Ho Hum, Another Day in Paradise
21 April 2017 | Edison's Summer Home, FT Myers, FL
Monday, April 17th
The run from Venice to Ft. Myers was a long slog, but was uneventful. It was just another beautiful day on the water. That being so, this seems like a good opportunity to tell you about our screens.
It all started as a result of the rough passage from Apalachicola to Clearwater. The guys decided that Seahawk was not riding level and wondered whether there was water in the buoyancy tank in the starboard ama. To check the tank Gerry had to take everything out of the hanging locker situated over the tank. Among the many things stored in that locker are the screens and Isenglass curtains bought with the boat. The seller didn't show us how to attach them and we didn't ask. We're smart people, right? Jean decided that since they were pulled out and she didn't have anything better to do while the guys dewatered the buoyancy tank, she would put up the screen curtains.
The screens have three types of attachment to the boat and to each other: slides, snaps, and zippers. The first three pieces attach to the boat with slides at the top and snaps on the edges, and the center back piece ends also wrap around two of the hard bimini supports and zip to itself. You would be surprised to learn how long it took us to figure out the zippers. Gerry figured out the "zips to itself" configuration and then it began to make some sense. The two pieces adjoining the forward side screens attach top and bottom with snaps. The forward edge zips to the aft edge of the forward side screen and the aft edge wraps around a bimini support and zips to itself. On the back edge of the side curtains there is an additional half zipper and there is a half zipper just like it on the center panel. The passageway pieces snap to the boat at the top and zip to the panels zipped to the supports at the back and on each side. Jean zipped the outer zippers but could not get the inside zippers to join, much less zip. Roger came to help but he could not join the zippers either. Then, with superior analysis of the problem, he unzipped the sides which were zipped, zipped the sides we previously could not zip and, voila, the remaining sides joined and zipped without problem. It is not for us to wonder why that is so, that's just the way it is. - JGR