Saturday, October 20, 2012

Friday was a busy day! The guy who was to install our electrics stopped by on Thursday to check on all the pieces and arrange to come back on Friday to get everything done. As promised, Joe was here by 8am and panels came off, cables were run, drills were employed and shortly we had a new battery monitor installed next to our radio (which we now need to learn how to use). Joe was a terrific guy, a cruiser, who woks only during Hurricane season here on the island. He is a Master Electrician from Germany, now retired, and true to his heritage was Highly competent, Highly efficient, and a charming guy to boot. After installing our new tachs and then discovering that neither worked…it took him only about 3 minutes to trouble shoot the problem – which was a programming issue, then perhaps another 5 minutes to reprogram each tach and job complete. There is truly something to be said about hiring experts…this guy was EXCELLENT! He took less than 3 hours to do two jobs that would have taken us…oh….I don’t know … maybe forever!

I also have been working on several sewing projects and now have 3 winch covers completed, with one to go, the helm seat completed and a pair of shorts taken in.

We had to recover the helm seat anyway, but the project became more critical one day in the yard when Jim leaned on it and the board cracked. Huh…that’s not supposed to happen. When we finally took the seat off we discovered that two coverings of materials and what looked like a layer of quilt batting could not protect the marine plywood from rotting right thru. We had Steffan, the Shipwright here make us a new board, and a new backing board as well, which he epoxied the heck out of for us. On Wednesday afternoon, they installed the new board for us with backing screws that make it possible to remove at will. (the old board was screwed down from the top meaning you had to rip the cover off to take the seat off…which could explain why we hadn’t recovered it already) . On Thursday we took the board off, recovered the seat and added REAL a cushion and WOW…what a difference. You can see the pictures in the photo gallery. On Friday, Steffan stopped by to drop off our bill and he sees Joe sitting at the helm and says…’Wow, you recovered it already?’ Yup – we don’t waste any time.

After Joe left, we headed over to the Bakery for our favorite meal….Nigel cooking burgers on the grill – YUM! In the after noon, Jim replaced the mesh bags that hold our lines and then pool relaxation was the only task we could contemplate. After happy hour we picked up a pizza and joined Doug and Wendy for a casual dinner, that also included Doug’s homemade Hot & sour soup – Again …YUM. Friday was a very good day!

Some big tasks still left to complete…get the counter top installed. We got the samples yesterday and decided on one – which, while perhaps not our preference, was the best of the 4 that they carry.

Get the engines prepped…Mike should be here by Tuesday for that.

Reconfigure the sunscreen awnings – um… yeah, well…I’m working on it. This is complicated by the fact that…since I have to work on the dock, I can’t do it when it is raining, and when it ‘s not raining, the sun is out and we need the shade. Kind of a catch 22…but somehow next week we’ll get it completed. Then, get the dingy engine running.

However – today is Saturday, and we are going to try the Hash. This will be our first time...and our choices of paths are the Iron Man….8.5 miles, the runners path, 7 miles, the walkers path, 3 miles, and the Namby Pamby….1 mile. Yup…the Namby Pamby it is. Of course I can easily walk three miles…however, I an not convinced that these 3 miles will not be straight UP a hill, or a creek, or DOWN a muddy hillside… so for this first time….the Namby Pamby it is.