Bashes, Smashes, Molasses, Surpasses, Finding The Salted Sea And the Demise Of The Pristine..

Sorry on the delay. I was dead tired, my internet is slow as molasses and there was a lot to do.

​I wanted to build the perfect boat, Shiny, pretty, a wonder to behold. That concept drizzled through my fingers like a fistful of water. The move accentuated it. 

A helluva week. It was hell. Hell! Another reason not to build boats. Oh gosh, where to start?

Sunday......was it only Sunday?? We disassembled the rest of the boat. I forgot to take pictures of the beams coming off , or did we do that last week? Anyway, we finished loading the 16' trailer for the first trip to Galveston. The plan was to drop the trailer off at the boat yard and pick up a 40' trailer to haul the boat. A plan......................... do I hear muted chuckling? 

So Monday at way-too-early AM (4:00) we pulled out in pea soup fog. and drove the small trailer to Galveston. I cannot remember what time we arrived, 10:00 or 11:00. We were shown a spot to park it and we took off for the trailer rental. We arrived and announced that we were there for the 40' trailer we scheduled. "Driver's license and proof of insurance, please" said Carlos. I produced it. He said "Nope!" Budge produced his. Carlos said "Nope". Who knew that you need a commercial driver's licence to drive anything over 28'? After the disappointment wore off, I said "can we look at the 28'?" We wandered through the muddy back yard with only one option: take it or leave it. He showed us a lower trailer that would work better.  We took it: 38 foot boat, 28 foot trailer (ten pounds of crap in a five pound bag). Off we went on a wing and a prayer and drove back. We arrived around 4:00 PM, 12 hours after we left.

Of course we had to load the port hull and beams and such. We worked two hours on that. Oh, yeah, Rocky (you remember Rocky, don't you?) still had to finish the two mattresses. I went over to his place and made sure he worked on them. I got back at ten PM with one mattress and the final cushion. I didn't have supper. Rocky gave me a ham sandwich. I got to bed by 11:00 PM. 

So 5:00 AM (I was beat and couldn't make 4:00 AM) we drove back to Galveston. We arrived at noon. Just in time to see everyone leave for their hour lunch. We started taking off what we could and waited for them to show up with the forklift. Basically, we suspended the hull by one of the beams. We got the hull up an inch off the trailer bed, drove the trailer out and lowered the hull to the hard. We had a beam, the masts and the batteries to unload. Another 6 hours back and we got in around 7:00 PM. We were both tired and decided to take the next day and load. I still had a bunch of stuff to stuff in the hull. I cruised past Rocky's. He wasn't there. I had to get a bunch of ratchet straps, too. I dragged back in late again.

Wednesday was load day with a two hour side trip to Rocky's ( You remember- oh never mind). I had until 4:00 Pm to get everything I could into the hull. There  was a lot of stuff, a LOT of stuff. Where did it all come from? We officially retired the stairs.

I had all the stuff from Rocky (You no longer have to remember Rocky). I packed until we absolutely had to load the hull and get everything on. We dropped the hull when the beam rolled forward on the forks of the forklift. The forks were not tilted back far enough. The hull only dropped a couple inches and was OK. The beam was leaning precariously and could have dropped onto the hull. I went up to the top and held the beam while Budge eased the forks down just a smidge. I eased it further onto the forks. Then Budge came up and helped reposition it. It was a butt pucker moment, as the hull was not on level ground. There is now a huge chunk gouged in the bean that I'll have to fix. We finally it on the trailer and loaded everything we had left: beams, motors. anchors, whatever. I filled the Buick with everything I could find.

So Thursday we were off for my new home. I had no living arrangements made. Sometimes you just have to grab your cojones and jump. I jumped. We made it to the boat yard and got the hull unloaded. We did no more on it. We had to take the trailer back 40 miles north and back. I made som semi frantic phone calls and finally contacted Alyssa and she said she had a room (Wuhu!) I met her and sealed the deal. The pressure was off. I had a place to stay, I had a boat in the yard.

We had to square up the hulls so everything would fit. We decided to position beams 3 and 2 as our parallel guides. 

We pushed, nudged, cursed, lifted and jostled the starboard hull into correct alignment with the port hull until we got beam 3 into place and pinned. 

​Then we got the other beams into position by jostling the hull some more. Finally we got all the beams in place and pinned. It was a p(a)in in the butt.

Beams and beams.

Next, the cockpit. We had it full of the stuff we needed, so we just flew all of it together. Then one strap broke about 8" up. The cockpit slammed into the trailer And dumped everything on the ground. There was now new gouges in the boat to repair. I was beyond numb. More stuff to fix.

We had to assemble the motor wells. Owen, my next boat neighbor helped a bit. We did the requisite amount of cursing and finally got them into place.

The mast case was next, It was easy!

Budge and I put in the cockpit side decks by hand. Then we flew in the front two decks and the center deck. The center deck jammed on the motor well bolts. We had to remove the bolts, drop the deck in and replace the bolt.

After doing this for 8 days, ya get a little punch-drunk! You probably notice that we are seeing more of Budge's face. That's because we think that the statute of limitations has expired.

So there you have it: 8 days from start to finish. Two days of 600 mile round trips, two days of disassembly, two days of assembly 7 days of eating crappy food (except for the Pho). The boat is no longer pristine. It never was. Now I have more scrapes, dings, ka-chunks and splits to repair. The organic boat is more organic.  Saturday night we wrapped everything up and Budge drove home. I have to make the round trip the next day to pick up whatever's left. 

Someone tell Sergey we found the salt sea. It tasted more like diesel fuel than salt.

The reason why I'm here: big-ass travel lift.

The Music : Merle Haggard "I'm So Tired Of It All"

Mee, too, Merle, me,too.