Exerpt from Log of Ketch “KRAZYKAT”, Capt. Gary, Delivery Skipper

      Final entry, 6/30/30: Arrived in port at Casino Island approx. 14:00, John Taylor at the helm.  15:30, ship & papers turned over to owners & crew signed off. The Coyote Brothers have become fairly competent as seamen these last two seasons crewing with me, & should have some good “what I did over my summer vacation” tales when they return to UCLA this Fall. The Brass Cylinder was safely delivered to Father Murphy at the Mission Church, with a certified copy of this log to follow in another day or two.
                                      G.

Log of Sloop “REDWOLF”  12/12/32

A bragging contest at Mango Molly’s tonight, with the flyboys trying to outdo each other on the strangest cargo they’ve carried. The winner seemed to be that young Collie, “Terry” I think they called him, who’s partners with O’Brien in the weekly Coconut deliveries to the “Cabana Club” Resort, where the nuts are tied up on trees for the tourists. I stayed quiet, but the contest did get me to thinking back on that Jim Taylor cargo I’d delivered.

Taylor was a red fox from out in some small town in Kansas, where he worked as a mailman. ‘Bout as far from the sea as you can get, but ever since he’d been a kid, Taylor had a dream of sailing off to the South Seas! He’d read every book he could get his hands on, & as he grew up, his house was filled with ships in bottles & pictures of sailing ships & all sort of stuff like that. As the years passed & he retired from the post office, his dream had narrowed into one special scene; picturing himself at the helm of a small ship sailing proudly into the lagoon of Spontoon Island! An odd choice actually, as Spontoon isn’t in the South Seas, but is North of the line! Still, I think he’d seen a few of the movies set there, or read about it in some book, & the idea of Spontoon as the “Tropical Island Paradise” of his dreams took too firm a hold to shake!

I think it was for his 70th b’day that his kids got together to fly him out to his special island for a vacation. The tour guides were paid to make sure he only saw what he wanted to see, & he left happy, but with the old dream of his sailing at the helm into Spontoon’s lagoon just all that much stronger!

His oldest boy, Jim Junior, had been given my name as someone known to take on green hands as paying crew for the sail from Stateside to the Islands. We came to an agreement that, next delivery trip came my way, I’d get in touch & we’d see what could be done about fulfilling the old fox’s dream. It wasn’t till some 18 months later that the ketch “KRAZYKAT” left San Diego and some weeks later, as promised, entered the lagoon of Spontoon Isand, with a brass cylinder containing Jim Taylor’s ashes lashed firmly to her helm!

I left that Terry lad enjoy his glory as a coconut carrier, but I wonder how many of those flyboys have carried a dream in their cargo holds?
                                                                                              G.