Pre-departure Radio Interview

Before his departure, David was interviewed by Meghan Marohn for the Hudson Mohawk Magazine program on WOOC 105.3-- The episode first aired on May 24th, but the approximately 8-minute interview is available for viewing at:

https://soundcloud.com/mediasanctuary/855davidbortonwaywardsuntripmay242021

The Beginning

Alex lives on the west coast and wanted a Solar Sal boat. Built by Sam Devlin in 2019, Solar Sal 27 (now called Wayward Sun) is a work of wooden art. This is the boat Alex and David are taking to Alaska. The cloudy weather and tides off British Columbia make the run to Alaska a particular challenge for a small, 100% solar-powered boat. It takes a lot of preparation to make that voyage safe and successful.

One necessity is a dinghy to get ashore from the boat when anchored in up to 25 foot tides, and Alex in Bellingham WA decided to make one. David in Troy NY had wood, epoxy, fiberglass and consumable supplies as well as a back-up 4 kW electric motor and extra anchor. Therefore David and Harriet loaded a rental car and drove those supplies plus 4 cases of freeze dried food, a 2 gallon water filter, miscellaneous mosquito nets and other spare parts across the country.

Harriet stayed for a few days then flew home. David stayed about 3 weeks to help Alex build the wood and fiberglass dinghy. to accompany the 27-foot “Wayward Sun” on the Alaska trip.

Making the dinghy

Solar Sal Boats has made a variety of solar powered boats from 16 to 44 feet. This 6 foot dinghy is by far the smallest. This 6-foot dingy has less than 20 wooden parts and so is very different from the other wooden solar boats with many hundreds of wooden pieces. For this dinghy there was a lot of time sitting around waiting for glue, epoxy or paint to cure. Bigger boats have enough parts to keep busy on something while other pieces cure.

Recollections of Thorne Bay Logging

The first stop in Alaska will be Ketchikan, and David will be returning there after a 58 year absence. In the summer of 1963 he was a high-lead logger for the Ketchikan Pulp Company at theThorne Bay Logging Camp. Thorne Bay is about 50 miles NW of Ketchikan on Prince of Wales Island. David has many vivid memories of his logging adventures.

David was a choker-setter. Kirk Kirkendal was the rigging-slinger, Doc was the whistle-punk and David’s bunkhouse mate, who had lost a couple fingers off one hand, was the chaser of their show. David fondly remembers big trees, big diesel donkey engines and logging trucks as well as big meals. During breakfast of bacon, ham and eggs and hot cereal and fruit with lots of coffee, Doc would always take a big spoon of honey with lemon juice. David packed a big lunch box for the daily picnic in the woods. At 7:30 the crew climbed into the crummy for the ride out to the show. The engineer blew the whistle at 8:00, and the haulback started dragging the mainline and the chokers out to meet the crew near some logs. At 19 the hard work was a lark, and at the last whistle, the crew caught the crummies for a ride back. There was a place to take off cork-boots before going into the living area of the 4 room bunk house. The big dinners had lots of variety and always leftovers for the next day’s lunch. Not much social life and sleep came easy.

The 4th of July was special. Several of the crew flew in to Ketchikan for the festivities. David can’t remember which bar, but he does remember enjoying adding peanut shells to the sawdust floor while crunching the contents. There was peanut butter available at Thorne Bay but no plain nuts. Sometimes while working overtime on Sundays, David got to help a rigging crew. They let him sit in the chains and take haywire up and run it through the bull block. Hundreds of feet up the spar tree, the views around and across Clarence Strait to the mainland were so spectacular it was hard to concentrate to complete the one simple task. People on the ground look like small ants from the top of a spar tree.

Being still a teenager at the time, David was longer on daring than thinking. One day when the crew was side-blocking a sky-line, he was walking too close to the haulback and not paying enough attention. The line had been hung up on a stump and snapped off like a rubber band---a steel rubber band. David was hit on the meaty part of the shoulder (luckily) and was airborne some dozen feet before landing headfirst at the base of another stump. In another fool act at the end of a long day, he climbed onto a haulback that had a downhill slope toward another road.  He put his weight on his boot, a gloved hand under a thigh and a gloved hand under his chest. The other leg hanging down was a good stabilizer. Sliding down was the best zip line ever until later when he thought about “what if there had been a jagger?”

Kirk had a Piper Cub on floats, and one Sunday he took David to Bell Island for some time in the hot springs. He also invited David to call him on the way south in the fall. True to his word, Kirk picked up David at Sea-Tac in his AT6, a Hellcat trainer. They took off on a short east-west taxiway and flew a circle around the Space Needle on the way to his smaller airport. Sadly, during that summer a flying accident took the life of the head of the camp.

After arriving in Ketchikan, David plans to visit Thorne Bay. He expects to find it much changed, as it is now a city. It even includes a B&B called the Welcome Inn, which is expecting him sometime and maybe Harriet too, if she can arrange to get to Ketchikan to meet Wayward Sun. David doesn’t know when he might arrive, but he is looking forward to it!