Ian was watching one of the Lord of the Rings movies, a treat we had just picked up at the library, when we presented him with a choice: Would you like to stay here and watch the rest of this movie, OR...would you like to go and rescue a sailboat?
So, into the car(s) we piled...Tim and his boys in one car, Ian and myself in the Forester, and down toward the creek we went. It took a few encounters with some neighbor boys over the next few days to get the whole story, but apparently someone grew tired of this cute little orange sailboat and offered it to one of the local boys. The local boy decided it would be fun to try to ride it over the falls, as was evidenced by the boat's location upon our arrival and the apparent damage to the bottom of the craft. Our friend, Brian, had been out hiking when he noticed the bright orange and white vessel stranded in the creek and thought we might just be the people who would be adventurous (read: crazy?) enough to try to get it out.
Once the guy living across the street from the area in question commented that several people had tried (and failed) to remove this boat from its current situation, well, I knew we'd be there as long as it took to succeed.
And succeed, we did. We are now the proud owners of a lovely small sailing craft as well as some of the rigging we later found out was still in the original owner's back yard.
Here are a few of the highlights:
Tim in the thick of things. This was taken at the top of the ravine one one side of the creek. Without going onto someone's land, we could not explore what the other side looked like past what we could see from this side. From this side, it appeared to be just as treacherous. (In other words, no place for someone to be climbing with a sailboat on his back.)
The falls, viewed from the overpass.
After a period of time spent brainstorming, it was discovered that the land on the other side of the creek from where we approached was actually a lot more easily traversed and that if we hiked far enough up that side, we would eventually come to a place where we could just walk the boat right out of the water. Well, when I say "we" I mean the men (hey, Im pregnant, remember?) and when I say "walk" I mean "carry". But still, prior to this tidbit of info, we were considering trying to get it back up over the falls, so this plan sounded like a cake-walk.
With permission from the owner of the land, the men folk set off up to tow the boat up the creek and then carry it back to the starting point, on land this time, where we were able to secure it to the top of Tim's Jeep and Viola! the Nugent-Noonan's are now the proud owners of the sailboat Mary Elise.
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