Blake Island

I have been going sailing with the group called footloose sailing. This group  provides the opportunity for handicapped people to go sailing. They have a number of able-bodied volunteers to help get people in the boats. They have a lift on the dock which can lower someone who cannot otherwise get in a boat into the boat. For people whose arms are limited they have boats where the controls are electric and can be run with a joystick. Throughout the summer they have days where disabled people will go out on their boats with a volunteer to help and supply knowledge.

The major event of the summer is a trip to Blake Island.  Blake Island is a state park in the middle of Puget Sound. There is an Indian Lodge on the island which does regular salmon cookouts. There are mooring docks and worry Louise allowing people to take boats over from Seattle, is about a two-hour motor, and a stay at the island. The park has a number of camping locations. Every year footloose organizes a Blake Island trip. Volunteers go over on Thursday and reserve a number of campsites. On Saturday morning the footloose boats and the number of boats contributed by interested parties load the camping gear for people who have signed up including those who are disabled.

This year we had five people with wheelchairs, several folks with walkers and canes and a group Down's syndrome. We also had a number of spouses, significant others and able-bodied volunteers. On Saturday morning everybody met at the Elliott Bay Marina on the Seattle waterfront and were assigned to boats. We had one person in an electric wheelchair. These devices way over 300 pounds and the group has no facilities to get them onto a boat so he went over with a tour group that visits the Indian Lodge. The rest of us piled into boats with all of our gear.

I took a small footstool which I intended to use as an aid to help me get out of and into my wheelchair. Unfortunately I had failed to communicate to my wife that we needed the boat with us rather than with our luggage which went on a separate boat. Verna was well aware of the fact that we needed to stool but failed to mention it. I thought she had sent it with the regular luggage and sent people searching for the stool when in fact Verna had kept it safely with the stuff that we needed on the boat. In the end it showed up and I was able to use it to get on the boat.

While this was supposed to be a sail it was fairly obvious as we set out that the sound was dead calm and that this was turning into a motor. We did not even attempt to raise the sale on the way over.

We got there and landed at a floating dock.there were some doubts as to whether I could get up the ramp to the dock but I was able to do this by grasping both sides of the railing on the walkway and pulling myself up. The campgrounds look like the picture a number of tents in a dry grassy field. There were greener parts of the park and one of the things that we noticed was a number of the very tame deer grazing on the grass in these areas. I saw groups of deer grazing within 20 feet of a playground full of children. Obviously these animals are aware that nothing bad is going to happen to.
   The funniest thing that happened was an incident in the evening. The only person on the trip in an electric wheelchair (which weighs 500 pounds) came over with a tour boat since it would be impossible for him to come in the sailboat. He came with an attendant. At some point he wandered off and his attendant was looking for him. He walked up to me and said "have you seen Brian?"

I responded "who's Brian".

He said "he's the guy in the wheelchair."

I told this story back at the campfire to the entire group which included about five people in wheelchairs and they completely broke up.