A special delivery  www.soundingsonline.com We've owned some land on the water, with a pier, for much of our lives. We'd always felt we could enjoy our freedom at sea more if we had a place to occasionally visit and lick our wounds - a place that was our very own, rather than our own in the sense that the sea belongs to the world. The water at our dock is deep and protected by high land. It is a good place to be in a storm. So we started looking around for someone to build us a house there, for that time in the future when we might need it. It didn't take long to find Chesapeake Homes in Lively, Va. They've been building modular homes for years, including some modular multistory mansions. This was hardly what we wanted - mansions don't impress me at all - but it was good to know the capabilities of this outfit. And with a loyal clientele and steady work, they were able to keep a steady labor force, so they could even guarantee delivery times. This is nearly unheard of in remote areas such as ours. Lloyd Dilday is the guy behind Chesapeake Homes. He's on the job every day - very much hands-on. We didn't have to waste a lot of time listening to highfalutin architects. He showed us what he could do. We told him what we wanted and paid a deposit, and he said we'd have it at a certain time. Believe it when I see it, I thought. We were free to sail away, which, of course, we did. Tom Neale is technical editor for Soundings and lives aboard a Gulfstar 53 motorsailer. You can buy his book, "All in the Same Boat," at www.tomneale.com This article originally appeared in the November 2010 issue. http://www.soundingsonline.com/boat-shop/sea-savvy/266352-dropping-the-hook-on-terra-firma © 2010 Dominion Enterprises, All rights reserved.