More on the Battle of Saipan

I thought I had left Saipan for new shores, but thanks to my blog, the island and it's history has followed me.  I was recently contacted by the publishers for a new book about the  battle of Saipan, and they asked if I'd like to read an advance copy of the forthcoming book, Their Backs Against the Sea.

When I was in Saipan, I visited the War Memorial Park, which has a small museum and gift shop.  The museum provided a lot of good information about the Battle for Saipan, as one would expect, but I was surprised to find the book selection about the battle was limited to non-existent.   Even their small library of reference material did not contain any books focused on the battle, which really surprised me.  So, you can imagine I was very happy to hear about Bill Sloan's new book, Their Backs Against the Sea.

However, I was a little surprised that a new book about a WWII battle was coming out this long after the war, and wondered what insight he could bring beyond compiling the accounts from other books about the Pacific campaign.  I was surprised to learn that Bill was able to interview some of the men who were involved with the battle!  Additionally, he notes in the Acknowledgements that this may be the last book he writes about the war, "not because there aren't any more stories, but because only a rapidly vanishing handful of the people who lived those stories are still around."

I'm grateful that Bill was able to capture the harrowing accounts from these men before they were lost along with all the veterans of these battles.  Bill account of the battle of Saipan, as well as the follow on battle to take Tinian, is well researched and written.   Often, when one writes or reads about warfare it can become statistical and broad-brushed, removing the humanity, loss, and individual sacrifice.  In Their Backs Against the Sea, Bill litters his account of the battle with the personal stories of the men that did the fighting.  Their accounts bring chaos, fear, loss, and amazing sacrifices to life and keep the reader on the edge of his seat and the pages turning until the Acknowledgements give way to the pages of sources that made this book possible.  Bill's efforts remind the reader that the men who fought the battles were sons, brothers, friends and comrades not merely numbers.

As I mentioned in my last blog, the battle for Saipan is considered the 'Normandy' of Pacific campaign.  It marked the beginning of the end for the Japanese empire, and yet you rarely hear much about it.  Fortunately, we now have a page turning account about the men who answered the call to service and fought this critical battle for God, country and the comrades on their left and right.  If you want to learn more about this battle and the brave men who fought it, I recommend Their Backs Against the Sea by Bill Sloan.  

The Battle for Saipan in WWII

In my last post I talked about the boom and bust economy of Saipan.  However, I should have called it the post-war boom and bust, since I did not talk about the pre-war economy.  If I included the pre-war history, I could have mentioned the sugar boom during the Japanese colonial period.  As I mentioned in the last blog, the League of Nations gave the Mariana Islands to Japan after WWI.  As the Japanese took control, a young Japanese businessman, Matsue Haruji - with a masters degree in Sugar Chemistry from Louisiana State University (obtained in 1905) - conducted a survey of Saipan and concluded it was perfect for sugar plantations.  Thousands of men were shipped in to clear the jungle landscape and plant sugar cane.  It was so successful that in 1930, he expanded to the southern neighbor island of Tinian, and then further south to Rota.  By the time WWII began, the sugar industry of the Marianas made up 60 percent of Japan's South Seas revenue!

I find this economic story quite interesting for several reasons.  First, it touches on the topic of the book How Asia Works, which laid out an argument for how the economies of Japan, Korea and China advanced, while others with similar potential have stagnated in poverty.  One of the author's key arguments was that these nations imported not just products, but industries.  In this case, Matsue was educated and worked in the American Sugar industry before bringing that knowledge back to Japan to expand the industry in his home country.

Secondly, it reminded me of the book Imperial Cruise, which tells the story of President Roosevelt's cruise to Japan in 1905 (the same year Matsue was in the US earning his degree).  During that cruise and based on America's Asian policy, Japan was encouraged to expand its territory.  Similar to America's belief that we had a 'Manifest Destiny' to expand our nation westward from sea to shining sea, the American government partnered with the Japanese in Asia and promoted the same idea of westward expansion.  This policy would lead to the expanding empire of Japan, which in turn led to the Pacific campaign of WWII.  Remember, we were a trade partner with Japan up to the point when we cut off our oil trade, which lead to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.  What a tangled web we weave.

So, America is drawn into the war with the attack on Pearl Harbor and also has to fight the war on two fronts: Pacific and Europe.  In Europe, America honed their war-fighting skills by fighting their way across north Africa.  Churchill called this the 'soft underbelly of Europe, and it gave the allied war machine a place to 'practice' establishing beach heads, running logistical support, and fighting campaigns across the ground.  At the same time, it forced the German war machine to divert forces and resources to the southern front, ahead of the allies main effort at Normandy.  People always remember Normandy and often forget the African campaign, even though 400,000 soldiers were killed or injured in 3 years of fighting in Africa.  In addition, the southern campaign continued into Italy were another two million were killed, but Normandy is is the battle that marks the turning point during the war in Europe so the northern front is the one we tend to focus on.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific, a similar series of battles led up to the decisive Battle for Saipan, which is often referred to as the Normandy of the Pacific.  During the preceding island landings, the Navy and Marines honed their beach landing tactics and prepared for Saipan.  However, Saipan was different than many of the previous battles for three key reasons.  First, it was a larger island than many of the previous atolls, which meant a larger more entrenched land force, and a longer drawn out battle to take the island.  Second, the previous battles were often either primarily naval battles (Midway) or land battles (Tarawa), but the attack on Saipan would also trigger the largest Naval "carrier-to-carrier" battle in history!   And third, Saipan was the first Japanese 'territory' to be taken, AND the first island close enough to allow the US to establish land bases for B-29 bomber runs into mainland Japan.  The fact that it opened up the mainland to attack and was in the center of Japan's Pacific empire - which allowed the US to cut off many of the occupied islands we had 'hopped over' - made Saipan the decisive point in the Pacific campaign.

Map of the Pacific Front.  The red dotted line marks the furthest extent of Japanese occupation before US forces began to push them back starting with the Battle of Midway.  The Mariana Islands, and Saipan, lie almost directly in the center of the occupied south Pacific and are within B-29 range of mainland Japan, making the battle for Saipan a decisive point in the Pacific Campaign

Now the stage is set, and on 13 June 1944 - a week after the Normandy invasion started - the battle for Saipan begins on the opposite side of the globe.  The Japanese force of 30,000 has been preparing for this battle with bunkers, caves, and even employing the local children to help build a new runway (which is now part of Beach Road).  On the American side there's a force of 71,000: two Marine Divisions, one Army Division, and 15 Naval battleships that conducted a pre-invasion bombardment with 165,000 shells!

The island has few suitable beachheads, so the Japanese had a pretty good idea where the American forces would land.  In addition, they had a commanding 360 degree view from the top of the central peak of Mount Tapochao.  They also knew that they held the decisive territory for the motherland, and were prepared to defend it to their death.  Lastly, before the battle even began, they knew that their Navy would support them with reinforcements.

View looking south from Mt Tapochao.  The International Airport sits on the same site as one of the Japanese airfields, and was a major objective during the initial attack.  The US forces were using the airfield within a week of taking it.  Then the US forces, turned north to attack up the spine of the island.  

As expected, the US forces attacked the southwest beaches where the terrain was much flatter inland, and an offshore reef break gave way to a shallow sand filled lagoon.   Although Japanese preparation ensured heavy losses during the initial attack, the Marines established six mile long beachhead by nightfall on the 15th.  Some of the American tanks lost in the beach landing, still sit in the lagoon with only their turrets poking out above the surf, (If you google images of Saipan, one of the tanks will show up in the first few results.)

The Japanese expected the attack on Saipan, however they did not expect US forces to 'hop' over so many islands in order to attack Saipan.  Despite the surprise, the Japanese saw this as an opportunity to defeat the US Navy in a decisive battle and ordered a naval counterattack on the 15th as well. On Saipan, after a Japanese counterattack that night, the Marines woke up to find the Navy had abandoned them in order to meet the Japanese Navy in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.  This carrier-to-carrier battle also became known as the great turkey shoot, with over 1700 aircraft involved, and the decisive battle Japan had envisioned swung decisively to the Americans.  The Japanese lost 3 of 5 carriers, 2 oil tankers, and around 600 of 750 aircraft.  The US only had one battleship damaged and 123 aircraft lost.  For the Japanese, this defeat meant they would not be able to reinforce their forces on Saipan.

The second night after the beaches were secured, the Japanese staged a counter attack with their largest tank attack in the Pacific.  The attack was intended to cut off the beachhead by rolling down the flank of the US forces, just south of the city of Garapan along what is now Beach Road.  In the end the tank attack failed, as burning tanks helped silhouette the advancing tanks making them easier targets in the night.  Today, a destroyed Japanese Tank sits at the sight of the battle on top of one of the old battle-scarred beach bunkers.

Destroyed Japanese tank on top of a battle-scarred bunker.  Soldiers wrote that during the nighttime battle the burning tanks would silhouette the tanks that were still advancing making them easy targets.

After the tank battle, the Marines pushed inland, the Army division turned south to take the airfield, and the Marines 'swung like a gate' to the north to prepare for the arduous fight up along the central spine of the island.  Some of the heaviest losses took place during the push north in places nicknamed Purple Heart Ridge, Hell's Pocket and Death Valley.   Eventually, the enemy was pushed all the way to the north end of the island, and the Japanese made one final and unsuccessful counter attack. before beginning to commit mass suicide by jumping off an inland cliff, now known as Suicide Cliff, or into the sea from a point known as Bonsai Cliff.  Unfortunately, Japanese propaganda, and over 20 years of Japanese rule led many natives and Japanese civilians to follow the soldiers over the edge.

East side of Suicide Cliff.  Bonsai cliff is on the horizon where the ocean meets the land.  

Bonsai Cliff - Even if a person survived the fall, they had no way of getting out with miles of cliffs in both directions and heavy currents pulling them out to sea.

In the end 29,000 Japanese soldiers perished, 5000 of which were suicides, and 22,000 civilians, most of which were suicides.   The US had 3,426 killed and 10,000 wounded.  The entire battle took 24 days and ended on the 9th of July.  However, a small band of Japanese continued harassing attacks and escaped capture for another 17 months!  They were led by Captain Sakae Oba and did not surrender until after the war was over.

After Saipan was secured the Americans immediately set their sights on the island of Tinian to the south.  It was attacked on the 24th and secured by the first of August, 1944, followed by Guam, the last Mariana island to be taken by US forces.  The other 13 Mariana Islands were essentially cut off and ignored, as were any Japanese and native people that inhabited them.  Shortly after Saipan and Tinian were secured, the existing airstrips were repaired and additional airstrips were built to begin attacks on mainland Japan.  A year later, on 6 August, 1945, the Enola Gay took off from one of those airstrips on Tinian and dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, speeding the end to the war.

Boom and Bust in Modern Saipan

Apparently, Saipan isn't even recognized by Blogger's spell check.  That is how little notice my current home gets in this world.  Of course since I'm from Wyoming, I'm used to being from a place that is unfamiliar to most.  When I was growing up in Wyoming, I once saw an episode of the Garfield cartoon in which they had a bit: 'If it's on TV, it must be true'.  In it, they explained that an Italian artist was drawing the map of America and when he was finished there was a blank spot in the middle.  He wrote "Wyoming" in the blank spot which meant "nothing's here" in Italian.  It was a clever bit, and I have used the reference often when people don't know the state.  Another amusing response I often get when I tell people I'm from Wyoming is: "Ah, Miami."  I don't hear the similarity, but apparently it's there.

So let me tell you a little about the place I'm living and learning about now.  It is one of 16 Mariana Islands, of which, 15 make up the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).  Saipan is part of the CNMI while Guam is in the Marianas but remains a separate US territory.  Saipan is also on the west side of the international dateline, so it is commonly said to be where America's day begins.  And although Hawaii is the closest US state to Saipan, ironically it's where America's day ends 44 hours later.  Actually, Hawaii does share that distinction with the western Aleutian Islands of Alaska too.

The native Chamorro and/or their ancestral Indonesian/Filipino seafarers, arrived 4,000 years ago.  Archaeologists actually believe that Tinian, Saipan's southern neighbor island, may have been the first Pacific island to be settled outside Asia.  Today, the Chamorro only make up about five percent of the population.  The other 'native' group is the Carolinian, but they arrived in the 1800's, after the first colonial powers, which began arriving in the 1600's.  The Spanish were the first to use the island as a stop off point and built ranches to raise animals to supply ships passing through the Marianas.  The English, Dutch, and others also made it a port of call, and like most colonized locations, most of the locals died from disease or were simply pushed out to make room for colonial expansion.

In 1898, the Spanish lost the island to the US, after the Spanish-American War, but sold it to the Germans without much protest from the US.  However, neither made any effort to colonize or develop the island, so not much changed for the new Spanish and Carolinian occupants or the remaining Chamorro people.  However, as a twist of fate and war, because the Germans owned the island, and the Japanese supported the Allies of WWI, the League of Nations awarded control of Saipan to Japan after the war was over. (The Japanese did take the island during WWI, but at that time it was considered a German territory.)  So as Japan expanded it's empire in WWII, Saipan was not part of its conquest.  Rather it had already been governed by Japan for over 20 years.

The old Japanese Hospital, now the Saipan Museum, which rarely opens.
During Japanese colonial rule, this was one of the most modern hospitals in all of Japan.

I'll write more about the WWII history of Saipan later on, but for now I want to get into the boom and bust life of Saipan as a territory of the US.  The first boom was the US military presence, which still remains part of the local economy, with a fleet of supply ships anchored just off shore, a small Army Reserve force on the island, and a National Park War Memorial all providing jobs, income and spending on the island.  I get rocked to sleep and jostled awake everyday by the boats that run workers to and from the cargo ships anchored in the lagoon.  Although it is still part of the economy, and saw some spikes with the Korean and Vietnam wars, the military spending dried up significantly after WWII.  

The next two booms were simultaneous.  The most significant was the garment industry, which started in 1983, peaked in in the 1990's and was gone in 2009.  In 1999, the industry hit its peak with $1.05 BILLION in sales, which brought in $39.3 million in local 'user fees' taxes for the island that year.  In addition to the tax revenue, the industry also brought in over 15,000 foreign factory workers (25% of the islands population) who spent an estimated $39 million a year in the local economy.  The millions sound impressive, but they actually equate to only 8 percent of the total garment sales revenue. This was a small price to pay for the 'Made in America' tag, which production in Saipan provided to the companies that bought the garments.  As for who was buying the clothes produced in Saipan, it was pretty much every single American clothing company: The Gap, Levi Strauss Co, Cutter & Buck, Dayton Hudson, J. Crew Group, J.C. Penny, Sears Roebuck & Co., The Limited, Oshkosh B'Gosh, The Gymboree, the May Company, Lane Bryant, Wal-Mart, Tommy Hilfiger, and Ralph Lauren to name a few.  

Part of an abandoned apartment complex.  It seemed they had consolidated appliances to different apartments.
This one was the fridge apartment.  Also, it appeared they were renovating a few of the buildings next door,
which I guess was signs of better financial times in the latest boom.

So, what caused the garment industry to crash?  Despite the big money and big brands the whole thing was riddled with corruption, and poor oversight and regulation.  The workers had little to no rights, and some worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Often they were promised good jobs in America, paid recruiters $6000 for the opportunity, and found themselves in Saipan either in a factory working for $3 an hour, or on the streets without any job at all.  Since 90% of these new arrivals were young women, those who arrived with no job awaiting them, often ended up forced into prostitution.  In one case a man contacted a local hospital to ask how much he could make selling a kidney in order to return to his home country.

Ironically, the 1999 peak in sales was also met with three separate lawsuits filed by aid groups on behalf of 30,000 current and past factory workers that same year.  In addition, the factories and their sweatshop conditions were getting more and more publicity in the United States, both in public and in government.  Jack Abramoff, of lobbying corruption infamy was paid $6.7 million by the government of CNMI to prevent congressional oversight of the industry.  Meanwhile, multiple articles were published in both US and international papers as well as magazines.  And some lawmakers were even raising the alarm, despite others trying to brush it off or cover it up.  In the end, Congress finally stepped in to raise the minimum wage and enforce greater immigration regulations, which eventually led to the end of the Garment Industry.

At the same time the garment industry was booming, so was Japan's economy.  And they were also on a real estate buying binge in the US which included Saipan.  I spoke to someone who said any property on the water was going for millions of dollars, and after the crash you'd be lucky to get $40,000.  However, these properties were not actually bought by foreign investors, because Saipan law prohibits anyone other than natives from buying land.  So instead these were 50 year leases on the property, which could be renewed.

At the peak, Japan funded several resort hotels as well as other businesses.  I know of one resort that is still operated by a Japanese firm, and several that have either transitioned to new ownership or failed all together.  One of the most glaring examples is the Fiesta Mall, locally referred to as the Fiasco Mall.  It used to be a popular shopping and hangout spot for everyone from the garment workers to tourists.  Now it is rapidly being reclaimed by the surrounding jungle and only frequented by graffiti artists, vandals, and kids playing war with Airsoft guns.

When Japan's economy crashed, so did the real estate market in Saipan.  Moreover, Japan was also a big part of Saipan's tourism industry, which has always been a mainstay of Saipan's economy.  During the boom, the Japanese were the primary tourists in Saipan, now they have dropped to number three.

The latest boom, has been tied to a resurgence in tourism for two reasons.  The first is a growing middle and upper class in Korea and China, which have taken over the top two spots from Japan.  Now China and Korea are both tied at around 40 percent of the tourist population each year.  That is 80 percent of all the tourism on the island, with Japan making up nearly all of the last 20 percent and the rest of the world barely making a blip on the tourism radar.

The second is the newly legalized gambling industry, which is monopolized by a Chinese firm "Best Sunshine," my employer.  Although, gambling has been legal on other islands in the CNMI, the recent legalization in Saipan is a first for the island, and was done in hopes that it would save the flailing economy and the cash strapped government pension funds.  Japan actually ran a casino on Tinian that went belly up, along with it's ferry, which I would have liked to use to visit the island.

However, the latest boom is already showing signs of bust.  The Best Sunshine parent company (Imperial Pacific International) stock has dropped over 50 percent from recent all time highs.  The main casino hotel project is behind schedule, which has also led Moody's to downgrade the bonds sale from B3 to B2.  Plus, they are under investigation from all fronts, for possible money laundering, to unpaid construction service fees, wrongful termination, and unsafe work environment on the construction site, where they recently denied OSHA access to investigate recent workers' injuries and deaths.  It seems there is something new in the news everyday.

Construction site of the Phase 1 Casino Hotel project.  Lit up at night by the welders.  The speed of progress has been amazing, but I don't know how it will be open in March, when I shot this video at the beginning of January.

Before all of this turmoil, they were allowed to build a temporary 'training' site, which is an actual casino, where new staff are able to learn their jobs as costumers gamble away real money.  The reason it is called a training site is because the legalization of gambling stipulated that the new casino could not occupy an existing property, but must occupy a new construction.  Amazingly, this tiny training location has been able to rake in huge returns.  So much so that it is now the most lucrative casino in the world.  With only about 40 gaming tables and about as many slot machines, the site was able to have over $32 BILLION in chip turnover in its first year alone! That is over $2 million per day per table!  Somehow, this meager 'training' site has been able to beat out the gaming giant of The Sand Venetian in Macau.  It is no wonder there is suspicion of money laundering.

Even my yachting job is tied to this wild casino gamble.  The Grand Marianas yachting fleet is a subsidiary of the casino, and we cater to the VIP customers of the gaming tables.  So, I can only hope that the company is able to raise the $60 million in new capital they need to keep things going before their phase one casino hotel opens in March.  If not, I guess I may be the first to know when I fail to see my paycheck and the fuel trucks stop coming to refuel the boats.

It's too soon for Saipan's next bust... both legal and economic.  Their biggest hope for avoiding the legal bust was the fact that president-elect Trump's ex-casino CEO, Mark Brown, was running the show here.  However, as of TODAY, he was pushed aside and the Chinese COO has taken over as the CEO, as Mark travels to drum up capital after the bond downgrade.   I guess the casino is gambling on the odds of a financial bust being greater than a legal one.  Either way, wish me and Saipan good luck.

Artful Miami

For six months I lived on a yacht in Miami Beach, which was very nice, but I was on the yacht for work not an extended vacation.  However, when I did have time off, I took advantage of the opportunity to explore the city.  I’d say Miami has it all, but that simply isn’t true.  The first thing it is lacking is seasons.  While in Miami, I found myself in the middle of what felt like an endless summer.  Even though I was there in the winter, I had just spent the last summer in Alaska, and the Florida 'winter' felt like summer to me.  This made it hard to remember that it was winter almost everywhere else in the country.  I had never considered how helpful seasons are for marking the passage of time, but in Miami I was losing track of time as fall and winter slipped past and the arrival of spring was just a slow rise in temperatures from hot to uncomfortably hot. For months I spoke to friends about their summer plans, and I kept thinking it is already here rather than three months away.   I’m not saying I haven’t enjoyed the warm weather, but I think I prefer a place with seasons to mark my place in the year. 

However, the consistent great weather did afford me the opportunity to check out the impressive Miami art scene.  And I think the art scene might be thriving, because you have to be creative if you’re going to celebrate Christmas when it is 80 degrees outside.  This occurred to me as I explored Wynwood during Art Basel and passed a Christmas tree sales tent with a backdrop of palm trees and an inflatable Santa standing on thick green lawn. 

Art Basel is the biggest arts event in Miami and a plethora of other satellite events and tents have sprung up around it.  I spent my time around Wynwood, the Miami art district, which is full of murals and artisan breweries that are also covered in Murals.  The area is popular year round, especially for their monthly second Saturday events, however the Art Basel scene made a second Saturday look sleepy. 

The streets were packed with traffic, which was largely deadlocked, in part due to the major street party that was going on at 22^nd St. and 2^nd Ave.  Two large tents covered several empty lots, and were filled with bars, a stage of lights, jumbotrons, Speakers and DJ equipment, and a sea of humanity raging between it all.  Beyond the tents was a pop up Skate Park and another large lot filled with food trucks.  I had to make a video, because pictures simply would not do it justice:

At the corner of 25^th and 2^nd, I passed a U-haul that was parked on a corner, back wide open with the storage space converted into a mobile stage.  The band was pouring out into the street, which was being blocked by the onlookers with arms raised and phones recording the impromptu performance.  After a few songs, they broke into slow rap about how the cops were going to shut them down, but that quickly ramped back up into pleas 'for five more minutes.'  I moved on before their fate was decided.

I was more interested in getting to the J Wakefield Brewery, which has some of the best beer in Wynwood.  Despite the great beer, it normally has pretty small crowds and a laid back vibe.  However, as I suspected, they were overflowing with Basel crowds as well, and had a DJ out front keeping the overflowing crowds entertained as they drank beers at the picnic tables or awaited some food at the food truck.   The DJ, beers and crowd were fun, but I didn't linger long, because I wanted to check out the new murals that were being painted around the district.

One of the more controversial aspects of the art scene in Wynwood is the constant transition and renewal of the mural works throughout the district.  At J Wakefield, they have covered their walls in murals, mostly tied to Star Wars, but I've also seen them change in the time I've been here.  While I enjoy the new art, I also hate to see the old works painted over.  The brewery use to  have a phoenix on one of the walls, which has now been replaced by a dragon.  In another year it will probably be something new.  I heard a story about a local painting company that actually has the job of painting over walls to prep them for new murals.  The owner of the company is also a local graffiti artist and often has to take a lot of heat from other graffiti artists while he is on the job painting over their work to prepare it for something new.  He has even had to paint over some of his own work.  In the end he says he does it because he has to pay the bills, and he gets the work because property owners know they can depend on him to show up and get the job done.  I guess it is like all aspects of life, the only thing that is constant is change.  At J Wakefield, the the tap list changes even more often than the artwork, and both will keep me coming back.

Just a few blocks away, I decided to stop at an art shop I had passed several times before but hadn't stopped because of the security, fence and valet had made it seem less inviting in the past.  However, for Art Basel, they were living up to their name - Art Fusion Gallery - with live band in the parking lot, surrounded by several sculpture pieces, in front of the mural covered walls, which also had art video clips being projected on them.  Inside I discovered it had been voted Florida’s number one gallery two years running, and I could see why.  The artwork was excellent and represented local talents as well as several artists from around the world.  They also represented a variety of mediums as well, from photography and paintings, to sculptures and found object pieces.  They even had one artist who had added an augmented reality experience to her paintings, which could be seen by viewing her work through an ipad camera screen.    

In the end, I never even made it to the main Art Basel event tents around the Miami Beach convention center, but I did visit several satellite events around Wynwood.  Although, they did have more of an art show feel, they too had the festival/party atmosphere as well.  There were café bars in each tent as well as a rolling wine carts for the VIP crowd.  I was not a VIP and was primarily there for the art, but as I left someone in line asked me if there was a bar inside.  I told him there was and he loudly reported this news back to his friends.  I'm not sure if it was the news of booze or their thirst for the arts that kept them in line, but they stayed.  

Months later, Miami hosts the much more laid back Coconut Grove Art Festival.  It started in 1963 and has grown to include 360 international artists selected from 1,300 applicants, plus a stage for musical performances as well.  I attended this festival a year before I made it to Art Basel, and enjoyed the fact that it is organized into individual booths for artists to display and sell their work.  This provides you with the opportunity to meet the artists and learn about their work, inspiration and more.  While a few artists were at Art Basel as well, I found that most of the art was being presented by sales surrogates, and sometimes the same artwork was being displayed and sold in more than one area.  This gave Basel a much more sales focused and less approachable feel.  

One artist I met at Coconut Grove, also did murals and told me he had several works in Wynwood,  and even invited me to an event in Wynwood later in the week.  We chatted for a while and he also told me about a cross country road trip he funded by painting mural bread crumbs along his path.   Before he departed on the trip, he had searched his route using google street view, and called businesses that he found with graffiti on their walls.  He would offer his services painting murals and then planned the trip according to the jobs he lined up.  

Another was photographer Brad Pogatetz, who searched for blight in all the towns he attended art festivals.   He had some pretty amazing photographs of churches and factories in various stages of decay.  I was shocked to see some of the churches that had been allowed to crumble, with such beautiful art and wood work left to the destructive forces of the elements.  

I probably chatted with over a dozen artists before I finally decided I needed to cut the conversations short in order to make it through the other 300 exhibits.  Despite my best efforts, I wasn't able to finish before the show closed for the evening.  

Besides the annual shows and the murals throughout the city, Miami also has several art museums and even an art bar worth checking out.  On my first trip to Little Havana, I discovered CubaOcho, which proclaimed it had 'the best Mojitoe' around.  Of course I had seen this same sign outside of almost every bar I passed in Little Havana, but what drew me into this bar was that it was also called a Museum and Performing Arts Center.  

Inside I found walls, ceilings, and even table tops covered in art.  The stage looked like a library, complete with an antigue fainting couch and other sofas.  Even the bar was covered with artwork.  The owner had escaped Cuba with some Cuban artworks that were endanger of being destroyed by the Castro's communist revolution, and after arriving in Miami, continued his efforts to rescue pre-revolution artwork, as well as introducing post-revolution Cuban artwork to the Miami area.  The Mojito was good, but it is the artwork that keeps me coming back.  

Finally, even the architecture of Miami has Art in the name.  Miami Beach is famous for it's Art Deco skyline, as well as the later development of MiMo, or Miami Modern architectural style.  This was one of the first things that drew me to Miami, long before the yachting.  I have been on several Art Deco walking tours and also would recommend the FIU Wolfsonian Museum, which is housed in a historic storage building that was built in the Art Deco style as well.  The Museum has a great collection of art and appliances from the 1920's and '30's all built in the futuristic style of the Art Deco era.  

So, despite the lack of seasons, Miami is not lacking when it comes to art from all disciplines.  

My Life as a Dungeness Crabber

Tenakee From the Ferry Dock

 

During my summer working as a crabber, I stayed with my sister in Tenakee Springs, Alaska.  Tenakee is a tiny village tucked in Tenakee Inlet on Chichagof Island, southwest of Juneau.  In the winter there are only about 60 permanent residents, but in the summer the population can swell to over a 100 with tourists and residents with summer homes and cabins in the area.  In my experience, it seemed like the population doubled every time they had a community BBQ.  This suspicion was confirmed when I was told that the traditional Crab Boil for the 4^th of July was cancelled years ago due to the influx of ‘guests’ from Juneau, and even yacht clubs from Washington state.  Despite the lack of crab, the 4^th of July celebrations still bring a lot of weekenders, fishermen and even an occasional cruise ship. 

4th of July Underwear Race

 

Since the town is on an island and is surrounded by national forest, the only access is via boat or seaplane.  There is a single dirt road that runs through the town with beachside stilted houses on one side and hillside homes on the other.  The only vehicles in town are the fuel and fire trucks.  The rest of the residents rely on boats, bikes, 4-wheelers, and carts for transportation.  I usually walked, since everything is within walking distance, and it afforded me the opportunity to pick and eat the many different berries that grow wild along the side of the road: tiny strawberries, delicious thimbleberries, huckleberries, blueberries, plump and colorful salmon berries and even cherries from trees that have beautiful blossoms in the spring. 

The town is named after the local hot springs, which serve as the public bath.  The public bath adds to the communal vibe, but it is also a bit of a necessity, since some of the homes do not have running water, or their water lines run from streams or springs and can freeze in the winter.  The bathhouse is covered in murals, which are one of the first things that greets visitors as they enter town from the ferry terminal.  Inside, the bath itself is little more than a crack in the earth surrounded by a 5x10 foot cement square bathing basin to pool the 108-degree spring waters.  The basin and changing room have recently been renovated, but the structure itself dates back to the 1930’s, when it was built as one of the many Conservation Corps projects in the region. One of the interesting things with having the bath house in the middle of the small town is that you occasionally see people wandering down the street in pajamas or a bathrobe.  And, coatracks double as shower shelves inside the front door of some homes, where shower caps and shampoo share shelves with knit caps, and hangers are hung with rain coats and bath towels.

It's difficult to describe Tenakee in just a few words, and I've heard it described several ways: a base camp for hippies, a Geriatric camp, and even a shire.  Having lived on many military base camps overseas, the base camp connotation makes sense to me.  The town has a generator humming on the hill to provide power, and has to ship in all of its supplies from Juneau or even farther afield, which gives it a base camp kind of feel.  And, although there is a bit of a soldier/survivalist vibe, since you must be pretty self-reliant in such a remote village, it also has a strong hippy vibe, with local artists and a communal atmosphere that comes with living in a small town.  Then there are the rising property prices, which are pricing out new buyers, so the town is filling with retirees and ‘old-timers,’ making the Geriatric camp a fitting description as well.  The communal vibe also plays into the shire reference, along with the gardens, greenery, wild fruits and flowers that grow abundantly in the rain-forest climate. 

However, I would also call it an art community with a fishing problem.  This occurred to me while I was sitting in the local bakery, enjoying both their Artisanal Pizza and all the local artists’ work that decorate the walls and shelves.  There’s the famous work of Rie Munoz, who lived and painted here for several years of her life.  Ken Wheeler has a collection of woodwork, Cynthia Meyer has an assortment of photography books and calendars available, and several other artists have paintings and jewelry available as well.  Also, as I mentioned, the local bath house is covered with murals and has stained-glass for the windows in the changing room, which were all done by a local artist.  



Rie Munoz's painting of the Ferry arriving in Tenakee Springs.  Snyder's Mercantile is the general store on the left, and the bath house is the small white building to the right of the ferry dock, next to the Blue Moon Café.

Cynthia Meyer's photo of me kayaking in front of town. 

 

In addition to artwork and artisanal food, the small town even has a music scene.  It's hard to imagine that a town with only sixty people would have a band, but it actually has two or three depending on who you ask.  I saw the rock band perform at the local school graduation party (graduating class of one), and I saw the folk band perform at the 4th of July festivities as well as a local birthday party. 

  Folk Band jamming in the 4th of July Parade

 

As fun as it was to hang out around town, the fishing is what I came to town to experience, and as one local fisherman said, “The problem with fishing is, if you want to make a small fortune, you need to start with a big one.”  I wasn’t out to make a fortune, and you can start as a deck hand without needing a big fortune either.  Working on an Alaskan fishing boat has been on my ‘adventure jobs’ list for several years, but I had never really learned much about the industry.  I just figured you either fished or crabbed, but it turns out there are quite a variety of fishing methods and boats, from net fishers like gill netters and seiners, to hook fishing like trolling and long line, and then there is shrimping and crabbing. 

Gill netters use different sizes of nets to catch fish.  When the fish try to swim through the net, they can only fit their head through, and then catch their gills if they try to back out.  Seiners also use a net, but they run a large net around schools of fish using a second boat to pull the net in a large loop around the fish.  Trollers drag multiple lines of hooks with bait or lures to catch fish, much like sport-troll fishing.  Long liners leave lines of hooks and bait on the ocean floor to catch bottom-feeding fish like halibut and flounder.  And then there are shrimpers like Forrest Gump, the king crab fishers of ‘Deadliest Catch’ fame, and the lesser known Dungeness crabbers.  I was one of the latter. 

Rosanna Marie at the Tenakee Springs Harbor

 

I crabbed aboard the Rosanna Marie, named after the original owner’s daughter.  It’s bad luck to change the name of a boat, so it was wise that he didn’t name it after his wife, since he remarried four times.  He had her built after his first boat sank in a storm.  He washed up on a beach, salvaged the ship's compass from the wreckage, and had the compass built into the table of the Rosanna Marie in 1979. 

Compass in the table, next to my laptop as I wrote this blog.

Sinking his first ship didn't make him more cautious at sea.  When he sold Rosanna Marie to my captain, he told him in passing that he had replaced all the windows of the wheel house with Plexiglas after the glass ones had all been blown out by a wave in another storm.  He also said the boat could be used for king crab, and could carry 14 pots and 1200 crabs, but the load would push the deck under water!  Fortunately for me, my captain isn’t as cavalier on the ocean, and Dungeness crabbing is a bit tamer than the open-ocean fishing the first owner had done. 

I crabbed in Tenakee Inlet, off the inner-coastal waterway, which is protected from the winds and waves of the open ocean.  It's also much more scenic than the open ocean.  Rather than a vast and barren horizon, I was surrounded by grand glacial valleys and bays.  The last remnants of winter snow dusted the mountaintops above the lush greens of summer.  The inlet stretches 35 miles to the west off the Chatham Strait, and is up to three miles wide with multiple bays and valleys extending off of the southern shore. 

The head of Tenakee Inlet where we would anchor at night

 

Throwing crab pots for a living.

The crabbing days were long, and physically tiring, but I never grew tired of the scenery.  My captain often spoke about the fall season, and how the daylight was shorter and the weather and water was colder, but the inlet on a blue-sky day, with glass calm waters and fresh snow on the mountains, just couldn't be beat.  Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to experience the fall season.  Instead, I packed my bags and headed for Florida where I'm now enjoying the warm weather and waters of Fort Lauderdale as I search for my first job in the yachting industry.  As far as I can tell, Fort Lauderdale is a party town with a yachting problem, and I hope to have a yachting problem of my own soon.