Old Boat Chronicles

Mike and Kate contemplate their lack of boat repair skills from dockside thrones, following their 7th trip to the marine hardware store.

We're on Day 5 of our friends' visit. Nigel fixed the water by Day 3 and then decided he would most enjoy spending the rest of his vacation replacing our toilets, the pumps of which are jammed with mud thanks to all those gold miners who washed silt down the Sacramento River and raised the Bay floor by 3 feet of sediment. He'd really like to tackle 47 years of atrocious wiring, too, but there might just not be enough time.

We are very grateful!! And yet we feel we should be entertaining our friends in other ways. I caught Terrie in the aft head scraping crud off the floor and although I ordered her out, she refused to leave. She stuck her tongue out at me. Then we found Nigel under the galley sink working on pipes and connectors, as he'd decided to replace the faucet.

Pretty sure that's Nigel under the sink

We assist to the best of our ability but can't keep up or anticipate or reach the standards of Nigel and Terrie. We feel kind of not very bright or useful.

Now the new toilets are in and working - omg hallelujah! - and Nigel has turned his attention to a sticky sliding door. It's 4:30pm and we're thinking maybe we can persuade him to stop if we start mixing gin and tonics.

All joking aside, we are truly grateful and feel very blessed in the friendship department. And life is going to be a lot easier with working water and heads.

[happy emoji here]

Obviously MUCH better

ADDENDUM: Day 6. He's in the engine room again, adding fuses in places and for reasons we don't understand but will increase our safety.

Nigel's initial read on the boat 6 days ago was essentially that, if the throughhulls didn't corrode and fall out first, sinking the boat, then we'd probably set it on fire through one of multiple bad-wiring possibilities. But now, as anyone can see, things are much better!

[even happier emoji here]