Puttering

put·ter³

ˈpədər/

verb

North American

gerund or present participle: puttering

1. occupy oneself in a desultory but pleasant manner, doing a number of small tasks or not concentrating on anything particular.

   "early morning is the best time of the day to putter around in the garden"

   • move or go in a casual, unhurried way.

     "the duck putters on the surface of the pond"

And such a day it was. When you're stuck on the anchor waiting for a weather window and it's the kind of day you don't have any big plans, it frees up time for those smallish projects that just sort of pop up. You know, the "hey wouldn't that be nice to do..."

Yesterday the plastic Command Strip phone holders that we had on the bulkhead by the companionway stairs finally gave up the ghost and had to be taken down. They had already cracked once upon a time when I was coming down the steps and happened to bump into them. I pulled them off the wall (thank you Command Strips for the lack of markings on the wall), and sat there looking at the space. A design began to form for a teak replacement, much classier than its predecessor. After peering into various cubbies where we store bits and pieces of leftover teak, I came up with enough to craft the new phone rack. A few hours of cutting, sanding, gluing, and polishing and we now have a pretty class act holder.

Part of installing the new phone rack was drilling holes through the bulkhead for the mounting screws. On the back of the bulkhead is a mirror behind the door into the aft cabin. I've always wondered why they put it there since you can't really ever see in it and I figured it would go a long way toward brightening the aft cabin if it was moved around to the wall inside. Five minutes and four screws later, it was done.

A few weeks ago Tim had removed the box that used to house the old instruments and used it to house the new solar controller. He was able to leave the glass from the instrument holder in place to act as a sun port to help brighten the aft cabin. We weren't sure what we were going to do with the edges of the aluminum tubes that held the glass but, after some thought, decided on edging it with some very nautical looking nylon rope tied with very proper reefing knots.

After a suggestion made in passing to Tim a couple days ago about moving the control lines for Henry, our wind vane, I came home from doing laundry to find he had already done it.

The control lines used to go down to the coaming, making a 90° through a padeye and then to the blocks. It was difficult to set the vane because of that 90° turn.  It also involved moving any cushion you happened to be comfortably resting against so I had made the suggestion that we move them up to the stern pulpit and it really will help tremendously when we're under sail.

It's little things like these that make such a difference in the daily living on a boat. We're putterers, for sure, and will always be doing some little thing, but this was a particularly productive bunch. Kintala is smiling tonight.