Because Who Needs Perfect?

Yesterday morning Adam and I were putting finishing touches on the boat. Well ... not really. We were frantically doing anything we could before its launching -- any spots we thought might be really hard to reach after she was in the water, like under the rub rail.

I got one "Atta Boy!" photo of him in front of this long project. You wouldn't think a boat hardly taller than you are, could be so much work! So many people have stopped to tell him what a gorgeous job he's done.
He loaded it up with the outboard motor, life jackets, got the tiller installed again, and some lines.

Then Paul (the fellow who's moving her) drove up with his rig and trailer to haul her to the boatyard, Sailcraft, where they'll lower her into the water.

If you look where those boat stands were against the hull, you see square patches of No Red Paint. Adam's plan was to paint those spots quickly while the boat was hanging in the sling at Sailcraft, before launching. But Paul told us Sailcraft wouldn't let us do that. If work of any kind was to be done, they'd put her in the yard on stands, let you paint her there, and charge you a pretty penny for it. (Sigh) So he was very kind, spent about 45 minutes shifting all the stands around to expose the unpainted patches, and told Adam he'd come back in the morning (this morning) to take her away. We'd save about $100. We said, "Thank You!" and "See you in the morning!"

This morning I went to the farmers' market as usual at 7:00. Adam called at 8:00 with bad news. In a freak event, when Paul was shifting the boat stands to get the boat onto the trailer, she fell over.

 Ouch. I kid you not.

 It's no joke for a boat to fall over. Paul felt horrible, Adam said, and quick as a flash he had a crew of guys come to the house and put her upright again. There was a bit of damage -- a crack in the fiberglass -- just below the waterline.

 Paul returned later in the day and took the boat to his boatyard to make the repairs to the boat himself, and repaint the spots. This man has successfully moved thousands of huge boats over decades of doing this work. He didn't do anything wrong -- it was just a freak accident. Adam says the boat was fine and upright when Paul took the stand away ... at first. He thinks a heavy gust of wind blew her over.

But it tells loads about his professionalism and commitment to his work that he immediately made it right. Our 19-foot Typhoon, although a pretty boat, is hardly worth his time, to tell the truth. He moves massive yachts all day long. So I just want to say that Paul at Triton Yachts is a great guy, and today's boat-moving is just testimony to how he will follow through on a job. Working with boats is never predictable, and things notoriously go askew. We appreciate having Triton in charge.

Adam and I have been shrugging our shoulders and laughing for years over our personal brand of bad luck. Things just never seem to go easily for us. In fact, it seems the harder Adam works to make something go well, the more certain it is that some fluke mishap will occur to delay it, or perhaps wreck it altogether. We drove up to our hopefully-new-to-us house this afternoon to check on that tarp on the roof. It's been gusty and stormy here, and sure enough -- the tarp has blown off the front corner. It's not big enough for the entire roof, if you recall, and the wind gets up underneath the unattached side.

Will the tarp stay on? Will the rain stay out of the house? Will the boat go in the water? When will we get the mast up and sail again? Will we close on the house, or will the deal fall through? Will Adam get his beehives adjusted for the summer? We have some traveling to do soon -- will any of these projects settle down at all before we leave? We have a college graduation and a wedding to tend to, not to mention a massive family gathering in West Virginia. And the Jaguar (remember the Jaguar?) is in a hundred pieces in the garage. We're not even thinking about that anymore! And, of course, those are only the stressors that I can talk about ... haha!

God is in charge of it all. I like to think of his careful finger, resting on the side of the boat, waiting till Paul removed the boat stand, and then gently tipping her over. Yes, I do. I hope none of you find that disturbing. I truly prefer to think of my loving God in charge of everything in my life. Then I can feel certain that none of it will overwhelm me or harm me, because He's planned it. If anybody else were in charge of my disasters, I'd be truly terrified :)

Gotta dash. A friend just texted me that HER new-to-her boat is in the sling at Sailcraft about to go in the water! Yippee!