An older man travels over sea and land in quest of new adventures
A Text Book Autumn
Just another autumn sunrise. A little wind, a little rain, a little sun. These ships are still waiting for a cargo, week after week. home must seem very far away for the crews.
We are nearing the finale of a wonderful autumn. The weather has been superb. There have been weeks of flawless clear days and nights. The fall leaves have been spectacular. We have had only two or three frosts and now the rains are beginning in an almost textbook manner. The rivers are rising right on time for the salmon to spawn. I’ve been busy with my cameras so this blog will simply be another series of local graphics. Why ruin a good thing by writing polemic thoughts and observations? We are all aware of what horrors continue around the planet on a daily basis. Perhaps the joy of the moment is the best offering I can provide.
Lunacy The October harvest moon and a star slide toward the horizon on a mid-month clear night. (Not a bad shot for a hand-held mobile phone!)All through the night. clatter, bang, boom. One of the last working sawmills on the BC Coast. Not a great neighbour for a marina. There is lots of dust in the air, debris in the water and incessant industrial noise.And then another dawn. Autumn leaves on an old coal heap on the Ladysmith waterfront. This was once a coal-loading terminal for the local mines, now all a memory.Smokey Maples. Part of the autumn ambiance.Another day dawns in Dogpatch, the free-spirited anchorage next to our first marina. Soft light, calm water and smoking chimneys make for a deceptive peacefulness.Ho hum, yet another leaf picture. Obviously I find the colours and patterns fascinating.Nanaimo obscured. Arguably looking its best.Irrelevant but intriguing. With all sorts of new laws about “Distracted driving” I found this motorhome’s dashboard full of decorations as well as a squawking, flapping cockatoo an interesting case in point. No texting I hope.Afternoon delight. One can only imagine what might go on in this old Cadillac Coupe de Ville on the edge of a field. With our current housing crisis the old crate IS huge enough to live in!A favourite view of mine, a few minutes south of Ladysmith here on Vancouver Island. Afternoon shadows advance across the pasture.Perhaps if I hide behind this thistle, he’ll just bugger off and leave me alone.Banon Falls, a favourite spot for Jack and I to snoop around. Autumn brings a special beauty.GOLD…And red.Wots this now? An aviation addict all my life, and a pilot once, I can’t resist a pretty face. This is a T28 Trojan, the love child of the world famous Harvard trainer. How’s this for a personal commuter? The engine is a Wright Cyclone 1820, 1425 horsepower, 50 gallons of fuel an hour. And…it only seats two!This old beauty is still in her colours from when she served in the the Nicaraguan Airforce. Introduced in 1950 as a trainer these aircraft also proved themselves good tactical aircraft right into the Vietnam era and then as front-line fighters and ground assault weapons for several Third-world countries.Bloody lovely! Austere, deadly and beautiful all at once. It is sad that one of man’s greatest and most beautiful inventions was so readily turned into a weapon, but that is our nature.You never know what you’ll find while poking around! I spotted this Yak 52 trainer behind a lawn mower in a hangar beside the T28. Built in Romania, they were a primary trainer for both the Russian and Chinese military. They have a magnificent sound. I’ve always wanted to fly one.The big sleep. Remember that gorgeous tree in my last blog? How many months until spring?Bull kelp and rock by the beach. There’s a photograph everywhere you look.Mossy rock in the stream. Autumn rains are beginning to swell the rivers with rushing aerated water… perfect for the returning salmon.Fungus galore! All shapes, sizes and colours are growing everywhere. A few are edible.The streams rise, the salmon make their way up to leave their eggs and then die.The end. The decomposing fish enrich the water, feeding all the little creatures that feed the salmon fingerlings and the cycle of life continues.The eternal drama continues.Now we return to our regular programing and nautical themes. This old fishboat is being converted to a yacht and she’s pretty no matter how one looks at her. Arguably, boats are the ultimate genius of function and form.
Remember that images can be enlarged by clicking on them.
“The wise man learns more from the fool than the fool learns from the wise man.”
Fred is a slightly-past middle age sailor / writer / photographer with plenty of eclectic hands-on skills and experiences. Some would describe him as the old hippy who doesn't know the war is over. He is certainly reluctant to grow up and readily admits to being the eternal dreamer.
He has written several books including two novels, 'The Keeper' and 'Storm Ecstasy,' as well as 'The Water Rushing By', 'Sins Of The Fathers', 'The Magic Stick', as well as an extensive inventory of poetry, essays, short stories, anecdotes and photographs.
His first passion is the ocean, sailboats, voyaging and all those people who are similarly drawn to the sea. He lives aboard 'Seafire' the boat he is refitting to go voyaging, exploring new horizons both inner and outer. This blog is about that voyage and the preparations for it. In spite of the odds against it, the plan is to sail away this fall and lay a course southward. If you follow this blog your interest may provide some of the energy that helps fuel the journey.
Namaste
Contact him at svpaxboat@gmail.com
View all posts by Fred Bailey
4 thoughts on “A Text Book Autumn”
Love that image of the waterfall!
Have you changed marinas? Sounds like maybe you’re up at the far end of the harbour now? We’ve spent a few nights there at the yacht club reciprocal wharf, definitely hard to sleep soundly with the noise of the mill.
Your Fall pictures are beautiful Fred – I hate seeing the trees drop their leaves like that, it’s just a sad harbinger of things to come. That caddy – they don’t make them long and lean like that anymore!
Love that image of the waterfall!
Have you changed marinas? Sounds like maybe you’re up at the far end of the harbour now? We’ve spent a few nights there at the yacht club reciprocal wharf, definitely hard to sleep soundly with the noise of the mill.
Laurie:
I’m still at the LMS. Raucous noises including fireworks and acid rock from Dog Patch, the din from log sort and mill on the other.
Your Fall pictures are beautiful Fred – I hate seeing the trees drop their leaves like that, it’s just a sad harbinger of things to come. That caddy – they don’t make them long and lean like that anymore!
Linda;
That’s the kind of car everyone should take their driver’s exam in!