Wasted day.....sort of.....

Did not get a thing done today, except spend 16 hours at work. I work graveyard, and frequently I am required to attend day shift functions such as safety meetings, all hands meetings and various classes. Today I was required to attend First Responder CPR instruction. I get off at 6AM, the class lasted 4 hours starting at 10:30. So I hung out at work from 6 until 10:30, went to class and got home at about 3:30. Went to bed. Got up at 7PM. Had dinner. Watched Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report. Went to work. Except for the 8 hours overtime it was a do nothing day. Don't mind a few money days, but they sure slow down progress on the boat.

I had planned on reinstalling the windless today. I tried to do it yesterday, but found that the stainless mounting plate was not level. Apparently when they were welding it together it warped a bit from the heat. It was lucky the case did not crack when it was originally installed as there was about a 1/16th of an inch wobble across it's width. I wasted a couple of hours trying to run down shim stock to shim the wobble out, but could not find anything less then a full box priced at $75. Even the auto parts store has stopped carrying them. Finally located some stainless sheet in a small machine shop that I have used in the past. The guy wanted a couple bucks for a nice large sheet of .048 thickness stainless. It's not precisely the thickness I wanted but I had run out of viable options, so: close enough.

Didn't have anything less then a $5, so asked if he would take five for it. Didn't seem to be a problem. Anyway, I traced a pattern from the mounts of the windless on the stainless, cut and drilled the shims, and was all set to have an assholes and elbows day throwing things together. Thought I would get the project done, and maybe even get the chain up off the dock and into the chain locker.

I know my neighbor will be glad not to have to walk across it to get to his boat. Should be able to get back on track tomorrow.

Chain

I decided to replace the 200' of 3/8" BBB chain that came with the boat. We will now have
300'. It took a little self persuasion for me to abandon the old chain as the new stuff costs $2.85 per foot. The thing with the old chain was, that even though it appeared to be good, I could find no identifying stamps on any of the links. Having had a bad experience with metal pipe flanges manufactured in China I am very reluctant to rely on chain that could have come from there also.

We will sleep better knowing we have good quality chain.

I am marking it with red at 25' intervals and yellow at 100 and 200'. I don't expect the paint to last real long, but hope that the painted surfaces inside the links will hang in a good bit longer then exposed areas. Will also be figuring out additional marks using fabric or plastic.

On a much nicer note.......

First time we really got her out with the main and headsail flying. We were on the way over to Blakely Harbor for the PSCC Salmon Bake. Sailed over and back. Just a wonderful time, except for the anchoring.

Burns

Here they are, much better looking now then initially. His arm is no longer being dressed. The only serious area remaining is his foot.

Shut down

Been pretty shut down this last week. Didn't do anything at all on anything at all. About the only good I did was help Kris with his wound care.

He has needed quite a bit of help dressing his burns after his daily bath. While in the bath he has to use a pair of sissors to remove dead skin from around the edges of the burns. Quite a greusome task. Thank God I only have to help replace the bandages. Its a three step process. First we cut large guaze pads in pieces that will cover each the wounds, then load the pads up with Silvadeen (sp) ointment and place them with great care, then we wrap the silvadeen pads with rolls of guaze, and finally pull on a stretchy kind of tube bandage. This stretchy thing is real hard to get on without ripping away the guaze dressings, and quite painful as they are dragged over the burns.

Maybe doing this is what has been sucking away my energy. I am the type of sissy that cannot stand to watch someone getting a shot, even on TV. I have to turn away. So looking at all these horrible burns on my son's body has been a struggle, but I am so happy that Judy and I are here to do this with Kris. I can not imagine what it would be like for him to have to endure this by himself.

When we are all done we have we walking (slowly) up the street to a very fine Thai resteurant to treat ourselves to a nice lunch with iced Thai coffee. Gives us some time to hang out without all the distractions.