The Last Post

Posted by admin
Sep 29 2012

Kachemak City, Alaska
September 28, 2012 14:30
59N40 151W27

We hit the ground with all 8 feet running (not always in opposite directions). What a landfall it’s been. I’m sitting at my desk looking out our new living room window. If I had a telescope I could see Silver Lining tied up in Homer Harbor, and maybe Frank commuting on the “Blue Too” across Kachemak Bay to his oyster farm job. The kids are off in school, and I’m trying to pin down a thousand ideas for renovation tasks fluttering around in my disarrayed brain. Mostly I just want to stare out at this amazing view and stop thinking at all. All by myself up here, it almost feels like I’m on watch and everyone else is sleeping, only they’re not (well hopefully not). They’re all off having their own day, which they may share small moments of over dinner tonight.

“WHAT HAPPENED?!” you may well ask. Nothing really, and everything really. One thing just lead to another, mostly it just felt right, Homer feels right, the kids seem to think school feels right, finding a fully furnished house project on a perfect site, with a potential separate unit for my mom, made buying it feel just right, and trying oyster farming seems to suit Frank fine for now (the fox has entered the henhouse!). It’s seasonal work and the season is ending, but as the hardest, least-paying job in Homer, Frank says, “I can only go up from here.”

The lynchpin to this axel, or the keystone to this arch, or the wind in these sails – was school. Logan had expressed an interest in trying “real” school, so we figured wherever we landed we’d be making a 2 year commitment. Then Kennan got bit by the bug and wanted to try it too – so that means 4 years. As their former principal, teacher and coach, I don’t know if I should take this personally but they don’t just like “real” school – they love it. Logan is especially stimulated by honors English, and Kennan eats lunch fast so he can go hang out in his advanced Geometry class. Both of them love ceramics, and two evenings a week they and Frank are taking fencing through the community center – my three musketeers. However creative and interesting sword fights on deck and a kiln in the bilge may seem, there are many offerings ashore that would be challenging onboard. Hey whatever it takes, they’re not behind, and they’re motivated to learn, so I’m calling Silver Lining Academy a success, and I refuse to take their enthusiasm for their new school personally. We sailed through the rough seas of middle school and have landed high and dry on the rocky shores of high school, with some promising peaks to climb ahead. All the teachers and one counselor in particular have been completely amazing with the kids, giving me a renewed respect for what public schools can be, and tremendous hope for the 2 to 4 years ahead. This may just be the honeymoon period, but honeymoons precede millions of happy marriages on the planet.

Here’s the blow by blow since Kodiak. We landed in Homer August 7, which turned out to be registration week at Homer High (2nd highest ranked in AK). School started 2 weeks later  after a flurry of back to school shopping, scheduling required health checkups, acquiring the accoutrements of land life (car, cell, insurance etc.) and cleaning up the boat from over 2 months of rugged sailing in the Aleutians. We sailed a few times over to Kachemak Bay State Park to hike, explore, pick blueberries and fish, maybe in an attempt to convince ourselves we weren’t giving up the cruising life completely.

There are many places where wintering over onboard, would be possible if not totally comfortable, but Homer harbor is not such a place. It is out in the middle of Kachemak Bay accessed by a long spit. It’s subject to much harsher weather than the protected town tucked back against the hills. Living on the boat through the winter in Homer was not going to be an option.  So we were actively looking for a housesitting/rental option for the worst of the winter months, fully expecting to move back aboard in spring. At the same time we’ve been looking for years for property around here, a place for our nest egg, something safer than the banks. After lots of browsing and perusing, we met with Philip Alderfer a real estate friend of my brother, who gave us a list of possibilities. We fell in love with one new listing – a fully-furnished and equiped duplexable home, on 2 one-acre view-lots, in need of some care, but ready to move in. It was priced to sell but higher than what we’d planned on spending. We were able to do it with help from my mom, who has been wanting to put a toe in these frigid waters closer to Gart, Deb and their kids, without committing yet to a full time Homer life. It all fell together at an amazing speed, and after two weeks of escrow, we closed today. So a winter project for Frank is in place. We may still move back on the boat in the spring and try our hand at the vacation rental business, or we may try doing some charters on Silver Lining next summer. Frank is working on getting his U.S. captain’s license, since he did not have time in Tahiti to complete continued education courses required for his French Polynesian license that would have given him an internationally valid license. And I’m trying to decide if I should be attempting to get an Alaska architects license, it’s not exactly building boom time.

The shift from summer to fall here moves even faster than the shift from spring to summer in the Aleutians. One day the leaves turned all golden, the next day a storm came and blew the most vibrant ones away before I even got a chance to photograph the onset of fall. Today we even saw snowflakes and the mountains across the way are getting a white dusting. Apparently winter is the long season here. Maybe we lost a few screws along the way, but we feel strangely prepared for this. We’re not afraid of cabin fever (especially since our “cabin” has views almost as expansive as Silver Lining’s), nor do we fear extreme conditions. My biggest fear right now, is having jumped into all this before getting a real job. Conventional wisdom would have one of us getting a real job before buying a house (oyster farming doesn’t quite qualify – it might if Frank could cash in on the oysters he’s eating over there;) But conventional wisdom does not seem to be serving the world well these days, so I guess we’ll continue to taunt the conventional wisdom devil a bit more. At least I’m not unemployed in Greenland.

As the westernmost end of the US Highway system, they call the tip of Homer Spit “Lands End” – for us it’s really “Lands Beginning.” It may seem like we’re doing a lot of things backwards, but for now it feels like we’re leaping forward into a next adventure. And so the Silver Lining Academy doors are closing, but new doors are opening on all sides, I just hope one of them includes a satisfying job for one or both of us – we may have to build the frame for that door from scratch. And four years of acclimating to colder weather should have us ready for a northwest passage attempt on Silver Lining, then we could visit the european side of our extended friends and family without tempting any pirates. Amzer zo.

In the meantime, Oysters on the half shell anyone? Come on up, the water’s fine.

xoxomo

5 Responses

  1. Chris Ellsay says:

    That is so cool… You have found a stop and a home. What a crazy thing to stop traveling but it feel right. I hope the life that has filled you all with experiences continues. We care.

    We are coming to visit so clear the floor and make sure Frank has some hair to cut (hopefully before Christine has had many glasses of wine).

    White Lightning rocks.

    See you all soon but in the mean time don’t forget your friends on Stray Kitty.

    Cheers

    C, C, A, R, C

  2. PJ says:

    Wow! Holy mole! What an exciting turn of events. The Capazians were all looking forward to your path coming through Washington, but it sounds like the road has forked a little. I must say that I am excited for you and your new chapter! Happy trails to you all!

    Cheers,

    PJ Baker

  3. Mo says:

    We have room! Come on up. They say the X-country skiing is great in February. We can have a kid-boat reunion if both the Stray Kitties and Capazians can get away at the same time – course now we all have school schedules to work around – the big downside to land life – something other than weather driving our schedules.

    I’ll stop cutting Frank’s hair, you do a much better job. BTW there’s no forgetting the Stray Kitties!

    Cheers back,
    Margo

  4. Tehani says:

    Coucou la famille
    Quel aventure, en tout cas ça fait plaisir de savoir que tout va bien. J’espère que l’école des garçon aussi. New school hin!!! On tout cas on espère vous voir bientôt ça tente beaucoup en tout cas. Mais plutôt l’été pour nous. On vous fait de gros gros bisoux . And keep the blog up.

  5. admin says:

    Coucou a vous! Well we’ve let the blog lie – too much going on with school, a real job, and an oyster farm! I even stopped checking the comments and just saw this on a whim today. Il faut qu’on trouve des moyens de vous voir bientot. Vous nous manquez trop.

    Bisoux!!!

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