Monday, June 29, 2009

And There Goes Another Week…

A big thanks to Mum for holding down the fort (or blog!) while I’ve been out having a particularly crazy week. And another thanks for everyone for all your comments! I think I also owe an apology for being such an inconsistent blogger.

What a busy week… in a very long series of million such weeks. Every day comes with new challenges, dramas, problems to tackle, breakthroughs, success and always a good laugh.
Dragging myself out of bed some mornings is certainly a challenge but to be honest I couldn’t think of anything thing I’d rather be doing, that is apart, from being out there sailing!
But all my efforts are nothing compared to those of the whole team, from everyone working behind the scenes to the totally heroic refit workers who loyally show up every day despite the cold mornings, hard work and my never ending nagging!

To very briefly summarize a week that feels more like a year, we’ve made progress in all directions at the shed.
Dad and I popped down to Sydney for meetings and I spent the weekend away in Brisbane studying Sea Survival with Gerry Fitzgerald.
I found the Survival course really helpful covering just about every possible danger. Drills in the water with a life raft and with flares taught me that like with just about everything, technique rather than brute force is most important.
Time in the class room picking apart the survival and disaster stories, going over check lists and polishing up my knowledge on safety equipment really hammered in a lot of important information to be safely stored in the back of my head.
Coming down with a reaction to the fibreglass resin added a nice itchy flavor to my week, what started out as what I believed was a heat rash soon became a little more serious till I was finally sent off to the doctor when the reaction spread to my face. After being deemed too hard to look at by everyone at the shed and on Mums orders I was sent home, all but banned from working on the boat!

With so much shiny new equipment (from the Brand new Yanmar engine, beautifully polished tiller and Simrad Electronics to the all important dunny!) arriving and being installed every day it feels like the boat is slowly coming back together.
That will have to do for now, there’s plenty more to keep us busy over the next few days and keep your ears open for plenty of exciting news.

Jessica

7 comments:

Sven on Senta II said...

Don't develop an allergy to fiberglass, that could turn out to be inconvenient.


-Sven

Anonymous said...

I routinely check Zac's Blog and since
I was born and raised in Southern California, I pretty much know what he is talking about - except for a little sailing jargon.
I also check Mike Perham's blog and
since I have watched some BBC programs in the past, I usually can figure out what he is talking about.

However, in reading your blog, I usually have to look up a term or two to fully understand what you are
talking about. I can see that this will be a fun blog to follow - fun,
entertaining and educational.

Today's word was "dunny". If you had said head........

Glenn in Washington (the state) USA

Maggie May said...

' technique rather than brute force '
a good life lesson in general. ahoy, mates!

Cameron B said...

Wow, all that running around in one week. Has to be an extremly tight scheduel, ill enjoy keeping up to date, til then.
Have fun

Cameron B

Mouse on a Motorcycle said...

When I was in tech school, a friend of mine rode a 1962 FL. That's a big old Harley with a kickstarter, and she weighed in at about 90 pounds (41 kilos) soaking wet. Every day, big old guys would offer to help her start the long-stroke, high compression engine. She'd let them try, and they'd kick and kick and never get more than a cough & sputter out of the engine.

Then she'd laugh at them and start it in 3 kicks every time.

You're right, technique is far more important than strength, but it's only useful if you're intimately familiar with the equipment with which you're working.

Praying for you Numbers 6:24-26
Mouse in Whittier
www.myspace.com/mouseonamotorcycle

Buy "Death and Coffee" here!

Anonymous said...

You happen to be in posession of a wonderful talent to write, dear miss Watson, and my advice is to make use of it. Opportunities, and all that...

Anonymous said...

Hi Jessica, hope your feeling better soon, must be killing you not being able to work on the boat.Hope they didn't scare you half to death with the horror stories of survival at sea.But its pretty important too just look at Zac he just came through a big storm, cyclone.I know this sounds cliched but hope your rash clears up soon.
Deanna
Yeppoon. Qld