Page 6. MAINE COASTAL NEWS April 2017 '70 M - R "D" A 1933-2017 By Lee S. Wilbur In February a really cool guy, longtime


friend, sailor-powerboater (whichever suit- ed the need), builder of clever ideas, and a person who enjoyed life, letting what ap- peared as life’s many impediments to just slide on by with little or no concern, passed away.


We and the Newmans, Jarvis and Su-


san , after working for several years with little or no vacation time, and trying to build up our boat (me) and hull (Jarvis) ca- reers, decided to take a few of those smelly fi berglass dollars squirreled in empty res- in jugs and head on down to St. Thomas. Idea was to charter a sailboat from Dick and wife Marianne, spend a week or 10 days exploring some of the exquisite Virgin Islands Anchorages. The name/word “Vir- gin” still being relevant. I hardly knew the


Averys, but Jarvis and Sue had known them through a connection on Cranberry Island and the Avery’s rental of a fi sh shack in the summers. Heidi and I were in for a great experience, one which was treasured and re-ignited for more than several years and experiences later. That fi rst year, we were “allowed” to


charter the diamond of Avery’s Boathouse and Charter Fleet, “Joker”, a “hot” Pearson (39’) sailboat with which we commenced to challenge any and all blow-boats in the least interested to a race. Found very few as fair game. We had a blast, got to know the Averys, their children, Ingrid and Mor- gan, were invited to their home, described of the best anchorages, places to see and do, and most important got to know them on a personal level, Dick and this great family of his. Came home with sunburns and great


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memories. Found it hard to wait for the next trip. We’d discovered a terrifi c place in the world with two terrifi c people. One of my early memories of Avery’s


Boathouse was of a native boathand/work- er sitting over in the shade stirring a can of bottom paint as Jarvis and I came into the Repair and Paint shed one morning. We hung out for about an hour waiting for Dick to fi nish some business then perhaps another hour as we got caught up on local gossip and island happenings (MDI and our boatyard type) then perhaps another hour or so for a couple of Dick’s favorite, ice cold Heinekens. Throughout, the yard guy just kept on stirring that paint. Finally, Jarv or I mentioned to Dick it must have been pretty thick paint. Dick just chuckled, made a remark about “island time” and the fact an electric paint mixer really wouldn’t last in the tropics… either be stolen or soon corrode. Besides “Barry” showed up most mornings for work, never complained and if there weren’t any bottoms to be painted he’d stir the paint and be ready when there


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were. Dick had the tropics fi gured out. He’d become a “local” on the scene. Over perhaps a 30-year period, we’d


get back to the Virgins and charter from the Averys as we checked in on the expansion of their fl eet and “Island Time” building of their house. In one respect, I’ll always remember Dick as he thought about how to construct or lay plans for a project, un- concerned how long the project took. His swimming pool, narrow, shallow, with a pump in one end was a lap pool. I’d nev- er seen nor heard of one. Swam against the controlled fl ow of water generated by the pump.


House was built up in the hills. No air


conditioning necessary. At fi rst, I do not re- member fi xed windows. Water from rain on the roof was piped to the cistern under the house. The same thought went into “Cran- berry Gull” a boat he and Morgan partially fi nished off in our boat shop from a Young Brothers 40’ hull, then running the boat, un- fi nished, to the islands on her own bottom. Courage I’m not sure I would have, espe- cially with an unfi nished boat. Some years later, AJ and I chartered Cranberry Gull and was so impressed with “The Gull” that later Wilbur Yachts built and sold one, “Blueber- ry Gull, using one of “Bunny Leonard’s” 41’ hulls.


At some point, I had kind of lost touch


with the Averys. Amazes me when good friends can live in close proximity and as lives change see each other seldom. If we went out to the Cranberries, it was usually to Islesford for dinner. They’d store their vintage Ford van at Wilbur Yachts, but paths would seldom cross. Last year, AJ and I, out cruising Big Green Canoe, slid into “The Pool” where the Averys had bought a wharf and fi sh shack many years previous. Whole family was there with new members as well. Could see Dick had inherited that same dreaded Alzheimers infl iction as my mother. I felt terrible. But, we had some good laughs and memory jokes, and today I number Dick Avery as one of those special friends and characters I was so privileged to know.


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