All Hands On Deck   Adventures on land and at sea

Hurricane schmurricane! My dad tells me I shouldn’t tout the hurricane’s disappointing showing because I’ll summon another one on us. Oh well.
Lee and I spent the night on the boat when Earl was supposed to show up last week. We didn’t quite make it out there before it started raining torrentially. The night brought more rain and a bit of wind but not much. Quite a bit of rain came in the main hatch because we’d left it half open (with the dodger up above it) and the boat had gotten stuck with it’s stern to the wind thanks to our anchor line’s tendency to wrap around the keel. Oh well, what’s a bit of water on the floor going to hurt?
The next morning we drove out to Pemequid point with Lee’s parents to check out the waves. They were definitely much bigger than the waves usually are out there. Tons of people showed up to satisfy their curiosity and a few idiots walked down on the rocks where the caution tape warned onlookers not to go.

Yesterday we took Pirat around the corner to Gamage Shipyard, since the yard we originally picked wasn’t answering their phone. Gamage also has a travel lift instead of just a hydraulic trailer, which we figured was a safer bet. Pirat came out of the water, safe and sound, yesterday afternoon. It was really strange seeing our boat hoisted out with the lift like. It looked huge and incredibly fragile at the same time. The yard guys pressure washed it and propped it up on stands. It amazes me that those things can really support the boat! Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera. I’ll have to get pictures when Pirat goes back in the water. She’ll be all clean and shiny then anyway.
Today Lee extracted the transmission so we can send it to Florida to be repaired. He also took off part of the stern stantions so we can have them altered for an outboard engine mount.
We’re all heading down to Block Island in the next couple days to spend next week there. My birthday will be at the end of our stay and my mom is coming out for the Block Island mini-vacation as well. It should be a good way to bid farewell to summer and celebrate my birthday!

Hurricane Earl