Getting concrete on the island is the challenge for us. The free ferries can only do it at high tide, plus or minus two hours, and cannot do it when there are westerly winds. The west winds means the waves are hitting the ferry beam to, making it difficult for the ferries to enter the harbor. Beam to means, they are hitting the side of the boat, and with the weight of the concrete, the boat cannot maneuver quick enough to enter the small mouth of the harbor safely. We have another option, but it is costly, $10,000 a day, so we are always looking for other options.
We found a landing craft as an option, a boat with a tailgate that drops down and the truck drives on and off. The benefit of the landing craft is it doesn't have the low tide issues, it can come at anytime. So, we met with the owner, who came out to look at the docks, and thought his boat would work. We then set up a time for him to bring the boat out and make sure it would tie up to the dock. The day he was to come out, the seas were rough, and both he and the island canceled. Before its first delivery, our boat was canceled, great. We rescheduled, got a visitor app for him, spoke to the dock master, and thought we were all set. On this island though, never presume everything is all set. The visitor app was for one week. With some more bad weather and a holiday in there, the week had run out by one day, and he was in route. So several phone calls and a little bit of construction worker charm, the ladies at the front desk pushed through an app pretty quickly for me, problem solved. Nope, the visitor app with a boat coming in, set off Homeland Security alarms, oops! So yes, I got called into their office to explain why I have a boat, coming into their harbor and neglected to tell them about it. "I told the dock master, he knew," I said. Their reply was, it is my responsibility not the dock master's to inform them of boats coming into their harbor. Now how was I suppose to know. Well anyhow, more charm, and they allowed him to continue to come to the harbor, but there are rules.
They cannot leave the docks, no big deal, they weren't anyways, security must be present, ok, and they need to call security when they are outside the harbor by phone and radio, and they wanted his eta. Great, moving on. I call the boat captain and give him instructions and the appropriate phone number and channel to hail them on. The boat should be arriving between 10:30 and 11 o'clock. Security is calling me by 12, to find out where my boat is, I call the captain, and his new eta is 1 o'clock. He has GPS right, he should know what time he will be here, right? So at 1:45, I get a phone call from the dock master saying my barge is outside the harbor, great, I call the captain to remind him he needs to call security, the number I gave him, ok he says and hangs up. Two seconds later, I get a phone call, "Plum island security, this is captain so and so of boat 503 (the name of the boat) we are outside your harbor, " good grief, you called the wrong number, and he did not hail them on the radio. Can I do anymore to piss these people off, yes I can.
This bucket of bolts is listing to the port side quite a bit (leaning) and he is struggling to make it in the mouth of the harbor, on a good day. I have twenty people from security, dock crew and the general contractor all watching this, shaking their heads. After finally tying off, Captain Crocodile Dundee informs us, he has no steering and he used a hand rudder to get here, and he has no electronics. That means no radar, no GPS and no radio! Needless to say, the dock master said, I don't think so Curly. Well, it was fun to watch, talk about, write about and I hope, fun to read about. Next post: snow, Smitty and Feldy.
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