white-bird-adventures

[white-bird-adventures]

The Flood

So I was six when White Bird was launched. I am in all the photos, but do I really remember it? No not really. For instance, I don’t remember the actual year she was launched. I know that it must have been late in 1968 because very shortly after it was launched the great flood in January/February 1969 came through the Ventura Harbor.

This flood wiped out most of the harbor, hundreds of boats were destroyed. We have stories of our boat almost being destroyed too, but a man who had gone down to the harbor to see after his own boat, saved ours. He arrived at the harbor to see that the dock his boat had been tied to was half gone. His boat had already floated away, and was most likely destroyed. White Bird was still tied to the dock, but it looked like the dock could be washed away any time, so he got some others to help him pull it closer to shore and out of the path of destruction. He saved our whole future. I don’t know who this man was, we don’t have any idea who he was, but the whole story of my childhood owes him a debt of gratitude.

These are a couple of family photos of the aftermath of that event.

But we were lucky, White Bird was safe, a little banged up, but okay. The line stanchions that went around the deck were damaged, but that was about all. My parents always believed that we were blessed.

After this, because the harbor was destroyed and would take years to be rebuilt, we moved White Bird to the Oxnard Marina.

[white-bird-adventures]

How did we survive?

Just a quick post about a couple of my favorite childhood photos. First is this one:

You can see here my sister and I standing on a makeshift table that dad was using while working on the boat. Keep in mind I am about 6 in this photo (the Pilgrim in black) and my little sister is about 4. The deck of the boat is about 10 feet off the ground, so the top of the cabin is probably about 13 feet, then of course WE ARE STANDING ON A TABLE!!! Just to get a little higher. What were my parents thinking?

Apparently my mom didn’t have any trepidation about this though, here we are as a lovely little family, just casually sitting on top of our back yard project!

[white-bird-adventures]

An ending, a new beginning, and a little bit of disaster.

So the boat was coming together. It was so close to being finished. The final steps were to paint it. He couldn’t do a proper paint job in the back yard of our house, so he took the boat to the boat yard he worked at. This required raising the boat up on winches and blocks, so a trailer could be put under it. Dad once again called on his friends to help with this. It took the better part of a day, but eventually the boat was sitting in a cradle, ready to be towed to the boat yard where the rest of the finishing would take place. It took special permission from the city and a parade permit to allow us to take the boat from our neighborhood to the yard where it would be for another year.

Have you ever thought much about the waterline of a boat? You know, where the colored paint on the bottom, the part in the water, and the white or topsides of the boat meet? They are usually separated by a stripe of paint. That stripe, or separation should be perfectly parallel with the water as the boat sits at rest in the water. Don agonized over where to put the waterline on his new home. He did buoyancy calculations and other complicated math; measured and got others who knew this kind of calculation to weigh in, and then took the plunge and put the paint on. Hoping he would have the correct angle and the height of the line would be just right. He was so worried about this though, that he decided to launch the boat at night, so even if it was a bit off, no one would be able to see it too much!

Finally though, the exterior paint was on, the interior was mostly built, the decks were sealed, and it was time to launch. More friends were appropriated to help. Although by now they were happy to come and help, because it was a novel experience and we always had fun! 

Like I said before, Don decided to launch White Bird at night. His nervousness about the water line was only one of the reasons. He wanted a high tide, clear streets and not many onlookers or other craft getting in the way. I can’t remember the exact date we launched her unfortunately, but it must have been around the end of the year,1968.

The first 2 photos show White Bird in her launching trailer being lowered into the water in Ventura Marina. The third photo is one of my favorites, and bless the photographer who caught this moment. My mother, Diana, is in the foreground and she is turned towards us because she can’t bear to see what’s happening behind her. Don had used two heavy ropes to secure the trailer to the truck, and as the boat was being lowered into the water, one of them broke. This is the moment my mom heard the rope break and is gasping, and probably praying that the boat won’t crash onto the boat ramp. If you could see the photo better, my dad is about to jump out of the truck, but his friends yelled at him to stay at the controls, but to hurry! In the last photo you can also just see the half gallon carton of milk that my mom used to christen her as she went into the water. It’s a tradition to smash a bottle of champaign on the bow of a boat as it is being launched, meant to wish the craft good luck. Dad refused to let glass scratch his paint job, and they didn’t drink alcohol anyway, so they used milk in a nice soft carton!

The final photo is the first time White Bird floated off the trailer and is sitting in the ocean on her own. The waterline was perfect. But you can’t really see that because it’s dark.

[white-bird-adventures]

The Bird comes together

By this time, we were living in Ventura, California. We had a house on McKee St. with a sizable yard, so dad started looking for a boat to build. He wanted something big enough for his wife and 2 daughters, strong & reliable enough for relatively new sailors, and something he could build himself. At the time he began looking, Piver Trimarans were enjoying popularity (I remembered the name to be Piper, but after doing some research discovered Arthur Piver who popularized and promoted the trimaran). Dad looked at several of these designs and sizes, and although they were close to what he wanted, they weren’t quite right. So he took the basic design, and tweaked it to suit his own needs. The trimarans Piver was promoting were meant for racing, not living on. So dad added fixed decking between the hulls, and a larger living space in the main cabin, with a small cabin aft (to the rear) of the cockpit.

Trimarans at this time were built light for speed, since they were racing vessels, but dad wanted strength and stability, so he built the shells of the 3 hulls from plywood with hardwood bulkheads, then layered on fiberglass. He added extra support and decking between the hulls so there was more deck to walk on. The cabin profile was kept low and hatches were strategically placed so items could be stored in the outer hulls.

Everyone has heard of the tradition of a barn raising, right? Well, we had a boat raising party! Dad built the 3 hulls upside down, it was easier to get at the frame to work, letting gravity help to lay fiberglass and resin. But once they were built, they needed to be turned over. He had several friends who were keen to help him. Most notably a group of guys he rock climbed with on occasion. All young men about his age who were looking for their next thrill. They hung around the house, helping with ideas, problem solving and lending a hand with the work. I remember them vaguely, coming and going periodically, but always fun and good to us little girls. I think they thought dad was a bit nutty, but since they were all somewhat of a daredevil nature themselves, they had fun enabling a buddy’s kooky ideas!

A couple of dad’s rock climbing buddies did okay for themselves. In that first photo, the fellow on the right looking towards the camera is Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia; another good friend for the rest of dad’s life was Tom Frost, a notable rock climber and photographer.

The last photo shows the 3 hulls, turned over and placed so that he can begin the process of adding the decking that will hold the whole boat together. Of interest is the fact that the trimaran was 25′ wide. Notice the fence in the foreground? It had to be removed, and the boat was built half in our yard, and half in our neighbors yard!

Here is the happy family, all 3 hulls successfully placed. All in all it took my dad 5 years to build that boat. He worked on it evenings and weekends. My mom worked as a secretary for the local sheriffs office to help make enough money to make their dream come true. It has been said that my mom must have been the most patient of women to go along with my dad’s crazy dream, but truth was, she was just as committed to their goal as he was. They were a team, and worked together to make this happen.

[white-bird-adventures]

The Foundation

It all began with these two crazy kids. Don Anderson and Diana Daily were young, only in their early twenties, but had decided they could make a good life together. This was taken at their wedding in May of 1961. The folks flanking the couple are my dads parents.

Notice I didn’t say they were crazy in love with each other - that came later. But they met, and had a lot in common. Both of their fathers were carpenters by trade, they were both from Burbank, California, going to school at BYU in Utah. My mom was raised Mormon, but my dad was pretty much agnostic. He enrolled in BYU with a friend not even understanding it was a Mormon church school!

They dated a bit, and after a shared trip home to California, where he had a car and she had money for gas, they decided they were a good match. My dad’s romantic proposal was something along the lines of ‘I don’t really believe in love, but we get along well, and I could see us being happy together, want to get married?’

Now for my mother, the fact that my dad wasn’t a member of the Mormon religion was an issue that she took seriously, but she had faith that she could influence him enough that he would someday convert.

After marriage they eventually moved to Santa Barbara, California and that is where my dad began his fascination with boats. He happened to find a really cheap, run down, small wooden sailboat. He bought it and set about repairing and restoring it. He propped it up in the back yard and worked on it evenings and weekends.

Now if you look closely in this photo, just about in the middle, you can see my mom sitting next to the window. Perhaps questioning her life choices! Anyway, after working on this boat for a while, using skills he already had, he realized he needed and wanted to learn more. 

As most couples just starting out, they were trying to decide what kind of future they wanted. After seeing a photograph of a tropical island in their Sunday paper with an article about island living, they decided they wanted to be able to see these far away places. The most economical way they could see to do that would be to live a lifestyle that included lots of travel. So, after successfully restoring this little beauty, dad quit his construction job and went to work in a boat yard.

He learned as much as he could from anyone willing to teach him. Working on boats had a different skill set than building houses. If you don’t get a boat right - you sink! But he had a knack for working with wood, and loved every minute of it. He worked in a couple of different boat yards, and then decided his ultimate goal: build his own boat large enough to hold his small family (they now had one daughter - me!) and set sail out into the world.

[white-bird-adventures]

Test Post

This is my Dad. He’s a salty, crusty sailor who took us around the world. Well, not really, I mean it was just the South Pacific, but since I was only 9 at the time, it felt like the whole world! And really, he wasn’t crusty, he was actually a very nice guy. But I love the “Old Man and the Sea” vibe this picture gives.

This blog will be a posting of stories from that journey. I hope it will entertain, amuse and delight you!