Sal called, “Come!  Come quick!”

It was early.  I had just gotten up and turned on the ‘puter.  Had a nice cuppa tea beside me.  But, I went anyway.  When Sal calls, I jump.

“Listen….hear that?”

“What?”

“Wolves.  Clear as a bell.  Just across there.  Hear ém?”

It is not often we hear wolves so clearly and this was the first time I had ever heard them howling in the early hours of the day.  But they always get your attention.  You just have to listen.  I suspect that they had winkled out a deer and were on the hunt.  Sounded like they were moving.  That, too, would be rare.  We usually hear them in the evening when they ‘part-tay’.  Different howls.

Nice to be home.

I gotta launch my boat tomorrow.  That means servicing it today.  Lube in the leg.  That sorta thing.  But it has to be launched tomorrow.  The tide is high enough then to float it off the ‘storage-on-a-log-ramp’. I might have enough  height the next day but, after that, it is a long wait to get a high enough tide.

Boat Maintenance in the Wild

When we go away, I haul the boat up so that it does not need any attention.  But hauling means getting it out of the water higher than the highest tide.  Mind you, we go away in the winter, as a rule, and that is when the tides are highest in the daylight hours.  So getting it out is easy enough.  Getting it back in can be the challenge.

It is very heavy for a 16 foot boat.  Too heavy.  Methinks it is water-logged.  Time to get or build a new one.  Some blogs will result this year from that last statement, I am sure.

From the moment we leave, the tides get lower and switch to being highest in the middle of the night.  Not good. I prefer to sleep in the middle of the night.  In fact, I am inclined to nap now and then in the daytime, too.  Launching windows are getting tighter.

The boat has to get out out and stored on the hard in a protected spot.  Thus the cobbled-together log ramp placed on the right part of the beach but still out of the weather.  We get it out, strap it down, lash on a few tarps and open all the drains.  That usually does the trick.  Then we haul Sal’s boat and do the same thing.

Sal’s boat is smaller and lighter and we can relaunch that puppy pretty easy even in a lesser tide.  Sal’s boat got wet again a few days ago.  Fired right up, too.  She’s been a-zoomin’ around ever since.  Which is good.  Bookclub on Sunday.

Community-building day again yesterday.  A half-dozen or so intrepid souls (including Sal) went up and worked on the community building, the ‘bunkhouse’.  The kitchen extension was being insulated and the separation wall between the extension and the old building was being removed.  Still lots to do so every Wednesday from now on has been designated ‘kitchen’ day.  Things are starting to roll.

Spring must be here.  I’d better get some of it in my step.