Arrived at Newport!
Many many miles, good meals, good talks, goodbyes… at last in Newport. I spent most of the afternoon at the Wooden Boat Show and had a great time. Within 15 minutes of chatting with the people at the IYRS booth they had me signed up to do a chunk of time manning the exhibit tomorrow. That should be fun, I’ll get to chat up people interested in the school and talk with them about how I got here, about the work, about how they can sponsor cool students like ME in the coming years through their donations… Most of the afternoon I spent talking to people who build boats for a living. The norm is for folks to have more than one income stream, so one guy manages a marina as well as doing repair and new builds. Another spends part of his time doing the repair / upkeep on the boats he has built in the past year. He finds that he can build about 3-4 complete new boats every year with the help of 1 or 2 other staff and they all do allright. Tomorrow will be more conversations. It’s so cool to see many of the boats I’ve read about in Wooden Boat… I spent at least half an hour talking with the folks who built YNOT (cover of WB a while back), and tomorrow I’m hoping to meet Nat Benjamin of Gannon & Benjamin (the folks who own the shop that the book “Wooden Boats” documented), and more , and more , and more…
Yesterday, I left Lake George where I was visiting my old friends Lyons & Laura at Silver Bay YMCA… oh wow. Imagine “The Shining” without any of the creepy stuff… just a huge wonderful old camp on the shores of a lake nestled in between tree-covered mountains. It was a slice of paradise. It was a blast to hang out with them and the kids (Tommy, Eliot, David & Kat) playing tennis, sailing, jumping off a high rock, watching Kat kick butt at the cardgame Spit. Lyons & Laura & I took about an hour and visited the place where they make Hacker Craft boats on Lake George. Good lord. These things are the absolute Cadillacs of power boats and it was really cool to see where they were built and to talk with the old (and young) fellows that made them. Everyone said how lucky they were to work at this place.
I’ve met 2 of the 3 other folks who live at the place I’m renting here, along with Penny, the sweet and MASSIVE pit bull. It’ll take a little while to settle in, but I’m thinking this is going to be a fine place to call home.
So, all is well. Give me a week and I’ll miss everyone so bad I won’t be able to stand it. Right now I’m just digging the 20 min walk down to the harbor and glad that I don’t have to fight the tourist traffic.