Waltzing Matilda at Panama City, Florida

March 21, 2010

Hadn’t heard from Nathan for awhile and was getting ready to text or call him when he phoned this morning from Smack Bayou across from Panama City, Florida. He had a hodgepodge of things to talk about:
--He laughed hard when we told him we were celebrating spring in Northwest Arkansas with 9.5 inches of snow and that it was still coming down.
--He was amazed at his first experience with luminescent bacteria in the water. “I’ve read about it but reading about it and seeing it are two different things.” He said a cove he was in came aglow when raindrops stirred up the luminescence. At one point he scooped seawater up in a bucket and the luminescence was so intense that the bucket lit up his entire boat.
--Waiting out some bad weather now (rainstorm with 30mph winds), he’s planning on taking the intracoastal waterway to Bay St. John. There, at Dog Island he will make preparations for running 89 miles in open sea across Appalachie Bay. There will be no oil rigs or commercial shipping to worry about, so during the 24-hour voyage (that amount of time depends upon the wind) “I can just lash the boat down and go to sleep – I’m 90 miles away from anything.”
--While it seems isolated where he’s currently anchored, that’s dispelled at night due to the lights of Panama City. Also, a nearby Air Force base makes a lot of noise. Land where he’s at consists of sawgrass, palm trees and cactus. Also, big oak trees covered by Spanish moss like bearded old men.
--He’s down to his last 35 dollars. He’s hoping to get some work in Panama City for about a week, perhaps as a bike mechanic. He’s been hanging out with members of the local homeless community. Consisting mainly of Vietnam veterans, their ranks swell in Florida during winter months. “The homeless people have been taking care of me. They fed me a meal they had gotten from a dumpster. I intentionally wear rags when I’m ashore – no one robs me, no one bothers me.” The economy is depressed in Florida where he is at. “No work here – it’s really bad.” Nathan informed one unemployed but not yet homeless man about South Louisiana where there is a lot of work based on the oil industry. The man took the news enthusiastically for himself and for his son-in-law, a certified welder. One 35-year-old homeless man Nathan met was from Pueblo, Colorado, where Nathan grew up. And, of course, as the “You Know You’re From Pueblo If…” Facebook site describes how ex- Puebloans greet each other around the world, Nathan and the homeless guy asked each other where they went to high school. I guess it’s how ex-Puebloans size each other up. Youse guys from Pueblo know what I’m talking about.
--Pueblo, of course, is not the only home tie Nathan has. He flies an Arkansas flag on Waltzing Matilda. At Fort Walton, Florida, a man on a pontoon party boat wearing an Arkansas Razorbacks t-shirt yelled at him: “Wooo, pig, sooey!!!!!!” Y’all from Arkansas know what I’m talkin’ about.
--The Valkyrie that Nathan had earlier been sailing in tandem with has dropped out of the trip due to health problems of one of the people aboard.
--Sailing conditions have been mixed. “Had some good sailing the other day; had some bad sailing the other day – had to run the motor all day. Sea conditions were so calm that I could see my reflection in the water.
--Mattie the dog continues to adjust to the Adventure of Her Life. She got a new squeak toy and “freaked out when she first bit on it and it squeaked.” Mattie then barked or growled at it “but when she figured it out she loves it. She also discovered the unpleasant realities of stickers and cactus.” On shore, she got a cactus needle stuck in her paw and while wrestling with it, she also got it stuck in her stomach. Trying to extricate herself, she decided to lie down in – a cactus! Nathan had to rescue her and pick her clean. Mattie wants to chase squirrels, but Nathan keeps her close while ashore due to the threat of alligators. “As far as the gators are concerned, I’ve nicknamed her ‘Morsel.’ That’s all she’d be to a gator – one quick bite and she would be gone; nothing left but for the gator to spit out her collar.”