No, that's not some sort of you-know-what-toy on the bulkhead....filthy mind! It's an old-timey jackline harness....

The spring winds are still blowing, and I have been up to my proverbial rear end trying to get some chores done. Headliner chores continue on, with more of the mid cabin and some of the V-berth trimed out.

Anchor Marinas' owner, Mark was finally picked up (thank goodness, the only other alternative would've been the meat wagon...), transported to Bexar County, where his parole was summarily revoked, and he is now looking at I believe 3-10 years of pretty hard time. He's been after Jean to call the president of the United States to see if he can get some help. I think GWB is probably a bit tied up with other matters right now, so Mark shouldn't hold his breath.

Meanwhile, the marina is in a state of chaos....and Dock-boy is still running the show. However, this may mercifully come to an end soon. His boat (if you want to call it that) is still sitting on a trailer, now a brilliant lemon yellow color, surrounded by various and sundry refuse presumibly taken from aboard since he's been on land. A couple of sofas, piles of unidentifiable trash and other flotsam and jetsam. He works about an hour a day, cracks open the first beer, then struts around like he now owns the place, which he undoubtedly seems to since no one appears in charge....

Well, code enforcement drove through, and informed him that there are no live aboards allowed, either in or out of the water in this marina.

He was pretty mad about that last night.

I had just stopped over there after getting some new dock cleats installed on my new private slip, and had gone back to 'Div to return my tools. Rick, who is Marks brother in law and is now "running the place" (a whole 'nother story...) was standing there talking to us, drinking a 24 ounce tall-boy, when Dock-boy sauntered up in an alcohol blaze, raving about the situation.

"F%$#ers said I couldn't live here...."

"I got news for 'em.....I'm covered under the grandfather clause"

"You don't know what your talking about" I said, beginning to get irritated.....

"Well f%$k the F%$#ers"...."if they don't accept that then I'll just get an engine....go cruise."

"F%$k 'em"

Now I'm thinking to myself "yea, right". Just before Jack with Sea Shack went to the yards, he told me he had gotten into it with Dock-boy over the same issue. Seems as if Dock-boy had a plan to remove the two big old blown out 350's down in the stern....replace them with a 5hp outboard so that he could "just cruise outside the jetties"....heck, he probably wouldn't make it out of the harbor with that, never mind the stability problem that removing the old motors would cause....

"They're just a bunch of d&*%s, I guess that's what they make d&*%s for" he said.

Now I was truly puzzled. I was glad when he oozed off in the general direction of his "vessel".....

I got put on the reservation list last week to get hauled out.....It was supposed to happen by today, but Saturday when I was over in the area of Southpoint, boats were packed in the yard tighter than sardines in a can....so I'm not holding my breath....but I am pretty antsy...

Being the only game in town, Southpoint  does not allow owners to work below the waterline. They charge $27 a foot for labor and haulout based on LOA. I asked them why they didn't charge LWL, and they just shrugged. I stomped my feet and wryly suggested that they just increase their prices to reflect the actual cost of the work below the waterline, and they just shrugged again. If you've got the monopoly, you can do just about anything you want to I guess (insert shrug here).

And speaking of monopolies, there is no longer a boat broker either on the Island or in PI, nor are there any sort of pump out facilities south of Corpus Christi. So what are we supposed to do, sail out past the three mile limit every time we need to empty our tanks?......

I don't think so.

I'm gonna ask Dock-boy what he does.....