boat

“Home is where the anchor drops”

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

The good ship Dignity has returned from her sojourn with Seapower Marine in Sidney.

Hoorah – and welcome home!

“Hang on a minute…” – I hear you cry. “Did you not announce that the boat was off for a service back in July?!”

Well done for paying attention at the back there. I did indeed write that – and I did indeed deliver Dignity to Seapower Marine for a service back in July. As is often the way – however – things did not turn out quite as planned. The service was done but other issues were noted and duly dealt with as they unfolded.

I had been concerned that the batteries (of which there are two) might have died as a result of the lack of use – and that indeed turned out to be the case. Also, the original wooden battery enclosures had rotted and smart new vented plastic ones were installed to keep all matters electrical well away from anything with fuel in it.

The marine techs also recoiled in horror when they had a look at some of the wiring around the engine. Clearly a job of the botched variety had been carried out at some point prior to our taking ownership. A necessary rewire was duly carried out.

Then a fault with the starter motor was diagnosed. A new part was sourced from the US but with a lead time of three to five weeks… unless I was prepared to pay a hefty express freight fee. Fearing already the loss of an arm and a leg I declined the offer – and thus Dignity’s sojourn was extended by another goodly period.

No matter – she is back now. Too late for this season of course, but raring to go for next year.

“When boasting ends, there dignity begins”

Owen D. Young

Or should that be ‘boating’?! (See what I did there?…)

Regular readers of these whimsical witterings may well have noticed that there has been nary a mention of the good ship Dignity for some considerable time. Well observed, say I…

The last mention of that plucky little ship came in this post, from last September. In it I recounted the eighteen month struggle to equip her with a replacement bimini top and lamented the fact that the pandemic had dulled our enthusiasm for sharing a boat launch with other people. As a result Dignity did not make it onto the water last year.

The pandemic has spilled over into this year as well of course and with my teaching of a compressed course during the summer term it too began to look like a dubious cause in boating terms. We are, however, determined to try to get some time on the water before the season is out.

There is another factor to be considered here. Having been wrapped up in a tarpaulin for a lengthy period Dignity has not even been fired up. I was somewhat nervous as to the implications of this lengthy layoff and decided that the best thing to do was to book her in for a full service and additional TLC with a local marine engineering company.

The above illustration shows Dignity about to depart for a few days R & R with Seapower Marine in Sidney.

Now we wait – somewhat nervously – to hear what the ‘damage’ might be…

Herewith the recently promised second example of things that take a great deal longer to accomplish than they should…

Those who have been following these ramblings for some time may recall this (strangely unseasonal) scene. Back in February 2019 Victoria suffered one its rare serious falls of snow, the last few remnants of which still lingered in sheltered spots a month later.

The good ship Dignity (pictured here) suffered a mishap as a consequence, the weight of snow piled on top of her aged and decaying (I know how it feels) Bimini cover causing it to split at the seams and to deposit several feet of snow into her cockpit.

Once the snow had gone I immediately set about finding someone to make a replacement cover. Until such time as this could be done Dignity was likely to be laid up, covered with a tightly secured tarpaulin. It was touch and go as to whether we would get her on the water for the 2019 season at all.

Oh – if only things had been that simple!

Now – to be fair we were away for a month in the UK and Europe during May and early June – but there really is no excuse for what transpired. I had been recommended a canopy maker – one of Victoria’s long standing family concerns – and they took my deposit, agreed to order the necessary materials and I left them to set to work. That proved to have been a mistake and six months and more later I was still calling, visiting their workshop and generally trying to make a (polite) nuisance of myself. Each time they swore blind than there had been this problem or that emergency and they were just getting started. Each time absolutely nothing – zero! – zip! – nada! – happened.

Then the company disappeared! The workshops closed and emails and phone numbers became black holes from which no response ever escaped. I saw the proprietress once more – when she called at my front door to return the existing canvases from which she was to have made the required copy. I asked for my deposit back. She said she would effect an e-Transfer.

Did I get my money back? Did I bu**ery!

So – at the end of last year Dignity was still securely wrapped in a tarp and I was looking for a new Bimini maker. I thought I had found one, though he was busy until the new year. We very nearly got a cover made in February – but that was just at the time that we went to Mexico for a week and the date slipped back.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck. My canvas maker lost his assistant (who did not return from his winter holidays down south) and the job started to get pushed back and back again. Then the canopy maker’s wife fell ill and he had to withdraw from a host of jobs – mine included. At least this time I got my deposit back… and a recommendation to a third company.

The good news is that, in this case, third time was definitely lucky and – as of this week – Dignity is now resplendent in her shiny new Bimini top – courtesy of Marlene at Verde Studios in Langford. She gets the kudos and the name-check for having finished a job that took more than a year and a half in total.

Of course – with term starting this week and with everything else that is happening Dignity won’t be getting on the water this year either.

Oh well – here’s to next year!