>”… about portable lanterns that I used to use as a kid when camping. They ran >off propane and gave off a nice soft light.”
Way back in the early 80’s when I owned an Ericson 30+ and still enjoyed an adult beverage or two, a gas powered Coleman camp light and heater played a part in being one of those obnoxious transient moorage people that I avoid today. Late one very cold New Year’s day evening, both boats tied up in Port Ludlow WA with our wife/GF asleep below, a sailing buddy and I decided we should attempt to stay up all night drinking and telling sea stories. With the wife/GF’s below our only acceptable option was to party in the cockpit of the bigger boat. The fact it was currently in the mid 20sF headed for the teens was a minor concern so we added a Coleman type camp stove/heater and a gas light to our boom box and hot buttered rum supplies. Frank Zappa was our choice for the boom box with the volume set low. We had a tea kettle set on top of the Coleman heater to keep our constant supply of hot buttered rums, hot. Somewhere around 0200 hours we noticed a guy opening the sliding glass doors on a Bayliner that was a few boat lengths away. He headed out onto the dock and began untying his boat to move it. Being mostly drunk and feeling magnanimous we jumped up to assist. As we were helping him move as far away as he could without getting underway he mumbled something about having difficulty with the shore power. We cheerfully re-tied up his frozen mooring lines and wished him a good night. In retrospect and the cold light of the morning I expect his wife had grown tired of our sea stories with a Frank Zappa musical score. (Frank’s double album rock opera “Joe’s Garage” was the current choice.) The power boater’s mumbled comment regarding the shore power undoubtedly was chosen to avoid confronting two drunk sailors dumb enough to spend hours drinking outside in freezing weather. About the time the Myers rum bottle was more than ½ gone we started to discuss how great it would be to go sailing through the cold air “smoke” wafting across the inlet. Fortunately we were not able to figure out how to get underway without waking either wife/GF. This undoubtedly saved us from some sort of serious trouble relating to hypothermia or attempting to sail while cold and drunk. We were able to write some season’s greetings in the frost on the dock in honor of Frank Zappa’s hit song “Watch out were the huskies go, don’t you eat yellow snow”. Sadly we did not achieve our goal to staying awake and on deck until the sun came up. We hit the cold and drunk wall around 0530 with an estimated sunrise of 0700. We retired to our respective boats/bunks and a much needed sleeping bag. Around 1000 hours my in-laws show up to drive us to Port Townsend for breakfast and shopping. I’m told the father-in-law pushed open the companionway slider and asked “what’s that smell?” to which my wife responded “that’s just Martin, he was up late drinking”. So, very hung over, maybe still buzzed I found myself in a restaurant ordering coffee and a bloody Mary and contemplating what tasty breakfast food might be a good choice. After a bleary breakfast we started the Port Townsend antique shopping mall circuit. I made it about two stores before stating “I will be sitting at the Town Tavern, come find me when you are finished” and beat a hasty retreat. It all worked out well as the father-in-law showed up a while later and we “bonded” over a few beers. BTW, proving that SSMS* (Sailor’s Short Memory Syndrome) exists, that same sailing/drinking buddy and I had many, many other great adventures involving drinking around the waterfront up until we both became parents in the early 90s and shelved the Myers rum. (*SSMS has also been diagnosed when a sailor goes back to sea after a particular nasty trip.) Martin DeYoung Calypso 1971 C&C 43 Seattle [Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: cid:D1BF9853-22F7-47FB-86F2-4115CE0BAF2F] From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Indigo via CnC-List Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2015 9:26 AM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Cc: Indigo Subject: Re: Stus-List Spreader lights This has got me thinking about portable lanterns that I used to use as a kid when camping. They ran off propane and gave off a nice soft light. Looks like Coleman make something similar. The advantage would be that I can use my grill propane cylinders.
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