GET OOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!
Adrian, the cheery 6’ 2” Canadian, was low on cash but full of spirit. He had been borrowing my bike for the prior week to ride to town for parts and pieces to fix up his newly acquired steel sloop. He dropped by just as Mike’s overtime charges were about to begin accumulating, so I […]
20-ton Hydraulic Jack + Tsunami + Hollywood Director + 6’2” Canadian + Butane Torch= GREAT SUCCESS!
I woke in the middle of the night to a pounding on Swell’s hull. I shook myself from a dream and looked up at the clock. It was 3 am. “Who the heck drops by for a visit at this hour?” I thought. I peered over the side and saw Taputu standing below with a […]
No More Chirps in Boatyard Purgatory
For a week after Poe died, it felt strange when I’d return to Swell–no more chirping, no more fishy stink, and no more fuzzy head popping up? Instead I found only piles of progress-less projects staring at me. Despite grinding off the recent epoxy job and making a more precisely-fitting steel washer, the ‘extracteur’ continued […]
Unfit to be a Mother ☹
By and by, Poe didn’t get better. She ate less and less through the weekend and I felt both helpless and hopeless to make her well again. After asking around, I found out about a veterinarian in town, loaded my sick bird into in my bike basket, and pedaled off… Upon finding the veterinarian clinic, […]
Extracteuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuur!!! Say it with a french accent…it’s kinda fun.
So…I carried the broken parts back across the yard. Everyone looked over at me curiously. “Extracteur!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I yelled. They just wrinkled their foreheads and went back to whatever they were doing…I’m like a bad rash around …impossible to get rid of… So next, Make the washer out of a thick piece of steel. Reinforce and […]
The ‘VIP yard’
After a weekend spent indulging in the rare angle of wave energy produced by the latest cyclone that turned southwest, I busily made the final preparations for Laurent, the yard’s in-house glasser, to get started cutting away the shaft log the following morning. The week prior, the mechanic had helped me remove my transmission, to […]
A Mother’s Work is Never Done
The instant I plucked the wee bird from the soggy sticks, there was no going back…I was undeniably the mother of this orphaned baby seabird. I was certain that the little creature must eat fish, but I had no idea how to raise it?! Shortly after the adoption, I rode my bike over to my […]
Cyclone ‘Oli’: thanks be to LAND
I couldn’t imagine how strong it was going to get as Simona and I finished taping the windows and bringing all the tables and chairs inside. As the gusts soared into the 40s, we gathered the last of the fallen mangos and prepared the boards to put in front of the doors should the waves […]
NISHA Fizzles, OLI bites
“There is only room on the back lot of the yard,” Karin said. “And Nisha has been downgraded. Are you sure you want to haul out now?” “Yes.” I replied. “I’m here, so let’s just do it.” The crew hauled Swell and transported her to the back of the yard near the street. …Nisha passed […]
