Seldovia Dreams

Seldovia, AK, 31-Aug-2020 — Jennifer brought us here to Seldovia to wait out weather. We arrived Friday for weather taking place out by the Barren Islands, Islands we’d passed between under power because there was no wind.

Saturday, through VHF radio weather reports, we learned that it was blowing 40 knots out there, but here in Seldovia it was calm. It seems, in times like this, there’s no reason to be tucked away in a small harbor. But there is, of course.

Like every town we’ve been in that depends on tourism, Seldovia has its closed store fronts and restaurants this year. The town of 250 people is quiet and generally friendly, but these don’t seem to be people who grew up here. Many have big city wariness, or so it seems to me.

One of the reasons we came here, I learned from Jennifer, was that the boat, Teleport, whose YouTube channel we followed years ago, had been put on the hard here. Their channel ended with that event, more or less. They married, and then darkness.

We walked past the two boat yards in town looking for Teleport, but she was no where to be found.

Layla, the Harbor master, remembered them. ”They were photographers, weren’t they? ” Yes, that was their profession.

Layla told me they sold Teleport and bought a bigger boat. She knew no more.

Last night the weather was from the east, gusting to fifty when I walked to the library for wifi to speak with David Bessen.

When I returned, Jennifer was all grins. Coming into the marina, Jennifer had taken pains to make sure we were facing east. ”That’s where the weather will come from and I don’t want it blowing into the cockpit, ” and into the cabin under the dodger, was the rest of her sentence, though unsaid.

The wind has abated, though it still rains as I write this at 10AM Sunday morning.

Seeing Guardian, an 100-foot fishing boat tied up across the dock from us, I inferred the weather was bad enough to bring them in, but there can be a myriad of reasons, none related to the weather.

Jennifer says there will be more wind before tomorrow morning when we plan to leave.

We won’t go directly to Homer. Instead, we’ll spend a few more days at anchor before going to there. The cost will be the same no matter when we arrive. We’ll get there before the next low brings a repeat of this weekend’s weather.

I’ve been remembering my dreams lately.

They’re populated by the kids from high school that I knew but did not hang out with. They are each, in my dreams, the age they were when I last saw them. Some are teenagers, some the age they were at the last high school reunion.

The dreams take place on board sailboats. I went to high school in Port Jefferson on Long Island Sound. I kept my Star moored in Mt Sinai Harbor.

We all talk in the dreams, often about who I was and who I wasn’t. When we’ve met in real life, I’ve been shocked at the fondness they all seem to have towards me. High school it’s such a place of polar emotions.

I was in the water in last night’s dream. We were gathered around an Ericsson sailboat that Charlie bought when I saw him in 2010.

Emily was there and lots of others. We spoke about whether I should join their group. I wasn’t offended when it was explained to me that too many people would mean that no one could spend real time with anyone else.

It was a sunny day floating in Port Jeff Harbor.

We’ll be back to the lower forty-eight soon. In less than a month we’ll be back in Port Townsend. Caro Babbo will stay in Alaska and I won’t see or work on her for seven months.