The morning is the time to get work done. Been getting started around 7, working till noonish, taking several hours for lunch/siesta/internet chats with friends (glad that several are on google chat so we can chat in real time) and then back to work until 5:30 or 6. Then up to one of the harborside restaurants or our apartment for a drink, then dinner in an hour or so.
Workers started trickling in on Thursday so things are moving again.
It’s fascinating being in a ship repair facility. There are probably a 100 or so boats here “on the dry”, so I get a chance to see a lot of different designs up close. Working on Tom’s boat, talking to the workers and other owners who are having work done gives me much more of an appreciation for how much maintenance is required to keep a boat going. I find it very interesting that all the workers laugh when I ask if they own boats; to a man they say they would never own one.
The opinion amongst owners gathered for drinks or dinner or gazing at work being done in the yard is that there are 2 types of boat owners: those that actually use their boats, and those who are posers. The first type knows that ownership requires constant time and money to maintain the boat, some say as much as 3 hours for every hour sailing. The second group owns boats, has parties, sails occasionally, talks like sailors…then sell the boats when the accumulated needed repairs become overwhelming.
I suspect by the time I’m done with this experience I’ll have solidified my position on owning a boat. The more I do and see here the more I lean to being a sailor and less to being an owner. As one crusty French couple puts it, “nobody in their right mind buys a boat to just live on it. You buy a boat to move about the world freely; you accept the cost of maintenance to have that freedom.”.
I came here hoping to clarify where I am on sailing, looks like that will happen.
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