Too Much Stuff!

As much as we’d like to be sightseeing tourists here in Gloucester/Salem, we’ve got way too much to do in a too short period of time.  Here’s the deal:

There is much more to do to make Gabrielle livable than we originally estimated.  We have spent two days just emptying lockers and bins,  cleaning mold and mildew off of every surface,  and sorting through the TONS of stuff the PO (Previous Owners) left on board.  I was so glad to be done with the whole “sorting/getting rid of stuff” process back in Rockport,  and now we’re getting (having) to do it all over again.

In addition,  Gabrielle’s layout actually has less storage space than O Be Joyful had, so we will  have to continue the sorting/tossing process on some of our own stuff.  I got the stink-eye from Kate today when I suggested that “maybe we could rent a storage unit, just for a little while?”

I was just kidding, of course.  We’ll cut and trim and toss until we have everything we need onboard, and it’ll be fine.  But I’ll tell you something-  I think it’s a healthy thing for a man to stand back in awe of his wife’s superpowers on a regular basis,  and the past few days have given me ample opportunity to do that.

Today,  we spent hours unloading drawers, bins, and lockers of all kinds of boaty junk.  It covered every horizontal surface inside the boat, and spilled out into the cockpit as well.  Some of it was obvious junk, and some looked possibly useful, and some looked essential, like engine and mechanical spares, etc.  I looked around at all this stuff,  and all I could think of was all the other stuff we still have loaded on our trailer, and how the hell were we going to sort out this disorganized pile PLUS our other stuff, and fit it all into a smaller space than we originally had.  And, running in the background was a soundtrack that said, “and-after-this-you-are-going-to-have-to-figure-out-all-the-engine-and-navigation-and-electrical-and plumbing-equipment-as-well”…

My. Brain. Just. Froze.     No kidding-  I just stood there in the middle of all this chaos and could not form a coherent thought.  Kate was asking me questions about this stuff,  and I could not answer her questions.  I think I might have mumbled something like, “I have no idea …”

She must have sensed that I was dead in the water and going under.  And then it happened-  I got to watch as her superpowers kicked in, and she went from asking me questions, to saying, “OK,  here’s how we’re gonna do this…”, and she laid it all out, step by step, and I just said, “uh, OK”. and followed her lead, and before long,  a path opened up and the way became clear.

Damn!  I love this woman.  I think we’ll pull this whole thing off after all.

There was a big thunderstorm rolled through this evening,  and Kate got this shot off our back porch:

There’s lots more stuff to tell about our short term living arrangement plans and how they’re changing and how we’re dealing with THAT-   stay tuned,  more later!