COMMUNITY
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2016
1B
WELCOME HOME
HAVE WHEEL, WILL TRAVEL
LIVING THE DREAM
few survivor stories for maritime adventure buffs:
• GCaptain reports that a 29-year-old Columbian man in a
disabled 23-foot skiff was picked up April 26 more than 2,000 miles
southeast of Hawaii by a bulk carrier after being lost at sea for more
than two months (http://tinyurl.com/2mos-out).
The Coast Guard brought him back to Honolulu, where he is
reported to be in good condition. He is pictured, right, with his inter-
preter, in a screen shot from a Coast Guard video. He was glad to be
on land, and his only wish was that the friends who were with him, but
died at sea, could have been rescued, too.
• Also in April, Mashable.com reports that three castaways, whose
boat capsized at sea, swam 2 miles to uninhabited Fanadik Island in
Micronesia. The men wrote “HELP” in the sand with palm fronds,
and were rescued three days later once they were inally spotted by a
Navy plane (http://tinyurl.com/mash-3found). They are pictured, inset,
waving their life jackets, in a Coast Guard photo.
• Survivor update from The New York Daily News (http://tinyurl.
com/survsuit): Salvadorian isherman Salvador Alvarenga, who was
washed up in the Marshall Islands after being lost at sea for 14 months
in a 25-foot iberglass boat, is being sued. He is pictured, inset, in a
photo by Karen Earnshaw.
Alvarenga’s ishing buddy died four months into the ordeal. There
is no body, because it was tossed overboard. Now the buddy’s fam-
ily wants $1 million, claiming Alvarenga ate his friend for dinner. By
now, he probably wishes he were still somewhere no one can ind him.
A
OUT ON A LIMB
eff Ter Har sent in the photo shown of a giant rhododendron on
the corner of Exchange and 16th streets. “Has anyone ever checked
to see how big the biggest rhody is in the world?” he asked. Time for
research.
The Guinness World Records website had nothing, so the Ear will
go out on a limb and settle on the irst entry in the “largest rhodo-
dendron” Google search: a Paciic rhododendron tree in Florence,
Oregon.
Jeff and Wendy Grant’s tree was recognized as the state and
nation’s largest rhododendron of its species in an article that was posted
June 5, 2009, in Coos Bay’s The World (http://tinyurl.com/bigrhody).
The National Registry of Big Trees declared the rhody was 24
feet tall, the circumference of the trunk was 37 inches, and the crown
spread measured 21 feet. And remember, that was in 2009.
J
one unicyclist Vincent Boudriau of Montreal, Canada (pic-
tured), rode through town last Friday, and was spotted by
Michael “Sasha” Miller. Vincent had already left by the time the
Ear got in touch with him, but he did reply by email.
“Astoria was a beautiful city, quite welcoming!” he wrote. “I will
never forget that truck who waited for me to inish the bridge before
passing me. I appreciated this! Otherwise, the scenery was pretty,
small cafés and breweries, too.”
How did he wind up in Astoria? “I planned a 10,000 kilometer
trip to do in four months,” he explained. “I started in Vancouver,
B.C., on April 28. The irst part of my trip is the West Coast (Vancou-
ver, Seattle, Aberdeen, Astoria … to San Francisco and San Diego,
with a small detour to Yosemite).
“After that and a conference in Banff (Alberta, Canada), I will
continue through the Baja California, take a ferry and head to Mexico
City. After a plane to Miami, I will ride the East Coast to Montreal.”
If you’re wondering, no, he doesn’t have a cause, and he is
totally self-supporting. He started unicycling in 2011, with the goal
of becoming a good mountain unicyclist, he wrote on his Facebook
page, www.facebook.com/vincentunicyclist. After lots of training
and practice on a 36-inch wheel, he has become a proicient long-
term, long distance unicyclist.
“I didn’t only unicycle for the past six years, though,” he wrote.
“I am currently studying plasma physics, and I hope to write my the-
sis before December 2016.” For now though, he’s having the time
of his life.
L
few years ago, a Russian immigrant in his 60s with
iffy sailing/navigational skills, Rimas Meleshyus
(pictured), stopped in Astoria on his way to complete what
appeared to be a suicidal solo sail around the world in a
24-foot San Juan sailboat.
While traditional sailing skills still seem to elude him,
Rimas has crossed the Paciic a few times and has become
a master of the Kon-Tiki sailing style — named after Thor
Heyerdahl’s raft and its historic expedition — which
essentially relies on drifting. On his last around-the-world
attempt he drifted past Hawaii, and was towed in to Amer-
ican Samoa. He sold his boat there to buy airfare back to
the U.S., arriving all but penniless.
But Rimas is also a master at bouncing back. He stayed
with friends in the Astoria area for a while before head-
ing back to California, where, miraculously, someone gave
him a 30-foot sailboat. Soon after, to the dismay of many,
Rimas unexpectedly set sail again without warning and
unprepared. He simply disappeared. His many Facebook
(www.facebook.com/rimas.meleshyus) followers ago-
nized and scolded him, but there was no reply.
As skilled at drifting as Rimas has become … landing,
not so much. After 46 days at sea, he was rescued off the
coast of Hawaii, and towed to Hilo. Despite having no food
or water for three days, he was in remarkably good shape.
He’ll stay in the South Paciic for several months, getting
his boat ship-shape and stocking up properly to continue
his trip around the world. Want to contribute? Go to http://
tinyurl.com/help4rimas
No matter what people think of his sailing abilities, it’s
pretty hard not to admire his resolute determination to live
his dream. “Since I left Soviet Union, I never back again,”
Rimas wrote on his Facebook page recently. “My dream to
sail around the world is huge. That’s why I love America
of freedom.” May he have fair winds, following seas and a
friendly tow at the other end.
A
HOORAY FOR BATTLESHIP DAY
TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA
o you have triskaidekaphobia (fear of Friday the 13th)?
Hopefully not, but here are a few random tidbits related to the
fateful date anyway:
Famous daredevil Sam Patch, who successfully jumped off a
cliff near Niagara Falls in 1829, then jumped from Genesee Falls
on a Friday the 13th later that year, and was, shall we say, less suc-
cessful, according to LiveScience.com (http://tinyurl.com/13fri13).
Discovery.com says that on Nov. 13, 1789, Benjamin Frank-
lin wrote “Everything appears to promise that it will last; but in this
world nothing is certain but death and taxes” (http://tinyurl.com/Dis-
cFri13). Truer words were never spoken.
As a parting shot, Discovery reports the Stress Management Cen-
ter and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, says that as
many as 21 million people in the U.S. are so frightened by Friday
the 13th that $800 to $900 million is lost in business because of it.
And that’s really scary.
D
CATCHING WAVES
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
ot so long ago there was a
tempest in a teapot when
the United Kingdom’s Natural
Environment Research Council
ran an internet poll to name their
new $288 million polar research
vessel.
The most popular name, by
far, with 124,000 votes, was
RRS Boaty McBoatface, submitted by James Hand. “I would
say 90 percent of the entries at that point were really quite funny,
so I thought, I’ll throw one into the ring and just see what happens,”
Hand told BBC Radio Jersey. Other oddball suggestions included
It’s Bloody Cold Here and Big Metal Floaty Thingy-thing, Vox.com
reports (http://tinyurl.com/notboaty).
The research council, while amused, didn’t go for it, however,
and named the vessel a far more digniied RRS Sir David Attenbor-
ough, after the beloved and respected British TV presenter and natu-
ralist, who turned 90 recently. An illustration of the vessel is shown,
courtesy of the research council.
The rejection of Boaty McBoatface didn’t sit well with some. “It
even caused a rift in government, when (Jo) Johnson (UK’s science
minister) said the ship would need a more suitable name than ‘Boaty
McBoatface,’ prompting British Culture Minister Ed Vaizey to go on
the record supporting the ‘will of the people,’” Vox.com says.
However, Boaty McBoatface lives on as the name of the research
vessel’s high-tech remotely operated subsea vehicle. The people
have spoken — and someone was actually listening.
N
he May 13, 1908, edition of The Morning Asto-
rian mentioned Battleship Day, and printed a proc-
lamation from the mayor, Herman Wise, dated May 12:
“To the Public: (Rear) Admiral (Charles S.) Sperry
wires that he will bring the Atlantic leet close by the
mouth of the Columbia River at noon on Wednesday,
May 20. There being a general desire on the part of
the public to view the splendid marine spectacle, the
like of which the people living along the Paciic Coast
may not soon again have the opportunity to witness, I
most respectfully and earnestly request that all business
houses suspend business on that day so far as the same
may be practicable.” Pictured, in a Library of Congress
photo, the leet visiting San Francisco Bay May 8, while
on their way north.
The mayor’s proclamation was a success — also in
the May 13 issue, in the “Terse Tales of the Town” sec-
tion, a special committee from the Astoria Retail Clerks’
Association announced it had already convinced 40 mer-
chants to close up shop, and they expected to convince
the remaining stragglers that evening. Undoubtedly, Bat-
tleship Day was a rousing success.
T
tartup Columbia Power (http://columbiapwr.com) has a new
gizmo, StingRAY, which harnesses ocean waves and gen-
erates electricity, according to a story on CNN (http://tinyurl.
com/stingwave). One is pictured, courtesy of Columbia Power.
The StingRAY is similar to a wind turbine, and is moored to
the sea loor. Waves passing turn loats inside a central chamber
and power a magnetic generator. An underwater cable connects a
farm of StingRAYS to a power grid.
One StingRAY weighs 700 tons and is 65 feet high. Only 8
feet show above the water’s surface, and it has navigation lights
to alert passing ships. The system is designed to be maintained at
sea, and works in water more than 200 feet deep, or about 3 miles
off the West Coast. Out of sight, out of mind, unlike windmills.
It’s still in the testing phase, so it won’t be coming to an ocean
near you anytime soon, but perhaps someday …
S
COMMUNITY NOTES
SATURDAY
Angora Hiking Club — 8 a.m.,
Sixth Street parking lot. Portland 4
T Trail hike. For information, call
Arline LaMear at 503-338-6883 or
Craig Holt at 503-325-8207.
Lower Columbia R/C Society
— 8:30 a.m., back room at Uptown
Cafe, 1639 S.E. Ensign Lane, War-
renton. Local Academy of Model
Aeronautics (AMA) chartered radio
control model aircraft club meets for
breakfast and business. All model
aircraft enthusiasts are welcome.
For information, call 503-458-5196
or 503-325-0608.
Sit and Stitch Group — 11
a.m. to 1 p.m., Custom Threads,
1282 Commercial St. Knitting, cro-
cheting and needle work. For infor-
mation, call 503-325-7780.
Pug Socializing Club — 1
p.m., Carruthers Park, Warrenton.
For pugs and their owners. For
information, call Dave Kinney at
415-827-5190. Join online at http://
tinyurl.com/socialpugs
Columbia Northwestern Mod-
el Railroading Club — 1 p.m., in
Hammond. Group runs trains on
HO-scale layout. For information,
call Don Carter at 503-325-0757.
Spinning Circle — 1 to 3 p.m.,
Astoria Fiber Arts Academy, 1296
Duane St. Bring a spinning wheel.
For information, call 503-325-5598
or go to http://astoriaiberarts.com
Authentic Spiritual Con-
versations — 3 to 4:15 p.m.,
Seaside Public Library confer-
ence room, 1131 Broadway.
Exploring spiritual questions,
doubts, practices and longings in
a space where everyone’s needs
are respectfully held. All faiths,
including “spiritual but not reli-
gious,” agnostic and atheist are
welcome. For information, email
info@cgifellowship.org or call
916-307-9790.
SUNDAY
Line Dancing — 5:30 to 8
p.m., Seaside American Legion,
1315 Broadway. For information,
call 503-738-5111. No cost; sug-
gested $5 tip to the instructor.
Angora Hiking Club — 1:30
p.m. social, 2 p.m. spring potluck
meeting, Seaside Hostel, 930 N.
Holladay Drive. For information,
call Nguyen Trung at 503-738-
7911.
Chair Exercises for Seniors
— 9 to 9:45 a.m., Astoria Senior
Center, 1111 Exchange St. For in-
formation, call 503-325-3231.
Scandinavian Workshop —
10 a.m., First Lutheran Church, 725
33rd St. Needlework, hardanger,
knitting, crocheting, embroidery
and quilting. All are welcome. For
information, call 503-325-1364 or
503-325-7960.
Senior Lunch — 11:30 a.m.,
Bob Chisholm Senior Center, 1225
Avenue A, Seaside. Suggested do-
nation $3 for those older than 60;
$6.75 for those younger than 60.
For information, call Michelle Lew-
is at 503-861-4200.
seniors and $7 for those younger
than 60. For information, or to vol-
unteer, call 503-861-3502 Monday
or Thursday.
Astoria Rotary Club — noon,
second loor of the Astoria Elks
Lodge, 453 11th St. Guests always
welcome. For information, go to
www.AstoriaRotary.org
Columbia Senior Diners —
11:30 a.m., 1111 Exchange St. Cost
is $6. For information, or to have a
meal delivered, call 503-325-9693.
Knochlers Pinochle Group —
1 p.m., Bob Chisholm Community
Center, 1225 Avenue A, Seaside.
Cost is $1 per regular session per
person. Players with highest and
second highest scores split the
prize. Game is designed for play-
ers 55 and older, but all ages are
welcome.
Warrenton Senior Lunch
Program — noon, Warrenton
Community Center, 170 S.W. Third
St. Suggested donation of $5 for
Mahjong for Experienced
Players — 1 p.m., Astoria Senior
Center, 1111 Exchange St. For in-
formation, call 503-325-3231.
MONDAY
Astoria Alzheimer’s & Oth-
er Dementia Family Support
Group — 2 to 3:30 p.m., first-floor
conference room, Clatsop Care
Center, 646 16th St. Open to all
family members of people with
dementias. For information, call
Rosetta Hurley at 503-325-0313,
ext. 222, or email support@clat-
sopcare.org
Line Dancing for Seniors — 3
to 4:30 p.m., Astoria Senior Center,
1111 Exchange St. Not for begin-
ners. For information, call 503-325-
3231.
Astoria Toastmasters —
6:30 p.m., Hotel Elliot conference
room, 357 12th St. Visitors wel-
come. For information, go to www.
toastmasters.org or call 503-894-
0187.
See NOTES, Page 2B