Calendar Constipation

We’re experiencing a peculiar form of constipation caused by having too much to do and not being able to do any of it. Quite uncomfortable ! 

With less than a week to splash-down, the boatyard has to finish the electronics, put up sails, run the lines in the mast and boom, install some cleats, tighten and tune the rigging, prepare the anchor and chain, and add some hardware for my boom break.  There’s nothing we can do to speed up the process, although we bug them with telephone calls or impromptu visits every day whilst trying to stay out of the way so they can do their work. 

The good news is that Patrick found a Rocna anchor in France after being told that ours wouldn’t arrive until after August. We also began commissioning the new Yamaha outboard motor by running it for an hour in our special homemade “outboard test tank”.

New outboard motor, or new trash-can punch mixer ?

In the meantime, we’re making / revising / losing / remaking lists of things to do, packing, trying to get the yard ready for 6 months of abandonment, and scouring the camping stores for those all-important cruising items:  a 12 volt wet-dry handy vac (hand vacuum cleaner) and a stove-top toaster.

We’re also trying to get organized for a 6-month departure 24 hours after the boat is in the water.  This is called calendar diarrhea and typically follows calendar constipation.  We aren’t going to head off for wilds unknown with a new boat, but we are planning on casting off and turning circles in our bay until we feel comfortable enough to start our trek north.  There are a lot of new gadgets on the boat to come to grips with, including the swing keel, the Code D sail, and a “German” mainsheet system where the genoa and mainsheet downhaul share the same winch in front of each helm station.  We’re told that we’ll love this system once we get used to it, but I’m still trying to figure out the choreography required for gybing. 

We are supposed to be in St Malo by the 2^nd of July for our niece’s wedding, but Patrick has agreed that if we feel too rushed, we’ll just leave the boat wherever we happened to be and try to get to the wedding by train or bus.  I *hate* calendars of any sort when cruising.