Yesterday was another beautiful day at the Retired Old Sailors Boatyard.
Don't for one minute think that I am down on retired old sailors.. no way.
They know more than I ever will. But.. they do move on their own clock.
So; one old salt told me the personal history of the boatyard. Wow .. what
a story. Better than a good book. There was sex, sex, sex .. divorce, and
remarriage and then more divorce. Ex husbands hired by ex wives. Long time
employees leaving and coming back.

After the personals, he showed me the boats you/me/anyone can have for FREE.
So, if you want a 30' sailboat and are handy, really really handy .. FREE.

You won't be the first to take a crack at the FREE boat though. The pile of
wood next to her was left by the last world explorer.

One sailboat nearby is a Katrina boat. Bought on Ebay. The owner knows
what he is doing. He will have this hurricane hole sailing before most the
covers are off the big boys.

"The English Patient" is still working and still unpleasant. He seems to be
in a rush to get his large bucket of teak all shined up for the "new owner".

Periodically, a boat buyer will stop by. Usually ask a few questions; "do
ya know who owns the Cape Dory at the end of the row"? .. "that Cheoy Les
sure is huge, but all that teak,, man that would be a lot of work"..

A couple of the big power boats have already been put in. Cover comes off
at 9am,,, boat splashes at 11am.

Power boat owners are sooo different than sailorboat owners. They wear
jackets with NASCAR names etc on them. And, I think they smoke more. I've
also heard them use the F word when speaking of sailboats. "Don't bump into
the F'n sailboat" one power boat owner yelled at the lift operator.

The sailboat owners come in, check out the boat, and then leave. Lots of
Volvo drivers. Hairdo of choice? Ponytail. The older owners don't have
the pony tails and seem to be retired engineers. Almost everyone I've
talked to; retired engineer. Or software, computer, something. Many have
owned boats since the 60's when they worked for NASA. And they love to tell
you of the deals they get because they are connected. "I've got four
moorings in xxx, and five moorings at xxx, and three moorings over at xxx
and I don't pay for any of them because the government agency I once worked
for back during the Apollo program once owned all the moorings north of xxx
and I got them all".

Then there are the contactors who are doing many different projects on
boats. One fellow has this really cool bottom paint remover. This thing
cleans! When he is done, the bottom looks like the day the boat was
launched.

And so it goes .. spring 07. At the boatyard.