LAST DAY AT ROCKY NECK STATE PARK

Jim's daughter-in-law, Wendy, with her sisters gathered at the beach. Her brother, not pictured, is also present. This camp out at Rocky Neck for the Coombe family has been a tradition for many years. Rocky Neck is approximately 20-30 minutes from home for everybody. Adults and the kids look forward to this yearly reunion.   The kids are all cavorting in the sand or the shallow, sandy bottomed Atlantic. Great place for kids to swim. Since I'm a big kid, I enjoyed it too. Compared to the Pacific, the water is warm and friendly. It even seems less salty.

Two nine year old cousins, walked with me to the jetty, Shelby and Jaime. They showed me where the brook enters the ocean; helped me find pretty stones unique to the area; and where the ice cream truck hangs out.

I teased them that this was their favorite part of the beach.

Three of the cousins biked back to the campground with me. Meridith, the youngest, biked with her mom and dad since she can't yet keep up with the older kids.

Shelby diverted me to an amphitheater where she posed for the camera with no prompting. I can see a budding actress here.

Before dinner, the kids played rousing games of volley ball with all comers.

 Jim stayed away from the beach, nursing his bug bites and settled in with a good book.

GERALD d'AUBERVILLE, ADVENTURER

"We say that with time, the worst memories become good memories. Nothing, not even time, will change my memories. They will always be horrible.

I'll never forget the capsizing, especially the one when the boat took a full backward somersault. Scared to death, I was thrown against the bulkhead screaming like the animal within me. I thought my final hour had come.

I'll never forget the struggle for my life, the strength I exhausted in a few minutes. The taste of sea water in my lungs. The specter of death and I lived all of this alone, alone, alone.

I have chosen the ocean as my field of confrontation, my field of battle, because the ocean is reality at its toughest, its most demanding. As my weapons against this awesome power, I have human values, intelligence, experience, and the stubborn will to win.

When life is only a fight for survival, glory and fortune are ridiculous motivations. All the gold in the world and the praise of others are worthless when I ask myself, will I get out of here alive?

I challenged the Pacific, but I didn't win. She let me cross."

Gerald d'Auberville

This page from his book describes the horrors of his crossing the pacific in a sailboat. He did the Atlantic and came out a winner. His book is available at the Ilwaco History Museum because he washed up in Ilwaco, underweight, aged and unsteady, but successful. His own story redefines "successful".