The Great Eclipse and Preparing Jean Marie for Donation

On Monday, August 21st we had the great eclipse, yawn.  My neighbor, Taylor, had an imposing set up with binoculars and a viewing screen made of poster board and two sets of glasses.  One set was commercial and one was home made with three layers of emergency blanket material.  He shared his setup and I admired his work,  Really a smart guy.

As I was leaving I noticed the shade from the trees was making little eclipses on the ground.  The trees leaves were making natural pin hole viewing spots.  The photo at the right is on my front porch with the natural pinholes through my wisteria vine.  The center of the photo shows the little eclipse patterns.  Later I saw the same thing on the TV News. 

The Dolphin is still on the hard in the boat yard.  The trailer fell apart as they were lifting her with the big travel lift.  Currently the yard is repairing the trailer bunks and the winch post.  They were rusted out.  I knew the trailer needed work, but hoped to do it this winter.  No such luck.  I was blessed by The Almighty that this didn't happen on the way home.  It would have been a major disaster.

On Wednesday, the 23rd, I went down the to docks and took the sails off Jean Marie.  I had found that there was a high tide the next morning and I needed that to get the boat on the trailer at the ramp.  The river is low and at low tide the trailer rolls off the end of the ramp into a hole. 

Thursday I parked the truck and trailer at the ramp next door to the docks and hiked around to my dock.  I motored to the ramp and then retrieved the boat.  The mast came down fairly easily and I strapped the boat to the trailer and drove home without incident.  Whew!

 On Friday, my neighbor Rick helped me switch the outboard motors and I put my newer Mercury in the boat house.  I went to Harbor Freight and bought a package of bungy cords to secure all the rigging for extended travel.

Saturday I got up early to beat the heat and spent five hours emptying the fishing gear, fuel tanks, porta-potti, and various anchors and rodes out of the boat.  I put it all away in the boat house, my shed, and in the living room of the house. 

I left the sails and running rigging in the boat along with the winch handle, fire extinguiseher, oar, spare tiller handle, and the whisker pole.  The boat has a handsome power panel and I left the depth sounder installed.

Oregon Public Broadcasting is supposed to have Speeds Towing come get the boat next week.  I did the same with my old Fiero last year.  I hope this goes smoothly, but nothing has so far this summer.  I am supposed to get a tax deduction for the donation, but I am not holding my breath.  We are due another heat wave starting Sunday, so I was hustling to get this done.  At least the dock is now clear if I ever get the Dolphin rigged and launched. 

I started to get a little melancholy about the boat as I was working to get rid of her.  Then as I thought it through, I realized I had gotten my fair share of fun and adventure out of her over the last 33 years I have owned her.  From Palm Harbor, Florida to St. Johns, Oregon I have sailed, camped overnight, fished and voyaged on her.  I took her to Timothy Lake in the cascades and slept in her in view of Mt. Hood.  I motored and sailed from Portland to Astoria on a six day solo trip.  I towed her from Florida to Oregon.  Last but not least, I boated four spring Chinook salmon on her.  One was caught by my elderly father-in-law and three by me fishing alone. 

Good bye Jean Marie.