The Rule Of Threes

A common question I've been asked when talking to family and friends is "are you keeping busy, and what are you doing with ALL THAT FREE TIME?" Well, that's a good question. What the hell am I doing with all my free time, because I don't seem to have much... certainly not enough to keep this blog up to date!

Before I delve into this, my apologies to all you "working folk" as this might sound like I'm complaining about living on a boat and not going to work 5 days a week. I'm not. In fact, I still dance little jigs on the foredeck when I remember that it's a weekday and I'm not driving to work or responding to countless tiresome emails. People on neighboring boats probably think I'm nuts. My wife certainly does.

If I'm to answer the question about how I manage not to go nuts from boredom, I have to bring you up to speed about a fairly well known (around boaters) but little understood natural law called "The Rule of Threes"

For those of you unfamiliar with this quirk in space-time, The Rule of Threes must be respected if you are to have any hope of completing a boat-related project in time for happy hour, or even a late dinner. This force of nature applies to every task performed on a boat, big or small. Simply put, take your worst-case time estimate for a boat related job and multiply it by three. That gives you the absolute minimum time required to complete the job.

For example, as I started writing this blog, I felt the need for a little nourishment to feed my muse, and I happily recalled that we had some of my favorite crackers stashed away... somewhere. Now, in a house you would simply stroll into the kitchen, root around in the cabinets and select the snack du jour. My task was a little more involved. First, since I knew the cabinet where we stored snacks did not have any of the tasty treats I was wanting, I had to guess where we had stowed the backups. Luckily, I found the crackers in the first spot I looked, but it required shifting all the stuff stowed in front of the box and then re-stowing it all once I had retrieved the crackers. So a 2 minute task to retrieve some crackers turned into a 10 minute task. For those of you checking my math, yes, the Rule of Threes was established by a hopeless optimist, and should be considered a best case scenario.

The Rule of Threes demands a change in pace to what Jen and I call Boat Time. Everything takes longer to do, and requires a lot more effort. Things as simple as lighting a stove or going to the toilet are more complicated. Throwing out the trash may mean a quarter mile walk each way. This change in pace can be frustrating until you realize that it's all part of the package and the extra effort is worth it. We're not on a schedule after all, and so everything slows down to boat time.

So with the Rule of Threes in mind, here are some of the things I've been doing to occupy my mind and time:

Installed:
2 chart plotters
Radar
Water maker (mounting and wiring, still need to do plumbing, yuck)
LifeTag Man Overboard system
Lifeline netting to keep Quinn on board when jumping on the tramps
Remote control for autopilot
2 new anchors
Grill
New outboard, fuel tank, nav lights and anchor for our dinghy
Satellite Phone
Single Side Band radio receiver

Maintenance Stuff:
Oil changes on 2 diesels and transmissions (haven't had to yet on the generator)
Fill water tanks - weekly
Empty turd tanks - weekly
Scrub 1000 sq ft of deck - should be done every week or so
Maintain sailing gear
etc etc etc...

Head Stuff:
Routing for trip around Cape Hatteras (weather and gulf stream) and points south
Equipment and spares needed for cruising
Weather analysis
Establishing maintenance lists

Since this is getting long and it's getting late, I'll leave to other blog entries to detail the fun involved in some of the installations. Think "flying trapeze" and you'll be on the right track...