yesterday 6-9-10 (I fell asleep at 9:30pm)

so yesterday...

welp...

we had Mike come and show us the wiring, but we don't have all the cables yet so we could not do that project but we had one other project: Run two cables thru the Hull in the same place as the last wires. sounds easy! (not!)

what normally would take the guys one hour took us all day... here are the steps

1st. take off old white mount. (check! easy)

2nd, run wires thru (not! these wires are bigger and need a bigger mount)

3rd get bigger mount (check Mike had one)

4th cut bigger hole (Not... not big enough drill bit)

5th ask Dave, other boat owner if he has a bit ... nope

6th try his bits (Nope too small)

7th ask the boatyard (Of course not)

8th go to the store buy a bit (check)

9th drill hole (check Ben did an excellent job drilling) (Im just a talking face giving my two cents)

10 fill the old screw holes that held the old mount (Check)

11 oops the holes were not completely filled

12 instead of making more epoxy we just caulked it (that's what my dad would do)

13 predrill new screw holes (Hummmm what size holes? if it was wood Ben would have guessed right.... keep reading)

14 screw in new screws (nope the holes were too small for the screws and the torque of the screwdriver spinned off the steel heads. ooopppss and the screws cracked the jell-coat)(Oh I told Ben to use the screwdriver drill, that was wrong he should have hand drilled the screws in and then they would not have broken ... well possibly... the holes were still too small)

15 start over

16 ask Mike what to do... (We love Mike! In the picture he is scolding us in a happy teasing way! he also said everyone has done that before. We thought he was just being nice.)

17... ahh we have no drummel to shave down the broken screws

18 Hey Mike... (he ran and got a drummel and sanded down the screws)

19 make more epoxy to fill the new screw holes that we goofed!

20 sand down smooth (check)

21 drill bigger set screw holes - 4 to be exact

22 go to store to get more screws buy 6 even though we need 4 (check)

23 screw in screws by hand (check!)

24 drill two holes in the rubber seal that goes inside the mounting case (check no problem)

25 run the cables

26 screw on top of mount!!!!

27 have a party and take pictures to celebrate!

speaking of celebrating here is a picture of Tom he helped with out mast and it was his birthday yesterday. so we ran out and bought a cupcake for him brought it back and sang happy birthday! We love Tom too. he is not political in the politics of the boatyard he tells you what is on his mind. Which we like cuz he is more real that way. Sweet man, I know he is sweet cuz I over heard him talking to his wife on a cell phone call and at the end he said, "I love you." always a good trait!

Back to the 27 steps and all day to do a project that would normally take an hour! Our lesson:

1 appreciate all the yard workers

2 it helps to have the right tools

3 wood is different than fiberglass

4 make sure your preset holes are big for fiberglass

5 only hand screw into fiberglass

6 make sure you have a guy that you can ask directions

7 understand there is always a learning curve to be had... we are so much more knowledgeable

8 be thankful in all you do! AMEN