Petersburg
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We pulled into the fuel dock in Petersburg late in the afternoon, near the start of our 2002 initial tour of Southeast, and after filling the diesel tank, readying for the trip to Juneau, we radioed the Harbormaster to ask for an o/n slip.* He assigned us a spot near the gangway and his office, and asked us to come immediately to his office.
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When we entered the office and introduced ourselves as Stalwyn, he right away demanded, What does the boats name mean?* We told him.*
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Our first vessel was purchased as a benefit of a business success with a Seattle area company, with an association with the Welsh wizard Merlin.* We used the Welsh spelling Merlyn, which is also the Welsh word for Pony, for the name of the Bayliner 2452.* My wife would not go around Cape Caution in a 24 ft. gas boat, so later I was forced to purchase a Commander 30 twin diesel.* We named the new 30 Stalwyn, (the Stallion) in recognition of our step up in size and range.
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The Harbormaster at Petersburg told me that the majority of Petersburg residents (Scandahoovians/Norse folks) were superstitious, in the extreme, about boats with horses names or references to horses in the boat name.
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When the Vikings loaded their ponies on their raiding vessels they would occasionally run into a North Sea or Baltic Sea storm that would get the ponies riled up and they would kick the crap outta the boat.* Over time they lost boats, horses, and men, and* started meeting increasing resistance to their raids, so they gave it up as a bad job.
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The association of Scandanavians, boats, and anything to do with horses, was decreed to be a no-no, and that thought apparently has rooted in the modern Petersburg residents as well.
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The harbormaster told me of a Petersburg resident who found a great boat for sale in Wrangell and purchased it, brought it back to Petersburg and added some finishing touches to it, including renaming the vessel Citation.* He was thinking award, recognition, reward, but the populace of Petersburg found out that Citation won the Kentucky Derby in 1948, and gave the poor guy the choice of moving, or selling the boat.* He didnt Ponder (another unusable boat name in Petersburg he was the Kentucky Derby winner in 1949) that decision for long.* He sold the boat.
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He reassigned us a slip far from the main street, hidden from street view by some warehouse buildings, and instructed us to be Outta town before the residents started heading for work at 8 a.m. the next morning.*
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We were awake early, fired up, pulled out, had breakfast while heading NW in Frederick Sound, and made Cape Fanshaw long before 8 a.m.
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Whether he was serious, or whether he had cleverly enlisted us to contribute to the folklore of Petersburg by retelling this story, is still in doubt.* I guess we will know for certain when we attempt to return to Petersburg in Stalwyn.
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O.S.