"On the hard" and waiting for Ida.

I have had a few questions about the photos that I included in the last post showing Miss Lauren Grace out of the water so perhaps a little explanation is in order for the non-boaters out there.

The blue contraption that you see in the photo is called a travel lift, you can see way better photos if you click on the link. Simply put it has two big slings that are suspended between the two sides. The lift is driven by the operator out onto two concrete piers that have conveniently been placed at exactly the same distance apart as the legs of the lift. The slings are lowered deep into the water and the boat is driven in between the concrete piers. The operator slowly tightens the slings and lifts the boat out of the water, then he drives the lift (with the boat resting in the slings) over the ground to a parking spot where the boat is slowly lowered and supported by blocks placed under her keel. At that point the lift is driven away from the boat and stands are placed to help support the hull while she is on land, aka "the hard".

We have spent most of today getting ready for Hurricane Ida. Actually she was downgraded to a Tropical Storm about noon but precaution was still the order of the day and so we moved everything that could blow loose or blow off out of harm's way. You don't realize just how much "stuff" this is until you have to put it somewhere; I mean if we had somewhere else to put it it wouldn't have been there to begin with. For example the seat cushions on the flybridge live on the flybridge, there is no room for them elsewhere; likewise the cushions for the chairs on the sundeck. Ditto for the long handled brushes, the boat fenders, flags and coolers. We put the window coverings, the fenders, the buckets and the cushions in the back of the truck; which, conveniently, we had moved down here from Northern Alabama this weekend while Ida was busy blowing up into a Category 2 storm.

The biggest job was taking down all of that new canvas enclosure we had installed last summer and carefully rolling it in sheets so as not to scratch it. This process involves at least 15 zippers and more snaps than we can count. Of course by this time it was raining and so we had to carefully dry the Strataglas before we covered and rolled it.

Finally we moved the truck a few miles up the road to a parking lot at the grocery store to protect it from the possible storm surge. So now we are sitting inside waiting for Ida to arrive, with "stuff" stacked on every available surface. We have a path to walk through and a seat for each of us down in the cabin. Perhaps the best description would be "organized chaos", with emphasis on chaos. It feels like we are camping out in our own living room.

Stay tuned and we will fill you in once the storm passes.