It’s mid May in 2017, time to unwrap our boat friend Ginger Lee. This pleasingly warm and sunny morning makes me feel so good inside. Real tee-shirt weather, and it’s about time. I climb up to the fly-bridge and begin slicing away the white plastic shrink-wrap that has protected this vessel through the long winter. It falls to the side where I roll it up and throw it into my Jeep to be recycled at the dump.
On the fly-bridge.
Rolled up shrink-wrap.
I feel a twinge of excitement. The waking process has begun, and that means there will be boating soon. Awesome!
I’ve done what I can inside the boat, such as installing new oil coolers, replacing broken windows, changing both engine and transmission oil and filters, replacing two spent batteries, and a dozen other things. Now it’s time to lavish my attention on the exterior of the boat. Even though there’s a half-dozen vessels in front of me, all on jack-stands and all covered, it’s the time of year when things happen fast here at the Moby Dick Marina.
Boats in front of Ginger Lee.
Robins nest on my trim tabs. I relocate it nearby and the mother quickly found it.
Each day that I come here to accomplish another task, there is one less boat in front of me, until one day, there’s a knock on my hull.
“Rick! You in there?” It’s Arion, my friend and co-owner of this great marina.
“Yes Arion. I’m just cleaning up”, I answer. The big man’s head appears over the transom; he’s climbed my step-ladder.
“We’re launching boats. You wanna be next?”
“Hell yeah,” I gush.
He must have anticipated my answer because I can hear the clatter of the powerful tractor coming closer. John, the other co-owner at the controls of the big John Deere, leans his head out and greets me with a smile and a wave. It’s a good day.
Loading up.
John and tractor.
Moving towards the water. Arion on the left. Kenny on the right.
Arion and John still do the bulk of the heavy work here. I like that. It’s one of the reason I love this place and have been coming here for almost 15 years.
They make it look so easy; no muss; no fuss; no drama; no problems. Before ya know it, Ginger Lee is floating proudly in New Bedford Harbor. It is truly a good day.
She swims!