I was told that my boat was ready so I made a cursory examination of the boat and went across the street to pay my bill. Two holes had been repaired which was to have amounted to $250, a bottom paint job at $660 and the gunwhale painted for $70, which I negotiated down from $100, but which still seemed excessive considering the fact that it was less than 10 square feet.
Looking over the boat I noticed that black footprints covered the fore deck. Great, somebody had been stepping on the wet rail and tracking prints. I commented to the man who painted the boat who went of to get something with which to clean it up. A local maleante (ne'er-do-well) was spouting something in Spanish that I disregarded. I left for a bit and when I returned, the paint was gone along with some of the gelcoat on the foredeck. I don't know what kind of solvent he used, but now I'm going to insist that the foredeck be painted for free.
Walter and I headed out. Then he told me the maleante had been saying, "Don't bitch about the work, we don't need your money." Funny, the town thief was speaking for the owner when he was not even associated with the shop. I'm sure Walter didn't tell me until we left because he knew I would call the guy out and Walter is not a confrontational person. Our initial objective was to look at some property I wanted to see, but it was getting late. My little puppy Jessica high stepped an agitated dance on the foredeck. "Walter, get Jessica and throw her in the water, quick." Obviously some nasty solvent was irritating her paws. Damn.
I tried to drop by to visit on friend who is looking for a house sitter, but the long dock could only accommodate one boat, the walls collapsing into the water leaving rocks and strewn about poles the whole of one length and 90% of the other side. Perhaps someday I'll go into Sheppard Johnson and his developments, but probably not. I couldn't lash onto her boat as her mechanic showed up the same time I did and wanted to lash on himself to Susan's boat.
I dropped off a hat somebody had left on my property the day before who had come to get some palm trees, another story I'll probably never get around to writing and picked up some small palms sprouting from coconuts.
As we were heading into town a strong wind blew in from the South, chop formed quickly. As docked bow first in my usual spot without any significant effort but water was washing over the stern. I tried to bring her in stern first, but between the wind and the waves, it didn't seem prudent so I headed off to Chow Kai, my preferred hardware store for no reason other than location and docked there, on the east side of the peninsula, sheltered from the south by a string of buildings and headed out for pizza after checking with the operator, informing him I would be across the street and to let me know before he locked up the gate.
Halfway through dinner Shakey came out to tell me that everything was fine as he was closing up shop. After dinner Shakey was nowhere to be found and my boat was locked behind a gate. On the other side of the hardware store is a water taxi stand, so I took a water taxi ride for a hundred feet, got on my boat and headed out home. Why the hell is my volt meter showing 8 volts? The batteries had been fine? I switched to the other battery, not better, but when I set the rotor to "ALL" the meter read 13.2 volts. This shouldn't be happening with batteries wired in parallel, they must have mucked up the contacts when working on the switch. I'll see what I can do manana, when I am supposed to bring my other boat in to get the gas tank replaced.
Looking over the boat I noticed that black footprints covered the fore deck. Great, somebody had been stepping on the wet rail and tracking prints. I commented to the man who painted the boat who went of to get something with which to clean it up. A local maleante (ne'er-do-well) was spouting something in Spanish that I disregarded. I left for a bit and when I returned, the paint was gone along with some of the gelcoat on the foredeck. I don't know what kind of solvent he used, but now I'm going to insist that the foredeck be painted for free.
Walter and I headed out. Then he told me the maleante had been saying, "Don't bitch about the work, we don't need your money." Funny, the town thief was speaking for the owner when he was not even associated with the shop. I'm sure Walter didn't tell me until we left because he knew I would call the guy out and Walter is not a confrontational person. Our initial objective was to look at some property I wanted to see, but it was getting late. My little puppy Jessica high stepped an agitated dance on the foredeck. "Walter, get Jessica and throw her in the water, quick." Obviously some nasty solvent was irritating her paws. Damn.
I tried to drop by to visit on friend who is looking for a house sitter, but the long dock could only accommodate one boat, the walls collapsing into the water leaving rocks and strewn about poles the whole of one length and 90% of the other side. Perhaps someday I'll go into Sheppard Johnson and his developments, but probably not. I couldn't lash onto her boat as her mechanic showed up the same time I did and wanted to lash on himself to Susan's boat.
I dropped off a hat somebody had left on my property the day before who had come to get some palm trees, another story I'll probably never get around to writing and picked up some small palms sprouting from coconuts.
As we were heading into town a strong wind blew in from the South, chop formed quickly. As docked bow first in my usual spot without any significant effort but water was washing over the stern. I tried to bring her in stern first, but between the wind and the waves, it didn't seem prudent so I headed off to Chow Kai, my preferred hardware store for no reason other than location and docked there, on the east side of the peninsula, sheltered from the south by a string of buildings and headed out for pizza after checking with the operator, informing him I would be across the street and to let me know before he locked up the gate.
Halfway through dinner Shakey came out to tell me that everything was fine as he was closing up shop. After dinner Shakey was nowhere to be found and my boat was locked behind a gate. On the other side of the hardware store is a water taxi stand, so I took a water taxi ride for a hundred feet, got on my boat and headed out home. Why the hell is my volt meter showing 8 volts? The batteries had been fine? I switched to the other battery, not better, but when I set the rotor to "ALL" the meter read 13.2 volts. This shouldn't be happening with batteries wired in parallel, they must have mucked up the contacts when working on the switch. I'll see what I can do manana, when I am supposed to bring my other boat in to get the gas tank replaced.
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