On a beautiful day with no visitors (the sea is still rolling in huge swells from the east), Dave Power called to say that he and his son Nate (the two that built the outhouse in the cove over a long summer) were going to come out to take a look at the tram.  These two guys’ given names are really more like adjectives.  Complimenting each other perfectly, they are a force of nature.  I was sure we’d spend the whole summer without the use of the tram but in a few hours, they got it up and running again.

Unspooling the cable in the Donkey House was a greasy job; once they were able to release the drum, it was just a matter of muscle and time before it was back in place and not jammed around the axle any more.  When I took the dingy out to meet them they had minimal equipment in a big plastic pail.  Up at the top, putting the pulley back in the rotted eight by eight post was something Dave was ready for.  He knew just where to find the plates to use and while he readied them, Nate winched the car back up to the top platform.

Once the slack was taken up, we did a test run down.  The front wheels of the car came off the track at one point and the cable at the pulley was twisted.  Friction built up but once the car was back on track and safely at the bottom, a few turns of the pulley straightened out the cable, and the trip back up was smoother.  Dave is doing a good job of passing the torch and the knowledge he has of the mechanics of the island machinery, so he can let someone else take over the operations of the island.  Perhaps when Nate leaves the merchant marine, he’ll want to follow in his father’s footsteps.  Let’s hope so, for the sake of Seguin, and the hapless amateurs installed on it as summer caretakers.  We dodged another bullet.