Two steps forward One step back

Everything takes longer on a boat!

Now that I am coming to the end of my employment I am able to spend more time working through the jobs list on Florence and the house. The house is almost ready to rent out and work is progressing on Florence, her new battery bank has been installed in its new battery boxes and the wiring behind the instrument panel has been re-done.

My Dad continues to be a real star, providing beautiful wood work for the new instrument panel and attacking the Aries self steering gear with a blow-torch and a hammer to get it working smoothly. Every time he finishes one job he asks ‘whats next’ and gets straight on with it, so much for being retired! We’re working Amy’s Dad hard too and he is well progressed building a nesting tender for us up in Yorkshire. Thanks Dads. Even Amy’s brother Joe was roped into a little polishing when he came to visit.

Matt working in the locker

Tender being built

Joe helping out

 

However it is two steps forward and one step backward. New jobs are appearing on the list as small problems are found, and small jobs such as fixing a leak where the filling pipe exits the water tank generally involve dismantling half of the interior to access the problem area which takes more time than anticipated.

Some of these backward steps can lead to me returning home at the end of the day despondent and stressed about how much we have to do to get ready. I find it all to easy to focus on the jobs list and forget about the end game. Tonight I was feeling like this but Amy laid a chart out in front of me and suddenly my mood was lifted, looking at where we plan to sail brought the excitement back again, after all we have the whole world to explore (well the bits accessible by sea anyway).

So the roller coaster continues…

Matt