We Have A Lawn
12 December 2022
by robin
We have a lawn, a garden with knee high corn, hot showers, a ten foot tall black lawn ornament and an herb garden. The garden site is complete with a giant blue tractor with tires taller than me and a smaller green tractor. With not even the smallest wave hitting the hull, the silence rings in my ears. Out the portholes the only motion is the wavering of the halyards on the boats in a line next to us. Couch sized piece of concrete are on either side of the boat are ready to secure us in a cyclone. The boat entrance is now an aluminum ladder.
We are "on the hard" or out of the water in a boatyard. The Mabel Rose is resting on metal frames. Pulled out of the water by the giant tractor pulled the boat she moved across the road to this huge boatyard in the middle of a marshy delta. Larry on Blue Star lived here for three years during the pandemic, parking his car under his boat. We hope to be back on the water Wednesday with the bottom freshly painted to keep the barnacles away.
Unlike New York boatyards this operation is friendly and cooperative. Charmaine, the owner of Able Marine coordinates with the tractor drivers and the jack stand operators. Small shops of riggers, boat builders and mechanics lines to throughway in he middle of the yard. Almost one soccer field across and and several long the boats are neatly lined up on either side. The grey yard cat chases mice and the catamarans have silly names like bad cat and ghost cat. The lawn ornament is the keel for the winning America's Cup boat from 2000, the mast and the hull are at the marina. As pleasant as it is here the weather looks like it might break and we are hoping to launch in Wednesday and sail on Thursday.
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