No boat travel.
Someone should tell Clark that "All work and no play makes him a dull boy!" He has multiple boat projects in progress simultaneously, so as soon as he reaches a stopping point on one, he starts on the next. Today he worked on varnishing the exterior wood trim on the boat and addressing the saltwater washdown issues. If he did all this work while leaving me in peace, I might not grumble quite so loudly. Sometimes, but only sometimes, I wish Clark was less inclined to do everything himself (with my help of course).
I sat, after breakfast, minding my own business reading the newspaper that got delivered to the boat when Clark decided "we" needed to do sanding in preparation for applying varnish to the trim. I ignored him the first time he came through the salon, but the second and third times he mentioned how nice it would be if I did sanding with him, I was hard-pressed to ignore the request. I could hardly point out that reading the newspaper was more important.
Grumbling to myself about his request, I went in search of more appropriate attire for sanding --preferably something stained and with holes in it. We both have such clothing on board for the unsavory jobs that come up on boats. I even tied a bandanna around my head to keep sanding dust out of my hair.
Although we had a relatively clear sky and bright sun, I decided to pass on sunscreen. I figured that the wind would cause the dust to stick to the sunscreen. I could just see myself becoming coated in sanding dust like a breaded chicken ready for the deep-fryer! Our work was on the shadier side of the boat, so I hoped I would not get too much exposure before we finished today's tasks.
We had just enough breeze while working to cause issues with the sanding. I kept forgetting which way to stand to be upwind of the sanding dust, i.e. I kept getting it in my face. The worst was when I got too close to the area where Clark was working and we shared each other's dust. One, or the other of us, was always downwind of the dust. Although he had his sunglasses with him, Clark did not have them on and a piece of the scraped varnish went into his eye. We had to stop work briefly to clean it out with a large dosage of eye drops.
I certainly do not enjoy sanding and tried to escape. Every time I thought I was done and would sneak away, he would call me back with another task. The newspaper never did get read by me today.
While we were out on the back of the boat, we did have a visitor come to check us out. He was long and green and pretty scaly!
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| Iguana on the dock by the stern of Sunset Delight |
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| He says, "What you looking at?" |
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| "Seriously?! Can't an iguana sunbathe in peace?" |
After we completed the sanding, Clark cleaned away all the sanding dust from the area to be varnished and then put on a fresh coat of varnish. Since that has to wait for 24 hours to dry, it was time to move on to the next project.
Frustrated with the inability to get the saltwater washdown to work properly, Clark has decided to put a switch with three positions at the bow of the boat - off, auto, and manual. To make this operational, he has to mount the switch, run wires, and reconfigure the saltwater washdown assembly. This afternoon, he mounted the switch and ran the wires. I stood by as the "go for" to collect whatever tools he needed as he did his switch-installation work.
When it came time to run the wires from the anchor locker into the boat to the washdown unit, he asked me if I wanted to be in the storage area under the master stateroom bed or in the anchor locker. What wonderful choices?! Not! I told him I would be wherever he decided he needed me. I got to be under the bed.
We bought a fish tape at the Home Depot for the wiring job. When Clark asked the salesperson in electrical for a fish tape, I thought I had misheard. "Fish tape? What the heck is that?" I thought. To my surprise the salesperson knew exactly what Clark wanted - the roll of metal wire used to pull wires through walls. Surprise! I have helped him with this at home but had no idea it is called fish tape. The salesperson, a sailor when not at work, recommended a small, 15' version as a good boat size.
Today, Clark attached the wires to the fish tape with electrical tape so we could feed them through from the anchor locker to the storage space under the bed where I waited to receive them. From there we fed the wires down into the bilge compartment that sits under the floor in our stateroom. After running the wires, Clark pulled out the washdown unit for reassembly and now has that unit sitting on the table in the cockpit to be worked on tomorrow.
After cleaning up tools and paraphernalia spread around from working on projects, it was time to start work on dinner. While I worked on that task, Clark went out on a mission to get a sunset picture for tonight's blog. He found more than a sunset in his travels.
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| Fish cleaning time at Wayne's World fishing charter. |
Flocks of pelicans vying for the best position to catch the thrown fish scraps is a common sight at Faro Blanco marina.
After capturing the pelicans in action, Clark did manage to get that sunset picture as well.
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| Sunset in Marathon, Florida |
Since we cannot watch any television here real-time (no non-Spanish-speaking stations), we are at least a day behind on our favorite shows. Tonight 60 Minutes is available to watch from yesterday. What a treat!
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