Daily Archives: December 13, 2010

Profiling an island icon


I had the honor of visiting local legend Dave Ullin aboard his tugboat last week.

Ullin is revered by many on the island for his self-sufficiency, integrity and generosity.

Many more only know him as a strikingly uncommon sight: a big man with big hands wearing thick wool pants, suspenders and a bag full of archaic tools tromping through Winslow. You don’t see people like Ullin much anymore. He looks like a man who stepped out of the old Hall Brothers Shipyard, circa 1892, and into modern Winslow.

Going below deck on Ullin’s tug is like taking that step in reverse. The boat is a living museum of old logging, fishing, farming, blacksmithing and shipbuilding equipment. All fitting snugly in designated spots. And it’s full of innovative touches, like Ullin’s custom-built hinged bunk, his kale sauerkraut-making operation, his clothes-mending station and a compact little workshop, complete with a 100-year-old drill press and tools Ullin forged himself.

I could go on and on about Dave Ullin. And I did, in THIS profile.

Ullin’s future is uncertain. The state gave him and the other dozen or so liveaboards eviction notices last month. There is some late-breaking hope, city leaders say, for a compromise. I detail that development HERE.

Check in on Wednesday to see where that proposal goes. The City Council is set to vote on a new plan that may allow as many as 14 liveaboards to remain anchored in the harbor.

Marshall: Love, hate and hot showers

Here’s Islander columnist Becky Fox Marshall’s column about our recent spate of power outages.

For anyone unfamiliar with what is meant by a “love/hate” relationship, might I suggest you experience being the only house in your neighborhood that mysteriously has power the day before Thanksgiving?

I am smack dab in the middle of about 16 homes on the west side of Bainbridge Island that, like the rest of the island, lost power on the Monday before Thanksgiving. It was all rather exciting to experience that howling, frigid wind and see Puget Sound behaving like an ocean with high, pounding surf.

After a few rounds of Bananagrams by lantern light with NOAA Weather Radio in the background repeating its endless loop of millibars and wind speeds, we hunkered down in our own homes for a long, cold night of scary sounds and down comforters.
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