All that work was made bearable through the generosity of our friends Jim and Pat. They loaned us a spare air conditioner! It made a world of difference. Only trouble was--we kept finding more things to do since we had the air con, we were plugged into power, we had a dock to spread out on, etc. Enter "Work Creep". You know, one project breeds another, and that one makes you need to tackle something else, and while you're at it, why not do this too. And so on. It becomes never-ending...

After the engine it was the head's turn. Nothing was actually wrong with the toilet, thank goodness, but the plywood pedestal underneath the toilet was delaminating--badly. So, out with the old, in with the new. Easy to say. It was about here that WC struck again. I decided that if we were to revamp some, why not the whole head area as it had been years since paint and varnish of any serious nature had been done. So I started by painting the insides of ALL the lockers and bins in the head/shower. Which meant of course, that EVERYTHING that lived in those spaces was strewn in piles all across the boat. It was amazing what those lockers contained! Talk about mess...When that part of the painting was all done I varnished all the teak trim. I mean ALL the teak trim, even the fiddly bits of trim around the deck prism and the overhead lights.

A Work Creep dictate: All the locker doors needed varnishing too, three of which are louvered. Man, why did I ever think louvered doors were a neat thing to have on a boat? Great to look at, and very functional, but a real pain in the you-know-what to re-varnish. The biggest chore of them all was the louvered head door, and it was so grotty that only a complete stripping would do. Al figures we had 30 man hours stripping, sanding and refinishing that door. Ridiculous!

Meanwhile, Al was at work with the actual carpentry. We were at odds with each other working in the same small space--a conflict of dust, glue, fresh paint, varnish, fumes, etc. Well, once the carpentry/glue/epoxy/filler was finished and the finishing trim back in place, it was time to paint the new plywood. Why not all the bulkheads too? Another attack of Work Creep! Well, altogether it took 3 weeks. At least the toilet is back in position now. And we thought not having a working galley was inconvenient........ Between the engine work and the head revamp it was like living on the hard during a haul out except you didn't have to climb a ladder!

OK. Now it's time to fix the dinghy. Long Live Work Creep!