WIND PIRATES YAAARRRR!!

Wolfe Islander III, the lifeline to residents of the island

    

I guess I never really believed they would appear, let alone stay.  Yet each day there are more. No longer can people pretend to ignore them; no longer can people who live across the river in Kingston fool themselves into thinking they won't be affected by them; no longer can local politicians and businesses involved in 'greed energy' pretend they won't scar the fabric of the environment.  The wind turbines, about 30 so far--slightly more than one third of the total, are commanding the horizon of our small island.

As the turbines increase, so does the arrogance of those in charge.  They know they've won this battle, and they are no longer kowtowing and bending over backwards to appease the fears of the residents who were never comfortable with the project.  They are changing the very fiber of the community, and doing it in ways never thought imaginable.

For example, our lifeline to the mainland is a 55 car ferry, The Wolfe Islander III.  She takes us to work each morning and brings us back safely at night.  The boat is sometimes the only constant in the lives of islanders, getting us to work, to school, to appointments on time.  Throughout the ice storm in 1998, the ferry never missed a trip, even though we had no electricity for a week. The boat carries the ambulance over to Kingston when islanders are in need of emergency treatment--cancer patients, accident victims, newborn babies.  The Wolfe Island Ferry is our link to the outside world.  

Each winter, when the lake freezes over, the ferry goes to an alternate dock, three miles outside the village of Marysville.  It's a pain in the ass sometimes, but it is reliable.  This year, the winter dock is being used by CREC, the company that is in charge of the turbine project.  There is a bubble system going from Kingston to the winter dock to keep the channel open until the spring thaw.  Since it has been a cold winter this year, we normally would be utilizing the alternate dock, but no.  CREC has made a deal with the devil, or maybe the town council, to continue to use the winter dock, while our ferry continues to crash through the ice without the aid of a bubble system.  With the exuberance of Micky Rooney declaring that he's putting on a show, CREC hollered, "We'll pay for it!"

CREC has magnanimously promised us the use of a tug boat to help clear the ice, but the only time I have seen this tug was when it was accompanying the CREC barge.  Our boat bangs and crashes and tears through the ever thickening ice, and you know that can't be good.  CREC has managed somehow to take over our boat and hold it hostage.  Each morning, the boat arrives later and later.  Residents, tax-paying residents of course, are arriving later and later at their jobs.  Why are we putting up with this?  Why don't people stand up and say "Enough is enough".  Are people so naive (out of politeness I won't use the term I really want)  that they don't know when they are are being used? Give us back our boat, our island, our lives.

CREC likes to be called C-REC.  Sea Wreck.  Now I know why.

Cap'n Mike of the Sea Wreck. Yaaaarrr!