Breaking Bad
16 December 2020 | West Palm Municipal Dock
Tuesday 15 December 2020
Having yesterday foolishly opened a repair and maintenance can of worms technical crew, subsequently riddled with guilt, began polishing stainless steel. A couple of concepts became apparent almost immediately. First was just how much stainless there is: pulpit, pushpit, lifelines and hardware, stanchions, chainplates, Hydrovane, wind generator post and struts, antenna post, deck edging, rub rail edges, hand rails, cleats, hatch hardware, running rig blocks, cowl vents... this is not an exhaustive list. Realized an inextricably related detail shortly thereafter. When some of the stuff is shiny the unattended bits look like crap. This is an all or nothing affair that could easily have been left ignored as it had been for some considerable time, but nooooooo, Mr. Peppy just had to assuage those temporary pangs of conscience, get off his lazy duff and wade into a quagmire of work. Perhaps this will pound home a valuable lesson. Procrastination and sloth are invaluable allies for a happy life. Befriend them. Press them to your bosom (if you have one) and enjoy indolence at every opportunity. Sage advise - no charge. You're welcome.
Wednesday
Two possible locations to watch the America's Cup Racing tomorrow through the weekend are an Irish pub and a joint called Bradley's just off the municipal dock. Roxy's has a single large screen out front where listening might not disturb inside patrons if they allow some volume. Backup is watching screen while streaming voice from their internet and last ditch plan is to use our own very expensive mobile data on a thirteen inch computer screen. No matter the mode, expect this to be way cool. We've always loved AC racing even with the much slower monohulls. If you know only those, considered them boring and missed the foiling cats last two times this is even a step up from that. This ain't yer daddy's America's Cup, Spanky.
Got word that Florida Rigging was ready to go so we hauled anchor at just the right strength tide to position upstream of dock and drift on between boats. Easy peasy. Next part is getting old corroded conduit out. Looks like it will take three strong men, two tractable mules and a wee gullible child. That's the easy part. Getting new stuff in will additionally require a Gandalf. Hope we don't have to search all of Middle Earth to locate the old fart.
After finally removing everything discovered that most of the nylon fittings including two of four grease pots were unrecoverable. We'll replace it all. Another week to ship. Entire crew will shortly patronize a nearby pub that serves our comfort drug of choice.
Jack & Jan