Boating season has begun....

[Ron J]

Haven't posted much for awhile,so had a little time tonight. The Ol Pontoon is running great,after replacing a coil.Got off cheap,$22.00! Could have been worse,if i had to have someone for a dock visit. Well anyway,here is some pics of a trip down the Danvers,and Bass Rivers. The first is a new arrival,wasn't moored here before. Someone has spent a few bucks taking care of this mid fifties?,Chris craft.[attachment 60538 MYPictures024.jpg][attachment 60539 MYPictures021.jpg] Beautiful lines! Wooden boats are getting scarce. Too much maintenance!I suppose if you don't have a honey to support,a guy can afford the upkeep on this baby. Its very tough to find a marina that will even lift a wooden vessel for you. Next we have a co-op,where there are about half dozen well kept deep sea vessels to see. Forty yrs ago,you could of owned that property for less than 10k. I grew up on this river,and rowed by here a million times.I can remember well when it was run down.[attachment 60540 MYPictures032.jpg] This house is where i grew up,33 Riverview St.[attachment 60541 MYPictures035.jpg]Dad purchased it in 1949,for about $3500! Sold it in 1969 for $30000. Where the bush is,above the large rock,was wooden stairs,and off the rock was a pier,and float.My father stored his lobsterpots off to the right.From the dock,it was a 5 minute row,to his lobster boat. We lived on the 2nd and 3rd floors.The porch you see is on the first floor.There was also one above it,for us.The first floor was "reserved" for my older brothers.Al lived there after coming home from Germany,in the early fifties,until he purchased a home in Salem. Got alot of great memories of that house. It has sold a couple of times,in the past few yrs,for between $400 to $475k. Lastly we have a picture of a poor soul being towed by the vultures.[attachment 60542 MyPictures041.jpg][attachment 60543 MyPictures042.jpg]Best carry some "green" with you,or belong to "Boats US", What ever happened to boaters,helping each other,if you broke down? Liability or Ignorance is what happened,what a shame.... Rj

 

[david(tx)]

i like the smaller ones that have the natural wood look with several coats of varnish.man, home prices have soared there,i guess anywhere on the water is high dollar.the green boat looks like it has all the new navigational electronics stuff.

 

[VT Dave]

Enjoyed the "Chris"! Always good to look back and relive the memories!

 

[WillyP]

I enjoyed the pictures.

 

[Micheal_R]

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[Royal]

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[George-CT]

Chris Craft hulls very well. They were double planked hulls and a pain in the butt to work on. Super nice boats just the same. I always liked their bright work with the mahogany decks and trim with the white caulking in the seams. Refinished a lot of them towards then end of my boating days as they were getting a little age on them. Along with them I still liked the lines of the wooden hulls like Lyman, GreyDwhite,PennYan, Yellow Jacket, Thompson, and bigger stuff like Egg Harbor, Grand Banks, and all kinds of specialty wood hulls from along the Northeast. One that was not to far from you was the Bristol Bluefish. Nice hull. We sold mostly Down East hulls. Beautiful lines, shallow draft. Moved very easy thru the water and good sea boats, but wet in the back. Most of ours were built in East Port, Maine or Bar Harbor, Nova Scotia. Lobster boats were our specialty back then. I have to dig thru here as I have quite a few old pictures from the boat marina. We were located on the Thames River, just before the Gold Star Twin Bridges and the Sub base. I like you, spent my youth on and near the salt water. Blue shell crabs, steamers, quahogs, flat fish and fluke were part of the main diet.

Enjoyed the post.

George-CT

 

[Royal]

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[Ken Barton]

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[George-CT]

Been working on old baling equipment for the neighbors, mostly welding it back together or burning off rusted on parts and putting on new used ones or even a new part. Rebuild my backhoe rams, then did 2 of the neighbors backhoes. All for smiles, just friends helping friends.

Then keeping this place open is a full time job in the summer. Usually wacking weeds down the horses don't eat along the edges, splitting wood for next winter, and getting hay up in the loft for me and others.

The rest of my time goes to helping my son with the new grand daughter. Major medical problems there but with all of us pitching in, its manageable. The first 6 weeks of her life were $345,000 bucks....She hasa been thru a lot but doing better each day. She gets fed thru a tube every 3 hours 24/7.....So Jane and I try to help my son George and Swatie as much as we can. She needs to get to 10 lbs before they can fix some of why she needs to be tube fed thru stomach.

Couple that with a bunch of other stuff going on, all beyond my control but Daddy is the one who picks up the pieces and so I tossed myself into idle mode till I sort some of this stuff out. Kids can cause insanity
for sure. Never a dull moment.

I swing thru here almost daily and enjoy the post but usually don't have anything worth while to add. This is tranquility base compared to the other forum. I saw your pictures on the lake last week with the old drawings on the rocks etc. Pretty neat stuff. I saw some out west in different areas. Neat to look at and wonder.

George-Ct

 

[Kelley (Texas)]

The life of living by the ocean fascinates me and your pictures and stories are so interesting. I would like to ride on that old wood cabin cruiser boat from the 1950's...that thing is big enough to live on. The picture of the house that you grew up in looks big...classic looking with a good view of the water. Thanks for posting this story and pictures. Please have a great day! Kelley (Texas)

 

[Royal]

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[Royal]

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[Royal]

Things are slow on the web right now. Nice weather and better things to be doing.

 

[Rob/Windsor Ont.]

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[Kelley (Texas)]

and if not for this Forum, I would never had seen it or known about it or the life up there in Yankee land along the coast. I would not have read about the big pumpkins, or man eating grizzly bears, or about the turkey hunting in Arkansas, or driving that train, or sucking someone into going frog hunting, or finding gold along a river up there in Canada, or what it was like working in a salt mine...just so much out there in the world and so little time to enjoy and experience just even a tiny part of it. This Forum enables you to enjoy so much! Please have a great day! Kelley (Texas)

 

[Royal]

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[Rob/Windsor Ont.]

I know it's not much help but believe me when I tell you she's thought of often. Like you said in your post to Royal........one day at a time. I'm trusting here that she's going to come thru with flying colors. Stay the course......she's one special little lady and she remains in our prayers !!

Rob

 

[George-CT]

We think she will make it thru it all. So many x factors in it all. She made it threw the heart surgery and that will not happen again until she is about 5 years old unless the valve acts up. Then one more time when she is ready to become a teenager. Again, X factors in there but thats the plan. The doctors have a few other concerns but it will take her growing and seeing where she is with other kids her age. Right now at 4 months she is only 6lbs 5oz. Audio test show hearing is a little off but age could change that as I guess the ear canal might have liquid in them. They send sound thru and watching the vibration at the anvil in the ear to determine this stuff. She follows us around with her eyes and all so thats another good sign. The rest of it, is all speculation according the
doctors. Just have to wait and see. I hope they are right. So far its running about 50/50 on their early before birth predictions. Scary stuff.

Gets to me as I can't do anything to change or fix it. Support for my son and his wife is about it. He is well insured so that covers a big part of it, but the cost of all this just blows my mind. All this care is great if you can afford it. If you can't and fall thru the cracks in medical care, your in trouble or out of luck.

I'm the feeder a lot of the times. A tiny pump, runs off a battery for 30 minutes and ever so slowly pumps in 1.7 oz of liquid. Thats her food.
Yet, she has gained 1 lb, so thats fine with us.

Thats where we are at this point. The hole in the heart repair when very well also. They say there are 3 levels to all this, and we just finished level 1. 2 to go. This road of life has some bumpy spots in it from time to time but just makes you appreciate more what you do have thats right.

Again, appreciate you keeping her and us in your thoughts and prayers.

George-CT

 

[Rob/Windsor Ont.]

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