Author: The Admiral

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Vamanos!

For as long as I can remember the Captain has always taken great care with his belongings. He will inspect them, he will gaze at them thoughtfully and once satisfied with all, he will allow himself to relax–all is well.

Let’s focus on the “he will inspect them” part of my last sentence. For as long as we have owned a boat and kept that boat in a marina the final inspection must take place prior to leaving for the work week. I completely understand that all systems must be checked before leaving, items gathered that may have been forgotten and perishables collected to come home or donate to other boaters that have more time on their vessels than we do.

My time estimation–15 minutes. You’re in you’re out. I have yet to understand how it takes the Captain an hour to be on his way.

I have developed a time ratio, if the captain says a task will take one hour I multiply by three, it’s a 1:3 ratio and I am usually bang on. Our youngest daughter Paige has caught on to this and we share a not so secret look between us when the Captain announces it’s time to go.

Akupara is sitting on the hard, all systems are down for the time being, we do not need to check bilge pumps, freezers or lockers. We need to put our tools away, lock up and climb down a ladder to our car and be on our way.

The Captain, always so thorough, must do a final walk through  of Akupara. If he has a flashlight in hand Paige and I inwardly groan. We have spent six hours on board what could he possibly be looking at now?

Yesterday was a great work day with an extra set of hands! Everyone worked hard and the Captain announced earlier than any of us expected that it was time to call it a day.

Paige and I exchanged a look.

To our amazement the Captain packed up, locked up and climbed down the ladder. As he loaded up the car with more treasures from Akupara I strolled over to a patch of sunshine at the bow of Akupara.  Car loaded, the Captain came to retrieve me, as he walked toward me his eyes slid away from mine to the pile of anchor chain piled beside me. In that moment I knew I had sealed the fate of all of us, I felt Paige’s eyes seeking mine, a look of disbelief in them, accusingly conveying “What were you thinking?”

Oblivious, the Captain inspected the chain at my feet with a critical eye. He decided it should be laid out in neat rows and measured. (which is practical–I know this). 45 minutes later he was satisfied, one last walk around Akupara and we were on our way.

I am uncertain if this is a male phenomenon or something unique to my beloved Captain. When you care about something and work so hard on such a project I can understand wanting to linger, to inspect, to set yourself right inside.

On the other hand, when the Admiral says “Vamanos” that means “Everybody let’s go!”

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Whoops! Forgot to mention one more cost.

This past Saturday the captain headed to Akupara early in the morning and I stayed behind.  That afternoon I had a dental appointment scheduled and figured I should stay back to prepare.

Prepare. For an afternoon dental appointment. That is ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is I was actually looking forward to going to the dentist. What I realized is that one cost we did not mention about restoring Akupara is the cost of personal time.

Owning a boat or being committed to any extra-curricular activity comes with a cost, an investment of personal time or “me” time. It also comes the  price tag guilt, which is synonymous in my case with a dental appointment, better known as getting out of work.

Akupara is a joint effort and will require some re-thinking about what personal time looks like for me. Weekends will be taken up with restoration projects, week nights will be taken up with discussion of The Boat and a balance will develop between “me” time and Akupara time.

Completing tearing out the sticky anti-slip stuff in the cockpit on Sunday felt great. It was an accomplishment among many to come and I was able to redefine to some degree what personal time meant to me during the hours I spent with a heat gun and scraper.  I had time to reflect on the weeks events, unplug through physical labour and find focus while learning a new skill–Heat Gun/Scraper Pro.

Personal time is a commodity that some of us do not give up readily, it is something we guard carefully.  Akupara is now a piece of my personal time as for only “me” time, well, I have scheduled another dental appointment in three months. I can hardly wait!

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I don’t pretend to be anything I am not…Except sober, I’ve pretended to be sober a few times.

Not entirely true, I’ve also pretended to understand “guy speak.”

For several years I have listened to the men around me talk about maintaining stuff, repairing things and a number of boring male subjects entailing steps required to do this or that or whatever it is they do in their spare time. When I need a picture hung– it happens, a wall painted–done, my car oil changed–taken care of.

The other evening Derrick was outlining the process involved around sanding Akupara’s decks. I sat quietly, nodded, smiled and made affirming knowing comments. Anyone watching this “conversation” take place without a shadow of a doubt would have been left with the impression that I knew all about what he was talking about. And then, he mentioned the word countersink.

I have heard the term countersink a thousand times from the men around me. I have always pretended (convincingly I may add) to know and care what countersink means. As Derrick spoke about countersinking I smiled, nodded, maintained eye contact and then realized with a horrible drop in my stomach that I will actually have to countersink something.

As the horror of this began to sink in I concluded silently that I would have to Google this term, Countersink.

That is exactly what I did the moment the Captain turned his attention to relaxing in front of the TV. I put my ear buds in, grabbed my phone and Googled away with the air of someone who is listening to a great song on their headphones. I even watched a step by step tutorial on countersinking.

When the time comes to countersink during the deck repairs I will still smile, nod and maintain eye contact but! I will actually know what the heck it means.