Contemporary figurehead

Look who's the figurehead on this modern racing boat: Mermaid Barbie!

Contemporary figurehead

Profile: m/v Lotus

One of the great things about boating in the Pacific Northwest is the vibrant wooden boat community.  The art (and it is an art, to make wood take on the graceful shape of a boat) of wooden boat building and maintenance is alive and well here, most particularly in Port Townsend.  Our wooden boats are the reigning queens of the Salish Sea.

m/v Lotus

You may have learned of the 1909 wooden motor vessel Lotus the same way I did: thru a collection of articles on Three Sheets Northwest.  Sadly, a couple of the articles dealt with the winter storm in February of 2012, when she was blown off of her mooring in Port Hadlock and came ashore.

Well, she's back.  And in a completely random occurrence,  Lotus was tied up at the dock here in Poulsbo this weekend, and was open for tours, so how could we not?  We went aboard.

Lotus is amazing.  She is almost completely in excellent original condition.  She is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a prime exemplar of the Edwardian (or Craftsman) style as applied in the marine world.  She is in the responsible care of Christian Gruye (who just happens to be Brion Toss' wife). Lotus has been in Christian's family off and on for years; Christian calls herself 'Head Steward', a title which any boat owner will understand.  Under her stewardship, the few 'modernizations' that had been applied in her century of existence were corrected.  Christian even sought out and re-acquired her original diesel-fired galley stove.

Christian, next to the fireplace in the saloon
(and your correspondent photo-bombed by the mirror)

Because we arrived at a visitors lull, we got the cook's tour from Christian, and a fuller recount of her history than I suspect most hear.  It is a privilege to be able to acquaint yourself with one of these grand queens of the waterways.  If you can, you should make the opportunity for yourself.

Wheelhouse

Upper deck, exterior lounging area

Flooring detail.  Also note the name 'Lotus' picked
out in brass tacks on the brass threshold plate.

Owner's cabin

Owner's ensuite head. 
Yes, that is a claw foot tub.

Galley, with original diesel-fired stove

Profile: m/v Lotus

Symbolism

Sometimes you have to do something totally for its symbolic value. Humans seem to have an in-built need for symbolism.

I don't know if it is a marine tradition (boy, there are a lot of these), but it certainly generated warm feelings when Scott torched his old bowsprit.

This came about like this.  s/v Ghost had a rotten bowsprit, and Scott decided (inspired by moi) to build a new one.  And like when I did ours, this was a long, drawn-out project.  At the end, there is a great feeling of relief.

And what better way to celebrate that then to invite some friends to the little sand beach on the outside of the breakwater - it only shows at high tide, so timing is important! - to a ceremonial burning of the bowsprit.  In case you are wondering, yes, that orange bucket is full of ice and beer...  necessary ingredients for a ceremony of this solemnity.

The ceremony continued until well after dark.  My only regret?  Eolian's old bowsprit is languishing away in a storage shed, waiting for the cleansing fire. But now I am inspired to dig it out.

I wonder if John Vigor has words useful for this ceremony?

Symbolism

Tradition

Well yes, since you asked, that *is* two cheese blintzes topped with strawberry/raspberry jam and whipped cream.  And in an amazing coincidence, this morning I again took Jane to the airport just like I did nearly a year ago.  And as I passed by the IHOP, I found that the car had mysteriously turned into the parking lot without any input from me. 

But, like Ron Popeil says, "Wait! There's more!"  This is only a part of a low-calorie, nutritious breakfast.   Adding to the cheese and sugar (And fruit! Feel healthy!) food groups, the repast was well-balanced with contributions from the smoked meat, grease and starch food groups as well.  And eggs (Are they a food group? The proto-chicken food group?).  I love how IHOP always provides a balanced meal.

So it seems that a tradition has formed. I always wondered how they started.

Just like I wondered how I ended up in the IHOP parking lot.

Tradition

Master and Commander

People are curious about the sounds and feelings of living on a boat. I am frequently asked what it's like to live here, usually after a windstorm has gone thru the area. If you wanted to know what that sounds like, I'd suggest you rent the movie Master and Commander. In the opening scenes, the sound of the wind in the rigging is accurately captured - it sounds there exactly like it does here on Eolian when the wind is up.

The movie is an accurate depiction of nautical life (in the 18^th century) in other respects as well:

• Life in the fo'c'sle (forecastle) was very much rougher than life for the officers or the midshipmen.
• These ships were crowded. Aside from the need for a lot of hands to man the rigging of a large windborne ship, recall that each cannon required a crew of six to operate. The HMS Surprise (125 feet long) was a 24 gun ship, meaning that 72 men were needed to fire the guns on one side, plus powder monkeys and other auxilliaries to keep them supplied. And then there were the Marines (ship-borne soldiers).
• Luxurious tho the captain's quarters were (at least in comparison to the fo'c'sle), they were temporary. When the ship was made ready for battle, the quarters were completely torn down, making the area available for working the stern guns
• The damage caused by a 32 lb iron ball traveling at a high rate of speed is devastating. Most injuries were caused by flying splinters resulting from the impacts.
• The square meal was shown - "china" for the fo'c'sle was a simple wood plank
• The officers were frequently what today we would call children.
• Tho shown in the movie theatre, the scene showing the use of the head resides in the "Deleted scenes" section on the DVD. The head of the ship is the front. There were no "sanitary facilities" provided for the fo'c'sle crew - they were expected to go to the head, climb out into the bowsprit rigging, and drop trousers there. The deleted scene shows this in passing, when the HMS Surprise is rounding Cape Horn - a most unpleasant experience to be sure.
• Medical care (when the ship carried a doctor) was primitive.
• And shown so very well - the ship at sea is truly a world of its own. Completely isolated, and necessarily self sufficient.

We have this DVD aboard - it is one of the two required DVD's for liveaboards (the other being Captain Ron). I cannot recommend strongly enough that you see this DVD - not necessarily for the story line, but for the accurate depiction of life at sea in the 18^th century.

Master and Commander

Sadness

Something sad has happened.

When we were in Friday Harbor, we discovered that the Front Street Ale House was closed.

Coming to this pub has been a tradition with us, well forever. (Here's a picture of Jane and Adam there nine years ago. The whole family was there, but if I recall correctly, he bought the beer, thus he is immortalized in Internet fame.)

This was a brew pub. I am guessing that none of the beer they brewed made it off the island tho, so you've probably not tasted it (unless you were there of course). And it was good beer they made - something to look forward to, welcoming you to shore.

Things change, etc. But I am sad that this icon is no longer waiting for us as we walk up into town.

RIP Front Street Ale House

Sadness

Flags

It's a piece of multi-colored cloth fluttering in the wind. But why? Why is it up there fluttering in the wind?

Most non-boating people would answer from a list something like this:

• Decoration
• They're festive
• To show patriotism

But boaters would have these as the first two items on their lists:

• Identification
• Communication

And, if you allow me to define "identification" as "communicating national origin", then there is only one item on the list:

• Communication

Communication is the primary purpose for flags. Before the advent of radio a little more than 100 years ago, most ship-to-ship or ship-to-shore communication was done with flags . A sailor standing on the deck of a ship with a telescope can "read" the flags being flown on another ship, from miles away. (The other method was by courier - sending a man in a boat with the message - but this has obvious limitations due to distance, sea state, and the lack of ability to do one-to-many messaging.)

Knowing that flags are communication devices, you might suspect that there are flags for each letter in the alphabet - and you'd be right. Given enough flags, and enough space to fly them, you could spell out any message. A modern-day example of the continuing use of the alphabet flags is the plain yellow "Q" flag, signifying "Quarantine", that a vessel flies before clearing customs when it enters a foreign harbor.

But this use of the Q flag begins to bridge to the primary flag methodology: where a single flag stands for an entire message or concept. This is a much more economical use of flags and flag halyards. In this particular example, although it is not a special-purpose flag, accepted usage has it understood that the single Q flag takes the place of 10 alphabet flags. Compared to flags, texting is scandalously verbose.

Message	Flag
Boat in distress
Boat in distress (alternate)
"A" alphabetic signal flag, Diver down (International, US Coast Guard)
Diver down (common usage)
Small craft warning
Gale warning
Storm warning
Hurricane warning
Sun is over the yardarm

And, of course, the flag flying over Eolian's decks most recently also is a means of communication!

Flags