My OperaOn Yer Bike! (Late June)
Thursday, August 19, 2010 12:26:01 AM
We wish! The list of unfinished items before departure has dwindled from being almost overwhelmingly long when we arrived back in Maine seven weeks ago, to the last few remaining bits and pieces. Most important of these is the arrival of our folding bikes which we've splashed out on but which are still in transit somewhere. This is probably just as well, as I haven't a clue where we're going to stow them. However, almost inevitably they will migrate to the fo'c'stle (the front end), which is the domain of the chief maintenance officer, and into which the crew has a habit of slinging any unwanted items from elsewhere, in spite of the fact that it's already stuffed to bursting with all the necessary stuff to keep Fair Grace working. Such is life.
We are sat below decks on a cool damp evening in Belfast Harbour, just beginning to unwind after what feels like a long hard month and a half of work to get FG back into the water. We found her safe and dry and surprisingly free of mould, smell or mice (in spite of the fact that we'd been away for 18 months rather than the 6 we envisaged when we left) but still in need of a fairly comprehensive exterior repainting, finishing the installation of a new engine that we started before we left, and a whole bunch of other stuff too dull to list. Suffice to say that we've worked pretty much every all day every day since arriving, but are now beginning to relax into being on the water and life returning to a degree of normality, such as it is for us.
The past 18 months is fading into a degree of unreality.
We are sat below decks on a cool damp evening in Belfast Harbour, just beginning to unwind after what feels like a long hard month and a half of work to get FG back into the water. We found her safe and dry and surprisingly free of mould, smell or mice (in spite of the fact that we'd been away for 18 months rather than the 6 we envisaged when we left) but still in need of a fairly comprehensive exterior repainting, finishing the installation of a new engine that we started before we left, and a whole bunch of other stuff too dull to list. Suffice to say that we've worked pretty much every all day every day since arriving, but are now beginning to relax into being on the water and life returning to a degree of normality, such as it is for us.
The past 18 months is fading into a degree of unreality.
