Let me preface my upcoming comments and thoughts by saying that in no way do I believe that I am better than anyone else, nor should be entitled to anything above and beyond other persons, nor do I want to make light of the hardships that have befallen today's world and persons inhabiting it. Ok, now that I've gotten that out of the way, allow me to voice my frustrations. In one of my prior posts, I mentioned that the marina was re-opened in the middle of April. I want to say somewhere around the 19th, if memory serves. I remember running up to the boat shortly thereafter, and loading all my goodies up and mounting the outboard complete with stickered how-to-start instructions since it's finicky. Allow me to use the magic of Copy/Paste technology for a bit.
From the Marina's update on April 21st:
Launch Procedure 1) If you have not done so already, please pay off any final balance on your account and provide us with your insurance certificate. We will not launch any boat without full payment and a certificate on file.
2) Get your boat ready for launch. Remove your cover, charge or replace your batteries as needed, complete any desired maintenance work, ensure that all dock lines and fenders are on board - and for sailboats, make sure all items required to rig your boat (turnbuckles, pins, etc.) are in a visible location such as your nav station.
3 Once you have completed Items 1 and 2, send an email to [The] office@fairpointmarina.com to let her know that you are ready to launch. She will confirm your account is paid up and we have an insurance certificate and then put you on the "clear to launch" list.
4) [The] team will check the "clear to launch" list daily. Generally speaking, we will pull boats in the order in which they were put on the list subject to any operational limitations. Obviously, boats that are behind other boats will not be pulled until we are able to clear the blocking boat.
5) We will move your boat to your assigned slip if it's ready. If it isn't, your boat will be tied off at another dock on a temporary basis.
A reminder when you are in the boatyard - please stay away from [The] team so that they can be safe (social distancing) and stay focused on getting everyone in the water as quickly as possible.
So, as you can see, woohoo! There's hope, and then factor in their original e-mail that they wanted to get boats launched as quick as possible to continue grounds work and try to avoid any flooding if it were to happen, and I was a happy guy. I fired off an e-mail the morning after visiting the boat, and had a reply on that 23rd that I was on the Clear-To-Launch list. So then it was just a waiting game to get the docks in and so on. And waiting. Annnnd waiting. Now, this is Lake Ontario, and even being in a sheltered bay, there's still weather to contend with. Mostly wind is the driving factor and I am completely aware of how bad it can be, with gusts over 40 knots happening more than once. But by the first week in May, the B dock was in place (mind you, this is my 'new' dock after having not gotten my deposit in on time for my A dock slip, so I had to pay an extra hundred dollars for one of the few available slips left on B).
E-mail updated on May 7th:
Slip Availability.
Boat slips have been available for anyone wanting to splash since April 19th, the day we were allowed to open under the New York PAUSE order. In addition to our 14 Wharf slips, which we have encouraged anyone to use while we build out the rest of the marina, B Dock is now open bringing the total number of slips to 34.
We will be putting fingers on C and D dock this week so those docks should be ready by the weekend.
A Dock has a few broken dock fittings. Our welder should be able to make the necessary repairs this week. We will then put A in the water on the first calm day. We expect it will be open next week sometime.
Again, please feel free to take any available slip whenever you wish. We will move your boat to your assigned slip once it is available.
Launches - We only have three boats waiting on the launch list and two of those are behind other boats. We will start launches sometime next week.
Now, I should point out that assuming I am indeed on the list as I should be, that I am the only boat I know of that would be considered a boat not behind any other boats. Nor is there any boat or now dockings that are next to my boat that would prevent the travel lift from accessing it. I know, I've been there. So now you can see hope rising once again! Ok, so the whole availability thing is a little confusing, but I'm assuming a lot of that was aimed at people with trailerable boats that would be bringing them up and ramp-launching them and then tying up. When I first read the e-mail, I'll admit my reaction was 'Then why am I not in the water yet, since I certainly was ready right after the 19th!' But, again, if that's more aimed at trailers, I totally get it. And they did mention later down, that they would launch next week. Well, this week now.
I would like to draw your attention to exhibit C for...calendar. Today is now the 14th, which is the part of the 'next week' as outlined. More specifically, it's almost the END of that next week. There were two days that I can recall were quite windy this week, not only here at home but at the lake as well. Here at the house for example, I had actually framed a small shed, 10 x 14 feet, and braced with planks to hold the four walls up while I waited for a chance to go get sheeting for the walls. That shed was promptly blown down anyway in a fit of Mother Nature's coughing. I can certainly understand not being able to put in boats or docks in the water in those days! However, there have also been days quite nice at the lake too. Yesterday, they fitted out the A dock into place. Hooray, I think? I mean, it's not my dock any more. But I know it was one they had to repair so good for them that they got it ready to go. And earlier this week they got a bunch of the fingers on for the C dock that was in place. That puts the number of available slips on the docks now at 50+. So here's where the frustration kind of kicks in a little. And again, I have zero information beyond what I've shared in the e-mails about what else is on the agenda for the yard. What I do know, is that zero boats have yet to be launched, as of right now. And today was a pretty nice day, a light wind this morning and it died out throughout the afternoon. The frustrating part is in relation to the availability of the camera.
I'm currently working from home, one of the lucky ones that is able to do so and not incur any loss of income. My work computer sits on the same desk as my home computer, with the monitors side by side. This means that while I'm working, I have nothing better to do than to stream the marina cam all day long, in hopes I'll see my wonderful little derelict lifted and tossed into the water. What it also means, is a full day of watching absolutely zero activity at the marina yard, other than the few customers that are trying to ready their own boats. Again, I have no idea if the gent running the yard fell ill, pray not, or if there were unseen projects that had him/them busy in the workshop. Instead, it gives me anxiety. I was hoping to go up this weekend with possibly my brother and dad to join - my brother hasn't been to the boat since I got it. So I'm currently fighting the frustration of being ready for a month, having dock space actually available for weeks, and still being stuck on shore. Couple that with the experience of last year when months went by both due to flooding, but then also a loss in communication from myself and the yard manager about my having been ready - I was ready for weeks and mentioned it, but apparently had slipped memory until finally they must've gotten sick of seeing me up every weekend and sitting on a boat on the hard instead of in the water and asked me again. Then, add in the fact that everyone has been locked down and cooped up and is itching to get out to relax somehow, and it's easy to get frustrated.
I think a big part of it though, is that the owner's e-mails about the intentions for quick launches and well-meant intentions of getting people going quickly has been conflicted by the slower progress in the yard. There was talk of having extra hands on board to help speed up the process, haven't seen that happen. Having A Dock being down for repairs and not able to be put in the water was unforeseen - but why not launch boats in the days waiting for the welder? All in all, I'm doing a fine job of armchair quarterbacking in this, and I know that it's one of those problems that many other people in this world could only wish they were dealing with instead of actual hardships. But selfishly, I'm not in the hardship camp yet, I've been ready for a month, and I can name plenty of days or times in between then and now when I could've been tossed in the water, tied up, and forgotten about. So tomorrow, I'll continue to watch the camera, and if I haven't seen anything that looks like activity, I'll shoot an e-mail asking if they have any ideas of when they'll be ready at the yard level to launch, not the owner level. While I would really like to be up and on the water, there's only so much I can do until then. I could dry-start the motor to make sure it runs? Or... well that's about it, really. Too many things stuffed in the cabin that need to be out of the cabin in order to work on things any more than that. But this being one of the few weekends my brother might be able to come up, I'd really like to be floating.
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