A2~ Sunday, December 26, 1982 - North Shore News

erst

by Bob Hunter

feeling of crumbled karma. Only the cabin was

sticking out of the sea.

The hole in the water into
which one pours money was
not even a hole any longer.
It was like a whale with just a
dorsal fin in the air.

When _ your boat sinks,
hope that it sinks in summer.

The beginning of winter is.

absolutely the worst time for
a boat to sink. It’s going to
be so long, anyway, before

you get ‘any more pleasure

out of the beast, reason says

to say au revoir ta the-

bounding main.

The worst part about the
feeling of staring at one’s
sunken boat is the
knowledge that one is not
going to learn one’s lesson —
that ‘the ordeal will go on.
And on.

You see, I have to con-
fess, I am addicted to the
ocean.

I am one of those pathetic

creatures who is hooked on .

salt air. If I don’t get a hit of

wave action every so often, |___ False Creek. Just-the smell of . -:

start discombobulating.
Yet, addiction or no
addiction, I also un-

fortunately tend to be an
utter disaster area when it
comes to boats. There’s no

point pretending otherwise.
It’s unfair to blame
everything on one’s prairie
background, but the truth is
I didn’t see an ocean until I

_ was 18 years old. That might

ve had something to do
with it.

My wife is convinced I
must ‘have spent several
previous reincarnations at
sea, and that as a child in this
lifetime I suffered from
acute saltchuck withdrawal.
The moment the chance

came to shoot up a good

taste of the briney, I went for

‘it.

The very first day I saw
the ocean, I dived in, clothes
and all. And as soon as I'd

acquired a few of the basic
necessities of life,
‘mediately started sniffing
. around for a boat.

I im- |

I started at the boat with that familiar, awful”

go to sea was on a
Yugoslavian freighter called
the Vares, bound for Genoa.
I couldn’t believe my luck.
On ‘the ‘second night out we
ran into a genuine early
winter North Atlantic storm,
the sort of legendary bucket-
thumper that used to make
mincemeat out of raw naval
recruits and rugged salts
alike.

Seventh heaven.

I spent a whole day out at
the stern while titanic. waves
came crashing across the
poopdeck. The wind had
torn my plastic ranicoat to
shreds and caked my beard
with ice. It was what

That meant haunting the [f{.

Vancouver docks, especially
the fishermen’s harbour in

the sea filled me with ec-
stasy. The. sight of boats
wobbling in the water made
me weak at the knees with
desire.

My first chance to actually

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’ peak experience.

psychologists like to call a

I never got over it.

Later, I had chances to”

travel around. the North ©

Pacific a bit, séveral times in ~

a large old fishing boat, once Ҥ

on a _ minesweeper, and «
several times on sailing
vessels. Hard to say exactly
which was the most exciting,
as a means to play with the
sea.

But the best storm, by far,
was a gale I encountered,
along with some friends, in
the Gulf of Alaska at the end
of October one year.

A classic. It was one of
those situations where you
really had to fight.

As long as you don't. get :
hung up on the: thought ‘of.
drowning, boating in terrible...

weather is one of the all-time |
“rushes —

great adrenalin
and onte you've had a fix, .
and liked it (not everybody
does) you'll always want to
try it again.

Yet, damn it, my own

boats always sink.

‘Special —
Notice

All branches closed
January 1,2,3

For New Year's, all five branches of the North Shore Com-

Open December 31
10 AM-5 PM .

All five branches will cose at 5 PM on New Year's Eve.
Regular business hours, 10 AM - 5:30 PM, will be in effect on
Wednesday, December 29 and Thursday, December 30, and
- resume on Tuesday, January 4.

Happy Holidays

North Shore

IMONDAY|

DEC. 27
9:30-5:30

Capilano mall