Thank you to the fortuitous folk of Edgartown for being bestowed with our beloved Harbormaster, Charlie Blair. The man is like one of those Redwood trees that is thousands of years old but keeps on standing, storm after storm, getting stronger with time.

I was a young man when Charlie Blair was an old man. Now people call me “old man” because I have white hair and a built in belly floaty that attracts whale watchers.

Imagine waking up on Katama Bay to a foul stench worse than the odor that boils up from open sewers on muggy mornings in New York city. That’s what I smelled when I saw Charlie Blair dressed in blue rubber gloves and a surgical face mask. He was carrying out his public duties which includes pumping excrement out of boats in Edgartown harbor. My family had some of our own stuff so we also requested a pump out. Why not?

Curious, I was about to ask Charlie why he was pumping boats and not one of his young assistants. Then it occurred to me that Charlie is Edgartown’s #1 man, filling in for Edgartown’s #2 man, Mike Hathaway, who had the day off.

Later that afternoon, I saw Charlie checking dock lines, guiding boats to moorings and going above and beyond to secure boats ahead of tropical storm

Isaias . There is no job that Charlie will not do to keep the harbor safe and clean.

Personally, I admire and respect Charlie Blair and thank him and his staff for the tremendous job they do every day.

Our harbormaster Charlie Blair is truly our old Redwood tree of the sea.

Paul Mellen

Duxbury