Rusty's Beach

Back to Painting

Wow, it’s been well over a year since my last entry. 

I’ve been going through a “Who am I, What am I doing?” self-searching period while spending over a year (off and on) working on my dad’s tuna boat, and (earlier) at a fire truck factory delivering parts to the assembly lines. I guess it was the right thing to do, since now I’m doing some new paintings I feel good about.

Here’s one I call “Lost in the Light,Big Sur”.

Write a short novel?

Jesse and Kaity Taking the Great Walk on New Island.

While on the boat, I began playing with a story idea that takes place on New Island, that little-known island-nation in the Indian Ocean.  Here's the idea:  Two girls become pen-pals; Kaity lives on New Island, Jesse in a small town in Wisconsin.  They become close friends after several months of writing and Jesse manages to travel to County Mulhenry, New Island, for a summer visit with Kaity.  Kaity has finished high school and wants to go on The Long Walk, a popular rite-of-passage amongst kids her age.  The New Island Wandering Guide describes The Long Walk:

The Great Walk

For a 16-year-old New Islander, it is an exciting time.  Upon completing high school, girls and boys are encouraged to take the Long Walk, an unforgettable experience of adventure and self-discovery.  The practice was inspired by Roger Putney's long walks and has been popular since the 1880s.  The Long Walk gives one a chance to find one's interests in life, to meet new friends, and to donate some time for community service.  These coming-of-age wanderers traditionally take a year or more to walk the back country and coastline paths, and visit various tribes and settlements along the way.

They meet people their own age, explore the island, and have time to think about what's important to them.  Little money is needed, as most places along the way willingly provide meals and lodging in return for an hour or two each day at a community task.  The work experience and social benefits are priceless.  The only hazards to a wanderer on the island are the weather or an accident.  Fear of others is unknown, though intuitive caution is a given.

Most of these young wanderers eventually settle in one of the communities they have visited, or choose to go to University.  If the choice is to settle, he or she will live in the singles' house or may be allowed to build his or her own hut nearby.  In the singles' house, everyone has their own or a shared bedroom, and the shared kitchen, parlor, and other common rooms provide opportunity for socialization.  At this stage, there is no expectation that a young person will stay with a tribe or neighborhood permanently.  If they are incompatible, the newcomer can simply move on.  Some wander from tribe-to-tribe for years until they find the "right one."

At first, Jesse things she's only going on a hike for a few days, but is up for the adventure when Kaity reveals that this is much more!  They gather their supplies and set off on a route around the island, stopping at various campgrounds, hostels, and settlements, helping out when they can and having many adventures in the process.

Now I'm a bit stuck on how to develop the plot...

Re-entry

Watercolor of The Pacific Tuna King, a long way from Louisiana; September 2007.

I got back a week ago and am beginning to feel like I'm at home again.  There was quite a shock of arriving in a darker, colder climate from the always-warm south -- and also finding it hard to remember all the details of being here again.  I kind of wandered around the house in a daze the first day or so, feeling like a ghost.  At one point, I began to wash the dishes by hand... "This isn't the way I've been doing this, is it?"  Then I realized that we've had a dishwasher for the past 12 years.  Oops.

Bayou Bouef from the fishdeck/fantail of the boat.

This is where I like to sit and space out.

Dispatch -- Day 54

Watching the Bayou

I like to sit on the back of the boat and watch the bayou during off-hours, especially in the evening when it's cooled off.  Though the water is murky and a not a little polluted, the place is alive with wildlife.  Great grey herons, snowy egrets, bald eagles, seagulls and tweet-tweet songbirds are everywhere, and fish constantly jump and slap themselves back on the surface.  There are also turtles, watersnakes of some kind, and the occasional alligator.  This bayou, which I think is called Bayou Bouef, is also busy with all kinds of boat traffic. Tugs push barges back and forth constantly, supply ships head out to the offshore drilling rigs, while shrimpers, speedboats, sportfishing boats, and sometimes houseboats cruise by.  It's fun just sitting and watching the free entertainment.

Dispatch -- Day 33

I get up at 6:25 a.m. and go down to breakfast at 6:30 in the mess hall.  I then take my coffee out to the fish deck and look at the sunrise.  Most mornings they are spectacular!  I work from 7:30 to 11:30, when lunch is served.  Then I'm back at it from 12:30 to 4:30, when I can peel off my sweaty, sawdusty clothes, shower off, and go to supper at 5:00.  The meals are first-class, by the way, though often a bit heavy on the meat and potatoes.  Tonight we had green beans, ham with pineapple sauce, and baked potatoes.  Yummy!  Right after supper, or sometimes during, someone puts in a video movie.  (There's no TV reception...)  Westerns and suspense thrillers are the favorite genre.  I'll watch, or else take a walk, or just sit out the fish deck and enjoy the evening looking at the boats going by on the bayou.  I write and paint out there, too, and will put up a painting or two when I get back!  By 9:30 I'm done.  Lights out!

Dispatch -- Day 23

Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival in Morgan City.  We went for a couple of hours to see the 72nd annual festival in our neighboring town, Morgan City, on the Atchalafaya River.  There was live music in the park, an arts and crafts fair, and a carnival under the big bridge -- a smart move because it seems to rain here everyday lately.  There were two artists:  one guy did ink drawing of local scenes, and the other from Baton Rouge did watercolors from pigments all derived from Mississippi River mud.

"Only the green came from Alabama, all the rest came from Louisiana clay," he told me.

There were a few shrimp boats on the river and several houseboats all spruced up with streamers.  Everybody was friendly and the place was crowded!

Dispatch -- Day 22

Water on the lower deck hallways!  The fishing crew has their own level on the lower deck (below the water line) -- a galley, rooms with bunks, and a small lounge area.  We came down to work on the plumbing there and found water.  We thought the hull had sprung a leak!  It turned out to be an overflowing holding tank.  I helped mop up.  There are so many pumps and tanks and systems on this boat, it is mind-boggling.  I'm glad I'm just the carpenter and not the engineer!

Dispatch -- Food Run

On Monday (Day 9), three of us, including Phil the cook, went to the Super Store in Morgan City to re-stock the ship's pantry.  We filled three shopping carts.  My job was loading one of the carts with 21 one-gallong jugs of drinking water.  We piled all the food in the back of a very hot pickup truck, so most of the frozen stuff was half-thawed by the tiem we got it in the galley.  It was a fun diversion.  I also stocked up on bananas, juice, t-shirts, and a back-up pair of work shoes.

Dispatch -- Day 5

We're still tied up on the bayou in Amelia, LA.  I'm living and working on the boat -- a 60-foot commute from my bunk to the place on the fantail area I've staked out to do my carpentry projects.  I can watch the weather where I work and today there were dramatic rain squalls passing by every hour or two in the afternoon.  It's still hot, but the rain cools things off a tiny bit.  I'm building table tops with side boards so people's dinners don't slide off during rough seas.  I'll mount them to the conventional table tops in the dining room.

Dispatch -- Day 1

It is HOT here, but everybody is busy working on stuff.  I fixed the swinging door into the galley, and sanded then revarnished all the railings on the fish deck.  I'll be building some shelves tomorrow for the engineer.  Dad seems fine, though frustrated and cranky from when the boat's main air conditioning system went down the other day.  The engineer got it running again just last night.  It's old.  The boat is looking real good -- all the decks are painted and a lot of old stuff has been cleared out.