Last Day Afloat

We were in Herrick Bay, the location of Atlantic Boat Company where Carrie Rose is stored. There is a liberating feeling when on Carrie Rose for the last day. We are firmly attached to #6, which states directly on the mooring ball 50’ and 9000 lbs. 

Fifty feet means the mooring is good for a fifty foot boat because of swinging in the wind and current room, and 9000 lbs. refers to the nine thousand pound block of granite the mooring chain is attached to. These figures reassure me as I looked out the rain speckled pilothouse windows at the approaching thunderstorm.

 

The above was written on 8-31-2021 and I am picking up the narrative on 9-12-2021 while sitting at the bungalow’s kitchen table. We spent two jam packed days preparing CR for the winter, but really, we were readying her for the many projects the boatyard will do. 

 

After twenty years of doing it them myself I decided to relinquish such tasks as changing the oil, and winterizing the engine and water systems. I suppose that is what money is for, so we are sharing the wealth with Maine’s workforce.

 

There are other tasks such as replacing the bellows of the PSS shaft seal and cleaning the main engines heat exchanger that I do not have the brawl or expertise for. The costliest repair this year is replacing the saloon and pilothouse ceiling fabric. Charlotte disliked it from the get go. I managed to fend her off by making numerous but futile repairs for close to twenty years, but this year’s succession of tropical storms and spent hurricanes left no choice but to replace it. 

 

The repair will be a mess necessitating the removal of the pilothouse and saloon contents. I looked around at the interior when we finished and it looked like the beautiful boat we bought in 2003 with the woodwork standing out shipshape. We took an oath never to clutter her up again. 

 

Driving west he mountains dissolved into rolling hills and then to prairie. The traffic increased and there were more people than we have grown use to. It would be a lie to say I wasn’t apprehensive about our homecoming but once through the garden and in the back door it was home sweet home!