Taking a break from all the nothing I accomplished today

For all that I was on the boat all day, except for the bit where we went for lunch... I hardly got anything done. I think if we had added tighten hose clamp around bilge hose, that would be the only thing I could check off.

The morning started out fine, I dropped Dad off for a meeting, grabbed a large double double (Gods I'm going to miss those) and headed for the boat with the intention of accomplishing a *short* list of things that needed to be done.

1) Vacuum the fiberglass dust off of all surfaces
2) Chisel clean the pretty part of the backing for the chain plates, re-caulk, and put them back the way they were
3) Finish running the copper tape to be used as a grounding strip, which has to go over the pretty part of the backing
4) Put a hose clamp on the bilge pipe <-- I only discovered it was missing when I accidentally pulled it off *oops* (but a good oops)
5) Pull the random coax cable that has a plug on one end (that doesn't fit the radio) and is just chopped off at the other end... we can't figure out what it's for anyways lol

Now, this looks like a fairly reasonable list. I mean I should be able to get all of this done and still be home in time for supper. You would think. But NoooOOooo. This turned into one of the typical days that Dad has had so many of while working on the boat, where you are busy all day but don't actually feel like you got anything done.

To start with the electrical system and I, well I must not have been holding my mouth right because no matter what switches I switched I couldn't get the vacuum to turn on. Soooo I put all the tools away, and wiped the dust out of the kitchen. Dad came by, jiggled all the plugs, held his mouth right and got the vacuum working.

Great. So I figure I'll start with the fine fiberglass powder outside, at least that will keep us from tracking it in. I am so glad that I closed everything up before I started vacuuming, because it appeared that it was just sucking the dust up and spitting it out the back end... found out later Dad had been using it as a wet-vac and taken the filter out so that's exactly what it was doing DOH!

I'll let you know if I ever get the fiberglass slivers out from between my fingers ;o)

Fine the vacuum still doesn't work, no big deal I'll put the pretty covers on the backs of the chain plates. Then at least I can finish running the copper ground tape. Well that wasn't so bad, I cleaned them off, figured out the Silkaflex did one, two, three... then I got to the ones that have to go on *before* the copper tape. Yeah. Two of the bolts were too long, and the dremel was at home. Awesome.

In any case, here are the things I have learned about Silkaflex
1) No matter how much paper towel you have it wont be enough
2) Even when you *think* you've got the extra surrounded by paper towel you don't
3) Whatever you do, you will still end up with it on your hands
4) When you are done, there will be Silkaflex on surfaces you weren't anywhere near
5) You will not have a good angle all the way around whatever you are working on
6) Acetone should be used in well ventilated areas
7) You have used too much acetone when simple tasks like folding paper towel become difficult
8) Ummm I can't remember...

Well I figured the last possible thing on my list that I could accomplish was pulling the random coax cable. I chased it almost to the end, and couldn't get the pretty cover off. Grrrrrrr. Dad stopped by and pointed out that they had installed the lamp protector *after* and had screwed it on through the pretty cover, and that it didn't matter because the coax came out the other side of the wall. *mutters* stupid random cable that we don't know what it's for. But with his help we stripped it of it's protective zip ties, and pulled it the rest of the way out without having to remove the pretty cover. So there!

OOohh I did get the radio working too, but that doesn't really count... I just had to flip it from 'CD' to 'FM', so at least I had some tunes :)