General quarters! General quarters!

BONG BONG BONG BONG General quarters! General quarters! All hands man your battle stations. Move up and forward to starboard, down and aft to port. Set material condition ZEBRA throughout the ship, make ZEBRA reports to DC Central. Reason for general quarters is: hair on fire boat movement. BONG BONG BONG BONG.

Several new developments yesterday have thrown the tiny Dockyard establishment into a frenzy. Of course, it is all related to the shipping and movement of our two donated Monomoy Pulling Boats (M2 and M3) from NYC to Norfolk. Last night, our ideal timeline was appreciably shifted to the left, that is, moved up more than a week. That means the Monomoys are being loaded in New York TODAY and will be en route to Norfolk tonight.

There are several factors and moving parts and pieces to this. The boats are, at this very minute, still onboard the Traning Ship EMPIRE STATE. They have to be craned ashore, with the ship's company and Cadet labor force to draw from. The truck driving them down is an 18-wheeler big rig with a flatbed trailer. The boats will be craned directly onto the truck and lashed down on cradles on the flatbed, which then have to be lifted off on arrival in Norfolk. That means a crane or a forklift, and on 24 hours notice. And because the big rig won't fit at the Dockyard, we need to transfer the boats one at a time to ANOTHER trailer to move them into position - at another location. I'm still coordinating with two churches in our immediate vicinity to use thier parking lots to accomplish the transfer. Then, we have to lift them AGAIN, remove the trailer, and set them down on the ground on their cradles - another job for the forklift or crane.

Still following?

And to make matters worse, the unloading will undoubtedly occur at one of two wierd times, dependent entirely on WHEN the 18-wheeler arrives on scene in Norfolk. First scenario is that it arrives TONIGHT and the unloading and movement will occur in the dark. Second is that it arrives TOMORROW MORNING, when most of our volunteers will be at work at their normal jobs. Quite the pickle.

That all being the case, I am calling in ANY AND ALL AVAILABLE VOLUNTEERS to assist with the move. If you are available please call me soonest at XXX-XXXX, leave a message if you have to, and let me know your availability.

In the meantime, I'm going to keep sorting out the logistical miracle.

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