Where's Carey?

[Codger2]

For quite sometime now Carey has been absent. Where is he? He has some really good insight on cruising a single engine lobster boat in the PNW.

 

[Giggitoni]

I've missed his knowledge and tidbits he passes along to us hungry cruisers. Perhaps this will Get his attention.

 

[Nomad Willy]

I was wondering that just a few days ago. Maybe he's just getting bored w boating lately or has a hot new mistress. If anything had happened that Marin could share you'd think Marin would'a shared unless he's in jail for molesting little boys. He's prolly just off to see the world and has other things to do. If I did'nt live so far off into the wilderness I'd prolly have more to do myself.

 

[Marin]

Carey is on a FEMA deployment to Pennsylvania as a result of the flooding there. He has been there for several months now. He expects to be home before Christmas but it may be only for a couple of weeks if he gets re-deployed again.

Carey has been a FEMA field agent for a number of years, starting the year prior to Katrina. He has recieved a lot of training and is currently qualified to perform Preliminary Damage Assessments, set up and manage field offices (where people come in for assistance) set up and inspect FEMA trailer housing, and a whole bunch of other managerial positions.

He is not a full-time FEMA employee but is a member of the local FEMA region where he is on-call to perform the tasks listed above. FEMA is set up so that each region is also designated as reinforcement for one or more other regions. This is why Carey is currently in Pennsylvania. He has set up and managed field offices in Oregon, Ohio, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, and now Pennsylvania (I may have left one or two out). He worked Katrina and Ike as well as a few other named storms. Mostly what he has been involved with is flooding.* He was also*involved a couple of years ago*in the emergency planning that FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers conducted as a result of a weakening dam in the Cascade foothills south of Seattle.

For people who have not seen his posts and avatar photo, here are a couple of photos I've taken over the years*of his 36' lobsterboat "Happy Destiny."* BTW, Carey designed*and had fabricated the aluminum davits holding their 10' Bullfrog dinghy.


-- Edited by Marin on Wednesday 23rd of November 2011 06:36:09 PM

 

[Giggitoni]

Thanks, Marin. Tell Carey we were asking. Nice capture. I've always loved photos with a low-angle sunny foreground and a dark, stormy background. Well done!

 

[Marin]

That particular photo, which Carey currently uses as his avatar, was taken on a very nice day, actually. I took it at the top of Hale Passage north of Bellingham Bay when we were on our way back together from Sucia Island. The dark background is the result of the fog which was rapidly burning off. A few minutes after I took the shot the Lummi Island in the background was bathed in sunlight.

 

[markpierce]

Is that a Bruce I see on Carey's bow?* Presumably, Marin has since corrected Carey's ways?

 

[Peter B]

Great pic Marin. Actually, talking davits...I used to have two nice alloy davits quite like Carey's, and carried my ducky there, but it did bug me how it trapped water from rain and also swung about quite a bit on the move in spite of tethering it as firmly as I could. Anyway, one day while away on holiday I was contacted and advised my dinghy had had to be retrieved as a davit had broken, (mysteriously), and the thing was dangling. I decided to go Weaver Snap davits after that, and carry her on the transom on the duckboard, and never regretted that move, but often wondered how that breakage had come about. No-one owned up. Then about a year later I found out how... A rather tragic old geezer several berths along, who seldom went out, but often came down alone and just stayed on board a night ot two, had to go out - the boat had to be antifouled. He had a son and two grandsons with him, but they were not much help either, and I stood open-mouthed as I witness his way of getting out of the berth. I kid you not, his method was to charge back and forth in the fairway between the marina arms, reversing or charging forward again only when he hit a boat one side or the other, and could go no futher. All this time the son and his kids were screaming at him to slow down, and he was working the levers and wheel on the flybridhge in a frenzy. I couldn't help him either, but did feel sorry for him in a way...but I also wished I'd had my video camera on hand, it would have been a blast on U-tube..! He was banned from the marina after that. All a bit sad really, but I then knew what had happened to that very stout davit, and was just glad that is all the damage he did on that occasion. Does sort of underline recent comments on the manoeuvring issue recently, about going just fast enough to have steerage, but slow enough to avoid damage in a misadventure...?

 

[Per]

dont know why you would think we are interested in that davit?

hehe..

here is a pic i took this summer of a nice Nordic with similar davit, the reason i took the photo was my interest in the davit

 

[markpierce]

Feel fortunate the 36-foot*Coot is in a 40-something-foot berth.* Unlike my neighbor Ray in his GB-42, I'm well recessed.


-- Edited by markpierce on Wednesday 23rd of November 2011 08:07:18 PM

 

[Per]

Per wrote:
dont know why you would think we are interested in that davit?

hehe..

here is a pic i took this summer of a nice Nordic with similar davit, the reason i took the photo was my interest in the davit

*btw, that is my boat just forward of the Nordic.

 

[Marin]

markpierce wrote:
Is that a Bruce I see on Carey's bow?* Presumably, Marin has since corrected Carey's ways?

Carey has had a fair number of reliability problems with his Bruce.* He's told me that if they anchored out more then they do, they would replace it with a more effective, reliable anchor.

 

[Andy G]

Which would be a ............

*

 

[Marin]

He hasn't said, but since they don't anchor out much it's not a priority. And the last few years he has been so busy with FEMA that they don not have the opportunity to use their boat with nearly the frequency they did in the past. He is away on FEMA declarations more months of the year than he's here.

 

[Steve]

The davit pictured on the green hulled Nordic Tug posted by Per looks very practical, it swings the davit out and down so it doesn't catch on the swim platform, yet will hold it snug in the up position.
Any one know who makes it?

This is a similar design http://www.oceanmarinesystems.com/2d_davithtf500.html

Steve W.

 

[Carey]

* * *Nice to see that a couple of you miss me (or are at least aware of my absence*

).*

* * *Marin pretty much summed it up.

* * *When I am deployed, I generally work the first month or so with no days off, and often work twelve hours or more, leaving me just enough time to forage for food and bourbon, and hit the pillow by nine to ten pm. I am currently working 65-70 hours a week. I also found that if I keep my mouth shut and listen to all of your wisdom, that I learn a lot more.. I currently have off most Sundays, so have a moment to read my kindle or have a look here.*

For those that might be interested, I am currently overseeing the expansion of a mobile home park along with the Army Corp of Engineers. We are faced with a need to provide approximately 320 mobile homes to house victims of Tropical Storm Lee, which you may remember passed through the NE shortly after Hurricane Irene. At the same time we are doing this housing mission, several other missions are ongoing in NY (200+ units), North Dakota (around 2,500 units) and others that I am unsure of at this time. These mobile homes are provided rent free for up to eighteen months from the date of declaration, to allow folks time to rebuild their homes, and for renters, time to locate another rental, which in this case are few and far between.

As Marin stated, I expect to be home by Dec. 20, and may or may not return to Pennsylvania. *When I do get home, you'll likely see me surface with an occasional half truth or speculation on the ways of the boating world.

Take care all*

 

[Andy G]

Given the hours you are working, you probably won't have the time or energy to answer this, but someone else might, who supplies all these mobile homes?

 

[Marin]

Andy G wrote:
Given the hours you are working, you probably won't have the time or energy to answer this, but someone else might, who supplies all these mobile homes?

If I correctly remember what Carey told me, the trailers are contracted out to trailer manufacturers.

 

[Per]

Steve wrote:
The davit pictured on the green hulled Nordic Tug posted by Per looks very practical, it swings the davit out and down so it doesn't catch on the swim platform, yet will hold it snug in the up position.
Any one know who makes it?

This is a similar design http://www.oceanmarinesystems.com/2d_davithtf500.html

Steve W.

*it almost looks specialty made, a friend of mine works for a stainless mfg up in Seattle, i was gonna ask him for price.

 

[Carey]

Andy

Given that a thread by my name presented itself, I thought it necessary to make a brief appearance.*

The Mobile Homes FEMA uses are for the most part purchased from manufacturers who threw their hats in the ring to win "Disaster Housing" contracts. These are not the most luxurious of what is available in the industry, but as you might imagine, mobile homes designed to meet the basic needs of safety, security and sanitation and comfort, offering a housing unit that will meet the minimum needs of most people in most environments. A huge focus in the last few years has been to provide the above, with the minumum exposure to formaldehyde. Beyond your basic built for "Disaster Housing" unit, FEMA is sometimes so desperately in need of high volume availability, that they do go to retail dealers throughout the country seeking available inventory which meets those needs, and that we also know will meet our maximum formaldehyde levels. I can't say what percentage of our mobile home needs are met by off the shelf dealer models, but my guess is that in a time of extremely high demand, we might get 20 percent from this source.*

That is the basics of what I understand about the acquisition of housing units, although I must admit to that not being my area of expertise.

*