Meet Barbara Stickel
When I first heard of Regina, all I knew was that she was supposed to be really tough, a seasoned veteran. Her past history of dependability, of always rising to whatever challenges she faced, had earned her my husband’s respect and admiration. As a matter of fact, during the first months of our marriage, regardless of where we traveled or to whom my husband spoke, it seemed his thoughts and conversations always returned to Regina. As time passed, I eventually came to realize and accept that he wanted her. A difficult situation for any new bride, it was inevitable that during my first year of marriage I would finally come head-to-head with the aging beauty.
But, before I describe that encounter, let me share a little of what I have learned about Regina since that time. Regina entered the world with a splash in 1944; she was christened in Tacoma, Washington. Although she spent her youth in Washington State, in 1953 she moved to Morro Bay, having found a young man with whom to share her life. As a matter of fact, for the next 33 years, the two of them worked side-by-side together, raising a family and always meeting all challenges. The family depended on Regina, and they always that knew she would take care of them and come home from work when expected.
Now after 33 years of working, many women would be content to stop and rest, but not Regina. Giving little heed to her age, in 1986 Regina left her family and found a new, younger man with whom she wanted to work. For thirteen years, she accompanied this younger man in his travels, schooling him in the ways of her world, and he loved her. To counteract the aging process, he even paid for her to undergo an extensive facelift. Sadly, in spite of all her skills and experience, she could not keep him satisfied. By the time I met Regina, she had been set aside, replaced by one more suited to his needs. Of course, unbeknownst to him, Regina had already caught the eye of another, even younger man—my husband.
So, with that introduction, let me tell you about our first meeting. Despite her forty-year reign as “Queen” in Morro Bay, to my surprise Regina was not at all intimidating. Slim and trim, she appeared quite ready for anything. She was dressed in a regal style quite appropriate for her age; I remember she was wearing a fresh white coat with a jaunty charcoal trim, all perfectly accessorized. However, even though she was neatly dressed, even though it was obvious that in the past she had been loved, after years of being faithful Regina had been set aside, and a forlorn air seemed to lurk about her. On closer look, I was almost pleased to see a few wrinkles—I guess you could call them “crow’s feet,” beginning to show. A blemish here, a few signs of wear there—like I said, she was an aging beauty. Despite the blemishes, my husband had to have her and so, with some apprehension, I agreed to a threesome.
Today, Regina has become the third member of our family and we both love her equally. Constructed from four-inch thick cedar, she’s 43 feet long, with a twelve-foot beam and a nicely rounded stern. What you cannot tell from looking at Regina is that there is also another almost eight feet of boat under the water, three feet of which is filled with cement for ballast, providing her with incredible righting ability. Empty, she weighs in at over 52,000 pounds. One thing you learn really quickly with a boat that weighs over 26 tons is not to use your body to try to stop it from hitting the dock!
As was the case with many fishing boats built in the North Pacific during the 1940s, Regina is what is known as a troller, built to fish with hooks for salmon and albacore tuna. Her rigging reflects this intent, with two large outriggers that are used both for stability and for fishing. When in port, her outriggers are stored upright, on either side of the mast, but at sea they are lowered to about a 75-degree angle. Part of the facelift Regina received in the 1980s included replacing her original wooden outriggers and mast with aluminum; today, all the rigging and deck equipment is either aluminum or stainless steel. This means little maintenance and no rust—a generally tidier operation than many aging fishing boats. While we did let Regina keep her beautiful white coat, we switched from charcoal trim to green, which some older fishermen assured us was a better choice for a commercial fishing boat, since it’s “the color of money!”
But Regina is more than just another aging wooden commercial fishing boat, as her history shows. Remember how I told you that when I first learned of Regina, all I knew was that she was supposed to be really tough? Well, for those of you who saw the film The Perfect Storm, you need to understand that the boat in that film, the Andrea Gail, was about seventy feet long—my skinny little Regina would probably have fit on her back deck! Additionally, according to the National Weather Service, the now-infamous Perfect Storm was actually not really quite so perfect. In fact, in 1962 the Pacific Northwest was hit with what is still considered to be the benchmark of all windstorms, the strongest non-tropical windstorm on record ever to hit the continental United States. In some places, rainfall totals in California from that date still hold records today. There are well-documented reports of the trail of destruction that the Columbus Day Storm left as it hit shore in southern Oregon and quickly moved north along the Oregon and Washington coasts, leveling entire forests and destroying buildings. Wind speeds of up to 131 miles per hour were recorded in Oregon that day. A friend of mine was fourteen years old at the time and living in Oregon—he remembers pine needles that were driven into two-by-fours left out in his yard during the storm. Winds that leveled forests!
Now remember, the Columbus Day Storm came in from the south, causing significant rainfall in California before it hit land in Oregon. What is not widely reported, however, is that the then-twenty-year old Regina, along with many other small vessels, was fishing for albacore off the coast of northern California. The fisherman who was her captain at the time—now retired and living in Morro Bay—tells a nightmarish tale of spending over 24 hours in his bunk, the covers over his head, praying, while the winds took him and Regina where they would. Following the storm, Regina brought him home, unscathed. Countless others were not so lucky.
That was Regina at age twenty. Almost forty years later, in the autumn of 2000, my husband and I were aboard her, heading to port from about ninety miles off northern California—we had been fishing albacore, in roughly the same place, at roughly the same time of year. Thankfully, weather forecasting had greatly improved since 1962. Even so, I remember that we were running in, a storm licking at our heels. I was wedged into place, trying to stay in my seat as I watched our outriggers dip in and out of the water—the boat was rolling almost ninety degrees, but thanks to all that ballast, she always rolled back upright. A 65-foot boat rolled over that night; it happened so fast that only one of the two people on board made it into the life raft and survived. From onboard our little Regina, my husband was able to assist with the rescue by relaying messages to the Coast Guard. As they plucked the lone survivor from the raft, Coast Guard personnel onboard the helicopter reported winds exceeding 75 mph. As always, Regina brought us home—and so, true to her name, for me Regina will always be the Queen of Morro Bay.
Barbara Stickel lives in Morro Bay, California. She is a member of the Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization and of the California Advisory Committee on Salmon and Steelhead Trout.