lifting walls

The question is how to get the pre-fabricated walls on top of the ferry. In the Everett shop, we had cranes to do all this sort of work. The only figuring we had to do was how to strap each piece so it doesn’t break. But here we don’t have cranes of any kind. We work in the open air, working on our tans during sanding and epoxying. So how does one lift a wall on top a 7 foot tall hull?

Well, when lifting, we separate people into three categories; short, medium, and Bryce. Im in the short group. So we gather around the wall next in line to be hoisted up. After a bit of headscratching and bolstering up the courage to move the wall, we sigh. Bryce begins with a short synopsis of the plan to get it up the boat and mentions whether its breakable. Then he gets at one end of the wall and everyone else sorta sidles up around the wall awaiting instructions. Unfortunately, we are never evenly spaced so we have a few minutes of ordering people to places, much like a seating chart. Then we are ready to lift. And one, two, three, lift! Up goes the wall, and much grunting ensues as we walk towards the hull. Perhaps we spin the wall so that Bryce is at the front, but only by instruction. And lift! Bryce, with the meager help of everyone one in the medium category lifts one side to barely above the edge of the hull. Careful not the drop the other side to the ground. Short people lift with lumber to extend their arms, or run around the boat to help from on top the hulls. That route takes us up the eucalyptus ramp, onto the upper hull wall, down the makeshift steps, over the other walls lying on the floors, and over to the edge where we can see a bit of the wall sticking up over the side. Our job is to lift on the top edge while the others lift from the ground and pull the wall onto the floors. As the wall moves more onto the floors, medium people come up to help the short people. But we all must remember to not break or bend the wall. And those on top the boat must watch out for all the foam pieces and to not step on the other walls. Place the wall in the correct place with foam underneath it. Then gather around the next wall and repeat the process. Its really fun with bendy walls. They can look like this ~ sometimes getting them onto the boat. But with the bends spread out a lot more than that symbol.

We are beginning to realize that almost all the phrases we use to describe movement and direction are in fact colloquialisms not found in Ugandan vocabulary. Such as “move down” or “spread out evenly” or “what are you doing there?!”. Ah the joys of English and engrish coming together.