FEATURE ARTICLES; ESSAYS

ODE TO THE POR FAVOR
Origins: Shipwreck and Resolve

"We always loose a few in October," says Rob confidentially as he leans in the window of Gamil's Restaurant for a cup of coffee.

"I've been working on the Wharf for ten years and it never fails. With the first storm, one of them always pulls loose from its mooring in the bay and breaks up on the beach. This bay in fall is not the same bay it is in summer. We got satellite shots that the big currents are reversing out there right now. What are you and Gamil going to do about the Por Favor?" "Yeah, we been talking about moving it into the harbor," I answer handing him his coffee. "I don't know, he's got a lot on his mind trying to open his new restaurant and all the hassles with the City. We just put a new two-inch thick rope from the boat to the mooring buoy. And you guys sunk the biggest mooring in the bay down on the bottom, right?"

Rob scratches his head under his ball cap. "Yeah, I guess so, I don't know, I didn't do that one. Earl did."

"It was supposed to be a couple of engine blocks, right?" He shrugs and smiles as he walks away with his coffee.

"I just thought I'd mention it. There's a storm coming in tonight. Satellite photos."

I nod. "I can always start the engines and drive out further to sea," I mumbled more to myself than to him. "Have you been charging the battery?" Gamil asks over the phone when I call him at the other restaurant. "Yeah, I've been filling the generator with gas and running it every day," I tell him. "We should probably take it out of the bay into the harbor," he muses out loud. "Let me call the weather station," I answer. 'Winds to twenty knots,' says the recording. "Hey, I think it's alright," I say when I called him back. "Twenty knots isn't too bad." I was looking forward to the storm a little. After all, it couldn't be as bad as the Bering Sea where I had been working as a fisheries observer the previous summer. These conversations play through my mind, now, as I climb up from my canoe to the stern deck and along the side up to the bow to check the thick yellow and black rope. Nothing will break this 2-inch thick nylon.