WOODEN BOATS, EARTH DAY, DEPOE BAY, OREGON CRAB. AND BEER

What do you call fooling around with wooden boats?

Fun.

That’s what Ratty says:

“There is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of ’em, it doesn’t matter.

Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it.

Whether you get away, or whether you don’t; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you’re always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you’ve done it there’s always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you’d much better not.”
– Spoken by Ratty to Mole in Wind in the Willows

There’s also nothing half so much worth doing as driving from Portland to Depoe Bay for an Oregon crab feed after looking at some beautiful wooden boats.

Lined up on the east side of the Depoe Bay Bridge, they looked like a Cartier necklace stretched on asphalt.

The Coots organized.

They all looked fun, but if you need a winner its these two built from three kinds of wood.

The seat back was a sweet touch.

Beautifully contrasting vertical frames and risers stand against a dark hull background.

This is the sort of wood every wood worker would love to build. If they had the time and energy.

The two of them carried incredible details.

Turned seat supports, custom oars, wonderful lines, great finish.

Owner/Builder Fred Johnson said he needed to do something when he retired.

Some take to the air, some the water.

He had time and energy to burn for furniture and boats, but not boat furniture.

A man wanted to buy Mr. Johnson’s boat and turn it into a bookcase.

No sale to him.

If you had a boat you could go crabbing. Or fishing.

Get some rings and fish heads for bait and make later plans that includes this:

The Community Center filled with visitors from retirement homes in Canby and Eugene for the crab feed.

What better way to celebrate Earth Day.

Out back another beautiful rig rescued Oregon coast thirst.

Rusty Truck Brewing is the sort of catering you need.

Add it all up and you get Oregon at it’s finest, the sort of day that doesn’t happen anywhere else.

Was the crab decent? It was awesome.

“Is this most crab you’ve ever eaten?”

“The most and the best crab ever.”

“What will they serve on the whale watching tour?”

“Probably not whale.”