One small step for a boat....

I went to the marina today. Actually, I went last Sunday, too, but couldn't find the boat. I realized that they had probably pulled it into one of their work buildings and hadn't finished yet. So I didn't get much (read "any") work done on her last week.

I figured that this week would be different. I mean, how long can it take to do a few relatively small tasks. I've been trying to recall exactly what those tasks were:  fix the bilge pump, fix the fiberglass on the bow, install the new stereo, fix the water pump in the galley, and, uh, I think there was one more thing. Hmmm, I'll have to look at the email I sent.

Well, the boat was still in the shop. I guess that's why he asked when my launch date is. My guess is that they have been fitting my jobs in among their other work, aiming to have everything done before launch but not before. It's OK, I guess, since the weather wouldn't have allowed me to do much work on the exterior anyway for the past couple of weekends. Today, for example, there was a truly spectacular thunderstorm this afternoon. Boom! Crash! And torrents of rain.

They did let me into the shop for a couple of hours. I was able to do some interior work--cleaning and so on. They have installed the stereo (looking forward to hearing it), and I think that they have worked on the water pump, although I can't test it. Aha! I just remembered the fifth item on my list for the boatyard: fix the bow navigation lights. I forgot to check that. I know that they haven't fixed the bilge pump, since the repair kit was in the cabin, unopened. So, I got a little cleaning done and emptied the car of the boat stuff. Another load next time.

The problem is that I haven't yet done ANY exterior cleaning, waxing, polishing. And it shows. They did fix the fiberglass on the bow, which means that they bow looks fantastic! I wouldn't mind making the rest of the boat look like that. I did find a can of 3M Adhesive Cleaner that the previous owner had left. It seems to work well in getting off the old masking tape, so I'll be doing a lot of that soon.

I put back the launch by a week, which should give me next weekend to do the exterior. There are two possible snags. First, the long-range forecast seems to be for more showers next weekend. Some of the sites predict only a few showers, though, so it might be OK. The other is that I don't want them to take the change of date to be an excuse for putting off my jobs. I may contact them this week to try to head that off.