carwreck.com: around Boston harbor...

It's the eve before I start my new job and already I've stumbled across an appearance of my company in the news.

The Boston Pilots are mentioned in this article about the development of East Boston's Pier 1.

Hurricane Juan hit the Canadian Maritimes yesterday and caused widespread damage and a number of deaths.

Notable amongst the losses is the sailing schooner Larinda, a replica of a 1767 Boston schooner, which is based out of Barnstable, MA on Cape Cod.

Here's an article on Boston.com about the sinking and here is a story on Canada.com which includes a photo showing only the schooner's masts sticking out of the water.

I've seen the Larinda up close and she is a truly beautiful vessel. She was built over the course of 26 years as a labor of love by a man who wanted to preserve some of New England's sailing history. The schooner sits on bottom of Halifax Harbor while it is determined if she can be salvaged.

...because sometimes when I look in the mirror I just have to say that life kicks ass.

Brought to you by Stolichnaya...

BTW, I posted some pics from the vacation.

Vacation 1.0: Corolla, NC (Outer Banks)

Leaving Boston at midnight for the 11 hour drive to North Carolina proved to be a wise move. Stopping only for fuel and restrooms we arrived at the beach ready for action. The house we rented was huge and the beach was beautiful yet our time there was to be short-lived with Hurricane Isabel looming on the horizon. The mandatory evacuation was ordered on Tuesday and we started making contingency plans to salvage what remained of our week off.

The group we had in NC seemed large and unwieldy and there were some differing opinions about how the vacation was to be spent. It was new for me, having missed last year's vacation, with new people and new activities. Not everyone was reading from the same page of the "vacation guide." When the evacuation took place, people departed in generally different directions, with some heading to NYC, some to Connecticut and some back to Boston to spend the balance of the week.

Vacation 2.0: Candlewood Lake, CT

Our slimmed-down group of revelers settled at the rustic "Lake House" and life slowed to a near standstill for the next three days. We drank; we sunned on the dock; we went for exhilarating trips on the Laser. Talk ranged from sociology, psychology, and relationships to business, finance, work and play.

This vacation has and will continue to prove pivotal in my life. Patterns have been recognized and games have been played; motivations and agendas have been displayed. I am now more able to understand who's purposes are being served by the things I see happen around me.

As I sit now, back in Boston, preparing myself for a new job, I can move ahead confident that I am turning the page and starting a new chapter.

Yesterday, I accepted a position with the Boston Pilots. I had contacted them on a whim while looking for work for the winter but hadn't expected to come up with anything as solid as a full-time, year-round position such as they offered me. I will be working with five other captains running the pilots boats which transport the Pilots to and from all of the large ships which come in and out of Boston Harbor. These ten Pilots are the only people authorized by the State of Massachusetts to pilot foreign-flagged ships into the harbor. This amounts to nearly all of the shipping in the harbor since there are virtually no US owned ships involved in international trade anymore.

This new development curtails last week's plan which was to go out to San Diego for the next couple of months to help start a new Sea Tow. The job with the Pilots also means I won't be coming back full-time to Sea Tow Boston in the spring.

Phew! What a weekend. The weekend was chock full of work, like all other weekends, but I also managed to fit in some other activities.

Friday night saw Msrs. Marinaro, Rhodes, Podwal and myself yucking things up at some karaoke bar. Then we stumbled into a big, collegey-type bar towards closing time. With the closing of the bar imminent, it seemed important to get some drinks. Msr. Tequila joined the party and one of the aforementioned delinquents "dumped core" on the floor of the bar. Then another one of the hooligans had some sort of run-in with four bouncers. But that was after the other three had opened the front windows of the bar and stepped out onto the sidewalk. I guess that wasn't considered a proper exit.

Saturday I worked the Sea Tow boat in Gloucester with Mr. Marinaro in tow. Somehow we managed to make it through the day on 4 hours of sleep.

Saturday night had us all heading out again; minus Rhodes, plus Karlsson and d'Entremont

Somehow I made it through another day of work on Sunday. Now I rest...

What do you expect when you start digging up the street with no regard for what might be in the ground?

A Keyspan Energy crew dug a hole in a street near my house this morning and nicked an NStar electric line. Large electric lines like the kind which supply entire neighborhoods have three separate cables (sometimes a fourth, for a ground), each carrying a different "phase" of electricity. This "three phase" electricity is what is used to make 220 volts since only two phases are needed for regular, 120 volt household electricity.

In any case, the Keyspan gas crew severed one cable, causing a "dead leg" as I overheard the NStar crew calling it. This reduced amount of electricity has caused very strange things to happen. Most of our house has no power, but parts do have power. The parts which do have power don't make sense since it is not related to what circuit or where in the house. The only things we initially could get to work were the coffee maker and the exhaust fans in both bathrooms. Very Strange.

The NStar crew thinks they might have to dig the street up to fix the broken cable. I have no idea how long that could take. For the time being, and since I had to go to work, we ran an extension cable from one of the few working outlets and plugged in the refrigerator.

More news as it comes in...