Bellingham native George Eastwood, is patching the hull of his fishing boat, The Treetopper, in the Colony Wharf in Bellingham. Eastwood wears kneepads, a black sweater with “Arizona” written on it, and suspenders colored like an American flag. He is missing a tooth, and he is all smiles. Lamenting the fact that Colony Wharf charges by the day, Eastwood cheerily says, “A boat is just a hole in the water that you pour money into.” Using a roller to squeeze the air bubbles out of the patches, Eastwood tells the occasional story from his thirty years as a forester, topping trees in Whatcom and Skagit counties.
Eastwood's long term friend and self-proclaimed jack-of-all-trades, Ron Delcamp, does most of the talking. He works and talks quickly, ahead of Eastwood, applying the patches and using a paintbrush with a special resin to adhere them. Fiberglass resin sets in about twenty minutes, leaving no time for mistakes. The two work efficiently, amiably and sometimes quietly. They take a break only when the resin becomes too thick to use. Eastwood pulls off his gloves and admires their progress, noting that The Treetopper will be seaworthy again in a couple more days.
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