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Cinderella of the
Yard
7/16/02
Blaine Parks
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Our first look as Charbonneau
gets a lift out of the water. You can see the water stains after
last year's miles.
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Charbonneau gets a
well-deserved wash.
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Charbonneau's lonely parade
begins.
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Charbonneau in her temporary
home on the hard -- before (L) and after (R) her makeover. You can see her
head-stay tied off on her side.
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Charbonneau
moved into a new neighborhood this week – Deaton’s Boat Yard.
She was a little shy at first.
I guess I can’t blame her, with the way everyone stared as we
brought her in. And it’s
certainly not always easy being the ‘new kid’ in the yard.
There were a few boats her own age, but most were older.
To make matters worse, the landlords in our new neighborhood began
immediately dismantling her by disconnecting her head-stay and tying it off
at the side of the boat like some deformed limb.
And just when she thought things couldn’t get worse
-- They pulled her out of the water, exposing her bare hull.
How humiliating at her age and after all those miles.
After lifting her out of the water and exposing her bottom, everyone
walked around touching her and prodding her thru-hulls.
There was the occasional kind comment about how good she looked
after all those miles. But
then someone would point out a spot where her paint had been rubbed away
in an errant grounding. That
wasn’t her fault. She tried
to warn us by flashing numbers and chirping a loud alarm.
What else could she do?
And of course, they had to find a few barnacles to pick at. That was just too much to watch.
But, she took it like the proud boat she is, standing up to their
criticism with her head held high. She’d
been to places that these critics, and many of these boats, would only
hear about from others. And, as
they tormented her with the pressure washer, I took pictures of our girl
swinging in the sling. We’d
made it home again – safely and still in one piece.
Not bad for 11,000 miles.
They left her there to swing in the Travel Lift for a full hour while they
went to lunch. How rude!
She’d been here before. She
knew her way around this yard from previous visits prior to her new life
as a cruising yacht. She’d
stopped by once or twice on her way north or south for the occasional
inspection. And this was how
they treated her? It was pure
blasphemy! I stayed with her,
caressing her lines and reassuring her of her beauty.
I told her, “It’ll be fine, Charbonneau.
We’ll put a new coat of paint over your bottom and as a special
treat, I’ll wax your topsides myself – no strangers.”
Things began to look up after lunch.
Wes (he’s her favorite Travel Lift driver) returned, started up
the Travel Lift’s motor and slowly paraded her past several of her new
neighbors on the way to her spot on the hard.
The first boat was a small day-sailer who cheered her on wishing
that one day she too would grow up to be a cruiser.
The next was a 30-something powerboat suffering from an extreme
case of acne on her outboard motors.
Like most motorboats she just turned away refusing to even make eye
contact. Then the sun came
out and tried to shine on her washed-out hull as she went by a small
cruising boat tied to the seawall. But
it was the sight of Wind Walker, a fellow Island Packet, which made her
jump for joy! We hadn’t
seen them since our time in George Town, Exuma.
As they backed her into the spot reserved for her stay, I thought I
heard her breathing a little easier.
She was home for a while, and, she was among friends.
The next few days were hard on both of us.
The heat in North Carolina during July can be stifling.
Luckily, the heat broke on that first evening bringing cooler north
winds for the weekend. After
getting the good news from John Deaton that her cutlass bearing was doing
fine and wouldn’t need replacing, we treated ourselves to a hull
washing. It took quite a bit
of scrubbing to remove the many layers of salt and dirt accumulated since
her last haul-out. Nevertheless,
we washed and scrubbed until she had the faint glow of clean gel-coat.
Then over the weekend, just as I promised, I spent fourteen hours
lovingly working wax into her pours before buffing her to a brilliant
shine. I could see the old
girl coming back to life, but I was feeling all that effort in my painful
shoulders. The only thing
getting me through the effort was my martial arts background. I waxed on with inside circles.
Then, I waxed off with outside circles.
All those years of training were coming back to me.
By Monday, Charbonneau had the admiration of each and every one of the
yard workers. She glimmered
in the morning sun and many came by to tell her how good she looked,
running their hands along her silky smooth hull.
We all agreed that she was ready.
It was time to give her back her respectability.
It was time to paint her bottom!
After some easy prep work and a little painful sanding, we taped off her
waterline and rolled the first coat of paint along her hull.
Like ointment on a wound, the scars of her travels swiftly faded
behind a new skin. With each
stroke, her signs of age disappeared.
The chipped paint where the anchor rode had gone under the boat
while anchored in a harbor with swift currents -- gone.
The bare leading edge of her forefoot, scraped clean during the
previously admitted grounding, was washed away with a single stroke of the
brush. And so it went for
each and every imperfection that she had earned through the experiences
that have shaped our cruising lives together.
As I write this from inside the comfy confines of Charbonneau’s cabin
high above the ground,
only her special four-part propeller treatment remains to be done.
Wes promised to attend to her tomorrow. She
always liked that treatment since it keeps all those prop-sucking barnacles
from going for a free spin. Once completed, Wes will come back for her like a prince and lift
her into the arms of his Travel Lift.
Again, the other boats will stare as she goes parading by on her
way back to the water. But
this time, they’ll tip their bowsprits and raise their eyebrows as she
passes by. Perhaps even that
discourteous powerboat will give a wink.
Because she's more than just beautiful and proud. Once again she’s heading out to explore places that they
may never see. That’s our
girl.
We’ll see you
on the water!
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Before and after shots of the
prop treatment. The photo on the left is after 14 months of
service
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Wes ties the two straps
together before moving the boat.
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Charbonneau on her way back to
the water.
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Wes gives her one more spin
before backing her back into the Travel Lift slip..
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