Kaimusailing

Anchored out in the Bodkin Inlet is just a small step out into the wilds. It's like all hell breaks loose out on the water. Jet ski's can blast right up, just like a hooligan motorcycle, but on the water. Cheap power boats loaded with gasoline, towing young hooligan water skiers, running dangerously close to Uncle Frank's Docks. Boats with drunken adults towing mere children on inflatable objects, careening around in the small inlet.
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The lands around the inlet are inhabited by the privileged, property values are inflated. For a shore side cottage you pay about twice what those just a few hundred yards inland pay. The shore side land is subject to hurricane surge every year, but everyone wants to live on the shore.
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A boat anchored right in front of a privileged shore side cottage is subject to scrutiny and abuse. I had someone make a complaint to the Department of Natural Resources about being anchored right about where I am anchored now, and that resulted in a nice officer knocking on the door of our cottage. After looking over our documents, it was decided that we were not out of compliance, so we could be on our way, or be on our anchor.
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Now I am more careful about how I anchor, not about the physical anchoring of the boat, but of those on shore, how my boat appears to them, and how I position in their space. It helps if the boat is attractive and well kept. Being friendly may not be taken well, as I found out, by some who are more antagonistic to boaters near their shores.
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Truth be told, I was slaving away down below, grinding the black epoxy. Black dust is bad, but when it coalesces into black mud on the skin, making the captain look like the grimiest coal miner, it becomes a black paste. I am allergic to it, so there was inevitable itching, scratching, and smears of black. Sweat helps, it makes the black paste more fluid, streaky. But then it starts to drip and you can't have drips of black epoxy on your newly sanded off bare wood. Go up topside to take a break, towel off, if there is a towel left not sludged with black epoxy. I learned to use the other side of the towel next time. Then use the other end, and so forth. There were no towels left. No shrugs off onto the shoulder and sleeve. Just go on deck and try to cool off.
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The little fishing boat left the nearby dock loaded down with white skinned locals. As they went by I noticed the skipper with his shaved round white head and waved to him. He turned away.
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I went back below and continued my work.
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The problem with black pigments vs white pigments is simple. If someone goes for a walk on a beach and returns with sand on their feet, it isn't a problem. If they go for a walk on a black sand beach and return with black sand on their feet, it becomes a problem. You can't track that black sand around, but the regular sand is no problem.
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And so the clean up down below becomes a drudge. The black dust from sanding the black epoxy gets into everything and won't come clean on areas of overspray or the nooks and crannies. Well, it adds character down below. Contrast to the pristine arctic white that is everywhere. We don't have to go crab fishing in the Bering Sea to get a workboat finish down below, we can get it in just a couple of days of black epoxy.
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The picture is of the galley sole including the deck plates.