Repairs

I dropped my room-mates off at Cosmic Crab where they shopped for organic products and headed over to meet Worth, who agreed to look at my hull problem. I was running a bit late as I waited on my crew so I felt a bit better when I passed Worth on the way to the shop. Earl, the shop owner agreed to let me lift the boat for nothing. Worth gave a courtesy assessment and told me he was very busy and referred me to someone else, who had grown up making boats in Cartegena, Colombia. Worth assured me that he was more than capable of taking on the job. Earl called him, he showed up in minutes, assessed the damage, which was in fact a failing repair, nothing I had done and gave a quote for $150. Earl made it perfectly clear to him that this was all inclusive, labor and materials following a side comment that without proper handling prices were subject to change during the job.

The boat has to be perfectly dry, drying for days before the fiberglass patch can be applied. Ok, the boat needs a paint job anyway. Boat bottoms should be covered with a strong paint infused with copper to stop marine growth. "How long is your boat?" "Fourteen feet." "Hah!" "Ok, call it twenty-two feet." The price runs $33 a foot and includes prep work of scraping, sanding, washing with muriatic acid, priming and painting. Worth assured me that Earl's paint jobs are great and that his last one lasted five years.

"Ok, $810, patch, prep and paint, how many days?" Five. Whatever, I have a spare boat. "When can you get started?" "It's on the lift now." "Sounds good, I'll have it by Wednesday?"

I put down a $400 deposit, which was really being used to go buy the paint at $300 a gallon and the fiberglass. Not much of a deposit is required if one is in possession of the boat.

Worth told me how much he liked the boat, saying that he had wanted to buy it. That makes about half a dozen people. It really is a nice boat for $7,500 even if it is underpowered. Worth pointed to his monster, with twin 115 E-tech (Evinrude two-stroke) outboards and said "That's $500 a day in gas to fish off of." "Well, we'll take my boat, if you show me the spots, I can pull that off for about a fifth of that." "I've got all the gear and I know where all the spots are." Okay, now we have fishing, and crocodile, snake and frog hunting on the itinerary.

Last night I had to run the generator as it had been a particularly cloudy day and we had done a couple of loads of laundry. Down to the dock, up 100 steps with five gallons of gas. I put in a gallon or so and the thing ran dry. I pulled on the rope many times until I was holding the handle and a severed cord. A quick inspection revealed that it wouldn't take much more than a socket set and maybe some screwdrivers would do the trick. Ok, off to Kow Chai to buy a socket set. "Shit, crap, Cooper, let me see that one." Man that was over priced. I ended up with a half inch metric set, not near the black chromed Vanadium set that is lost somewhere at my brother's house or even any of the five sets I have in storage, but it would do the trick. Pull cord, "No Shakey, that's twisted nylon, it needs to be braided, see this spool, it's even labelled, 'Pull Cord." Ten feet. Some haggling on prices, a can of starter fluid. "No, I'll take this one, they are both 11 ounces of ether." Ether way didn't need it, but it's nice to have on hand.

Water taxi. Need a water taxi. Off to find a friend and get a list of names and numbers. Guy number one said he would pick me and my roomies off every day for $40. Guy number two said he would take me home for $20. Maybe these prices were based on the fact that I told them my destination was an upscale resort near my house to give them an idea of the location, maybe I just looked stupid. Number three agreed to $10. He showed up, I scurried over with my tools, a waterproof toolbox and a five gallon gas tank from my boat, my backpack. Good to go. We pulled out and a woman yelled at me, "What about Jessica?" Damn. How could I forget my friggin' puppy?

I got off on my dock. Keys. Always take the boat keys. Don't want to walk another flight if possible, but mine were back in my boat. No big deal. I have tools. Five seconds to compromise security.

The repair of the generator took about five minutes, thank you Honda. I recalled the number of times I to effect this repair on a Briggs and Stratton, drilling out rivets and working on really lousy stamped metal and plastic parts. Hey a chance to work on my Panama web site, the girls are staying overnight in town god knows the bars don't close until four.