And so it goes with projects.

Day 2 of the Battle of the Cupboard Leak has been a strategic nightmare. After reinstalling the stanchion supports, we sent a river of salt water along the deck to test the repair. We were not long in suspense; the leak may as well have laughed in our face saying, “Is that all you’ve got?” Then it erupted with a maniacal cackle when we tested the other side of the boat. After hours of sweating in the sun, it seemed like defeat was imminent and that we now had more leaks than when we started.

The day was already more than half over, the sun was blazing hot, and it was really tempting to give up. Craig’s mood was descending into curmudgeon territory and my pep-talks weren’t getting through to him. I doused Craig with some cold water, slapped his face a few times, and shouted, “Get it together!” Mostly because I don’t like my mugs filled with dirty saltwater, but also because he looked like he was going to pass out.

The remainder of the day was spent tracing additional sources of the cupboard leak, drilling out a bunch of dry rot, and abandoning hope on the stanchion supports. For now, we’ll fill the holes with epoxy so there are no unnecessary holes in the deck. Some day in the future we will modify the supports so they screw into the coaming where there isn’t a risk of leaking. (Or at least a far smaller, more manageable risk.) The work is never done.

These are the days I miss living in an apartment with a responsible land lord.

The battle continues.

 

(No captains were harmed in the making of this blog post.)