In my plodding pursuit of a durable, possibly even a universal answer to the question, “What makes a house a home?” I come across plenty of nonsense. But sometimes I stumble upon ideas that resonate because they shift or expand my thinking, other times because they feel familiar. Having just returned from a jolly junket learning to kiteboard followed by selling the Sangre de Cristo perch that has been our Santa Fe home-away-from-home for nine years, I’ve been feeling the familiar tug of home.
I recently shared a reverie about my early sailing days on Lake Champlain, becoming familiar with (and semi-comfortable with) commercial tugboats pushing barges up and down the waterway.
In the 1970s and 1980s when I was still a boy barges plied the waters of Lake Champlain. These immense vessels transported fuel oil and jet fuel (or so I understood at the time) to distribution hubs like Westport and the Air Force Base in Plattsburgh. The slow, lumbering fuel barges — propelled by a tugboat leaning into the stern — pushed a wall of water before them and left an even larger wake behind. Not big enough to body surf, but we tried. (Source: Barging into May)
Tugboats and other commercial vessels often serve as work and home. Perhaps not unlike some long-haul tractor trailers equipped with bunks and mini gallows. While I’m feeling the tug of home, the captains of these ships (and sometimes their families) feel at home in the tug.
I remembered an article that I had read a year ago titled, “On the Dock of the Bay” in the May/June 2024 issue of Dwell magazine. I dug up a couple of snapshots I’d taken of the article as visual reminders to reread, rethink, and perhaps collect any thoughts here. Then I found the digital version. Updated on 5/14/24, the title has been changed to “Did You Know the Visionary Behind the “Whole Earth Catalog” Lives on a Century-Old Tugboat?”. But the text by Mike Chino and photos by Cayce Clifford appear to be mostly unchanged.
I strongly encourage you to read the article and enjoy the beautiful images. It’s captivating. Makes you wonder if you need to find an old boat, sell your house, and set out to follow the sun.
Today’s scrapbook highlights, quoted directly from the article, might feel familiar to you. I hope so. They do for me even though Rosslyn is an old home rather than an old tugboat.
It’s a silvery winter morning in Sausalito, California, and the docks of Waldo Point Harbor are still slick from last evening’s showers and the cool coastal mist. Lights flicker on as I walk past rows of handcrafted houseboats and spot Stewart Brand waving from the deck of the Mirene, the 1912 tugboat on which he’s lived with his wife, Ryan Phelan, for over 40 years. (Source: Dwell)
Yes, I’m a sucker for a boat story. And, as you know, there are a few challenges that excite me as much as adaptive reuse. Weave those two together with old, patinated, wabi-sabi *ANYTHING* at all, and you’ve got me hook line and sinker.
“Almost every plank on the Mirene has been replaced,” says Ryan Phelan of the 112-year-old tugboat… (Source: Dwell)
When Ryan and Stewart first saw theMirene in 1981, she was a derelict hulk—a floating but nonseaworthy vessel. The couple were in love and living at opposite ends of Richardson Bay… They were looking for a place to move in together when, according to Stewart, a friend, the late cartoonist Phil Frank, said, “There’s this old tugboat anchored out—it’s in rough shape, but you could get in there with a SWAT team of carpenters, fix it up, and move aboard.” (Source: Dwell)
“Taking care of a 1912 wooden boat that lives on the water requires constant upkeep. There’s always part of it being worked on.” —Ryan Phelan (Source: Dwell)
As the couple look ahead, their main goal is to maintain the Mirene so that future owners can keep her going for another century. “When we started this project, we were a lot younger,” says Ryan. “At some point, we want to welcome aboard the next generation.” (Source: Dwell)
The tug of home. A tug as home. Adaptive reuse. Rehab ad infinitum. Nostalgia. The yen to extend stewardship into the next generation…
What do you think?