Great Bacon in Beacon

Wow my friends…

It's astonishing to realize that it’s been nearly two weeks since I’ve had an opportunity to update ya’ll. It would’ve been so much easier to do this on a daily basis so I’d not have to look back to the Ship’s Log to recall all that’s happened. Might as well start here and go backwards…

We wrapped up our show in Beacon, NY last night and things went mighty fine (we’ve been having endless fun pronouncing Beacon, “Bacon," Bank of Bacon, Bacon Hair Cuts, etc…). We arrived late Saturday afternoon, tied up to the ferry dock and went to dinner. Yesterday was the first time we’ve had a chance to sleep late in god knows how long. Sunday morning, at the end of the ferry dock, surprise surprise, the local farmers market holds court. It was a small affair and I was surprised to realize that they’re not there at the crack of dawn, seems like things don’t get going until mid-morning. Early morning farmers market patrons were startled after strolling out to the pier to clarify what appeared to be an acid flashback, to find piles of crew sleeping all over the boats. Most seemed embarrassed to be there and snuck away as if they'd wandered into the wrong hotel room.

I’m up by 5 or 6AM to light off the boiler, roll up my sleeping bags, and get to work. Since Bree returned to SF, I’ve had no reason to set up a tent and it’s somber times for me to be without my amazing Bree. This has been my first moment of free time and access to the local hotels in quite a while. It’s not normal for me to be so out of touch, not knowing what day of the week it is, having no clue what time it is, etc. Somewhat of a news junkie, I was astonished to check into the hotel last night, flop own on the bed, turn on CNN, and learn that Obama had chosen Biden for the #2 slot. Seems I’m the last to know.

Two weeks has been a blink of an eye… and a really really really good time :-)

There’s very little downtime. I’m not complaining, I thrive on having some task or purpose to accomplish (I’m on a “working vacation”). I'm still taken aback by how extensive the show/performance aspect of this adventure is. In our deliberations before we joined this project, the show always seemed to be of secondary importance. This is by no means a comment on the quality of the script and performance per se; rather, I think the leaders helping Swoon to get KSW in position figured everything would lock into place upon our arrival. It appears they were right; every KSW crew member has been a part of the show and is having a good time.

Last night I was pulled aside for a word from another leader on the Switchback Sea project, they kindly praised KSW and how generally “dialed in” we are. Almost daily I’ll have someone in authority and/or a crew member pull me aside and profess how impressed and relived they are that KSW has been nothing but reliable and problem free. We’ve been picking up the slack on a daily (and sometimes hourly) basis. We came overly prepared and our state of readiness and flexibility has made our crew shine again and again. When the Maria broke down yesterday, it was Mr. Stephen Rademaker that saved the day with his AC water pump. When the Bayliner (baggage boat) broke down several days ago, it was KSW that took on the transport of all camping gear.

We're happy to be here and happy to help. Especially after all the hard work restoring the boat, it feels great when folks acknowledge that we’re a crew of solutions, not problems. Please don’t labor under the misconception that we’re a bunch of angels, on the contrary… I’ll just leave it at that. We pride ourselves on solutions and safety, and we sure have a fine time between rescues.

I hope to have internet access over the next few days. For those of you Back West, have fun at (the) Burning Man ya’ll. Today is a travel day, 20 miles south, with a tough head wind. I have no idea where we’ll be stopping tonight. I need to go light a fire now.