Boat Slaving

Every spring it’s shovel out from a winter of living aboard, airing out and cleaning out inside and beating the ocean back off the outside of OMOO…

Then there’s the projects the Skipper has been dreaming up and working on all winter, like…NEW SAILS!!  He says, “It was a job from hell,” getting all the measurements done and making sure they were accurate.  Thanks to all who came along on the dock with extra tape measures, string and accompanied Hershey on the deck of OMOO to get it right.

IT WORKED!!  The old sails are tucked neatly in the storage locker “in case.”  The skipper announces during a midnight chat, after all that work, that the the new main may be lighter than the old main (sail), meaning the boat slave – 1st mate – must drag it back to the boat.

If you roll your eyes in the dark can you still see the whites??

Let me explain.

Boat slaving has it’s challenges.  OMOO has to get ready for summer sailing, which means extra parts and pieces get moved to the storage locker.  This is a 4 x 6 space that acts like a giant jigsaw puzzle, or Jenga game. It towers up three sides and Sideways Sally could be buried alive at anytime under the extra sails, tools AND stainless steel collection.

Yes, the skipper is a mechanical engineer with a lot of amazing ideas and collects all the parts and pieces to make them happen.  He’s also rapidly approaching the status of a hoarder.  One of these springs his March Birthday present is gonna be a BARGE!!

Sorting the treasures.

You can’t keep it all!!

TOOLS OR FOOD… We have everything we need to keep the vessel going and fix anything.  Sometimes we stuff enough dry and canned goods between the drills, socket sets, grinder, even a welder to sustain the humans.   BUT… boat safety first!!

Back to the storage locker, with a new 4 tiered shelf, the sails and stainless steel collection back against the wall, and enough room to enter, it’s once again a safe space to actually find various items.   The boat slave calmly explains to the Skipper that if he wants the old sails on board for summer sailing he will have to disassemble the storage locker to extract them.  He decides we don’t really need them after all.

Here we go summer sailing with the new rags!!!