Hats Off To Orville

Marathon Harbor, N24 42W81 05
Last night we invited Orville over for dinner. Orville is a neighbor. He is a solo sailor who lives on Moonlight (see the picture.) Orville has lots of interesting stories to tell.



During the Korean war, Orville served as a sailor in the navy. His ship served as a minesweeper and a shield for the USS New Jersey. On liberty after graduation from boot camp, Orville was scandalized by the loose women in the streets of New Orleans so he went down to Bay Saint Louis and sat on the docks talking with people.

Orville was a civil engineer who worked for the California Highway Department. He contributed to the state’s economy by exploits such as proposing to dam a fjord in northern California that would have created a 1000 foot deep lake filling California’s central valley. On another occasion Orville and another engineer figured out how to plug Los Angeles’ sanitary sewer system with expanding foam then waiting for everyone to flush their toilets. Orville said that after a number of years, “My boss gave me a reason to resign, so I did.”

He once bought an 18 foot sailboat, but before getting more than 50 feet away from the dock his wife said, “I don’t like this. Take me back.” She never again set foot on a boat.

Next Orville and his wife ran a motel, a fleabag motel according to Orville. Eventually Orville became a widower and he grew tired of the motel. He sold everything an bought his boat. Moonlighter was an Alaskan fishing boat.

Ever since 2000, Orville has been living and cruising on his boat. He cruised up the Sacramento River. He cruised up the Columbia River to Idaho. He cruised up British Columbia toward Alaska, but the weather turned him back. He sailed down to Mexico and spent several years going up and down Mexico’s west coast.

Once he got stuck out a sea off the coast of Nicaragua with a failed engine. After drifting west for several days, with nobody answering his calls for help, a US minesweeper came along. They towed him to the Nicaraguan Navy and the Nicaraguans towed him to a port. His keel cooler had failed, and they didn’t have a way to lift his boat out of the water. With local help he did a temporary repair with Marine Tex (an epoxy putty) and sailed to a nearby port that did have a way. They hauled him out. After several failed attempts, a drunken and incompetent mechanic managed to install a new keel cooler. Orville went to pay the bill and the secretary said it would be 2,400 pesos. While he was counting out the money, the boss of the boatyard came in, took one look at Orville, and said, “No. No pesos. Dollars.” He charged $150/hour for the services of the drunken mechanic. Orville had only $2430 to his name! He also had an ATM card with a daily withdrawal limit of $300. He had to spend the next couple of weeks riding a bus to the nearest city with an airport, withdrawing $300, then riding the bus back. When the bill was paid off he didn’t have any money for fuel. He had to stay there until the next month. Orville lives on a pension of only $1200/month.

Despite his meager income, Orville does quite well. He had his boat trucked across Mexico to Brownsville Texas. He sailed up the east coast to New York City and stayed a week at the 79th street marina. Then cold weather turned him back. Last year he sailed up the Tennessee River and back. This year he plans to sail the Red River that runs along the Texas Oklahoma border. Since 2000 Orville has sailed (motored) 18,000 miles. Not bad at all on $1,200 per month.

Hats off to Orville.