Gulf Island Building.

cocobolo · 08-12-2010, 12:52 AM

Well thanks Jim, but I assure you I'm none too amazing. I long ago learned that slow and steady wins the race, so that's the strategy I adopted today.

I arrived at the marina around 10:30, and the truck arrived about an hour later. I thought it would be coming up in a small lift truck, but nooo...

this is what came around the corner!

cocobolo · 08-12-2010, 12:54 AM

The driver and I had a chat...I showed him over to the boatyard section of the marina...then he hopped in the truck and off he went.

cocobolo · 08-12-2010, 12:57 AM

Would you believe this is a '95 Mack? In beautiful condition. Apparently the company doesn't lease any trucks, they own them outright. And the driver, Vern, was saying they do an excellent job of maintenance.

He chose to back into the small yard. Don't ask me how he did that, there is no room to speak of at the other end.

cocobolo · 08-12-2010, 12:59 AM

The liftgate in use and the first pallet coming out.

cocobolo · 08-12-2010, 01:01 AM

As soon as we dragged the pallet off the liftgate, it got stuck in the soft parking lot. We couldn't budge it...hey...it weighed a ton!

cocobolo · 08-12-2010, 01:03 AM

So Vern just moved the truck ahead enough to get the second pallet off, and we both pulled the pallet off together. Didn't make any difference, it got stuck again anyway.

But it was just fine where it was.

cocobolo · 08-12-2010, 01:06 AM

Then the real fun started.

As I started to get the tiles down to the boat, by a most unfortunate circumstance, it was low tide...and you know what that means...right?

Take a peek at the gangplank.

cocobolo · 08-12-2010, 01:10 AM

My original plan was to put 3 boxes of tile on the hand truck, but this was a 25% grade. Forget that idea.

The boxes weigh a trace over 60 lbs each. Three would have been 180 lbs, but even with two at 120 lbs - plus the weight of the hand truck, it was enough of a fight going down as it was.

cocobolo · 08-12-2010, 01:15 AM

The worst thing about loading anything heavy on to the boat has always been the actual lift from the dock on to the boat. It's just plain awkward.

No matter how tight you tie the boat up, everything moves under your feet.

Since I was doing this alone, I thought I had better improve the loading situation before I got started.

I brought over an old chunk of 3/4" plywood and a bunch of pieces of wood, a handful of nails, hammer and saw. It turned out to be a very easy solution.

cocobolo · 08-12-2010, 01:17 AM

This is the first two boxes sitting on ready to go into the boat.

Hey, look at that will you...the guy who printed the boxes did one upside down!

cocobolo · 08-12-2010, 01:18 AM

After a couple of hours of loading, this is what the inside of the boat looked like.

cocobolo · 08-12-2010, 01:20 AM

Just above the waterline on a sailboat, you paint a bootstripe.
At the 1,800# mark, this was all that was left showing.

cocobolo · 08-12-2010, 01:21 AM

It was 2:30 by the time I left Boat Harbour...

cocobolo · 08-12-2010, 01:22 AM

...and this is where we are headed.

cocobolo · 08-12-2010, 01:25 AM

Offloading at the other end was much more difficult, even though it was much quicker.

Incidentally, I counted the number of paces each way at the marina...150!

First I stacked some boxes on the cockpit seat. Then put some wood on top (actually a part of the hatchway) so that the next row would be able to slide off without too much trouble.