Is That Pumpkin Seaworthy? No Promises.

Is That Pumpkin Seaworthy? No Promises.

On a cool October morning in Maine, a man with a foot-long beard sank his foot-long knife into a giant pumpkin. It was a small one, he explained: just 674 pounds, about the weight of a baby grand piano. The pumpkin was in the early stages of its transformation into a seafaring vessel. Tom Lishness, a Navy veteran who takes pride in his resemblance to the Travelocity gnome, cut a circular hatch. He measured its diameter, and then his waistline. H…