Winding down from a long, sunny Sunday. Fun for ¾ of us, less so for the one sanding and sweating in Tyvek all day, but the fiberglass dust has become too much for anything other than the primary task at hand (grinding, glassing, faring compound, more sanding…). I’ve attempted clean-ups down below to be able to make some headway on our eventual move aboard, but the dust from grinding and sanding has a way of swirling back over ‘completed’ areas in a way that makes me feel like a hamster on a wheel… When the yard opens back up this morning, we’ll be able to give the boat a good washdown, and I’ll be able to sort things out again without tainting clean things (there are only a few of them!) by putting them on a dust-covered surface. The itchy skin and more cleaning it would create isn’t worth the itch to get aboard!
To give Andy space to work yesterday, and to get out of our less-than-stellar digs for the day, the girls and I luxuriated by beach-hopping and island exploring in the cart. First stop: Ocean Beach, where the waves were good for being tossed around (their favorite pastime), and the sand was comfy enough to make myself a good reading perch. Second stop was Coco Bay, which had calm waters but a nice breeze coming in, making it the perfect venue for the girls’ first beach house. I quickly realized that while Violet was the architect and Lily the G.C., I was the only grunt-laborer available. After helping for a bit and hauling downed trees for limbs, I escaped the work force and retired to my book to try and calm my brain.
I’m having a hard time being so close to the boat and not being on it; I want to wake up in our bunk, prep my coffee, cozy into the cockpit… I want to clean and organize and put things back together and find our onboard rhythm. I want to plans meals, both for the yearning to cook, and the challenge of sourcing various ingredients in the smattering of provisioning options. I love waking up in different anchorages and having different adventures each day, but I’m recognizing how much the routine keeps me sane. As of now, school work is piecemeal, my own work is in scattered fragments of wifi availability, and not feeling productive in any one direction is making me crazy!
The girls, as always, are as adaptive as we could ever hope for. They’ve definitely used up all of their ipad time each day with our distractions, but they’ve gotten to know the neighbors in the yard, roll with whatever we suggest with minimal (V) or no (L) complaints, and are overall understanding of needing to go with the flow for the sake of the Chickadee tasks at hand. Violet’s notebook and Lily’s kite are never far, allowing for constant entertainment.
We spend a lot of time walking around the yard, and the more I see and the more stories I hear, the more I realize how lucky we were. Boats were sandblasted, completely swamped inside before they fell over, resulted in incredible damage to at least one half of their interior- wiring, woodwork, systems under water for over a month.. Because of our wing keel, as best as we can guess, we went over farther than others, and I think that the windward side of the hull itself must have protected our hatches and companionway from serious intrusion. The result is that our hull damage is further up and above the waterline for the most part (bonus), but the downside is that a flubbed attempt to fix it will be on display in the gelcoat rather than covered up easily with bottom paint, and water. No worries on that front- Andy’s work has had others “ooh” and “aah” as they take breaks from their own work to check his. We’ve got a near-professional on the task.
Off to breakfast at the Liquor Store (yep, that’s a thing!) before schooling. Here’s to hoping for a dust-free day of work!
