It has been a bit slow in my little part of the aviation world so I headed out to the marina Friday after lunch. It seemed reasonable to get a jump on the project list before the forecast rain, wind and cold moved in for the weekend. I expected nothing more than a pleasent "work weekend" so pulling into the marina and finding various friends in full party prep was a pleasant surprise. I went to thrashing on little Nomad for the afternoon. But when Deb arrived after her workday tools were laid aside and we joined the assembled. One of the marina's favorite families was celebrating a combination 12th birthday for a daughter and 27th anniversary for Mom and Dad. (Fortunately I had tossed an unopened bottle of The Captain into my bag and was able to offer my bit for the party.)
Dinner consumed we loaded chairs, coolers and sundry support material onto a trailer towed behind a equally laden pickup truck, and headed off for an impromptu bonfire. A bunch of us sat in the chairs, on the trailer, for the ride. (Please keep hands and feet...) Work the State has been doing at the park produced a huge pile of brush and somehow we had permission to set said pile on fire. (At least someone claimed we had permission from somewhere, which was good enough to this bunch of fun loving pyromaniacs. Besides, the group includes a working Fire Chief from one of the nearby towns...we were covered.)
Drinks provisioned and chairs set to windward various small flames were applied around the perimeter. Within minutes the largest fire I have ever seen that didn't involve sirens, flashing lights and hard working fireman, filled the night sky like some kind of erupting, baby volcano. It was impressive. (And is probably still burning.) The tales, laughter, stories, and general levity one would expect when a group of friends gathered for the first time after a long, cold winter, filled the night. There was even the occasional Tom-foolery as a chorus line of the slightly inebriated tried to kick a giant tree trunk back into the flames. (A effort doomed to failure, the line driven back by the intense infra-red saturating exposed skin.) The first ad-hoc party of the new sailing season could only be described as a roaring success.
Around midnight most of the revelers had disappeared into various boats, bunks and campers. With Nomad's interior being far from inhabitable Deb and I crashed on the clubhouse floor. This morning work resumed and, added to what I got done yesterday, several items were knocked off our list. The interior steps are back in place and look pretty good (if I do say so myself). Steps for the swim ladder have been mounted as well, which turned out to be a real job. The original plan of mounting the steps with self-tapping screws was abandoned when the ladder stripped the hardened steel threads off the first screw I tried to install. Who knew boat swim ladders were made of such tuff stuff? Measuring, drilling and burring 12 holes to mount 3 steps ended up taking hours and costing several shattered drill bits. Once the holes had been drilled each screw had to be cut to just the right length to take an acorn nut; sharp bits of steel hanging underwater to slash bare tootsies striking me as a bad idea. It got done though, and coming dips in the lake to counter summertime sweltering temps will no longer require risking a broken leg to get back on board.
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