Sirens… Legendary and Real

Odysseus and the Sirens… oil painting by Gustave Moreau, 1885

The sailors of yore dreaded them. Odysseus deafened his crew and had himself lashed to the mast of his ship so he wouldn’t be overwhelmed by temptation. Now, we’ve tried to tame the legends by transmogrifying them into childrens’ cartoons.

True, those sailors also sought and dreamed of the fishly femme fatales, but the notion of coming across one in the flesh would also mean leaving their own earthly flesh, and that was a fearsome thought.

Sirens get a bad rap, though.

Siren… oil painting by Odilon Redon, circa 1900

Luring sailors to their deaths is only half the story, and it’s a little biased.

Sirens sang from the rocks and shoals, perched on those obstructions like birds on a wire, and making them visible. They tried in their way to be true. Woe to those who tried to follow their lullabies — they’d sleep forever in Davy Jone’s locker. But those songs weren’t necessarily intended as enticement… they actually were sirens.

Sirens like the ones we now place on emergency vehicles. Sirens, as in ear-shattering warnings. Sirens that save lives. The fabled sirens of the sea sang the sailors away from the rocks and shoals and things that ruin boats. They sang them away from doom.

Some even rescued the unfortunate who fell in their waters.

The Sirens in Merrickville follow tradition. They know the problems and potential disasters. They mind them and mark them and keep the things that ruin boats at bay. They negotiate the obstacles and save boat people from calamities.

Sirens Boatworks in Merrickville, Ontarion, Canada… saving sailors on the Rideau and beyond! sirensboatworks.com

They’re also beautiful people. No tails or scales or green hair, but good, kind, honest people who love what they do and do it well. Their help and support, and interest in this project, have been invaluable. And really, I’m just happy to have met such a wonderful family (and all these pretty pretty boats).

They’re really creative, too. What they can do with an old hull some folks wouldn’t look twice at is seriously unreal. Some of these grande dames of the docks are works of art, and they’re accompanied by a small flotilla of sweet little boats dressed up like they’re going to a party.

Beyond that, the Sirens Boatworks family are working out how to set up tiny houses on the property. There’s one here already — occupied — and it’s a brilliant idea which I’m surprised isn’t seen more. Marina regulars would have a home on the ground by their boats. Cruisers could come ashore for a cottage stay. Folks without boats could stay and dream. Spending winters in a tinyhouse beside your safely stored boat would be ideal practically, financially, and sentimentally.It’s flipping brilliant.

The idea of building tinyhouses here at Sirens Boatworks dovetails well with the boating community, which is also growing, for similar reasons and others. The growing nomadic community also fits into the expanding tinyhouse nation, especially communities like the Sirens family are developing. Those communities all overlap, so much. It’s just all-round brilliant.

The tinyhouse movement is growing as people learn of, and want to try, viable ways of living sustainably and even regeneratively. Even if ecological reasons are not foremost in a decision or consideration of whole-life downsizing, it’s still part of the effect.

I hope the future tinyhouse community here is the cats pajamas… or the sirens’ seashells?

There are other, more dire sirens in the world today.

Sirens signalling bomb drops and falling cities.

Sirens collecting bodies.

Sirens warning away those seeking homes and hunting down those who try to find one.

Sirens cutting through the smoke of burning continents.

Sirens screaming ahead of tsunamis.

And sirens at global protests demanding an alternative to the end of the world…

Extinction Rebellion protest in London, England… fall 2018

…these ones give me hope. I think of them whenever I look at the small handheld sirens I keep on the sailboat in case of emergency or winding waterways… and I want this sailboat to be a siren herself.

I want her to be part of the movement to make people aware of what to avoid and how. I want her to tell stories of what is and what can be. I want her to help keep us from plowing bow first into doom… because we’re all in this boat together.

With hope and determination,

Ann

PS…

I’m heeding the legendary sirens, too.

On Thursday morning we leave this lovely place. Michel has graciously offered to navigate us towards Ottawa, where I may have a temporary dock at Gloucester Ecolands Park. I called NCC, and they’ve said I may, but in the interests of not annoying regular and local users, I am most definitely looking for other mooring or dock suggestions or offers.

We should arrive around 1:00 in the afternoon, but I’ll update that on the facebook page.

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How to help this siren, Skoro, the Climate Emergency Sailboat…

Sporadic and one-time support through Chuffed, at

https://chuffed.org/project/climate-emergency-sailboat

Ongoing support via Patreon (though I’m having trouble posting there, my apologies), at

Thank you… your help means the world to me

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Photos from Sirens in Merrickville, and nearby…

This fish lives at Mainstreet Family Restaurant in Merrickville, where they make lovely good eggs (with gluten free toast, even)… the fish looked just as surprised when I was here while walking to Ottawa in 2019, but I forgot to take their picture then, so here ’tis now… and thank you, Mainstreet Family Restaurant.

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