"Load in" is a term used by circus folks meaning unloading the train and trucks and setting up the circus in an arena. As you can imagine, "load out" is the opposite. Since we've provided publicity for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus here in Southern New England for the past 18 years, we've adopted load in and load out as part of our regular vocabulary.
This weekend on Act Three was the the beginning of load out for all the stuff that has to be taken off the boat for the winter. Like many other boaters, we went through winters when we took everything off the boat. We learned that all that hauling just wasn't necessary. Now we remove anything that would be damaged by freezing and that, of course, includes all the liquids. We leave our inflatable on the back and Frances takes all of our bedding and puts it in vacuum bags. She sucks the air out of the bags with a vacuum cleaner and they become little cubes that can stay on the boat. Vacuum bags are one of the best winter storage things that Frances has come up with.
The numbers of those on our dock who have started to leave for winter storage is increasing. This weekend, our friends Ron and Sue left with their boat, "Obsession." As you can see from the video, they had all the help they needed.
While all of this work was going on, Pooka, our boat cat, relaxed and watched. Frances and Pooka lived on the boat all summer as they did the summer before. Pooka was a little spooked when he first arrived last spring but he has since relaxed and now enjoys his summer home. Everyone knows him and the little kids on the dock often visit him, which he loves. (Pooka loves attention from anyone.) He can even climb the ladder up to the fly bridge, which he does during his patrols of the deck.
Soon he's going to have to go back to his winter home at Frances' house and while that may take him a few days to become accustomed to, he'll be just fine.
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