All Tihs Tmie I Was Rgiht

As you may or may not know my spelling is atrocious!
I was very happy on a few levels the other morning to see the following, written by one of the crew, on the wipe board in the crew mess. Firstly because I like the kind of people who share these small nuggets and secondly because this nugget is relevent to me because my spelling is bad.

"I cdnuolt bleive taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid aoccdring to rscheearch at Cmabrrgide uinervtisy, it deosnt mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the only iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

hvae a fnaattsic day!
Dearn,

Leave this to me guys...

Stubborn little lock
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

The boat had rented some big steel shipping containers on the dock at the boat yard in order to store some stuff ashore. One contained deck equipment, one for interior and a few for engineering..
Today my team was set the small task of transferring half of the items from the interior container into the empty deck equipment container. (it’s a long story, don’t ask.)

So I went with the keys and two of the guys to be very helpful and move the stuff. None of the keys we had seemed to fit the lock and after a while of trying, I announced,” leave this to me boys”
1 x Large international persuader (big hammer), 1 x Large international adjuster ( big crowbar )and a whole lot of bashing and levering later, we were still not past the stubborn little lock.
The boys were now sniggering behind me..

We then managed to acquire an electric grinder with a cutting wheel. After a whole lot of sparks the lock finally gave in and it lay on the ground in two or three parts. “I beat you little lock, you were no match for my strength”

With great enthusiasm and in a triumphant manner, I swung open the big steel doors to reveal that we had in fact, forced entry into someone else’s storage container! The three of us reeled in folded over laughter and again with greater volume and vigour as the key we had, slipped easily, on the first attempt into the lock of the next container along….. Typical!

The Party

Of course, after such a busy week of working and an exhausting run. There was nothing better to do, than to have a party. In that vein, a few of us made it back to Tybee for a 70's style Disco party.

This year, I made a new years resolution, not to put pictures of to many pretty girls on the blog. I think it was giving my readers at home the wrong impression, If you look carefully, these are the usual suspects and all of them are very able to resist my charms. Plus they looked pretty fantastic on this particular occasion so you get to see the pictures.

70's Party!

What a fantastic carrot!

Blimey it was cold out....I drove to the boat yard to collect some friends from a neighboring boat at 0630 It was absolutely frigid out side and as I have mentioned before, we had entered into another running event. This one out on Tybee Island. There was 5 of us entered, 3 of us to tackle the 13 mile half marathon and 2 to do the 5km run that was all happening on this very cold February morning. I don't know if I have mentioned it, but it was not warm at all!! However the spirits were high and as per usual the camera was along for the ride.

Mark Ray and myself chose the absolutely perfect carrot, who, not only met all other requirements of a "carrot" (see entry entitled "Carrots and Beer" Dec 06) she also had lots of friends around the course cheering her on. This had the added benefit for us of enjoying a boost at regular intervals from her mostly female fan club. Gretchen, has to go down as the best carrot ever! Ray, Mark and myself all ran the complete course together (just behind Gretchen) and even found the energy for an impressive sprint finish. With our training limited to a few laps around the park and the never ending, stairs in our work place, we were all very happy with our joint finishing time of 1 hour 58 minutes...

The date with Debs hot tub was not possible, as she was busy showing her house to prospective buyers. She did however, stand out in the cold and give us a cheer as we passed by her front garden. so instead of the hot tub, we all went back into town and ate bacon and eggs instead.. Yummy.

Tybee Half Marathon

Exciting week

Exciting week
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

“They are starting to flood the dock!” It was said by someone, who announced it in an, Are we ready for that yet!!? sort of a way. Are we!? Hmm!!?? I guess we are…. Bloody hell.

The energy that went into the week before the launch was inspiring. Even though the nobility of our goal or purpose is questionable, it is quite remarkable, what a motivated team, with a shared purpose can achieve in a few short days.

There are not very many photos of the launch as the whole crew were running around, getting things ready for the move. The boat floated free of the chocks at around 1630 on the 31st of January, by 1830 we were secured to two tug boats that helped us manoeuvre out of the very tight dry dock, into the mooring next door. The weather conditions were perfect, calm and clear with a full moon that lit the sky as we pirouetted and gently swung into the mooring bay that is to be our home for the next month, while we under go the finishing touches to the refit.

The energy from all this action had to continue in preparation for the owner, who was to visit the boat on Friday, just two days after the launch! It was once again fantastic to see how much we managed to achieve.

Our boss, the owner, was pleased to finally see the light at the end of a very long, very expensive tunnel. The shining exterior of the boat was a bit like a smoke and mirrors illusion, where beneath the surface there was still so much to do. It has however made us all feel good to be floating and to see her shining and presentable.

All that the owner wants to do, like the rest of us, is go to sea

Launch week