Gramps to the Rescue

When power went out on South 40 Pier during the recent spate of storms, just after midnight, PG&E announced that it might not be restored before 10:00 p.m. on the following evening. Joe “Gramps” Tate, who lives in an ark that sits on pilings just off of South 40, fired...

The Roiling Sea

Sea level is not level at all. Just as the surface of the earth is not flat, the surface of the ocean is not flat. Because the earth rotates to the east and because the ocean responds slowly to the rotation* and the surface of the sea piles up along...

A Double Whammy: High Winds + the PGE Shutoff

[masterslider alias=”ms-14-1-12-4-3-2-7″] Neighbors helping neighbors. It’s how we weathered the chaos brought on by some unusually high winds, coupled with yet another PGE shut-off. Larry Clinton opined, “I’ve never seen so many whitecaps, and I moved here in the winter of 1980-81, when 90mph gusts closed the GGB. Ironically, we...

Different Floats for Different Folks

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the rivers of the United States were home to entire communities of people living in self-made houseboats. The history of these communities has been explored briefly in river memoirs such as Harlan Hubbard’s Shantyboat Journal but hasn’t been thoroughly examined in a...

Perfect Storm Sinks Two Boats

[masterslider alias=”ms-14-1-6-8″]   A powerful storm with strong winds from an unusual direction spelled misfortune for two floating homes on Thursday, April 6. Overnight, at more than a five-foot tide, #62 Issaquah began taking on water and listing northward toward its neighbor. And Dianne Moyer awoke to three feet of water and the sinking...