#20 Almost done?

One of our dockmates is Tom, who sells moonshine in mason jars and lives on a houseboat a couple of boats down from us. Every time I see him he asks how the work on the boat is going and I tell him “Almost done!” Well, finally, that actually has a ring of truth. After months of trips to the boat, and to Lowes, and to West Marine, and dozens of boxes of deliveries from Amazon, we are about done. As we worked we’d get one project done, but meanwhile would think of two more things we wanted to do, and so at first our to-do list multiplied like some unchecked bacterial colony. The last two big projects, adding an AIS and solar, are done. AIS is a safety thing, it identifies boat traffic around us on our chartplotter and transmits our location and speed as well. Good for spotting barge traffic on the river and maybe more importantly, letting them see us. The solar is very satisfying, you turn it on and watch the amps flow into the batteries, operating the refrigerator and icemaker and all that, cleanly, silently, and free. On the list now are some small cosmetic projects, one of which we just completed. We took the shower door off, a bulky glass thing that swung out into the bathroom (“head” on a boat) and replaced it with a curtain that slides out of the way. Much nicer.

Cheryl has been a great help in large part by exhibiting endless patience. Handing me tools while I’m half inside some compartment has been indispensable, and she’s done it with a smile. And she’s learning a bit, she now knows the difference between a pair of channel locks and a multimeter. She’s even learning how to tell when I’m grumpy because I need to eat and when I’m grumpy because something isn’t going well.

We did all this work, and yet this was a nicely maintained boat when we bought it! A lot of the improvements we’ve made were cosmetic, to make it feel more like ours and more like a home, and the rest were maintenance and reliability items. I can’t tolerate something that doesn’t work, so every switch and light and pump and system on the boat now works reliably. You may remember our adventures with a non-working A/C down in Florida due to the high water temperatures? Turns out the cooling lines get build-up in them from seawater, which coats them with lime and calcium deposits, thus blocking heat transfer. I flushed the system for several hours with phosphoric acid and now it is shiny clean inside. Problem solved. I discovered that boats in Florida year-round need this kind of treatment every so often.

Both of us are really looking forward to fall when we can get out of here and get this adventure started. Meanwhile we’ll take the boat out as much as possible, both to test everything but mainly just to have fun. We have miles and miles of beautiful river to explore and we’re looking forward to that.

It’s interesting to look back at all the work and think about how much I enjoyed it, while at the same time, whew it was lot of work! One my friends said something about “man, you’re busy all the time.”

Yeah.

That’s how to live life, in my book. It’s a good place to be. It’s especially enjoyable now, when I can stay busy with a large complex project like this, but I can also take a day or a week off and do something else, like a bike ride to the library or a trip to Florida. Cheryl and I have sat on the deck of my house or the porch at her house and just watched the sunset several times during this boat refit. Today, for instance, I’m writing this blog instead of getting anything done on either the boat or the house or anything else. It’s a great feeling to have that flexibility. I learned long ago that I’m generally happiest when I’m doing some complicated long-term project, and I’ve discovered that doing it without any pressure is a real treat. A big project also keeps me engaged, which is important to my mental health. The sense of satisfaction as each piece comes together, or as I figure out how to overcome an obstacle, is I think a basic human desire. It’s why some people solve crossword puzzles and some people build boats. The need to solve an intricate puzzle and the need to quiet your brain are twin sons of different mothers. All of the projects I’ve tackled in life had elements of both. To go to bed at night, head spinning with ideas, lists, creativity and plans, and to wake up with the sun shining in the windows and the birds singing and jump out of bed (as well as an old dude like me can jump out of bed) because all those sparks are flying around in my head, while also anticipating the adventure to come, well, it just never gets old.

The pleasure that comes from watching a dream come together into a physical reality is supremely satisfying as well. Dreams have to gather speed, find pathways, like many small streams merging into a river or the gathering of charged ions just before a lightning strike.  This dream is forty feet long and as substantial as a house. I can feel the tingle.

Cheryl hard at work adding the name to both sides of the boat:

We got the new dingy unwrapped finally, will get it in the water soon:

I spent a lot of my time with my head stuck in one compartment or another:

Or up on a ladder.

This is where and what I’ve been working on for weeks.

And lastly, the new shower curtain. Not as easy as it looks, I had to build a curtain rod out of aluminum rod and 3-D printer stand-offs, but it worked out well.

“One of the gladdest moments in human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of Habit, the leaden weight of Routine, the cloak of many Cares and the slavery of Home, man feels once more happy.”
Sir Richard Francis Burton