MAX EBB The last thing my race crew wants to do when we get back to the dock is hang around and help put the boat away. So. in the interest of being the first crew back at the yacht club bar, we usu¬ ally do a quick racing roll of the jibs and just stuff the spinnakers in their bags. “Never do dishes 'til just before you need to use them," says one of my col¬ lege-age crew to justify this policy. He also claims that this is an “accountabil¬ ity issue” — that the spinnakers should always be packed by the person who is doing foredeck that day. right before the race. But really he just wants to get to the bar sooner. There is only one problem with put¬ ting the boat away so fast: As the owner, it’s up to me to "do the dishes." I usually swing by the boat on Sunday morning after a Saturday race to tidy things up. fix what broke, schlep the racing sails off and put the cruising sails back on. But last weekend I never made it that far. I was driving past the small beach near the entrance to the Marina — not even enough of a beach to be noticed by most of the berthers and restaurant cus¬ tomers who drive by it — when I encoun¬ tered a roadblock.
“P
X arking is this way!" said an at¬ tractive young woman as she pointed to a grassy area on the "Side of the road. She was behind a table set up right in the roadway, wearing a shirt that said 'volunteer' in big letters. “I’m a berther in the Marina,” I tried to explain. “Can I just...” “Here are the instructions,” said an¬ other young volunteer, thrusting a sheet of paper into my open window. “But I’m...” “The briefing is about to start!” shouted a third volunteer from behind another table. “If you hurry you can just make it!" “What the heck,” I thought. “Whatever this is,.it seems to be attracting a lot of attention and I really don’t have to be at the boat at any particular time.” So I pulled into one of the last open spaces in the designated parking area, locked the car and took a look at the papers in my hand. I was a little disappointed to discover, after sorting through the various direc¬ tions, schedules and maps, that this was “Coastal Cleanup Day." Not something I usually brake for. I was expecting maybe a stunt kite demonstration or some other unusual performance art or festival event. But no, this was just a beach cleanup. And there weren’t even any food Page 190* UZJmU Vi • September, 2002
kiosks put out by the local restaurants, like at the waterfront festivals. 1 decided to pass — but just a few sec¬ onds too late. Another car had been di¬ rected into the parking space right be¬ hind me, and before 1 had the presence of mind to ask him to let me out. the driver had blocked me in and disap¬ peared over the hill in the direction of the briefing area. I was stuck. V “Well, maybe this won't be so bad." I thought to myself. “With all these col¬ lege kids volunteering, I can probably pick up a few more names for my crew list.”
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“TXf you find, like, a syringe or a con¬ dom," instructed an amplified female voice to an audience that ranged in age from 3 to 90, "mark the spot with one of these yellow tags and our staff will take care of it. For other yucky stuff like old T.P.. be sure to use your gloves." It was Lee Helm, of all people, stand¬ ing on a table giving the final briefing. “Do you have extra gloves?” asked one of the participants. “I forgot to bring mine." v “For sure. We have a whole pile of ex¬ tra gloves right over there — and we guarantee that, like, none of them match." 1 moved in through the surprisingly large crowd, all of them holding big plas¬ tic bags, to get close to the table. “Remember to fill out your log forms as you collect, and the most unusual item wins. You have exactly two hours, starting in 15 seconds." She counted down, announced the start, and the crowd stampeded towards the beach.
“How did you ever get mixed up with this operation?" 1 asked Lee as I finally reached her table after pushing through a tide of volunteers running the other way with garbage bags. "It's fun,” she answered as 1 was is¬ sued my own big plastic bag. "And like, you won t believe some of the things people find on this beach." "1 never even realized there was a beach here.” 1 confessed, “Is it really that important to clean it up so thoroughly?” “For sure,” she said. “This beach catches a lot of trash that drifts along the shoreline. It’s like, the plastics espe¬ cially that we need to recover. They do a lot of environmental damage." “I know they look bad. but do they really hurt anything?" “Max, where have you been?" And she proceeded to give me a longv lecture about small plastic particles that cover the entire Pacific ocean, especially
