Owning a boat is a large responsibility and our old boat has numerous yearly, and more frequent maintenance chores that go along with ownership. Do you maintain your own house/apartment, car or other equipment? A boat is like a tiny house that floats and has it’s own utilities AND it could sink at any moment. It is good to be able to fix things on your own boat if you can.
I visited Odalisque today to work on the less noble chore of finishing exterior teak bright work (the equivalent of moldings in a house except it has to endure rain and snow). In the short time I gave myself I was able to put one more coat of Cetol Natural Teak on our exterior teak; well, most of it. I could not have picked a better mid October afternoon for this task; the wind was was very calm, it was warm (near 70F), the river was calm and our boat waited patiently while I put more nail polish on her finger nails (toe rails) as the current in the river changed direction and we slowly spun around the mooring.
As the sun lowered in the west and the light faded I kept up with brush and Cetol around our hatch boards and then called my partner Matt on VHF radio. He picked me up before twilight and I really enjoyed just being on our boat, if for just under 2 hours while making her look pretty and enjoying the scenery and the solitude.
Boats are a lot of work but even the ‘working on the boat’ part I enjoy. There is a saying: “A bad day on the boat is better then a horrible day at the office.” I haven’t spent a lot of time hanging around ‘the office’ lately but I do like messing around in boats.
