A month and chump change

So where are we here? Many things have happened in one month and change yet we’re still living in a parking lot. Hmmmmm. Let’s look at the positives. Scott is gaining some boat repair experience although most of his time lately has been spent sanding the topsides of a 45 foot fishing boat. We think his finger prints have been removed in the process. Enee’s hull is actually drying out. After 10 days most areas of the hull are significantly less moist. This could mean that the bottom will be ready for sealing and painting in a couple of weeks. Sue did the readings this time as Scott was busy at work. The question about how does this little box (moisture reader) really work came up. She put the meter against her hand and sure enough it went off the scale. Of course since we are made of 90% water give or take a few. So is this proof that the meter actually does measure moisture in the hull of a boat. Then the idea of testing other boats occurred. Here are the interesting results. The steel hulled boat was also off the scale and the aluminum boat also off the scale. Does this mean that these impenetrable boats have moisture in them? No! It means that the meter is calibrated to measure moisture on fiberglass boats. When other substances come into play, the meter goes way off.

Now think about this. ( I had to and am still thinking.) These wonderful meters that we use in our everyday lives such as thermometers to take our temperature, barometers to measure the barometric pressure, they don’t ‘know’ about hotness or coldness or highs or lows and such. They only know what the human programmed them to do. Measure some level of something and when the conditions are such the meter reads low, medium, or high. What a concept. Of course the machine doesn’t know there is water in our hull and frankly doesn’t care. Because it can’t care! This was a revelation to Sue.

To reiterate the positives so far, Scott is working and learning and deducting the amount of some of our bill for our boat. Sue is learning about physics (she actually did an experiment on her own) in a meaningful way. Gracie is still alive although she may argue whether or not this is a positive. And it’s usually 70 or 80 degrees during the day and a comfortable 60 or 50 degrees at night.





Other positives:

We’ve met up with several friends and family while staying in Ft. L. including recently with Sue’s cousins Mike and Sharon who drove up from the Keys for dinner. What fun to get together, catch up with family, and find out about living in the Keys and fishing tips as well. The Keys will be our next stop once we get back in the water.

The brakes went out on the Mazda that we drove down from Chicago, but Art helped us get them fixed without going to a Car X or Midas or other expensive shop. Friday morning Sue got two used tires to put on because Lammert (the brake fixer) discovered a split in one and both are very worn. Lammert suggested a tire place near by and sure enough they replaced our tires for only $50 bucks.

The guy who lives near the boat yard and walks up and down inspecting everything that’s going on (we call him the admiral since he is always inspecting the fleet) said hello to Sue the other morning as usual and then talked about his beautiful flowers blooming in his yard and gave her one for all the hard work she was doing on the boat. Apparently he has seen Sue sanding, scrubbing, carrying buckets of bilge water down the ladder, etc.

So you see there are many good things that are happening as we sit here ‘on the hard.’ And what about the negatives, you ask? Well of course, the down side is that we aren’t sailing. We’re not even floating. But that time will come and we still have several projects to complete before then anyway.