I got started on tool sorting again this morning and came to the conclusion that I’d need another soft tool bag or two. I’m making progress but it is taking longer than I anticipated. Needing a break because I was feeling a little discouraged I peeled a hard-boiled egg to eat and chased it with a mini snickers bar for breakfast. I know, not the healthiest of repasts but it seemed to hit the spot never the less. I figured I take a break and head over to Duck Creek boat yard and marina and get an estimate on having my boat hauled out of the water and the bottom painted with anti-fouling paint. The haul out will cost $314.50, the high pressure wash down of the hull to remove any slime or other growth $185, the storage fee to have it in the yard $60 and $10.50 for anything over six days, a onetime fee for electricity $15, and a flat “contractor” fee of $111 if I have anyone work on the boat such as a painter. All that adds up to $685.50. on top of that is the painter’s fee of $450 plus whatever the paint will cost which run between $125 to $250 per gallon and it will most likely take three gallons. That’s a lot of money, but most of my dockmates feel that it is reasonable. Better to get it done here than in Florida where it would cost me my first born. On the way back I stopped at Food Lyon to pick up a case of beverages for Big Jim and Zigga’s bon voyage party. They are leaving next weekend in their respective boats heading south. Stashing the drinks in the Captain’s Lounge I headed back to the boat. I was feeling a nap coming on so I headed back aft to lay down when I realized my bunk was covered with stuff I’d taken out of the workshop. So instead of a nap I got busy exploring storage areas and boxes of spare parts. To my surprise I found a brand new alternator for the engine. How very cool. Having a spare one of these is very comforting. Additional finds were perhaps not as splendidly encouraging; however they were all very pleasing. I’ve got to sort through them and note where they are stowed. I sorted through a few more tools and then got distracted by some of the documentation and owners manuals for my battery monitoring system. Ever since I swapped out the batteries last weekend I’ve been getting a flashing green light at the end of a series of green lights on the monitor. I never really took a close look at the manual because I assumed that green lights meant that all was well. Interestingly enough, the flashing green light was telling me that my batteries were fully charged. As I read through the manual I found out that I needed to do some resetting work to the gage since I had disconnected it from the batteries when I put the new ones in. I’ll work on that sometime this week. Glancing at my watch I saw that it was getting close to 1600 hours and the party was set to start at 1800. Looking up at the beautiful bass clock on the bulkhead it read 1400 hours so I thought it needed a new battery. Grabbing a cigar for later I tied my hair back and headed up towards the club house and looking up there I didn’t see anyone cooking or hanging out which I thought strange. About halfway up the dock I looked at my watch again and realized that somehow I’d pressed one of the buttons and it was showing some other time then eastern daylight savings time. Fixing that I saw that the brass clock on the boat was right all the time. Oh well, I still needed to run into town to get my phone fixed and pick up a bracket so that I could install a bar to hang wet rain gear or other clothes on. I have a wooden bar that used to be in the workshop before I installed a work bench so all I needed was the brackets and to cut the bar shorter. After stopping by the Verizon store and Lowe’s I swung by the mall to see if I could find a pair of Crocs boat shoes. I’m having a difficult time finding any; however I plan to keep looking. I walked the whole mall but in was a fruitless endeavor. Back to the boat I continued to sort tools and label tool bags until it was time to join the crew for the party. We had pasta salad, pizza, fried chicken, cheeses, crackers, chips, olives, cakes, etc, but most of all we had a great time listening to stories and laughing uproariously well into the night. I’m feeling sad that Big Jim and Zigga are leaving because they are such cool people to be around. However, in as much as they are heading towards George Town in the Bahamas I expect that I’ll see them when I get there sometime in January. As it got close to 2200 I bid goodnight to everyone and returned to the boat to crawl into my bunk. It was a good day all around.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 02:21:54 +0000
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