Well I'm here and in shock. The boat is a total disaster. I had no idea dry dock meant the boat is almost stripped. All the guest rooms are stripped bare. The lounge is a mess with stuff just thrown everywere. The sun deck is most open but its got mattresses piles all over the place.
Things are not as I expected. The work is dry dock is exhausting and relentless. I spent the entire day today painting. I started out using white paint and painting various parts of the enginneering area. Basically its the room with the generators, water maker, ice maker and many other gadgets I fail to understand or comprehend at this point. Anyway everything is dirty and oily and you just spray GUNK on it and then wipe it off and paint. I don't think its very effective but I suppose there's no real choice. I painted some wooden tables and shelves and people were putting stuff back on them before they were even dry. We use very strong oil based paint.
Later I had to scrap, sand, clean and paint the fuel lines on the boat. They were painted bright red as you might expect. I screwed up and tipped over the quart can of RED paint and made a mess. I took me over and hour to get it cleaned up and even then it wasn't very good. I spilled most of the paint so they have to buy some more so I can finish.
Still later I helped paint some of the floor. I think they bought the wrong paint and I don't think its going to work but we'll see in the morning.
Its impossible to accurately describe my room. Its very very tiny with a set of bunk beds that are much smaller than normal. There is one shared closet that is about a foot wide and 4 feet in height. I have one shelf about 12" x 18" for all my stuff. Basically all my clothes are just piled up. The light is over the bed and I can't see in the closet anyway. The rooms are not maintained at all and are dirty and crumy. I knew it would be rough but this is much worse than I ever dreamed.
I'm using an open internet connection on one of the boats in the harbor so who knows if I"ll be able to do this often. I'll only have internet on Saturday in Belize assuming I last that long.
I have "night watch" duties tonight from midnight to 3:30am. That will be fun. I have to walk around and take various reading from various devices every hour. I have to crawl down into the engine rooms which are in each of the pontoons. There's a tiny hatch and about 20 steps down a tube to get into the rooms. You can't stand up in them and you barely have room to move around. I have to check at least 3 things down there as well as make sure no water is coming it and stuff like that. This isn't very glamorous.
At this point I have my doubts that I'll make it but my chances of working on a live aboard are doomed it I don't stick it out. Stay tuned.
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