Boat Cat Extraordinaire - Salem

In 1982, I purchased the good boat, Tyche. I purchased her not knowing anything about sailing, but plenty about boating. I figured she had an engine and, if nothing else, I could putt putt about with that. Even so, I was determined to learn how to sail.

Tyche was my home. I lived aboard her for five years, most of that time at the Baltimore Yacht Basin, on the south arm of the Patapsco River right next to the Hanover Street Bridge in Baltimore, MD. The BYB was cheap as far as slip rental went and the marina had a large liveaboard population. Everybody pretty much watched out for everybody. It was a big family.

While at BYB, I had a little black cat, Salem. He weighed all of about 5 lbs, soaking wet, but he thought he was a lion on the plains of the Serengheti. He was a feisty little critter and a pretty good boat cat. He had a "cat door" on Tyche and he'd come & go as he pleased. At BYB, he'd go hunting rats with the feral cats under the Locke Insulator plant.

One summer night, my cousin Marty came over. She & I were sitting in the cockpit, drinking a couple of beers when she saw Salem and a large, orange tabby on the shoreline. The two cats had a rather large rat cornered and were slowly closing the distance between themselves and the rat. The rat had its back to the water and two cats were coming in to shorten that rat's life. Mary was watching the drama unfold on land. She was concerned that the rat would swim out to the boat and get aboard. I told her that there was little chance of that happening. Of course, as soon as I said that, the rat took to the water and swam past the stern of Tyche, which was 5 slips out from the shore. Oops! Marty left. I think that's the last time she was ever aboard.

Salem was my watch cat. One night, I was sound asleep on Tyche, when one of the drunken neighbors decided he could not live without me. When he came aboard, Salem launched himself out the cat door and attacked the trespassing neighbor. The ruckus woke me up and I joined in, chasing the man off Tyche with a broom in my nightie. What a sight that must have been. Funny thing is no one ever came aboard after that without knocking and checking to see where Salem was.

Salem was also a pretty good bilge pump failure alarm. The bilge pump on Tyche was notorious for not coming on when needed, especially at the most inopportune moment - when I was asleep. Many times I was very happy that I had the old, manual, hand pump that always worked.

Salem came home to the boat one night. He curled up on the aft port berth with me and snuggled up and went to sleep. At some point in time, he started mrowing. "Salem. Knock it off. Go to sleep." Nuh uh.... His mrowing became more insistent and louder. "Salem. Knock it off!" Nuh uh.... Frustrated at his repeatedly ignored attempts to awaken me from my slumbers, the damn cat finally bit me on the chin! That worked. As I swung my feet over the berth to go get that annoying cat which had the temerity to bite me, my feet landed in water, not on dry wood. Damned pump!

I turned on an overhead lamp and discovered about 6" of water atop the floorboards. Grabbing the manual pump handle, I started pumping out the bilges. Salem, in the mean time, sat on top of my counter, grooming. He'd saved my boat from sinking at the dock. He was s smart cat, he didn't want his home flooded.

I have a ton of Salem stories, but that's enough for now.

Pax River and Points South...

When I left off my cruising stories, Tyche & I were in the Pax River boat basin, dragging anchor in a storm. The next morning, I packed up Tyche and headed south, hoping to reach Deltaville, VA. It wasn't to be as the day turned into a Chesapeake broiler... hot, sunny, no wind. Days like that make for slow going, even with the smudge pot engine putzing along.

After some coffee and a quick breakfast of fried fish & scrambled eggs, the good boat Tyche and her occupants started heading towards the Chesapeake. The Patuxent River is a very large, deep river. Here are some facts...

• River Length - 115 miles but only navigable for 52 miles
• Widest part - 2.3 miles
• Deepest point - 130 ft below sea level
• Named in 1608 by Jamestown settler, John Smith of Pocahontas fame

Anyway, putzing along with the sails up to catch any whisper of breeze, the going was slow. Many hours later, towards dusk, we were off Point Lookout. Ahead of us was the mouth of the Potomac River, a place where you can encounter open ocean conditions on the Bay, if the winds & tide are right. Of course, now the winds were up and blowing against the tide making for a lumpy ride. There isn't any place to anchor, so... "Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It's cross the river we go...." Here are some Potomac River facts...

• The river's mouth is 11 miles wide and it is the 21st largest river in the USA.
• Drainage area - 14,679 sq mi.
• Length - 383 miles
• Avg flow (in Wash D.C.) - 7 billion gallons/day

While Jim was on the helm, I went below and made dinner. After eating, I was off watch and went below to sleep for 6 hrs. About 3 hours into my nap, the motion of the boat awakened me. Going topside, I asked, "What's wrong?" The mainsail had about an 18" rip in it and he was dumping wind to keep it intact. Sigh...

I had mentioned that my friend was suffering from pancreatic cancer. By this time, he really wasn't feeling well. After reefing the main, I suggested he cut short his watch and go below to sleep. He made me promise to wake him when his watch rolled around again. "Sure Jim... I promise."

The night was interesting. We had a lovely full moon and the sails were full. It was a beautiful night for a sail. Around 3am, I noticed that the running lights were getting dim, so I swapped batteries. Hmm... no improvement. Wonderful. Expecting that the batteries to die during the night, I broke out a large flashlight and extra batteries to keep next to me in the cockpit. Throughout the night, whenever I'd see or hear a large vessel (think tugboat, tankers, cargo ships), I'd shine the lamp on the mainsail, illuminating us for them. Fiberglass doesn't show up well on radar.

Sometime after sunrise, Jim poked his head up and chastised me for not waking him. And, we pulled into Reedville, VA on Cockrell Creek off the Great Wicomico River. Next job? Get the mainsail fixed!

Rambling On....

Cass Sunstein, chosen by President Obama to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, could jeopardize your ability to hunt, eat meat or have pets. According to this article, Sunstein "has a secret aim to push a radical animal-rights agenda in the White House. Sunstein supports outlawing sport hunting, giving animals the legal right to file lawsuits, and using government regulations to phase out meat consumption."

I don't know about you, but to me, the title, "Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs" sounds like something out of Hitler's Germany! No... wait... that was the "Ministry of Public Enlightenment". If I remember correctly, that particular minister also pursued radical agendae, gun confiscation, etc. Socialists by any other name, are still socialists. I seem to remember in my 1960's History classes that Socialism and Communism were not desireable politics. How times change... And, to think, my grandparents left Eastern Europe for the USA because of Socialists & Communists like Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, etc. And, now, the people of the USA have elected a Socialist to the office of President.

Yes... Barack Obama is a Socialist. Remember one of his campaign promises was to "redistribute wealth". Well, guess what Einstein, Socialist systems want to redistribute wealth from those of greater means to those of lesser means. Lesser means... ya... those who don't want to amount to anything and those who do not want to work for anything... those who live on the public dole.

So, other than redistributing wealth, what are some other common symptoms of Socialism? How about:

• The government owning industries and businesses
• Higher taxes
• People working for the state, rather than private industry

Right now, the government is investing tons of money into banks, businesses, etc. They are calling them "loans". However, if one defaults on the loan, doesn't ownership usually go to the lien holder? In this case, the lien holder is the federal government.

Taxes going up is a given. How else are the feds going to pay for all their social programs and "redistribute wealth"? Duh. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. Look out small business owners...

Help Out a True Sportsman...

Recently, I learned that a true sportsman, a dogman, had troubles. His young son had been airlifted to UNM, sometime between Christmas and New Years, with a sinus infection gone bad. The good news is that just this morning, we learned that his boy will soon be going home. However, he & his wife are left with some pretty hefty medical bills and people in the dog community are banding together to help them out.

There are several fund raisers being held. One fundraiser is raffling off a lovely, handmade quilt done in shades of blue & grey. In the corners are patches with saluki on them. This would be a fantastic item for any saluki enthusiast! Another fundraiser is being held by Shot On Site photography. You can read more about that one on the Hare Brained Express Tour blog. Another way to help would be to visit High-Lonesome Books, which is owned by the sportsman, Dutch Salmon. There are some pretty interesting books there, a couple of which I intend to purchase!

Here are the details on the quilt raffle. I'm sorry, I do not have a picture of the the quilt, but I have seen it, and it's very nice, and, as previously stated, perfect for a Saluki owner.

"Cindy Brown has donated a 52 inch quilt in shades of blue and gray with Saluki heads in the corners, to be raffled off and all the proceeds will go to Dutch and his family. Cindy will bring the quilt and tickets to the hunt on January 17th . The tickets will be $10 each or 3 for $25.00. SWCC will offer tickets via the USPS. Send your check, made payable to SWCC to the treasurer Bill Brown, PO Drawer 29, Mesquite, NM88048. Sorry no paypal. The tickets will be returned to you and the drawing will take place at the Dutch’s Pack Hunt on February 14th .Checks will be taken up until the day of the drawing and tickets given out. If you are sending a check by mail, it must be postmarked by February 5th, so we have time to get the tickets back to you. If you are not present at the drawing, the quilt will be mailed to you. Watch for the announcement on the lists, where we have posted information."

A Hunting We Will Go...

When I was a kid, I had a lot of respect for Elmer Fudd. Yep... Elmer Fudd is my hero.

Elmer was an incredibly determined man. No matter how many times he lost to that "wascully wabbit", he never gave up. That determination... that never give up attitude is to be admired.

This past weekend, like Elmer, we went hunting wabbits. Off to southern New Mexico we drove - Banner, Nampa and I. We had a great weekend up until Sunday when Nampa & Banner took off on a jackrabbit that broke cover right under Nampa's nose. The boys were off like a shot.

The rabbit took off, jinking and jerking through a series of turns, trying to shake the boys off his tail. When that didn't work well, the hare made a beeline toward the only fence on the property. That fence just happened to be a 5-strand, barbed wire one. The rabbit went under the bottom strand, with two very large greyhound males right after him. First under was banner... Second under was Nampa... I lost thme shortly after that.

Soon the boys were back at the fence line. Banner shinnied under and headed towards me. I saw Nampa casting back & forth.... back & forth.... I hurried towards the fence as fast as I could but I was too late. Nampa tried to jump the fence. When the boy got to me, he was bleeding from three, gaping wounds to his underside. After a quick field triage, I packed the boys into the car and beat feet towards ABQ.
The boy was stitched up and he's OK. The stitches come out in two weeks and we'll be off hunting again and, I hope, we'll avoid those nasty 5-wire fences.

Happy New Year!

Here's hoping that all my loved ones, friends and acquaintences have a blessed and happy 2009. This past year has taken me from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. 2008 was a roller coaster ride, but it wasn't necessarily a fun one. However, it is done & we have nothing but the future to look forward to. The new job seems to be working out and my first paycheck should be showing up in our checking account next week. Woo hoo!!!

Now then.... if anyone knows of a place seeking an AS400 programmer, let me know so I can pass on the information to good friends of mine in Michigan.

Again.... Happy New Year all!



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