Home Again . . Sort Of

SHIP'S LOG:

Waking up this morning and having coffee at dawn in the anchorage at Ft. Pierce, why it is almost like being home . . . . sort of. After a month in Miami, Ft. Pierce seems a more neighborly place. My friend Brad is but a stone throw away, still working on his boat and this morning I rowed into Gerry's to do laundry and borrow his car so that i could go get my shear pins. I knew just where to go and what to expect. It was just like coming home.

I spent most of the day helping Brad with some repairs. He is ripping up his side decks to get rid of the rot and replace them with new wood and fiberglass. I like Brad but the man really has no plan. I would have thought that, even though things go slowly when you are working on a boat, more so than you even expect, he really hasn't done all that much since I was last here. He did finally run the data cable and power cable for his new radar, but it entail removing the connectors from both to feed them through the mast. He is counting on his ability to replace the connectors to complete the job. Still he has not yet gotten the new radar up on the mast and has not yet wired the receiver in the boat. The inside of the boat looks like someone set off a bomb in a West Marine store and tools are scattered everywhere. Now I am not "Mr. Neat" myself, but I don't know how he finds stuff in the midst of all that chaos. When we talked yesterday, I mentioned writing down a plan of what he want to accomplished today. He didn't and so we jumped from one part of a project to another getting a lot less done than we could have. He really needs a "Thinking Chair," a place to sit and think out what he is going to do next and come up with the steps, then get the tools and stuff he needs and THEN got and tackle it. I am sure that he will get it done eventually but I am not sure that he will get it done before Hurricane Season and that could not good.

I will spend part of tomorrow laying in the course to Melbourne for my visit with friends there. I will also replace the stainless steel shear pin with one of the bronze one I just bought. That was I can hit something without worrying about taking out the tranny. I will probably also help Brad a little more on his projects. Hopefully we will finish what we started today before he flies onto something else. I would really like to see his boat all done and sailing. It looks like it should really move and it is quite lovely. It would be great to see her done done up Bristol.