Wooden boat lovers are everywhere

Tuesday, March 10, 2009, Pass-A-Grille

I had a real adventure this morning. Les the dockmaster is a unique person. He started talking how he had lived on a wooden boat and then the real conversation started. He invited me go on a road trip to see his boat that he is rebuilding. The boat was built in the Bahamas in 1946 the same year as Les was born (yesterday was his birthday), his father bought the boat when Les was about 10 and they moved on board. He spent most of his childhood in the Bahamas. After a couple of tours of duty in Vet Nam he moved back on board with his new wife and they did charters. He took Prince Charles sailing on it in the 70’s. He has been the dockmaster at the Treasure Island Yacht Club for the past 28 years. He lived on the boat in the marina for the first 18 years until it got to where it was leaking so bad it had to come out of the water to replace a few board. So far all of the main frames and planking have either been replaced or in the process of being replaced. It is looking so good he has decided to replace the keel now. I think the only thing that will be remaining of the original boat will be the lines from the original. We not only saw his boat but we visited with a couple of other wooden boat builders and repairers in the area. One of the guys is building a 25 ft glued lap strake power boat. He is about 80% finished and was doing a beautiful job. He was doing all of this in a shop about half the size of The Hundred Acre Woods. It is amazing that you can find wooden boat lovers everywhere. By the way, Les told me his dad is 88 and still flies his own plane. He and Les are going to fly to the Bahamas in the next few weeks.

We only have a few miles and two bridges to get to Pass-A-Grille Yacht Club. The club is closed on Tuesday not Monday like the book shows. It is a small club, no pool but across from a pretty beach. We bike about a mile into town and check things out. Carole got very excited when she found a coil operated laundry. A good washing machine and she is happy as she can be.

We are off to Bradenton tomorrow to see if we can someone to repair the stove.