3-?-17
There is a saying out here that goes kind of like this - Our evenings are like your weekends, Our weekends are like your vacations, Our vacations are.....I don't remember what I've heard..but Out of this world would be a good ending.
My previous boss, Larry Cotton, is retiring. I'm not certain if he was ready to or not, regardless, he's going to be leaving us, leaving Kwaj and SJC. He never really gave me much respect for what I did, but to be honest, only civil engineers respect a Materials Testing Lab Manager. Larry came out here as an electrician, I heard. He ended up being the commander in chief for San Juan Construction on Kwajalein. At around 5'6" and 170 I'd guess, with balding head and a mischievous face, he quietly got things done out here for the people headquartered in Montrose Colorado. He was good to the people out here from Kwaj. He helped a lot of them get things done, when they had no one to turn to get their boat fixed, or a part borrowed here or there. He understood the give and take of this island. More than anything though, he loved and respected the Marshallese guys that worked for San Juan on the island.
This is beginning to sound like an obituary, maybe I've used too much past tense.
Saturday they had the Marshallese going away party for him. It was at 3pm which is cutting two hours out of the workday, and there was 25 cases of beer, along with a few cases of pop and water available. 25 or so "rebelle" (Marshallese for white guy) were present, probably only 5 knew him for more than 5 months, most only for a month or so. 75 or so Marshallese were there. I'd say a good half of them knew Larry for more than 5 years. He was good to them, I heard rumors that the leadership for SJC thought he was too easy on them.
I can safely say, while in general it is human nature to be lazy, the expats out here that I've seen hired by SJC are far lazier, and much better at avoiding work than 80% of the Marshallese.
The farewell that the Marshallese workers gave that evening for Larry, is unequivocally, the most emotional retirement party I am certain I will ever go to. I've seen it before, just not to this extent. They all sang in harmony and in Marshallese, their goodbye song. While they sang, 75 bellowing voices, they stood in line in front of Larry single file, and gave him gifts, handshakes, and hugs. All the gifts were handmade items, hats, necklaces mainly, and a few other items. I felt weird standing in line at the end and shaking his hand and giving him a custom made "Kwajalein Atoll Frisbee", but I'm glad I did. I was one of two rebelle that did.
David Candle, one of the workers that had been with him for 20 years out here, tried to give a speech. He couldn't really get thru it because he kept tearing up. After he gave up, they made Larry talk, and he couldn't get thru it either, because he was tearing up. What he did say, I hope the new project manager out here heard. He said to the Marshallese mainly "you guys have it a lot harder than the expats do out here, you have to get up earlier to get over here, you work harder......." and I think he kind of lost it after that...
I walked out of UPS after 18 years and giving a two week notice, pretty much like any other day. I just left. No fanfare, no thank you, no nothing. It was about what I expected.
I would much rather leave a place like Larry is leaving, where the people that matter, send you off like you mattered.
I took pictures, and videos, but the sound did not come thru on the videos, I'm going to try and find a video of it that has sound, and post it, because the sound really really matters.
That was Saturday. I spent part of the day trying to put together some sort of sailing on the Hobie trip for early Sunday morning because the winds were looking a bit lighter, and near straight east. I didn't think it would be something any of the girls I have been sailing with could handle, except for one, but she was on call. I really wanted to try and go with Bilwa. Bilwa (spelling may or may not be right, but its phonetically correct) is a 55 year old Marshallese guy, who has been with SJC for a while out here. He has no front teeth on top, and smokes, and loves to drink when there is a party. He knows a lot of the island ways of doing things, and they all tell me he is "number one fisherman". He also has the same great attitude of most the Marshallese, and has the best laugh when he's having fun, its addictive.
I really wanted to sail to an island on the west reef. Crossing the lagoon in winds much higher than 15 can get really sketchy. Ted and I have been out in the lagoon at 24 mph winds, only a mile off the east reef, which is where the wind comes from. So the east reef provides a little protection, but not when the wind is 24 mph and from the north east. Ted and I had both hulls and the trampolines and contents completely under more than a foot of water five times that day. We were both scared the first two times it happened, but the thing resurfaced and on we went. So it can kind of handle it, but well it wasn't really safe. At 24 mph winds from the northeast, we had to head out into the lagoon to get upwind on the east reef, then tack and head towards the reef. Picture a straight line (the reef and Ebeye and all the islands connected by the causeway) that runs slightly northeast to southwest. To make it upwind the pattern looks like a bunch of stretched out "Z's" heading somewhat north. If the wind is straight east at around 80 degrees, its a perfect line to head up the causeway, no tacks or jibes or turning needed. It should also be said that sustained winds above 20 mph usually has the harbor control shutting down the use of the rental boats. They call it "small craft advisory". I usually forget to look. It's not too smart, I'll admit, to go out in small craft advisory, because, as one might imagine ...if they recommend not going out in a rental boat, they dont' wanna come rescue your dumbass on a private boat because they judge the conditions to be to strong. So that's the kind of confidence (read stupidity) I had a few times.
So for the non sailors, picture the wind blowing from your starboard side, your right side. You are cruising along, wind hitting your right side. If you try and turn into the wind to get the boat to change directions its called a tack. So you would turn right, if the wind is coming from your right. A "jibe" is turning away from the wind to switch directions. A tack, is much more preferred than a jibe because the sail comes around slower. If you turn downwind or jibe when the sail switches over it does so fairly violently. The violence can be controlled by making a very slow turn and keeping the sail tight to the center of the boat with both the traveler and the main sheet, but it still slams over much more dramatically than when tacking. ESPECIALLY in high winds.
