Tuesday, April 24, 2007

A New Year...

Well, the winter wasn't too horrible, but decided to make a statement on its way out. Actually, it was Spring that made the statement. This is a picture of the house on April 5, 2007. The boat is under the green tarp to the right. We had two Spring snow storms, and a brutal Nor'Easter that hammered us for a few days around the 16th of April.

With the boating season around the corner, and already pressed for time with basketball games, opening day at Fenway, and birthday parties, I just couldn't see spending another Summer on the recore. In any event, anfter talking it over with my very sweet and understanding wife, we came to a decision. Long story short - it's Tim Lackey to the rescue. He was able to fit me into his schedule this Spring and said he could complete the rest of the deck job and get me launched within the budget I gave him. In fact, tomorrow the boat will be hauled to his shop in Whitefield, and the reconstruction will begin in earnest.

I'm fortunate enough that, at this point in time, we are able to squeak this luxury in. I am totally psyched about seeing the decks after Tim has worked his magic, and even more so at the prospect of going sailing again with the family this Summer!

Other goings on:

The boat has a new name. I finally threw one out there that everyone liked, so hopefully she is on her way to becoming part of the family. Oh, it's Sea Glass. We took a great vacation last Summer out to Chebeague Island, and combing the beach there for sea glass was just about our favorite thing to do. We got loads of it!

April 1: Upon uncovering the boat to clean it up for Tim, who was coming out to do a pre-haul inspection, I was greeted with an absolute mess down below. A squirrel had taken up residence in the v-berth, thoroughly trashed things, chewed a few access panels and other wood throughout, and to top it off, had babies - four of them. We delivered them to a local animal rescue guy who took them in. I named them O-Ring, Gasket, Filter and Impeller for obvious reasons. The boat name was almost changed to Squirrel.

Boat work: I got the lead pig out of the bilge, the portlights removed, the rub rail, everything to try and use Tim's time better. I could go on, but speaking of using time, I really need to get things together for tomorrow's haul. Way too much to do and too little time...

I'll add the link to Tim's site to the right. He'll log the progress better than I ever could.