OUT WITH THE OLD

I am still amazed that ten years after I converted to Electric Propulsion I still find items from BIANKA's diesel days around. The latest items were some MDR Diesel Water Zorb and a bottle of Valvtech Bio Guard. A reminder of just two of the ancillary items I use to carry on the boat to keep the old diesel engine running and are no longer needed once I converted BIANKA to electric propulsion.

What to do with these and other items I no longer have a need for on board BIANKA. I don't like to see anything end up in a landfill. The answer for me it is to donate them to a local nonprofit sailing organization. Their boat still has a diesel engine and can use these fuel tank additives. I previously donated an old Honda 650 generator to them and recently found the manual for it. I also donated a lightly used Brownies Third Lung Dive Hose Kit and a Add A Diver Kit . I only used the Hose Kit  a few times to clean the bottom of the boat. Because it required having a scuba tank on board that was heavy, took up space and needed to be refilled it was not as useful as I thought it would be. These items were on the boat and then sitting around the house for a decade or more. So with the coming of a new year it got me motivated  to finally get them out of the way. The end of the year is a good time for "out with the old and in with the new" type of thinking.

MONSTERS & THE PROJECT BOX

I was thinking about the late Spalding Grey recently. He used to perform a monologue on stage called MONSTER IN A BOX which was about a cardboard box in which he put in scraps of paper with writings and thoughts to use in future performances. It sounds like it eventually became so full that it must have terrified him to begin to go through it.  I don't have a "monster in a box" on board but, I do have a "project box" that holds items for various projects in one place so I can find the easily and that box is now over flowing.

It's not terrifying just sometimes hard to get started. I think it is easier to work on these projects in the off season because when one is on board with the boat in the water it is easy to get distracted by things.   I  might have some good intentions to start a project but, while having my coffee I might spend twenty minutes watching an Osprey hovering around the harbor looking to snag an unsuspecting fish from above. Only to see it get chased off by a small black bird when the Osprey got a little to close to it's territory.  Then the lines of a Ketch sailing by might get my attention as a fine looking craft:

Then a I might decide to spend some time to checking emails and posting to this blog. All of sudden a swim might seem like a good idea, followed by lunch, a nap and another swim. Pretty soon it's too late to start on the project as it's time for some afternoon boat drinks, prepare dinner and to watch the sunset.  As the refrain from Bruce Hornsby song goes "It's just the way it is."