Just another tricky day

Today is another hot one.  Nearly 100 degrees heat index and it's not even Summer yet.  I'm not one to complain about the weather.  What can you do?  Feeling hot or cold or wet or any combination of the three is just the way it is.

I am convinced that Hell is frozen.  If you really want to know what miserable is, then you need to experience cold and wet with no way to dry out or find heat.  I've been there.  Cold and wet can kill you in slow, painful and languorous ways.

First you shiver, a natural reaction of you body to cold.  It's trying, on it's own and without your concious help to generate muscle heat, burning calories no matter where it has to find them.  Your body will commit auto-cannibalism to try and survive, eating it's own mass to generate heat.  Then your body starts shutting down all but the core activities.  Your hands and feet go numb, the pain from muscle contraction lessens and you start to feel warm and sleepy.  Your thoughts wander and hallucination becomes reality.  This is the last defence of your body.  This is where prayer and hope come in.  Maybe at a lower metabolic rate your body can survive long enough so one of your companions, if you have any, can find you and take you to warmth.

By this time your extremities, toes, fingers, ears, nose and external genitalia are so frozen that cellular damage has been done and there is no salvaging the tissue.  Ice crystals form in the cells, the cell walls burst, tissue dies.  If you are lucky there is someone near to assist you in recovery.  If you are truly lucky you never wake up.  If not, gangrene sets in, necrosis turns to poison and your own body kills you while your mind tries to find ways to hide.  The pain is absolutely unbelievable.  Been there, done that.  Hell is cold and wet.  Trust me.  I will never complain about the heat.

Yesterday I installed the forward hatch.  It's been a long time since I built the forward hatch, maybe about seven months.  This is a hand carved piece of wood that I made to fit as closely as I could to the appropriate aperature.  It's a male thing.  I'm proud of it.  It took me a couple of days to get the curves just right to fit into the water channels.  The fit is so good that it does not need weather stripping.  I like working with wood.  The smell and feel of it, knowing that it was once a living, feeling thing, makes me treat it with respect and love.  Steel can't make me feel this way even though I can shape it as well as I can shape wood.  It's the life force in the grain of the wood that guides my hand.  For this purpose you have died, my brother.  To this end do I respect your sacrifice.

Now Avalon's forward hatch cover is secured three ways with hinges, stops and dogs.  She is now sea worthy.  The only thing she needs is a dependable motor and then we can go out and enjoy Boca Ciega Bay and the Intra Coastal water ways.  Her Mains'l still needs to be replaced before I will trust her to the Gulf.  I know she'll maintain integrity and float, but knowing that I have sails to get her safely home means a lot to me.  She is my love and my life as well as my home.  Without her I would have no direction or goals.  Thank you, Gail.  You have saved my life, such as it is.

Today I'm working on the outboard.  It's a struggle.  The price was right for the motor....free.  Being a master mechanic helps a lot when it comes to working on these things.  The motor runs fine so long as the cover is off.  Put the cover on and within seconds it dies.  Exhaust leak.  The motor is up on a stand and disassembled except for the power head.  Everything is lose and removed that is in the way, the shop manual open to the appropriate page.  The power head still refuses to come loose.  It's been there since 1984 so I guess it's kind of set in it's ways.  One more day and a lot of WD-40 (fish oil if you can believe it) and hopefully I can get at the leaks.  If not.....well, this is just another tricky day.

To get at the motor I had to turn Avalon around in her slip.  She was facing in as this affords me the most privacy while I live aboard.  I worked out how to get the motor off while facing in using sheet lines and winches, but it seemed like a lot of work.  First thing this morning I started dealing with spring lines, planning each move and clearing the decks for action.  No wind, slack tide, cool temps and it was time to get it done.  With the judicious use of a boat hook and patience I was able to turn her about without scraping off any paint.  I've been around water and boats all my life.  This is my first experience with sail but trust me, I ain't no rookie.

Some of the guys in the marina offered to help and I thank them very much.  That's what I like about the boating/sailing communities.  They are truly communities.  If someone needs help it is offered, after that person has shown that help is needed.  I'm new to this marina and because of the laws of poverty I have had to make due with what I have.  I am surrounded by folk who have paid their dues and are now reaping the rewards of a life of pleasure.  Socially this leaves me at a disadvantage.

They have no idea where I come from or where I have been.  If I try to tell them the BS filters kick in and they stop listening.  I'm just boat trash and new boat trash at that.  This morning I moved Avalon without power and without help, turning her about in her slip without incident.  Maybe I'm building currency here and maybe not.  I really don't care one way or the other.  The fact of the matter remains that help was offered.  It is a community and I am a part of it.  I have helped others deal with their difficulties; run aground, motor quit, high winds at launch.  I am accepted here.

Today I count myself to be a fortunate man.  I am in a community that cares for it's members.  I knew this community forty years ago and I know it again now.  It don't get no better than this.  To all the powers that be, thank you and so mote it be.

No one gets out of here alive, so live it like ya mean it.