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| SHOAL BAY NEWSLETTER STRIKES AGAIN
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October 21, 2004. Friends, here is Mark MacDonald's wrap-up newsletter for 2004. I enjoyed it and I think you will, too. For those who don't know where Shoal Bay is, I can tell you it's out in the wilderness. More specifically, it's on Cordero Channel, north of Desolation Sound. Mark bought the property, including the photogenic old firetrap Shoal Bay Lodge, in 2000. Sure enough, the lodge burned to the ground in July that year, setting Mark back a great deal. From Mark's newsletters, however, it's clear that he doesn't stay down very long. Read and relish what he has to say. -- Bob Hale
Shoal Bay Yacht Club Newsletter
October 2004. There are times in all of our lives when we question prior decisions and directions chosen. The only ones that trouble me continue to be the ones that require my presence somewhere other than Shoal Bay. The fact that my life here continues to be near perfect while the rest of my life is in shambles, (hopefully only temporarily), does nothing to make leaving here any easier.
I am only now beginning to appreciate that my real enjoyment of Shoal Bay will not just begin with the completion of a new lodge building and the rest of my evolving "vision". It is becoming more and more evident that the real joy is to be found in the journey, not in the destination. I am having a lot of fun here. I hammer, I dig, I plan, and I dream. My hands get dirty and my feet get wet. Sometimes after spending a couple of hours splitting firewood, I stop to wonder just what is that offensive smell?, only to realize that it is actually me. There is a real culpable joy in working hard to build the dream that you call your home, and if it takes my entire lifetime, then I guess that it will indeed be finished right on time.
The summer has been both wonderful as well as eventful. One of the generators blew up and was replaced with a ridiculously expensive new one. The other one has slipped into some kind of an old age induced coma. I managed to dump a pot of boiling crabs over myself (some of you may have been here to witness that one) and was getting burn treatment via email and digital photography. Crabs are indeed a wily and scheming beast and not to be underestimated. I suppose that a perceived crustacean conspiracy is about as close as we are likely to get to a terrorist threat here at the bay.
I built a new greenhouse, and NO, it was not constructed in order to grow pot. I am not saying that a pot plant will never ever be found in the greenhouse, but the intended use is for tomatoes and flowers etc. I know that we will have some fun with it. The greenhouse was largely designed and built by myself with very little outside influence. I am indeed quite proud of it. I will send along a picture just in case it has fallen down by springtime.
We have had an enormous string of wonderful visitors this season. Sailors who had sailed here from the Netherlands as well as yachters who had found Shoal Bay via the Caribbean and the Panama canal. I believe the docks were busier this year than in any year previously. Vessels of all shapes and sizes ranging from the world's most affluent to contraptions that had no business floating at all, manned always by the most interesting and discriminate. It is amazing what a decent hamburger and a cold beer will attract.
I have come to realize as well, that in spite of paper and title, I am in no way the sole and rightful owner of the townsite of Shoal Bay. There are people that visit me here that have been coming here for ten, twenty, and in some cases as long as fifty years. This place holds as much importance in their lives as it does in mine. I have met people who were born here. I have met sisters who attended school at Shoal Bay, met their husbands here, and started their families here. This was their home town, where their lives took shape and from here it was that they wandered, but it was here that they then called home, and in some cases still do.
I continue to toil away here as a single entity. I do get wonderful help from family and friends, my cousins and my father have always been a big help and continue to be. My brother did his part in keeping the boats and new generator operational by never coming anywhere near them. It appears that the fact that I have been a single man living in a remote island location for an extended period of time has not entirely been lost, on the cat. The thing no longer feels comfortable sleeping at the foot of the bed and even the slightest sideways glance from me sends it out the door searching for what it feels to be a safer locale. I assure you it has not come to that. The cat is delusional and at the very least, a little bit paranoid.
We had a great Labour Day weekend bash again this year. We did not have the musicians that we had hoped for but are making early arrangements to have at least one blues band and maybe even two for next years festival. We roasted a pig over an open spit and it was fantastic. Cousin Robert has definitely gotten this pig roasting thing down to a real science. He has a secret spice rub that he puts all over the pig and a not so secret beer marinade for himself. They both seem to get done at just about the same time. As soon as we get some kind of verification from the bands for next year I will send out invitations to Yacht Club Members via email. It is always a wonderful weekend and not to be missed for good food, jam sessions, and unfettered cultural enlightenment. We hope to have t-shirts and caps made for next years festivities, the sale of which will help offset the costs involved.
For the first time ever this summer Shoal Bay actually had a paid employee. Although it is probably worth noting that he hasn't actually been paid yet. Derek is a 22 year-old college student who was put in charge of the docks for the summer. In addition to the docks Derek generally helped out around the place and even lent a hand in the kitchen. Derek proved to be immensely popular with the boaters as well as with all of us on the crew. During the span of ten weeks he managed to break the ATV, break the ATV trailer, break both chainsaws (several times), break the bicycle, and spread countless tools of all description evenly throughout the entire property. During the same short span, he managed to (through his own self-diagnosis...) break his back, break his ankle, break his hand (admittedly, I dropped a two hundred pound beam on it) and break his foot after I apparently dropped something heavy on that as well. I think it was a hammer, maybe a sledge. His pent up post-adolescent sexual tension proved to be just a minor problem when he was found to be virtually humping the legs of any female boater that was found to have even a moderate pulse. Age apparently was not a factor. At any rate, I have no idea how we would have gotten by without him and we can only cross our fingers and hope to have him back next year. If not, we wish him the best of luck in all of his future endeavours. Both he and his youthful enthusiasm will be missed here by all of us, even if I did find it absolutely exhausting.
So, the end of another season, the end of another year. The sun sets once more on the bay and on my personal joy. I will as always, be looking immensely forward to next spring when I will again be hammering and digging, cooking and pouring. I will also be massively looking forward to seeing all of you again that visited me over the summer, and to all of those that have yet to see it for yourselves, get off of your lazy ass, life is short.
Mark
www.shoalbaylodge.com
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