A month in the boatyard – part 3

What happened you say? Did the bad surprises stopped, or Pablo is still rolling out punch after punch at me while my bank account self-immolated?

Sadly it isn’t a Disney story. Not quite a Grimm’s tale either, but somewhere in between. See, a boat yard is one of the most dangerous places on earth. Boats being boats, you’ll always find a bad surprise or two waiting for you on the yard. And that’s hard. After so many miles at sea and so many “Pablo pampering days” at anchor, you would think surprises aren’t happening. But they do. Which makes you suspicious. Which makes you want to look more closely at something else…. Which creates more surprises… which… well, you get it.

Fortunately, it isn’t an infinite loop. One evening, you’ll find yourself in front of the computer, obsessing over the chemical properties of and variances of polyisocyanurate when your loving wife will come with a beer and slap you in the face as hard as she can. “It’s enough projects now. You stop that, drink a beer and let’s talk about what we can splash back at some point”.

Knowing when to stop opening new pandora boxes is hard. I definitely don’t know how to do it. There’s always something “critical” that needs to be inspected or fixed. After all, Pablo is our home, our single most valuable possession and the vessel that I entrust to take my wife and 2 kids on to cross oceans. It’s easy to obsess about its well being… So the balance is definitely hard to strike. But if only it was only that!

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Because like any projects, the “since we’re at it” are lurking at every corner… Having to remove the ceiling in the engine room to fix a leaking pipe? Well, isn’t it the perfect moment to take closer look at the sound insulation that begs to be changed for the past 20 years… And who in is right mind would put back that? Better change it. Which would also be the perfect opportunity to change the rotten plywood that holds it. Well, I guess it would be seriously lazy to not relocate that water pump since the new plywood is 1/4 thicker than the old one and won’t fit properly. After all, moving the water pump would give me the opportunity to install that new water strainer for it. I just need to relocate all the plumbing in the engine room somewhere else and we’re done. Hey look at that; it exposed a wire that isn’t connected to anything. I wonder where it goes? …. Well, I’m now following 9 different wires going nowhere. How many more will I find? Wow, look at that wire! No wonder why the bow thruster doesn’t always work. Let’s remove the pedestal and steering well to follow it. Mmm. Better redo the whole control box. You know, change all of those wires, install a new bus bar for the connection in the engine room so it’s easier to remove the steering pedestal next time. Where? Maybe if I move that water pump again? This time, I could put some sound insulation around it. Will be real quick; I just need to re-plumb the expansion tank somewhere else…

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Cass needed to punch me a lot over the past months. But that is really for my own good!

… to be continued …