Men at Work
23 February 2012 | Rivers Edge Marina, St Augustine FL
Richard
If you set your eyes on Ooroo today you would have thought...how can that much stuff fit on that one boat. We have a dismantled 6 meter antenna, 10 Jerry cans, 5 new batteries, massive boxes containing chart plotters and radar....and dozens of little ones containing everything from dingy repair kits to winch springs. We managed to purchase the last 30 winch springs in town and gave Oli the job of dismantling, cleaning and greasing all 7 winches. He was doing a great job right up to us losing 20 springs overboard in the wind. Add to the mess was the dismantled winches, with their parts sitting in buckets of diesel and no way we can get them all back together without the MIA springs.
We have employed this great sailer and suitably named guy called "Skip" to assist with the installation of the new nav gear, batteries, solar and LED lighting. He old sea dog sets a fast pass for Mark, Oli and I to follow. Mark and Skip speak the same electrical speak and because I have the credit card and car....I get to run all around town looking for bolts, copper sheet, lunch, f$&@ing winch springs and small screws +++.
Mark and Oli are doing allot of the research work. Oli finalized the signage and best buys on everything from VHF radios to harnesses and the EPIRB, Mark, things like inverters, starters, alternators, and me...I pick them all up....and pay.
I do get some exciting work....like trying to sift through UK bureaucracy to sort boat registration, USA bureaucracy to sort EPIRB (safety beacon) registration and to license our boat to have the SSB radio. Problems arise with things like.....because we don't have a US registered boat (in fact our boat isn't registered anywhere at the mo) we can't get the SSB license. We wanted to register the EPIRB in Oz but because it was manufactured in the US they won't accept it in Oz. I skyped them in Oz...the response.... "sorry mate, if you want us to regista ya PIRB you'll havta send it in so we can charge you another $150 bucks"
I did get insurance however. And for the mums, dads, daughters, daughters boy friends, sisters and lovers out there, we do have good cover. Unless we do something really stupid. The winch springs aren't covered.
This weekend we will have the boat looking pretty hi tech... shimmicky in fact. We will have 3 massive solar panels hanging off the back, a 6 meter antenna (pointing straight up) along with our new (but very old looking) dingy and motor. Mark and I are quite excited by the dingy...he likes the oars, I like the 15hp motor on our little 3m inflatable. She will scoot. Oli will supervise the installation of the name...Ooroo and Mooloolaba, Australia. We even have a simple logo....stayed tuned for that.
So some rigging, cleaning, provisioning and me collecting all sorts of things....like springs and stuff and we are almost sailing.
So these men are having a relaxing night in....basking in the feeling that we will soon be sailing Ooroo home.