Day 249, Year 7: Priorities
Date: Saturday, July 14, 2012
Weather: Great Summer Weather Still With Us
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
“So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that, reverse
it!” . . . a quote from Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and
a quote that I seem to say more often than not. I know all of you feel the
same way. There is always more to do than time allows, but I think I am
suffering a bit from not having Mark as a full working partner these days.
He has his good days, but most of the time he rests or sleeps. So I’m left
to do the day to day drudgery and I’ve discovered that I’m not so good at it
without his help. So the jobs have piled up, and piled up, and piled up.
We are both feeling a bit overwhelmed, but we will get things done as we
can. In the meantime life aboard Windbird is not quite up to our usual
standard. For instance, we’ve been in Eel Pond since June 11 and we still
haven’t gotten our summer ‘sanitation system’ going. It is illegal to pump
overboard here, but we have been doing that since we arrived because we
haven’t had time to inquire about the pump out boat. It was not working for
the latter part of last summer and fall and we had to go to Falmouth Harbor
each week to pump out. We just don’t have the energy right now to think
about doing that, so we have been pumping overboard. On Thursday, I saw the
pump out boat in the pond, so I am assuming we can now become legal again.
But that is just one little example of how far behind we are. We just don’t
have the energy to deal with all of the day to day issues one has to face.
So we spent our evening trying to make a list of all of the things that need
to be done. Yikes! It’s longer than I thought.
Continuing job-keep the water tanks filled
Install the new chainwheel on the windless (DONE!)
Put headsail on
Install new toilet in aft head
Install new spray nozzle in aft shower
Investigate source of leaks in aft cabin, starting with the main sheet
traveler
Fix leaks in new deck caulking
Complete deck caulking (fore and aft deck hatches)
Investigate alternator/charger problem (instruments show alternator is not
charging)
Investigate the refrigeration thermostat (frig temperature is irradic)
Fix the nicks in the hull from the neighboring motor boat
Fix the automatic setting on the bilge pumps (work only in manual mode)
Drain the antifreeze out of the engine and put new in
Fix the ‘sinking’ floor in the aft head and adjoining aft cabin
Sort through spare parts and get rid of those no longer needed
Hook up the new SSB antenna wire and grounding cable
And then there are all of the cleaning jobs that need to be done.
Condensation on the inside of the hull was plentiful this winter and that
caused mold and mildew to grow everywhere. So I start the regime of
emptying all of the storage areas and cleaning. This requires washing all
of the clothes that are in the drawers as well as all the drawers. Ugh. I
did this at the beginning of the winter and thought that would be the end of
it for at least another year. I was wrong about that. There’s much to do,
so now we just need to prioritize and decide which things must be done now
and which can wait until later. Prioritize, prioritize.
The good news recently has been the weather. Other than rain overnight
between July 3rd and 4th, we have had perfect summer weather since June
25th. And the forecast is for more of the same through this next week
except for some fog tomorrow morning and a chance of a thunderstorm on
Monday. At least we have nice weather while we work. I didn’t get the
gardening work done today that I had hoped to do but I did get out in the
kayak with Mark. What fun! And I can’t end today’s log without mentioning
that Sam, our five year-old grandson, had his first ‘date’ this afternoon.
A little girl named Audrey is in his class at school and the two of them
have become inseparable. Sam says he likes her because she is the only girl
in the class that will play Super Heroes with the boys. She is Wonder Woman
and Sam thinks that is the greatest. Heather and Jed invited Audrey, her
parents, and Audrey’s little sisters that are twins over for dinner tonight.
I didn’t talk to Heather to get the details, but she called Mark to check on
a phone charger she left on the boat and she told him that Audrey picked Sam
up to say goodnight to him. Sounds like Wonder Woman to me.
