The saga of patience in the work yard :)

What a day.
Hurry up and wait.
Patience…

The original plan was to get the sprit up in the morning and go shopping for supplies in the afternoon.
Silly girl…

We wanted to make sure we were ready when Eric showed up today to help us lift the sprit to the bow of the boat. So after coffee it was down the ladder and refit the hardware to the bowsprit. The new holes for the nose plate didn’t quite line up with the backer-plate so we had to alter them a little and fill in the old holes with filler, and work the 5 ½ inch bolts through the platform and the sprit. Then Wayne sanded and put the teak plugs into the ones that he could. I went down to the boatyard office to seek out Eric and see if he could get us some help to get the bowsprit back up to the boat after the guys got back from lunch.

“We’ll see”.
“Okay, you said yesterday anytime tomorrow”.
“Okay.”
Then of course I had to pet the boatyard dog that’s been there since being deserted after the hurricane (she’s such a loveable critter).

We waited, then about 1:30pm Wayne napped and I did some computer stuff and decided around 2:30pm to finally splice the anchor snubber together. I thought for sure that would bring someone to the boat (once I got into braiding the rope). Well, I successfully spliced our new 3-strand rope around the thimble, and then whipped it. I thought I did a good job if I do say so myself . Now if it just holds together! That will be the test!

3:45pm.
Hmmm…
Don’t they quit work at 5pm?
Isn’t this Friday?
Off I go in search of Eric again.
He’s nowhere to be found. So I stop and chat with Sharpie’s Dream (when did they move over from the boatyard?), another Bayfield 32. I can spot those Bayfield lines :) so we now have 2 Bayfield 32s across from us. Sharpie’s Dream is 3 boats down from Buckshot (the other B-32 here). While chatting with Pat & Diane (Sharpie’s) I saw Eric pull up so went over to the office. He’s having a baaaad day & everyone is after him (but I think that’s always the case – after all he’s the boatyard manager). I asked if he had forgotten us? “No…everyone wants everything now…”
“I haven’t forgotten you.”

By 4:30pm while I was worrying, trying to figure out a safe way for us to get the bowsprit up to the boat on 2 ladders via the halyard to hoist it up, Eric and a helper showed up with a boom (I’m grinning now).
Eric said
“I didn’t forget you Pat”.
In under an hour we had the sprit raised, bedding compound in place, holes drilled and the bowsprit lowered and bolted to the bow.

Yay!
Tomorrow we can re-attach the pulpit, whisker stays, forestay, trail board, anchor rollers and lifelines.
Then finish the rub rails, trail board, refinish the bowsprit and deck trim on the front of the boat, then we can put up the wind generator, canvas, and on and on…
Think we’ll get in the water on Monday?

The cold front that came through has dropped the temperatures at night back to the upper 30s. I did manage to find our little portable heater from last year. One of our better investments evidently… $8 and some power and welllla! Heat.