[Public-List] Main Sail Track Fastening

[Mike Lehman]

Well, I am enjoying an Irish wiskey at my desk right NOW after reading that story!

 
Mike Lehman 

 
><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸><((((º>
  
> From: mainstay at csolve.net
> To: public-list at lists.alberg30.org
> Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:16:25 -0400
> Subject: Re: [Public-List] Main Sail Track Fastening
> 
> The 'Lighthouse' story is one of the best might-haves in our life.
> 
> On a quiet evening years ago at the Toronto Int'l Boat Show I struck 
> up a conversation with the guy manning the Coast Guard booth beside 
> mine. It turned out that he was the Director of Aids to Nav for 
> Central Canada. He described his astonishment that they could still 
> recruit people to man lighthouses on remote parts of the west coast. 
> I went home that night and described this to my new wife; and she as 
> usual was a bad influence on me and said 'let's try!'.
> 
> I applied and as expected got a letter right back telling me the 
> chances of being considered were slim. A few months later out of the 
> blue I got another letter giving me three days notice to get to 
> Victoria for an interview. Away I went got interviewed. Later, I 
> was told I was 'hired' and that I should stand by for my posting. I 
> called and asked if they wanted to interview Caroline... the deal was 
> that I would command a salary as Lightkeeper and she would earn a 
> smaller one as Assistant. The CCG man told me with a deep voice 
> "Gordon, we of the Canadian Lightkeeping service have been appointing 
> Keepers for over 100 years. We have come to trust our choice of men; 
> we trust their choice in assistants'. I said 'Thanks'.
> 
> My Dad was not very happy about my career choice. He asked me what I 
> thought I was going to do out there. My half joking comment about 
> having a lot of time to chase Caroline around the island did not 
> mitigate his feeling that I was side tracking. Seriously, we 
> reckoned we'd do it for a couple of years saving money and have some 
> adventure at the same time. The pay was not huge but there were 
> isolation benefits that made the pay nearly tax free. We had no 
> obligations then so we would have been able to bank most of every 
> month's joint pay.
> 
> The months passed, every time I spoke with the CCG office there was 
> some reason or another why our posting might come next month. More 
> months passed. Eventually we gave up, after two years of 'maybe next 
> month' we bought our house and started our first child. We moved in 
> the house in January of '89. In March, the firm posting came. Oh 
> the agony...should we go or not? After a week of discussion and 
> investigating various plans we decided that with the baby coming we 
> could not do it. I wrote a long letter to the Coast Guard explaining 
> and they were good enough to respond saying they understood and 
> offered to keep us on the list. Our names came up again but the 
> window of opportunity for us to hide on a rocky point for a couple of 
> years had passed.
> 
> That's the light house story - now where is the Irish whiskey?
> 
> Gord 		 	   		  
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