Commodore's View
There’s quite a transition between sharing life with a boat that essentially bullet-proof and a boat that is need of some tender loving care to bring it back to it’s full potential. The biggest difference is like that of a few days ago. I found myself coming on deck to breath air that didn’t have sawdust in it and watched as some dock neighbors slipped their lines and made their way out into Julington Creek under sail. "Sometimes," I say to myself, "Jerry’s boat is aptly named...."
To be truthful, this period of being slip-bound is self induced (aside from not checking fluid levels...) in that there was a bad leak around one of the opening ports. At this point, the only thing wrong with LAUREL ANN is the gaping hole in the coach roof where the port was. For the time being, the hole is covered by plastic surrounded with duct-tape while we’re trying to clean the remnants of four different types of sealant from the port’s rim.
It’s not easy, but plugging the leak will be worth it, and I figure it’s the equivalent of making a deposit in my sailing Karma bank account. I can remember days like this from the opposite point of view. I can recall leaving the dock, raising sail and having a wonderful afternoon of sailing, sometimes putting as much as thirty miles on the log before I’d have enough and turned the bow homeward. I can also recall the folks on their boats in their slips that I would pass on the way out. Some would be sanding, some would be varnishing, others would be rounding up crew to hoist them up the mast. Then my sails would fill and I wouldn’t think of them any more.
It never occurred to me that someday the shoe would be on the other foot. That day has arrived. I watched from the time that Jerry left his slip until he’d put SHOWOFF onto a broad reach out of the creek, south, onto the river. Ha, I’d show him. I went below and began to immerse myself in sawdust again, all the while the colors flying in my rig were snapping in a NICE breeze. I’m sure that Jerry was thinking about me as much as I was thinking of him.
The point is that I was essentially wasting good sailing time doing messy work on the boat, Jerry was wasting good work time by foolishly going sailing. I, but for the need to pay attention to a bit of dry rot, would be doing the same thing. The good news here is that the water in the bilge is sparkling clear. That means that it’s all either rain water, or there’s a leak in the fresh-water system. Either way, as soon as I get that port properly sealed and re-installed, I’m going sailing.