After a week of wall papering, and the mess it made, I scheduled a thorough boat cleaning today to get back to ground zero before starting the next round.
I woke up dreading the work ahead of me and as I reluctantly made my way out of bed, I stepped in a wet spot. The first thing I thought of was whether I accidentally locked the kitty in the room and she was forced to use the floor instead of her litter box. Poor BooBoo Kitty! She's always the first to be blamed! She's a good girl and has never done that but today finds me wishing she was the problem!
It turned out that the whole corner of the floor was wet. On a boat, a leak of any kind is enough to raise one's blood pressure more than a tad. So barely awake, the first thing I faced was how to find the leak.
Being it was near a vent where an AC unit sits behind the wall, that became the first place to look. Removing a grill in the bedroom proved there was a little dampness on the floor under it, but it didn't seem like enough. In order to fully explore the other places it might have come in possibly along the hull of the boat several things had to happen. All of the clothes and shoes came out of the closet and the bottom inspection panel inside of it was removed. Yep, there was more water and lots of it..
Next question, how far back does the water go? There was still a possibility it leaked in from somewhere else and ran down. Another inspection panel under the built in drawers was removed to see toward the aft of the boat. Yep again, there was more water but no sign of water around the hull. So, now it's looking likely that it really is the AC unit.
Normally this might not be such a huge ordeal to confirm except for one thing. The easy access panel to the AC unit is on top of a bunk in the cabin beside the master suite. That bunk has been converted to hold a large five drawer, heavy metal art file cabinet which is full of posters carefully placed after many tedious hours of work to get them in there without ruin. It must weigh a good five hundred pounds by now. It sits on one end of the panel holding it down.
The very idea of moving the cabinet is out of the question unless it is emptied first. The cabin is so small that the drawers can not be removed without tilting them and that is impossible without moving the posters back out! What a nightmare that would be. The only other possible solution is to use a jig saw to cut the exposed end of the panel so it can be lifted up for access.
Here's where I must point out, on several occasions I requested this cut be made BEFORE the file cabinet was set in place. That request repeatedly went ignored and unfulfilled.
To even get to the exposed panel area, all of the items stored under the overhead bunk running across and over the lower bunk had to be removed and I had to cover the computer equipment with sheets to prevent the diabolical sawdust from getting in and ruining them.
Don't even ask what it would take to get to and clean the inside of my computer where it is latched down to the top bunk right now. No, please don't even make me think of THAT!
Now at this very moment I am hearing the jig saw running in the cabin while the master suite sits scattered with inspection panels, clothes, shoes, a grill, and items out of the mid cabin. The salon is stacked up not only with the remnants of the wall papering job but also with most of the items that were under the bunk. The rest of the boat is dirty and in complete disarray as the wall papering was all I could handle throughout the week. Instead of a big mess like I thought I faced when I woke up this morning, I now face a colossal disaster!
And, this brings me to the lesson of the day.
When I was in construction, I took my son to work with me on occasion and repeatedly I taught him a particular golden rule I lived by. That being, to always do something right the first time because it takes a lot longer to rip it out and start over. I never once replaced something I messed up in thirteen years being in the business by following this simple rule. That's a pretty good track record so one would think I had it down.
Not only that, when I was doing Safari tours I constantly told my mountain hiking visitors a variation of the rule, IE to "Always be sure of your first step before you take your next step." I didn't lose anyone over the edge of a cliff or down a volcanic lava tube hole, so it must have worked!
Although I am very upset with the person who didn't cut the panel in the first place, I have to ask, why had I allowed it to go undone? Why did I accept the resistance to fulfilling my request and let it slide? There is only one possible answer, I didn't like being a nag. Simply stated, it was because of my lack of persistence in my insistence! Today I pay the price for it.
So there it is. From here on "Remember the Hatch!" will be like my own personal "Remember the Alamo!" My newest golden rule will forever more be, "When Insistent Meets Resistant Be Persistent!"
I have no idea what it will take to fix this problem but one thing is for sure, I will make sure it gets done right the first time and I won't move on in the process of fixing it until I am positive each step of the way is accomplished with complete satisfaction. Wish me luck!
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