Finishing Touches

They tell me it's the finishing touches that flesh out a project, be it the fresh flowers on the kitchen table while preparing a house to put on the market, or the polished brass on a refurbished boat.  While we are clearly a LONG way from being done with the Tartan [ed. Yes I know you're never finished with a boat, there's always one more project. We're talking relative here.], we sometimes find it necessary to add some of those finishing touches as we progress down the must-do and should-do lists.  The effort grants us some small bit of aesthetic pleasure, some respite from the sometimes overwhelming nature of the tasks at hand.  Totally unnecessary and irrelevant to how she sails, yes.  But at the end of a day that was spent chasing an elusive leak and knowing you've had the hatch frame completely disassembled and reassembled and it looks just exactly the same including the persistent drip from the corner, it gives you some measure of satisfaction and a slightly more secure hold on your sanity when you can look at the freshly polished teak and Tartan emblem each and every time you climb the companionway steps.

(Before)