The Great Bracket Caper

This coming Labor Day will mark the end of my seventh summer at the marina.  Yes, the final holiday weekend of the season is at hand.  This always gives me pause to reflect and to try and gauge my successes and failures.  Fortunately I’ve had few failures this summer and many successes.  Not a bad way to close out a season.

Thinking back about all that has passed this summer I am struck by the size and scope of even small projects around a marina facility such as this one.    Take, for instance, the brackets that had to be changed out at the beginning of this month.

These brackets are L shaped and are about 36” long on each side of the L.  They are bolted through the docks at intersections to hold the dock together as one piece.  We had two brackets on one intersection break in storm winds this past spring.  In high wave action the docks could possibly sway enough for this failure to allow chafing of electric and water lines.

Part of the challenge is to get the company that services our docks out to our location for a job this small.  With hurricane season upon us, we persevered and they finally arrived to change these brackets.  What a major production this turned out to be.

Here is a wide shot showing the barge and crane that was part of the required equipment.

This next pic is of the intersection that needed reinforcing.

The shot above is of the brackets that broke and need to be replaced.  The foul looking stuff in the water is called marsh grass and comes into the marina on what is called spring tides.  A spring tide us an unusually high tide periodthat happens once a quarter and occurs on an average over a four day time span. 

Guess whose job it is to pull the marsh grass out of the marina after the spring tides are over.  Yep!  You guessed it, mine!  I use a device I fashioned myself that I pull behind a work boat to tow it out of the marina And I release it on an outgoing tide to drift out to the ocean.

These are the threaded rods that have to go all the way through the dock to the other side to bolt this whole bracket assembly together.

This next shot is one of the old, broken brackets being removed.

Here is a wide shot from the opposite angle.  Quite an operation, I’d say.  It took about a half day’s work for this crew to bring the barge and crane in, do the work and leave again with the barge and crane.

My new assistant is working out just fine and is a real help.  Everyone likes him and I cannot tell you what a relief this is to me.  This has been a good week and a great way to close out another season.  If I don’t post before the holiday weekend, please take care and stay safe.

See Ya on the docks!