Summer is ending

Labor Day Weekend

So very disheartened. I cannot even describe it with words. While there are spurts of excitement at a task completed and small progress...I am just very frustrated and yes heartbroken to a degree that the summer has passed and we were not able to launch the YB. We worked so hard and so long, through the intense heat...days, evenings, weekends, giving up all our social and fun time and we still have not reached our goal. There are moments when I wish we had not even embarked on this project.

So Friday, we glasses the deck with the THIRD layer of fiberglass, running side to side as we did the first layer. We originally thought we would need three layers of fiberglass, but it is going to need FOUR. Ugh...just ugh. (I seem to think that often!).

And we do not seem to have any pictures of it!

Uncooperative weather on labor day weekend so we focused on some more inside tasks that needed to be done BEFORE we can launch. The depth transducer was replaced with a sea cock and thru-hull for the air conditioning. The speed transducer was replaced with a tilted element depth transducer for the Garmin. (That all sounds like Greek to me). I was there and I helped and I understood what we were doing as we were doing it, but...

We removed the aged window tinting film from the salon windows as it was peeling and honestly, I did not like it. A substantial amount of adhesive residue was left behind and we tried EVERYTHING to remove it. Windex, Adhesive remover, razor blade scraping and nothing worked. In an act of desperation and frustration, I took some spray Spic'nSpan that I found in the head and sprayed the residue. To our surprise, it actually dissolved the residue and I was able to scrape it easily off with the razor knife. It has to be damp though. If I wiped the spray then tried the razor blade, that did not work. So we got the windows clean.

The clean windows inspired us to clean the salon (with Fabuloso) and replace the overhead teak strips. So now, if we can just finish the rest of the work and launch her, the salon is ready for us!

The skies cleared on Monday for a bit, so we leveled the low areas of the deck with some spot fiberglassing. Our plan is to put the final layer on fore to aft (bowling alley style).

So at the end of the summer--yes I know it "officially" ends on September 2...but weather and activity-wise, summer for me has always been Memorial Day to Labor Day---I find myself with mixed emotions. I look back at the progress and I am happy and proud. What an accomplishment! I have gained some great experience and skills. Yet the overwhelming emotion is sadness. I feel I wasted my summer...hours, days, evenings, spent working on a project that is still incomplete. And when people say "that's a boat for you"; it honestly makes me want to burst into tears. I absolutely do not mind working and working HARD, but by golly, I want to relax and enjoy life also. No romantic evening boat rides to the beach where we walk along hand in hand, sit under the setting sun and then the stars. No lazy afternoons spent on the water, water-skiing and boat-riding. No visits to family or friends. Just pure work. Time that cannot be regained. And as I look at what STILL needs to be done BEFORE we can use the boat, I am simply exhausted.

Shawn is such a support and so positive. He reminds me that we are getting the YellowBird "up to speed" and the regular maintenance and repairs will not be as arduous as this project has been! YAY!