Summer news!

Grant Lawrence Summer 2024 newsletter: goodbye Big Buck$, hello Cliffhanger… movie and book reccos… and lots of summer shows with great guests like Neil Osborne from 54-40! Hannah Georgas! Dawn Pemberton! Matthew Barber and more!

Hello World of Friends!

Greetings from Desolation Sound, summer of 2024 edition.

Bon voyage Big Buck$, ahoy Cliffhanger

As mentioned in an earlier newsletter, our dearly beloved old speedboat Big Buck$ took its last ride across Desolation Sound in August of last year. If you’ve read my first book “Adventures in Solitude” (thanks), you might remember that when our family purchased Big Buck$, a 1985 blue and white Hourston speedboat, it appeared so used, so faded, so beat up, and so old… back then… when our cabin neighbour Handy Candy saw it, she exclaimed “that’s your ‘new’ boat? Wow… I guess you better call it Big Buck$ to mark such an impressive purchase!”

And so Big Buck$ was christened, and for the next several decades, that beat up blue boat took us everywhere, from Savary Island to Prideaux Haven, Isabel Bay to the Curme Islands, Refuge Cove to the Homfray Channel, and countless trips to and from the cabin and the Okeover government wharf in all manner of weather, creating adventures and memories with every voyage. In the early days, passers by at the Refuge Cove dock would echo Handy Candy’s sentiments, referring to Big Bucks as “a true beater.” But after that first book came out, Big Buck$ surprisingly became somewhat of a celebrity vessel, getting us recognized in even the most remote corners of the Sound.

Her finest hour was probably in the spring of 2020, when Big Buck$ was the first-responder boat to rescue a drowning man in Malaspina Inlet. Thank goodness for her low gunwales, which helped me hoist a gasping dude much larger than myself up and into Big Buck$ (full story in “Return to Solitude”… plug). But the big knock on Big Buck$ was that… her hull was fibreglass in an extremely rocky ocean environment, and she was slowly falling apart. In one particular rainstorm, the boat’s singular windshield wiper was flip-flapping away when it flapped right off, never to be seen again… or replaced. The running lights stopped working sometime in the 90s. And in the last couple of years, when you looked down under the dashboard and through to the inside of the bow, you could see shafts of sunlight poking through the hull. Not good. When speeding up, I would do it oh so gradually, fearing that the sheer torque of the 90 horsepower engine would rip the transom right off the stern. Many cabin neighbours suggested it was time. We resisted. I resisted. We loved Big Buck$ like a family member, and we kept Big Buck$ for so long, that by the end, those passers by on the Refuge Cove dock were now referring to Big Buck$ as… “vintage.”

But it was last summer, during one particularly rough ride through a wicked southeasterly blow up in Okeover Arm that changed my perspective. That trip was so jarring, so spine altering that I remember thinking that

1.  I could cancel my upcoming chiropractor appointment.
2. It actually felt like Big Buck$ might split in half right down the middle like America’s politics.
   

As the waves pounded, I asked myself, “am I putting family nostalgia over family safety?” There was also another weird thing happening. My family was getting bigger but… Big Buck$ was staying the same size. The kids weren’t babies anymore – and neither were their friends. And now there was a family dog. But… Big Buck$ held out to the end. She never did split like the Democrats, nor did she ever even once break down.

She was sold in March – motor, boat, and trailer – to a rather tight-lipped man in Powell River who did not announce his intentions so I know not what has become of Big Buck$, though many this summer have asked. She may be collecting leaves in some backyard, but I’d like to hope that Big Buck$ is riding the waves somewhere as the sun sets over the Salish Sea, providing a new family with the same kind of countless adventures and memories that she provided for us.

Enter Cliffhanger, a 21’ foot, Hewescraft “Pro V” ocean boat, made for the waves, with a walk-through windshield, lots of comfortable seating for family and friends, working windshield wiperS and lights, and a big shiny outboard motor that doesn’t sound like a garburator with a fork stuck in it. Named for both the literary device and what we do with the boat at cliffside swimming spots in Desolation Sound, Cliffhanger is safe, sturdy, and most importantly aluminium. But… does it have character? Man, do we miss the rough and ramshackle Beachcombers charm of Big Buck$, which my kids used to loudly claim was “the fastest boat in the inlet.” She never was, but she seemed like it to them. Cliffhanger may be bigger and safer, but it sure has a lot to live up to.

Summer reading: The Wager

Keeping with the nautical theme, the summer book that I am currently ripping through is “The Wager: A tale of shipwreck, murder, and mutiny” by David Grann. I’m a sucker for a sea-faring adventure in far-off ports of call, and just like the subtitle suggests, this one has it all. 

David Grann has most recently found fame as the author of “Killers of the Flower Moon” that became the hit Martin Scorcese movie from last year. He’s an in-depth, well-researched non-fiction writer who knows how to take real life stories and turn them into page turners. The Wager is primarily based on highly detailed journals kept by shipwrecked English navy sailors circa 1741. I’m loving it. Hope you do too.

Summer movie: Singin’ In The Rain

Huge congratulations to everyone at the historic and legendary Patricia Theatre in Powell River BC (the largest town closest to Desolation Sound) on their grand reopening and restoration of this beautiful cinema that dates back to 1913.

That makes it the longest continuously operating movie theatre in all of Canada!! It’s so old that Nancy “The Cougar Lady” Crowther saw her first movie here in 1939! (“The Adventures of Robin Hood”.) Last month they replaced all of their seats (we snagged a couple of the old ones for our cabin) , refurbished the lobby, the main curtain, the aisles and the peacock murals… and it all looks and sounds really awesome.

For the grand reopening this month, they screened “Singin’ in the Rain” from 1952- which somehow I’ve never seen before. I was blown away by the awesome wardrobe, the choreography, the sheer athleticism of the actors, and the humour. It’s hilarious. My ten year old son was also laughing – a lot – which he didn’t expect to (he was hoping for “Planet of the Apes”). After the movie I told him that he was laughing at jokes written and choreographed SEVENTY-TWO YEARS ago. Funny is funny!! And Gene Kelly’s megawatt smile?! Wow. What a movie star.

Single-screen theatres are magical, special places… and the Patricia is one of the best.

Summer writing:

My next kids’ picture book called “Adventures in Desolation Sound” will be released on Harbour Publishing at the end of the summer. It features illustrations from Ginger Ngo, and is a kids-eye-view of what it was like for my sister and I to be dragged reluctantly to the cabin.  In 2024, many parents feel they are fighting a losing battle with screens. Well… guess what? In 1984, my sister and I were also addicted to a screen: it was called the television set. To get us away from endless daily re-runs of “The Love Boat”, “The Brady Bunch”, and “Three’s Company” et al, our dad would take us out to the wilderness. The book features our first meetings with real-life characters like the aforementioned Cougar Lady and Russell the Hermit. Expect to see the book at my shows in August and beyond, and at good bookstores everywhere.

Summer Shows:

Here’s my Stories and Songs summer tour… including my first-ever shows in Ontario… and two new shows announced in Fort Langely and Sechelt with one of my musical heroes.. Neil Osborne from 54-40!

Mon July 22, Laughing Oyster, Okeover BC, w/ Sarah Jane Scouten, Jill Barber, and Ashleigh Ball – SOLD OUT

Wed July 24, Hacienda Pascalito, Savary Island BC, w/ Sarah Jane Scouten, Jill Barber, and Ashleigh Ball – SOLD OUT

Thu July 25, Refuge Cove Dockside Gallery, Refuge Cove BC, w/ Sarah Jane Scouten, Jill Barber, and Ashleigh Ball – SOLD OUT

Fri – Sun Aug 16-18, Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, Sechelt BC 

Sat Aug 24, Opera House, Gravenhurst, Ontario (w/ Jill and Matthew Barber, Clerel, Hannah Georgas, Miranda Mulholland)

Sat Aug 31, Barbers at the Base, Sergeants’ Mess Hall, Picton, Ontario (Jill Barber, Matthew Barber, Grant Lawrence) – SOLD OUT

Fri Sep 27, Chief Sepass Theatre, Fort Langley BC (w/ 54-40’s Neil Osborne, Dawn Pemberton, Lindi Ortega)

Sat Sep 28, Raven’s Cry Theatre, Sechelt BC (w/ 54-40’s Neil Osborne, Dawn Pemberton, Lindi Ortega)

Tickets for all shows.

Happy summer, happy life, and I hope to see you soon.

All the best from the watery west,

Grant Lawrence