Last Sunday

Remember what I said about tides around here? Because of the tides, Sunday morning meant solving a logistical puzzle before breakfast in order to get to church - some days Randy and Bernadette don’t even make it to church because the tides are too low to get to their boat. This morning just made it complicated. And you always have to think ahead. And it was raining.

Since the tide was going to be so low this morning, it meant putting their skiff on their extra mooring (a mooring is a tie off for your boat attached to a pulley system somewhere on shore. You tie the boat to the line (not rope!) and pull one side of the line to move the boat back out into the water. You then pull it the other way to get it back into shore). They didn’t often use this mooring because it’s position in the water often made it extremely dirty (which could cause it to jam up in the pulley) and it was a bit of a hike to the other end of a rocky beach. But it was the only way this morning to be able to have a floating skiff to be able to get out of the cove. So it meant tying it off there the night before and then hauling all of our things down the rocky beach by 9am so we could load the skiff and then load the Old Squaw from the skiff. Randy had a 4 wheeler that he used to make the beach hauling significantly easier. While the guys loaded the gear, the rest of us made sure everyone was fed Bernadette’s yummy waffles. Then it was load everyone up into the skiff for the ride to the OldSquaw, and from there we would continue to church.

Randy and images of our weekend have captured my children's hearts and imaginations!

On the way to church Bernadette told us the

story of how she almost drowned, which the kids had begged for the night before. I had heard it before, but I was looking forward to the retelling. She made a point to tell it outside while Randy was in the bay - he had heard it one too many times. To make a long story short, she had gone to visit Ann while Jane watched Katie and Sara for Bernadette. Bernadette hopped into Jane’s boat rather than pulling hers in, but it was one of those boats that shouldn’t have been on this bay water. Just a few days ago it had bounced in just such a way that it threw Pat completely out of it. He had been with another person so he was picked right back up, but Bernadette wasn’t so lucky. On her way home, the exact same thing happened. She hit a wave in such a way that she was thrown right out of the boat. In those days, no one really wore lifejackets. And she usually had her infant girls strapped into their carseats. If they had been with her that day they would have sunk like rocks. Frightening thought. Bernadette kicked off her boots immediately. The boat, still running, trailed away from her only to do a u-turn and head right back at her. She grabbed the side and it began to go in circles. She struggled for a while but was unable to get into the boat. The sides were too slippery, she was wet and as she struggled she got stiff with cold and tired from the effort. Someone on a beach nearby began hollering, “Help is coming! Hang on!” Years later she found out that this man had been dropped off to clam on this beach (Tim and Jane’s island but they weren’t living there yet) even though there were no clams. He wasn’t able to do anything to help but by calling out to her, he gave her the will to hang on. Pat, on his way home from fishing at an unusual time happened to see Bernadette and she was saved. But it had been a close one.

The story told, we arrived at church. We had to dock the church boat, which had the capacity to beach that the OldSquaw did not, and then onto the church beach. It was

definitely with a bit of a heavy heart that we went through our last day there, not knowing if we’d ever come back. Moriah and Elias kept asking as we packed up to leave if this was “the last time they’d see Ann”. She had really stolen their hearts. Bernadette asked me "how I was doing" knowing I was having a hard time. I was doing ok until I saw Hannah crying as we pulled away from the beach, and then I was choking it back. It had obviously become special to everyone. Randy and Bernadette chugged us back to Jakalof because all of our things were on board. And then our magical bay weekend was over.

Children's worship has always been one of my sweetest memories of the Island Church

The OldSquaw at Tutka Bay

We had a rather interesting interlude to our Sunday - Rob asked Abbey to play with him that night at the Linwood, the local bar. Rob has been a friend ever since our arrival to Seldovia years ago. He hacked a cabin out of the logs in his woods long before our time and he would often stop by for a meal or to do a load of laundry. He took Tim hunting and taught him how to skin a bear. He’s a hermit but a kind one, and he loves Jesus. We coaxed him out of the woods to have a Bible study with us and a few other friends during the long winter months. He is quite the musician and makes good money playing a gig or two at the Linwood. So we spent Sunday evening at the bar (also a restaurant) and visited with the locals who still remembered us. Abbey did a great job accompanying Rob and we convinced her to sing a few on her own for some tips. So apparently we're bar hoppers now lol.

https://www.linwoodbar.com