As they refurbish their fishing vessel Sunstar, Doug and Terry Herzik sand, grind, lay down fiberglass — and reaffirm a mostly unspoken bond.
The Sunstar is in an Oxnard, Calif., boatyard, up on screw jacks under a canopy of sun-beaten tarps. The orange wheelhouse is peeling, with scraps of plywood standing in for missing window panes. The blue of the hull is scuffed off along the angles. Spots of fiberglass are coming off in brown lesions.
They don’t say much. In half a lifetime working on the boat alone together, harvesting sea urchins and sea cucumbers off the coast, they never have. When they do speak, the words are utilitarian.
They are the last of their family, at a time of life when they don’t need to bicker or compete, when they just appreciate the simple state of being brothers. They share something inexpressible in the quiet work on a boat they spent much of their adult lives on.
