Finally, stuff getting done!

If you’re at all a “maker” or a “handyman” or some such, you know what holds the world together. Duct tape. It’s in every toolbox under the sun, and there are probably more miles of it wrapped around stuff than there are roads in Canada.

Well, that may be true of you land-bound creatures, but in the boating world, it’s cable ties, also known as zip ties. You know, those plastic thingies that you wrap around stuff, pull one end through the other and then pull tight with a “zzzzzzzt!” sound.

One of today’s projects was to put fender holders in. These are basket-like things that hold fenders when the fenders aren’t actually in use. Opus is a big boat and so her fenders are big too. In fact, most things about her are big. I got the big fenders for her (G-6, if anyone wants to know) and holders properly sized for those fenders.

The holders fasten to the safety rail of the ship, and this is where today’s tale of woe and frustration begins. Apparently the manufacturer feels that even though you have a boat big enough to need big fenders, your safety rails are still little scrawny things. They size their mounting bracket accordingly. Unfortunately, as I said before, Opus is a big girl and her safety rails are sized accordingly. Little bracket, meet big rail. Little bracket faints and then backs away saying, “No no no! Too big for me! Too big for me!” After trying sweet talk, then threatening, then force, I had to finally concede. Too big for you indeed.

After a bit of head scratching and thinking, I finally broke down and used zip ties to fasten it to the rail. This probably is not a permanent solution, but it will work for now. Another task for today was fixing the dock lines. The ones that came with Opus were not the right size. Sure, they would probably work, but I don’t like “probably” for these kinds of things, so I had some new docklines delivered. Well, I should say I had the raw parts of docklines delivered. The rest of the day was spent turning dockline parts into docklines. I made them today not because there was an urgent need for them, but rather to clear some boxes out of the cockpit so I have room to work on other stuff.

I also spent a fair amout of time in the machinery space tracing hoses and trying to figure out what are various pieces of equipment that seem to be only partially attached to things. the puzzle continues, so back to the internet I go!

Unfortnately, that is probably the end of progress until Tuesday as everything shuts down tomorrow and Monday. Tuesday we start back up again.

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