Double exposure: Travis and Miles

I met Travis when he was searching for a place to take a shower. He had just rolled into town from Colorado and was living in his van. Deborah from the health foods store told him, "this guy Kristian would know, he lives on a sailboat. Wait - there he is!" I gave him all the trade secrets: go to the Coast Guard Station, showers are a quarter every 2 minutes, nice hot water. He was stoked and promised to repay the favor.

A few weeks later he came to the Tabula Raza; after one look at my kitchen counter he said was a crazy gleam, "what we need to do is to tile your counter! I've got some amazing spanish tile that is extra." We spent 7 hours on a pristine Sunday afternoon cutting tiles by hand, using no power tools, working each one into a wave-like pattern on my humble galley. I took a photo of him at work (top).

That same night we picked up my old time friend Miles Jay from the train station. We hiked the Black Hill under a very full moon; then headed to the boat for some rest. The next morning, after jumping in the water, I tried to take a photo for posterity. However, the old 35mm Nikon, with a manual wind-up, decided it was barely going to take the shot. I had to force it with a slight thump. The result was a double exposure of my two good friends looking remarkably alike.

being evicted ain't so bad, after all

I spent two years living in the Back Bay. My anchorage was in front of the bird sanctuary, where blue heron, great white egrets, and cormorants come to nest. An appropriate spot since I came to Morro Bay to hibernate after college; I needed to escape the hustle-bustle and find out who I was. The "Tabula Raza" was anchored in a beautiful spot, with unrestricted views of the Rock, butted up next to the mudflats visible on low tide.

All good things must end. The Back Bay area got shut down; the deadline to move the our boats was March 31, 2006 - the day after my 25th birthday. The fact that my home of two years was being revoked was a big inconvenience, but in all truth I saw it as a blessing in disguise. The deadline forced me to get my act together, fix up the boat, so I could sail away.

I moved the boat to the temporary achorage at the front of the bay, not far from the Harbor Patrol office. This was the legitimate place to anchor for up to 3 months, at about $5/day. This was a huge jump from paying nothing in the back bay, but I managed :)



I looked at the Rock from my new vantage point and realized how close I was to the harbor entrance. Boats came in and out of the harbor: cruising vessels, commercial fishing boats, bigger ships. Instead of being isolated in the bird sanctuary, surrounded by crusty old fishermen and trashy liveaboards, I was meeting fellow sailors, learning about the community of cruisers. That helped me really motivate to leave.

If I was in the nest before, cozy in a warm comfort zone of free rent and easy living, now the mother goose was pushing me out to the edge, as she said, "you can fly now." I was a bit scared of course, but also excited, and set the 26th of May as my departure date.