This past week we looked through many of the containers and measured up the pieces we will install during the next visit to Trinidad. We had pulled these pieces from our shop well over a year ago and tucked them into shipping containers. Other than glimpses into the dark confines of the boxes we haven't seen them since. I can hardly wait to pull them out into the daylight once more in a month or so. I know from experience that all of the workers onsite will suddenly start to understand what it is we are building - a far different vision from the grey concrete and gravel now in existence. It is going to be a great deal of fun!
Translating a dream
I spent the day with owners, engineers and workers at Skallywag Bay in Trinidad. It was my last day this trip to explain the many things I wanted. We trudged back and forth across the site, me with spray bomb and tape measure in hand. My task was to lay out the foundations of the rides, fences and features on the uneven ground and then explain my vision to them as clearly as I could articulate it to them. Behind us a team of surveyors recorded the marks I made in the dirt for they will quickly disappear as construction proceeds. Over the next four weeks they will translate these rough marks into concrete walls, feature footings and a newly imagined hilly terrain. Then I will make a whole new set of marks to build the next features.
My vision is the same plan for the site I've described and drawn for more than four years. Only now it is finally becoming real. One tiny piece of this giant complex puzzle is the cave that will become the hole twelve of the adventure golf. Above, on the mountain top guests will start their golf game by putting into the back of a giant cannon affectionately named Joe Blow. The difficulty is that no one on site has seen the cannon for it is tucked safely into one of the sealed shipping containers. None of the workers have seen the sketches and drawings, only plans from the architect which are little more than plain lines. The drawings from the architect are constantly being adjusted by the needs of the mechanical and plumbing engineers and myself as I translate my vision into spray marks on the ground. The form builders will simply follow the lines, not knowing what they are building. It takes a little faith on all sides that it will all turn out just fine.
Visiting old friends
Most of the work we did in our shop for Skallywag Bay in Trinidad was completed and sent on it's way last year. There are fourteen containers of our pieces, plus four of rockwork, four of rides and two others with other bits and bobs from other suppliers. The first containers were shipped from our studio almost two years ago. After their arrival the containers were lined up in long rows, waiting for the infrastructure work to be complete. As with every project there were unavoidable setbacks and delays onsite. Now, the work on the buildings and infrastructure is proceeding much more quickly. It is time, at last to begin establishing the final grades of the site. Many hundreds of loads of fill will be trucked to the site in the coming days. While I was here this trip I went into each container to verify measurements of the pieces. As I entered each container it was like visiting old friends. Every piece has arrived in perfect shape and was waiting patiently in the dark shadows.
I then transferred these feature measurements around the site to mark out the placement of a number of foundations and footings which will be built in the next few weeks to support these features. The next time I come back to Trinidad we will start to pull out many of the features and hoist them into their permanent homes. That will be truly exciting!
