Bearing Marine

Bearing Marine   …   Friday 10th May 2013

I want to use the blog today to write a few words about Bearing Marine - the company that run the boatyard side of things here at the Wilmington Marine Center. I think they have done  a really good job with our boat. Tim Nichols is the owner / manager and runs a well organized yard. The guys he has working with him seem enthusiastic and capable and they work really hard. I was particularly impressed today because we had asked Tim if he could service our Max-prop propellor whilst we are out of the water - not something we had thought to discuss with him in advance. He ordered the service kit and not only took care of this, but called me over and showed me how to grease the unit and left us with parts so that when we need to do it again, wherever we are, we have what it takes to get it done. Today Cotinga was put back on the lift and they added two separate coats of anti-fouling paint to the areas where the stands had been. Rather than rush the drying and re-launch at low tide we decided to hold off putting the boat back in the water until tomorrow morning. This brings me to another point - tomorrow is Saturday and Tim and at least some of his team will be working. They were also working last Sunday for part of the day and throughout this week they have been around typically from 8 in the morning till 7 at night. Tim's been running the business here for a year now and it would be eye opening for anyone considering setting up a business to see how hard he works.

As for Gloria and I, we are waiting until the boat is back in the water to finish off our jobs before we leave. So today was another fairly lazy day. I wandered along the road and took a few photos of the local industry before running into trouble. Apparently it's now illegal to take photos of refineries or major ports even from public roads - all part of homeland security. I was suitably apologetic to the man who was challenging me and he decided not to call the police! You can see for yourself below how threatening these photos were. Tonight we cooked shrimp étouffée - a fantastic recipe from a small paperback cookbook I bought in New orleans many years ago. How bad can any recipe be that has a whole stick of butter in it!

Mike

Abstract photos of oil / gas tanks - some rusty, some as white as driven snow

Shrimp Etouffee