In December of 2009, I went to the FHL web site out of curiosity. I saw they had a 5 week summer course on algae and inquired as to whether or not a non matriculating retired person could get in. The lab director replied that I probably could since the course didn’t fill up last year. While I really did want to learn about algae, which I observe every time I go beach combing, I also wanted to refresh my knowledge of invertebrate zoology which I took as a graduate student in 1966 at the University of California’s Bodega Marine Laboratory. When I stumbled on FHL’s spring session offering and saw the 10 week coordinated class in invertebrate zoology, marine botany, and the effects of climate change on marine species, I decided “what am I waiting for.”
The first challenge was, of course, the application. FHL wanted us to provide a statement of approximately one page which describes how this course or apprenticeship will help you achieve your career goals. Then they wanted one or two letters of recommendation from faculty member(s) who are familiar with your work. How do you address these requirements when you are retired, your goal is simply to learn as much as you can about the natural environment, and all of your professors retired or died years ago? I did write a letter doing my best to describe why I wanted to take the course even though I had no career plans. Then I asked Curt, a friend of mine who is a retired school teacher, Navy Reserve Captain, and SCUBA diving buddy, to write a letter of support. I love Curt, but his letter was almost embarrassing – according to his letter I’m not sure I even get my ankles wet while walking on water.
January 19 was a great day - I received notification that I was accepted for the spring session at FHL. I do wonder if I would have been accepted if more than 18 matriculating students had applied. It looks like there will only be 12 or 13 of us.
After getting accepted, I let FHL know that I would be living on my boat rather than in the dormatory. Their response was to provide me with a couple of options for food in the dining room. Clearly they need income from the dining room to help fund the overall facility but don’t include this as a requirement on the web site. When it comes to food I have become a creature of habbit at least for breakfast and lunch. For breakfast I almost always eat my “berry delight” granola, which I buy in 25 lb boxes, while I am making a quart of tea for my thermos. For lunch I rarely have more than fruit and nut trail mix – if I eat more, I put on weight. For dinner I had planned on eating most meals in the dining room except when I go home for the week-end or when Linda is with me.
After a couple of e-mails, I called the facility manager to work out a compromise – one lesson I learned from years in industry is that e-mail is not a good way to communicate! We reached an agreement which bascially has me buying a meal card with a pre-loaded $624. I can spend it pretty much as I choose as long as I let the dining room know in advance. Linda can even join me. A win-win for both FHL and me.
Another issue was SCUBA diving. When I let FHL lab know I would like to SCUBA dive I was advised that I would have to either qualify at the lab or provide certification from a cooperating university. I learned to SCUBA dive at UC Berkeley way back in 1967. We had 40 hours of lecture and 40 hours of pool time before we did our first open water dive. I dove professionally as part of my job managing environmental studies at nuclear power plants in both New England and Washington and continue to dive recreationally or to change Hobbit’s zincs. I got PADI and NAUI certifications in New England as well as a refresher course in WA. Nevertheless, without the UCB dive card, I would have to re certify with UW. I contacted the dive master at UCB but, since the records for my era are all in a box somewhere, he couldn’t verify my certification there. For this course it’s not worth the effort to requalify so I’ll just do recreational diving on the week-ends if I can find a partner.
February 9
Dr. Megan Dethier (the zoology instructor) sent the “zoobots,” as we are now called, a list of supplies from FHL. ZooBots – sounds like something that you would see on the Saturday morning cartoons or in a scifi movie. Much to my surprise a sleeping bag, tent, sleeping pad, and ground cloth were on the list. It seems we’re going to spend 4 nights on an extended field trip to the west coast of Vancouver Island sometime in May. This class is going to be great.
No books are required, not even Between Pacific Tides. It’s hard to imagine a marine biology course focused on the intertidal of the west coast without “Doc Rickets” (the main and real character in John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday, and Log from the Sea of Cortes). There was, however, a list of reference books including some we were told we would have reading assignments in. I already own several of them. Given the total cost for this class, it seems rediculous not to spend a hundred dollars on the key reference books that I will enjoy for many years to come. Thank goodness for Amazon; list price for the three books I ordered was a whole lot more than I paid.
February 16
Linda and I went to Seattle today for a bunch of tasks. The first stop was the UW bookstore to purchase a couple of items for my dissecting kit, some waterproof notebooks, and other items for the class at FHL. It really seems strange going to a college bookstore to purchase items for a class.
Next stop was Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI). My 30 year old back packing tent needed a few pegs, and the bungie material in the tent poles had deteriorated to the point where there was no elasticity left. I also needed a new sleeping pad. Interestingly enough, while I was looking at the sleeping pads my daughter called. Given that she lost my pad years ago during her less than responsible teenage years, she volunteered to replace it especially when I told her that I had found a discontinued one at half price. She even had me buy 2 – one for my grandson Cash.
Final stop of the day was Boat Electric where we purchased a new refrigerator for Hobbit.
February 19
We went to the Tri-cities so Linda and I could go skiing with Melinda, Cash, and Catie (our daughter and grand children). Since the first of the books I ordered from Amazon came a few days ago I thought this would be a good opportunity to start reading from the book Algae which we were told would be a key reference with reading assignments. So much for that assumption. The vocabulary was so high on the reading scale that I put it down after only a couple of pages. Botany isn’t required for the curriculum we are taking, but it sure would help.
February 27
I finally finished outlining and making flash cards for the first chapter of Algae. My guess is that I spent the better part of 10 hours on the 17 pages. It would be interesting to calculate a Flesch-Kincaid grade score on the book; my guess is that it would be well above 16 (college graduate). And if the level of vocabulary wasn’t enough, they’ve changed the name of the chemicals I learned when I studied photosynthesis years ago. I found myself relying on Wikipedia to help me through a lot of the chapter. Sure am glad I’m starting early. I’m going to be interested to hear what the other students think of the book.
March 2
There is an old saying that a boat is a hole in the water into which one throws money. This year Hobbit is not just a hole, it’s a sucking whirlpool. Starting out the year was normal enough; we took Hobbit to Lake Union (Seattle) in late January to have the bottom cleaned and painted. While there we also asked them to do some work on two of the windows that were leaking. The wall holding one of the windows had significant dry rot. Replacing part of the wall so that it would hold the window cost about $800. While the dry rot is pretty much removed, I still have a project to finish repairing the wall inside the boat.
After we got back to Everett, I started working to get Hobbit ready for an early cruise and living aboard at Friday Harbor. As I went through the boat testing things, I discovered that the flex hose on the kitchen faucet had sprung a leak and the pump for the aft head didn’t work. After pulling both apart, I had to go to Seattle for parts. Not too bad, only $150 and a day’s work.
Then, of course, we had a 28 year old refrigerator which, while it still worked really drained down our battery when we were at anchor. Linda and I had talked for several years about replacing it rather than have it fail while we were cruising north. Given that I might spend the better part of a month at anchor by FHL, we decided to go ahead and replace the refrigerator – That’s another $1,700.
The coup de grace came yesterday when I went to start the generator. Nothing!! After debugging with my trusty multimeter, I concluded that the start solenoid and probably the starter had failed. When they failed and shorted out internally, current went back up and fried part of the starting circuitry in the generator’s control system. While I could take care of the starter myself, I would have to hire a mechanic to debug and fix the control electronics. Given that the generator has been unreliable and a perpetual problem, I started thinking about just replacing it. The final decision will be made tomorrow based largely on whether they can remove the old generator and install a new one in only two weeks. If they can’t do that, I’ll have to buy a small Honda or similar portable generator to keep the batteries charged while I’m at FHL. $$$
March 3
Replacing the generator is a painful but necessary decision. After Linda and I spent a lot of time talking with people and surfing the Internet reading blogs, we decided to get a 6 KW Northern Lights generator which delivers, at 120V, 50 A. Getting it installed is the next problem since I need to leave in just over 3 weeks. The purchase order has the sale conditioned on Harbor Marine installing it within 2 weeks. They seem quite willing to work with me. $$$$
I’m continuing with my efforts to get through at least the first 5 chapters of Algae before class starts. I’m now on chapter 3 having made the decision to try to get the highlights but not outline the details. If the instructor wants us to learn the details, I’ll have to go back through the text. Anyway, the text isn’t as difficult as it was back in chapter 1.
March 5
I spent most of the day on Hobbit getting ready for the removal of the old Onan generator and installing the new one. Removing old wiring, unhooking the muffler, unbolting the generator, and getting totally filthy in the process. Unfortunately, the generator is slowly leaking fuel. Probably a half cup is present in the bilge on top of seawater that leaks in through the prop shaft. I boutht a drill operated pump with a plan to pump everything into canisters for disposal. The pump didn’t suck anything!!!
March 8
Today Hobbit was hauled and transported to the Harbor Marine yard for installation of the new generator and a few other miscellaneous tasks. This is the first time in the 15 years Linda and I have owned Hobbit that it has been transported using a sling. Boats are hauled like this all the time so hopefully there will not be any problems.
March 10
I invited all of the ZooBots to join me on Hobbit for a 2-day trip from Everett to Friday Harbor. While I can take Hobbit there by myself, it would be good to have crew members to help with docking, anchoring, look-out, and conversation. Hopefully some will accept the offer.
March 12
A key challenge is getting the income tax finished for both Linda and me as well as my mother. Rather than work on Hobbit I decided to spend the day tackling this task. I also finished reading chapter 4 of Algae. Fortunately, chapters 3 and 4 are a lot easier to read than the first two chapters. I think I’m going to be able to complete my goal of finishing the first 5 chapters before class starts.
March 13
I’m beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel as far as the income tax is concerned. I finished mom’s and nearly finished mine. By late afternoon I was definitely ready for a Scotch.
March 17
I finished reading and outlining chapter 5. While reading chapters 4 and particularly 5 I was struck by the treatment of some really advanced topics in biochemistry and statistics. Things like the techniques of DNA and gene sequencing and how to statistically decide which branches should exist on a phylogenetic tree. There wasn’t enough discussion to understand what was being said unless you had advanced courses in these topics – none of which are required by the students. With a dozen statistics courses under my belt I could follow the statistics discussion but was totally lost in the sections on DNA. While reading these sections I was reminded of Nobel Laureat Richard Feynman’s somewhat emotional discussion about education by rote rather than for understanding in his book Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman.
March 19
So far none of the zoobots has accepted my invitation to ride to Friday Harbor on Hobbit. Since I would like some company, I contacted FHL and requested that they extend the offer to the entire community. Hopefully someone will accept.
March 22
I’ve been frantically rushing to get lots of tasks completed before I go to Friday Harbor. Hobbit is a never ending source of chores as is the house and yard. Today I spent all day at Hobbit completing the wiring for the new generator, changing the oil and antifreeze in the main engine, and working on the sanitary waste system. When all that was done I then pressure washed the boat and finished up the day by scrubbing the deck. I also took the fenders back. The new covers that Linda made for them look good. Hopefully this will reduce my annual chore of removing the black gunk that accumulates on them.
March 23
Hobbit is now clean and straightened up enough so that I was able to start transporting supplies, clothes, diving gear, etc. It’s amazing how much stuff we take with us when we go on extended cruises – or even short cruises for that matter.
March 26
The frantic prepartion continues. After spending the morning on Hobbit putting things away and doing a few more maintenance chores, I got a haircut and headed home so Linda could meet Melinda in Ellensburg to pick up our grandchildren. Cash and Catie will stay with Linda for a week during their spring break. Too bad that UW and the Richland school district are out of sync by a week. I would really have liked to spend time with them.
My honeydo list for Linda included setting mouse traps and getting mouse bait in the boxes I made. That was followed by putting out bird seed and suet, doing last minute packing making a bucket of popcorn and finally making a batch of chocolate chip cookies. When that was done, I was totally emotionally drained.
When Melinda and the kids arrived, Cash pressed me to get him started on his 5th grade science fair project. It is on electromagnetism. The question he is answering is “do the number of windings of wire affect he strength of the magnet." He is using a steel bolt, 9-volt battery, and a single strand of computer cable wire for the electromagnet. He is determining strength by how many staples the magnet will pick up.
Almost six pages of lead in discussion for the trip. At this rate, I’ll have a book when I’m done.
