pimblr.com

Mothers are great, kind and generous. They’re loving and supportive. They’re genuine.
You’ve heard that before, perhaps felt it in your lifetime and most definitely read it on a greeting card.
As a result, I’ve struggled the past few days to organize my thoughts about mothers and motherhood.
My thinking, nevertheless, led me to pondering my own mother and reflecting on time we’ve passed together.
There was the day when I was a young boy, riding in the car with Mom, who began to make funny faces at passing cars in an attempt to make me laugh. It worked. She made herself goofy, caring not about her own possible embarrassment, for my benefit. I realized then how cool my mom was, and I’ll never forget that beautiful moment.
Another time, we drove to the city to see a movie, an experience that was a rare and big deal for kids in rural areas with no movie theaters. And so it was a rare, big deal for me to go to a movie with my cool mom.
My mother did many fun things with me, but she also made decisions in raising me that, as I consider them in adulthood, couldn’t have been easy.
As a thrill seeker whose friends were allowed to take their bikes down our dirt road and across the nearest paved road, I once felt it was time for me to expand my permissible roaming area. Until then, I was not allowed to cross Johnson Road without an adult.
“But Mom, I’m 9 years old,” I declared. What I don’t remember is if she laughed in my face, as maybe she should have. What I do remember is she granted my request. She must have wrestled with the question in her own mind and decided, hesitantly, to let me have a little more independence. Now a parent, I can relate to that hold-your-breath feeling she must have had when I took off on my bike. That afternoon, she let go a little.

battlecreekenquirer.com

By Merijn de Waard
In March 2006 the US owner of Inevitable contacted De Vries Makkum with the request to refit his 1990 Feadship yacht Inevitable. A year before he had purchased the 51 meter yacht with the intention of rebuilding her to his own wishes. It was not his first big yacht, as he previously owned a 40 meter blue hulled Palmer Johnson yacht with the same name.
The refit team in Makkum, headed by Ico Vergouwe, sealed the contract and in the Autumn of 2006 Inevitable arrived in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She crossed the IJsselmeer to Scheepswerf Balk in Urk, who have a special slipway installation and can lift yachts up to 1200 tonnes and 60 meters out of the water. Balk placed the yacht on a pontoon and she was towed to De Vries Makkum, where she entered the “Makkum Cathedral” through the backdoor.
As soon as she was inside the yard, work started with the removal of the complete interior. At the main and bridge decks everything was removed, including all the walls, and at the lower deck only the interior was removed. Whilst the yacht was being stripped, Shipyard Ceelen in Leeuwarden built her new stern and Bloemsma Aluminiumbouw built the extended boat lounge and sundeck construction.
Inevitable was originally launched from the Feadship De Vries shipyard in Aalsmeer in 1990. At that time she did not had a bathing platform, but a few years ago, during one of her previous refits, a platform was added, as well as lengthening the overhang at the upper aft deck. Both extensions were removed in Makkum and replaced.
Feadship’s in-house naval architects, De Voogt, designed the new profile of Inevitable. By making the new buoyant bathing platform and raising it with 20 cm, her initial stability and water line length were increased, to compensate for the extended superstructure.

superyachttimes.com