coming.
I was hooked on all that water and boating. Fish for Free. Crabs on the Beach. Lordy what a wonderful place I'd discovered.
Still love it and miss it.
Maybe I'll have my Ashes dumped off the Dock at Bangor. Then I'll finally find out where I was headed that great spring day in 1946.

Great memory Dick...thanks for sharing!

_________________
Bill

I told my wife we needed a three-car garage for my projects...she told me to ask her for permission next time before I buy a house.
http://www.unitybuild.net

We should all write our stories up. You may help some young boy to enjoy reading. Maybe even learn boating from; "Do as I Say, and not as I did!"

Well written and would make a great Movie!!

_________________
The Bitterness of Poor Quality, Remains Long After The Sweetness of Cut Price is Forgotten...Thanks Dad R.I.P.

Thanks all for the Compliments.
We'd need a lot more stories to make any kind of a movie I think.
You guys all have 'marine' or 'boat' based stories.
Write em' up. Don't be afraid to change the names and add a little 'excitement' into the story as "Literary Licensing" for the entertainment value of the Reader.


How about the time WE launched the big boat near Ballard in the Lake Washington Ship canal?

We got this old Cedar boat from some Indians out at La Push. Dragged it up the beach and made it pretty water tight. Then towed it all the way from La Push, down past Port Angeles to Seattle, up through the Locks to a Ramp in the Canal.
With a 25 Hp Johnson on back of an old Cedar skiff. That was a long trip.
The Motor in that boat was a thoroughly rusted out "Star" which was partnered with "Durant" motor company from way back before the days of "General motors". It was junk.

My Industrious Uncle located a Trailer. We just stole it. Didn't ask anybody who it belonged to, we hooked onto it and took off toward the house.
It was an old Chevvy Truck frame with four wheels.
Someone had arranged for the home made Tongue to steer the front wheels with a U-bolt attachment to the Tie Rod. It was impossible to back up!

We went down to the Canal where the boat was still half way up the Ramp. Nobody'd bothered it that we could tell.
With Jacks, Chains, Pully's and Pry bars, we got that big heavy thing onto the trailer. Along with a hundred gallons or so of the Canal still in the boat.
Somehow we made it all through Ballard without attracting a Cop. Later on in my life I began to think we'd have been better off if we'd have paid a fine and lost the boat on that trip home.

Eventually with a new 25 Hp Grey Marine 4 Cyl. motor, reversing gear, transom, rudder and related parts, engine logs and safety straps for the engine and battery, we got this thing back down to the Ramp in the Canal.

Uncle couldn't back the Trailer down the ramp. It went everywhere but down.
So those guys put the Kid up into the boat with a Paddle. And a bailing bucket.

They found a piece of Rope laying off to the side of the Ramp and tied it between the Pickup and the trailer.
One of them backed the Pickup down the Ramp, while the other walked behind the pickup holding the trailer tongue up and steering the old Chevvy Trailer down the Ramp.
Almost immediately the Rope broke.

The old guy holding onto the tongue was suddenly running to keep up and steer too.
He ran outta gas pretty quick. Dropped the Tongue, leaving all the rest of the launching to the whims of the Gods of Chaos.
He yelled that he was sorry but couldn't keep up with it.

The kid in the boat had a pretty short but terrifying ride down the ramp in the boat.
He ran from the bow back to the Stern, then seeing a log right in the path, he ran back to the Bow, intending to jump before the Impact, but too late the whole thing was down into the water. No dry Ramp in sight.

About that time the Stern banged into that Log.
The Kid rolled head over teakittle back to the Stern. Hurting all sharp parts of the boat on his way with his ribs n' elbows.

The Log hit the rudder and shaft so hard it crashed into the prop, and pushed the engine off it's mounts and water poured in the Shaft log.

The kid in the boat finally got to his feet. He couldn't stop the water, the boat was sinking and slowly drifting out into the Canal.

The Kid in the boat was trying to bail, and paddle at the same time. Not doing very well with either.
The Log was stuck to the Boat. Jammed into the Rudder/Prop/shaft area and worked like a big Sea Anchor taking the boat out with the Current.
There were no other boats at the Ramp. No help for the two guys on the beach.
All they could do was watch. Although one of them managed to get hold of the trailer and save it. Yep, the trailer was important. That kid.......?

The Uncle yelled out to the kid.
"keep it from sinking. We'll go home and get another boat with a Motor and come get you!" "Sure" the kid thought to himself. "Maybe that skiff from home will work better than that rope-like Trailer hitch you launched me with"

So he bailed and bailed and when the water was ankle deep he was too tired to bail another bucket full. He laid out like a dying slave. Belly up. Staring at the Seagulls and wondering if this kind of thing is what made Mankind think of flying off to some other planet.

By this time he'd gone a Quarter mile. Some Girls laughed at him from the rail of a nice big boat tied up. He was too embarrassed to say anything about needing help.

He tried to stuff his Shirt into the gaps around the Shaft. It slowed the water down, but didn't stop it. The water was making his feet so cold they ached. It was good the Sun was shining bright or he'd have been too cold to do any of this.

The Canal Current moment began to swirl the boat and log around and around. Until somehow the log got stuck between the Pilings of another boat dock and stopped the march of the Ark to the Sea.
The Kid had thoughts of jumping out onto the Log, and running up the log to the Dock and abandoning the whole family and all them old junk death traps they called Boats.

Fear of a Terrible Beating for losing this piece of Junk took over. Rationally thinking now, he got a Sandwich, sat on the Bow deck and looked up at the work boat his Bow was jammed into.

It was a Week day. Eventually somebody would look over the side of the Work boat and maybe drop a line from a Derrick and lift the whole works out of the water and drop him down in the parking lot. Maybe!!
If the Uncle was going to cut the log up for firewood, he'd just keep on cutting till the whole boat was gone into the Fireplace.
Angry, chilled, upset...you bet.

Eventually Dad n' Uncle showed up in the little green boat with a 10 Hp Johnson. Bringing with them a Battery powered pump and an extra Battery. That cleared the bilges pretty quick. If you don't count the times he had to clear the shavings etc away from the inlet of the pump. Nothing in this Fam-Damily worked out like it should.

They got a line on the boat. The Kid got astraddle of the Transom. Pushing on the Log, to help free it, his foot slipped and down he went. Into that cold water, his butt on the log and holding onto the transom. (no PFD of course)

In all the pulling and pushing, they bent some stuff near that Rudder shaft. The Sound of wood cracking! Water began to Gusher in from somewhere. But the Log was loose, the boat was free and quickly began pulling the skiff down stream.
The Pump was barely keeping up and he was bailing again with those aching shoulders complaining loudly.
He yelled out the good news. "We got a bigger hole to deal with now!" !

Immediately they started off with the boat in tow, going for broke. That little 10 Hp motor digging up a huge swirling cloud of murky water and going somewhat less than 5 mph.

They had no other choice. If they didn't reach that ramp they'd lose that big boat, and maybe that Kid. It'd be good to save that kid though, and keep away from a lot of Paper work.

Back at the Ramp, the 22' boat had so much water in it they could only tie it to the trailer and keep dragging it further up the ramp as the water was being pumped out.

The Shaft log bolts gave up their hold in the wood, and popped up in the air, raising the motor off its moorings, and driving the Prop into the bottom, which chopped a big hole in the wood.
We were lucky it was Wood, and Cedar at that. None of the Prop/shaft etc were bent at all.
But the Rudder was mangled and the whole back end of the boat was Wrecked.
We rebuilt with 1" Cedar we got from the Scrap piles in a Ballard Lumber yard.

That boat went on to a long life of exciting adventures. It was very old when we got it (Free) and about 10 years older when it finally made the Burn Barrell.

Another cool read, Thud... thanks for sharing... paints a great picture!
Bob

good stuff

_________________
RetroMan
Built A Zip/Flying Saucer. I do my boating on South Oyster Bay, Long Island, NY
Documenting my build on YouTube @ http://www.youtube.com/SuperUnknownMC