On our second day at Pierre's Echo Bay we hear more and more boats coming in -- Yes, said Mike on the dock, we have room. Willie's Tug will move forward to accommodate you. So while Mike and Chris are on a hike, we move OdySea forward as well.
After lunch Herb and I take Jake's Ferry around the bend to Billy Proctor's Museum. Our first sight of his place is his fishing boat, Ocean Dawn. We tie to the dinghy dock and take a look inside the museum. Oh, my! What a collection of items -- from Japanese to you-name-it. My camera would run out of battery before I capture all that interests me, so I record only a few.
Herb examines a 1948 Hornet chain saw and comments that he would never want to be on the other end of it. I am sure it has cut down many a tree.
And then I meet him -- Billy Proctor!
I like him instantly. The friendly face, the smile, the twinkle of his eyes -- you just know he has seen, done, and explored a thousand things, and is willing to share his experiences. Goldie is his dog. He asks us lots of questions, where we are from, what about our boat, what about our dog. He told us he had recently seen several boats like our tug that seemed like miniature gill netters, and thinks maybe they were R-21s.
Billy is a tell-it-like-it-is kind of guy.
He knows every anchorage in the region and tells us where we should go and where not to go -- it is also in his book.
We walk next door to the book store and are thrilled at the selections available. One is Full Moon Flood Tide, subtitle: Bill Proctor's Raincoast by Yvonne Maximchuk and Bill. I select Heart of the Raincoast, Billy's life story, written by himself and Alexandra Morton, and also Drawn to the Sea by Yvonne, which Herb has on Kindle, but we decide to get the paper copy for her illustrations.
While perusing the stacks, I am startled by a loud, strange yet familiar sound -- an old time cash register. My father had one in his grocery store during my childhood. It is loud! Billy rings up a sale.
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| Billy Proctor |
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| View from Billy's Front Yard |
Chris finds the fresh eggs and grabs a dozen.
Dinghying back around the bend to the dock at Pierre's gives us a nice view of Billy's area. The large gray rounded roof building is the boat shed with rails to launch boats just built or repaired. In front of Ocean Dawn is a guest boat who has come to visit the museum.
...and the generator that gives power to the operation.
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| Dining Room above Float Plane Dock |
Find Willie's Tug....
Our neighbors across the dock do a little cleanup and I watch with interest as he helps the lady into the boatswain's chair, then cranks her up.
He gets help with the crank, and she is lifted to the height at which she says, "Here is where I grab the mast with my legs and hold on."
Her task is to clean the spreaders. She draws quite an audience, mostly of sailors who tell her where their boat is so she can clean it next. Laughter rolls down from the mast. "Yeah, right!"
I whisper to someone, "What's a spreader?" Later my friend Den tells me it spreads the stay lines. And he explains what stay lines are. For my next lesson, I should get Marylin to give me a seminar....
With her task completed, we watch her come down, then head over to the dining hall for Happy Hour, passing an incredibly beautiful brilliant yellow rose.
Tove transitions between Happy Hour and the dining experience by announcing who the featured guests are this evening.
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| You Get to Go First! |
Prime rib is brought to the serving table, along with dishes of salad, baked potatoes and corn on the cob. A server asks if you would like the kernels cut off or if you would prefer to eat from the cob. Dessert is their version of Tiramisu.
and of Walldog, Willie and Jake
Thursday, July 31, 2014
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