Life Styles of The Rich and Famous

Tiger Point Marina, N30 41.50 W081 27.25

(6/1/05) When I became a wealthy owner of a luxury yacht, I inherited an image to live up to. I should be spending my afternoons on the deck, dressed in a brilliant white shirt with an alligator on the pocket. I would drink quinine water and swap stories with William F. Buckley Junior. and my other wasp friends.

Today, after sanding the ablative blue paint from Tarwathie’s bottom, I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. “Wow! What a blue beard,” I remarked to myself. Actually I was blue from head to toe with the most toxic dust that money can buy and that the government will allow. I walked around the marina a bit trying to make jokes with people I met about Bluebeard the Sailor. Three people in a row said, “Not Bluebeard. Smurf.” By the way, NYISO readers of my blog should ask Steve Balser about his sailing story when he was blue from head to foot.

It took me an hour in the shower to get that toxic stuff. Off. Now my skin is scrubbed raw. Ah this lifestyle of the rich and famous is great. Come to think of it. I could be at work pushing out some meaningless report from the project-planning tool. This is better. Much better.

Tomorrow I’m invited to fika with Ingmar and his Swedish friend. Fika is Swedish for “sit around a table, drink coffee and chat.” I learned today that Ingmar worked for ASEA Atom just like I did. He was a pipe welder at the construction sites, while I diddled with computers back at the headquarters.

Fashion Dress of the Rich and Famous

Haulout Day

Tiger Point Marina, N30 41.50 W081 27.25

Today (5/31) I worked hard. I’m beat now. I worked all day with the diesel mechanic. We also hauled Tarwathie, and pressure washed the hull. She sits high and dry.

So, what is the answer to the question I posed before about the boat speed under power? It was mostly propeller fouling. The hull fouling wasn’t bad but the propeller looked like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. That made the engine work harder.

Still we took apart the raw water pump and found one of the rubber impeller blades cracked. A replacement is on order. We also back flushed the cooling system. No critters came out but some sand did. I suspect one of those groundings in the waterway. When I revved up the engine, it stirred the bottom and I sucked some sand in. We also found some barnacles in the thru-hull fitting.

I learned a lot about diesel maintenance today. That’s good. But the biggest lesson I learned is that I’ll have to learn to dive and do underwater maintenance on

Tarwathie. It’s not affordable to haul her out of the water whenever something needs cleaning. Perhaps a snorkel and mask will do. I don’t have SCUBA certification.

The rigging man, Ingmar, came today to look at the bent anchor roller pin. I completely surprised him by conducting our business in Swedish. He was even more surprised to hear that I’ve been in Darlana, the region in Sweden he comes from.

All the people here at the marina are very nice. It’s a pleasure working with them. I hope I feel the same after I see the boatyard bill at the end of the week.

Tarwathie High and Dry

The main reason that I couldn't go faster.