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"Captain" is short for "Volunteer Captain". Among the hundreds of volunteers, Volunteer Captains help organize and lead to get various jobs done. Bar Harbor is simply the big tent where alcohol sales, music, and dancing happen. I believe it is one of the high points of the festival, and likely one of the bigger profit centers for the NWMC. Just a guess. Ironically, Ms. O'Neal's conduct at the 2018 and 2019 festivals forced me to resign my position as one of the set-up captains.

While we are talking about vaccines and masks, I'd like to add my two cents. Please consider everything I write to be as if under oath.

I served as a Naval Officer and fighter/bomber pilot 1984-1991, including a trip to the Gulf. The F/A-18C (single seat) required users to wear a fairly heavy mask, which along with the integrated helmet kept us safe and well-aerated through all flight regimes. Of course, when pulling 7.5 gs in a bombing pattern or when doing ACM (air combat maneuvering), the 30# of gear on one's head turned into 200+# of gear, and tried to pull one's head the one's knees. We got used to it. We also took whatever vaccines we were told to take.

As an airline pilot, too, the first thing we did if we had smoke in the cockpit or pressurization issues was to don the full face mask.

In either case, pilot incapacitation would cause the loss of a $35 million fighter or, worse yet, the loss of an airliner over water with 240 people in back. And if I wanted to fly to Africa or South America (Yes!), we had to get vaccines. On top of that, I have gotten my flu shot every year for the past 30 or so. It has never bothered me, and I've never had the flu. Yay! science.

An N-95 is such a relatively minor thing that I do not think it is a big deal at all. I am so grateful that Pfizer and Moderna were able to quickly modify the vaccines they had developed for the first SARS. I understand that mRNA vaccines are inherently easily modified.

We had a COVID scare last week. On Thursday, my wife met at Sea Marine with an upholsterer about replacing some cushions. They met for about 20 minutes. Both were vaccinated and wore masks. Except for one period of a few minutes, they were distanced (all according to my wife).

Early Friday, about 18 hours after my wife's shopping visit, I drove to Spokane where I have been helping my daughter fix up a house we are trying to help her buy with her fiance. They were utterly shut out of the market by cash offers, so we are trying something else. I spent Saturday and Sunday in close contact with her, installing ceiling tiles.

She is an apparently healthy kid in her late 20s. However, a decade ago she came down with an auto-immune issue. I am so proud of that kid for dealing with it with such grace and strength. However, she has been on virtual lockdown for the past 16 months or so because a COVID infection could easily be fatal for her. Also, I have been extremely careful about my exposures, lest I bring her an unwanted present.

Tuesday morning, Sea Marine called my wife to tell her that the person she had been talking to tested positive with a breakthrough case Friday, and was likely very contagious when my wife visited.

Let me repeat that: Sea Marine waited four days (Friday to Tuesday) to notify my wife that her contact was hot.

They further said that an unvaccinated employee caused the breakthrough case.

My wife immediately called me in Spokane, and got the wheels turning to get a self-test. My first instinct was to get out of their house immediately. My daughter and I researched things a bit, and realized that even if my wife caught it from the Sea Marine employee, the 18 hours was almost certainly not enough time to incubate and become infectious. Tuesday afternoon, my wife's test came back negative, so we all breathed a big sigh of relief.

As a though experiment, though, let's imagine that my wife caught a breakthrough case from the Sea Marine employee, and I left Monday, instead of Friday. So, I carried a breakthrough case to Spokane, infected my daughter, and she died. Not one of these possibilities is remote, given the way the Delta variant is moving.

Continuing the though experiment: in this hypothetical case, what liability or moral responsibility would the unvaccinated Sea Marine employee who put the whole chain of events into motion have? What liability would Sea Marine have for taking so long to notify my wife of her exposure?

Obviously, I support NWMC's vaccine mandate, and I do not blame them at all for cancelling. They were between the proverbial rock and hard place.

From: UPDATE | Northwest Maritime Center cancels Wooden Boat

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