Death to procrastination
Tim and I, on the whole, make a pretty good team. We are what would be termed "a good match". We have similar viewpoints on the fundamentals in life and probably, most importantly when living together 24-7, a similar level of tidyness (or tolerance of messiness, depending which end of the scale you are at).
However, sharing the ability to procrastinate and the view of "why do today what you can put off until tomorrow" is a seriously bad combination. There is always something to do on a boat and you can times that by a factor of 10 for every decade of a boat's life (maths has never been my strong point - isn't this times-ing it by 1 for every year of a boat's life?). Anyway, couple this with living in a country where accessing materials and technical professionals is difficult to put it mildly, it does mean that progress can be slow.
We've tended to blame it on the rain. And maybe that was true to a point as the combination of a mainly mild and dry winter (for coastal Montenegro) and a new found ANTI-crastination (if this doesn't make sense, it should by rights) we have managed to make an unprecedented amount of headway on the boat this winter.
Maybe disposing of half our rat-piss/shit covered belongings and scrubbing every last inch of the boat to death has given us added zeal, I dunno. The events of the autumn have definitely reminded me, yet again, that life is for living and my desire to get back out onto the water and GO SOMEWHERE before the season starts is strong. This is giving me loads of movitation in the countdown to the spring.
But I'm also approaching things differently. Instead of thinking about what needs to be done and finding lots of reasons why it can't be done, I've just got on and done it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Having a bit more cash helps. Yesterday we ripped out the galley sink and all the zillions of different taps and dripping pipes that look like some rusty organic growth, took them to this amazing man in Tivat and came back with brand spanking new ones.
Of course I've now got to fit the buggers with the aim of it being drip-free, that's the rub. But I am determined to do something other than tighten up a few jubilee clips with a "that'll do".
I aspire to greater things. In the world of marine plumbing.
*****************************
Tim has taken the engine to bits and it is lying all over the floor of the boat. He has serviced the starter motor which now works again, whoop whoop, but the oil cooler has decided to disintegrate. The amazing man in Tivat epoxied a pipe onto it as a short term measure but I really don't like that. Something more robust is required before we go to sea, that's for sure.
Four weeks until we move back on the boat and counting.
Here be the job list:
However, sharing the ability to procrastinate and the view of "why do today what you can put off until tomorrow" is a seriously bad combination. There is always something to do on a boat and you can times that by a factor of 10 for every decade of a boat's life (maths has never been my strong point - isn't this times-ing it by 1 for every year of a boat's life?). Anyway, couple this with living in a country where accessing materials and technical professionals is difficult to put it mildly, it does mean that progress can be slow.
We've tended to blame it on the rain. And maybe that was true to a point as the combination of a mainly mild and dry winter (for coastal Montenegro) and a new found ANTI-crastination (if this doesn't make sense, it should by rights) we have managed to make an unprecedented amount of headway on the boat this winter.
Maybe disposing of half our rat-piss/shit covered belongings and scrubbing every last inch of the boat to death has given us added zeal, I dunno. The events of the autumn have definitely reminded me, yet again, that life is for living and my desire to get back out onto the water and GO SOMEWHERE before the season starts is strong. This is giving me loads of movitation in the countdown to the spring.
But I'm also approaching things differently. Instead of thinking about what needs to be done and finding lots of reasons why it can't be done, I've just got on and done it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Having a bit more cash helps. Yesterday we ripped out the galley sink and all the zillions of different taps and dripping pipes that look like some rusty organic growth, took them to this amazing man in Tivat and came back with brand spanking new ones.
Of course I've now got to fit the buggers with the aim of it being drip-free, that's the rub. But I am determined to do something other than tighten up a few jubilee clips with a "that'll do".
I aspire to greater things. In the world of marine plumbing.
*****************************
Tim has taken the engine to bits and it is lying all over the floor of the boat. He has serviced the starter motor which now works again, whoop whoop, but the oil cooler has decided to disintegrate. The amazing man in Tivat epoxied a pipe onto it as a short term measure but I really don't like that. Something more robust is required before we go to sea, that's for sure.
Four weeks until we move back on the boat and counting.
Here be the job list:
- put engine back together AND get it working
- install galley plumbing
- varnishwork in saloon (to clean up the mess I made by exploding a canister of PU foam all over the boat due to not reading instructions (they were in Serbian) and removing a bung that shouldn't have been removed)
- new ceiling panels in heads/hooks (the area of the boat between the galley and heads where we hang our coats)
- source someone to make all new cushions and covers for saloon
- source new mattress for bed, cut to odd size and imported from England (probably)
- Re-vamp Billy, our aging tender so he won't collapse when we strap on our new outboard motor (yet to buy)
- extreme clean and polish of outside of boat
- add boatname and stripe
- revamp coachroof and polish up
- mast checks and tape spreaders
- install new port and starboard nav lights and get stern light working
- install new VHF radio
- install new wind instrument
- install new speed and depth instrument
- haul boat, antifoul and out of water checks
- New nav light installation
Comments
Good luck guys & we look forward to helping out with some of this stuff. We owe you a work day or 2!!!
X
PS: Why is the tender called Billy? Is that like Billy Boat Gruff?
Trish and I suffer from the exact same syndrome: we're mostly very similar, and while we do (in most cases) compensate for one another's weaknesses with complementary strengths, in those few cases where our character flaws (such as our shared pathological penchant for procrastination) align, we have found that they are not added so much as squared!