Stop bleeding and get back to work…
I’ve been among the ranks of do it yourselfers for a number of years now. I’ve even seen the T.V. show. Why do these people not bleed? Is it some magic editing technique and we simply don’t see it? Could it be pay related? I pulled my old diesel engine out of this boat at the cost of a little over a half pint of blood. Here a drip, there a drip… a trail indicating on which part of the engine I had most recently worked on.
Lacking a sufficient reserve of blood I paid someone to install the new engine. Perhaps bleeding is related to the exchange of money.
Anyhow, I’m back from an extended work assignment overseas. Patiently waiting for me is my self imposed list of to do chores and boat upgrades. This time I’m adding dinghy davits, which will ultimately hold the new solar panel on. (and the dinghy) Green is good! Between the wind generator and now the solar panel, we shall have sufficient electricity available while under sail or at anchor to meet our electronic needs. 
Keeping the adult beverages cold comes at a price.
My new davits arrive and I begin the installation process. They are from a company called MarTek Ltd located up the road in Clearwater Fl. They sure do look nice coming out of the package, and were a very good price.
Being a responsible consumer I actually open and read the directions. Here it is on page one, the first paragraph; “In most cases the installation of your MarTek Davits are a simple afternoon project.”
I start laughing as I read it to my wife. She goes and gets the band-aids ready. I start getting some power tools out. She gets the triple antibiotic ointment and readies the cell phone for a possible 911 call. I tell her I’m not climbing the mast so I should be able to walk across the street to the emergency walk-in clinic if necessary.
Let the project begin…
The davits are a pretty straight forward project. They require two calls with the owner of MarTek who was very helpful on the phone with some suggestions. What I want to do is not possible, it will void the integrity of the design and he convinces me to abandon my independent thoughts and follow the directions. 
The blood on this project has not appeared yet. I’ve managed to cut the davits to custom fit them to my stern rails and have not injured myself as of yet. The project is still young however, and today will require the use of several different power tools. I know I’m going to bleed, it’s inevitable.
While enjoying my morning coffee I’m checking my email and get a short missive from a friend of mine who is on the east coast of Florida. I’m not going to mention Brent’s name here so we shall just refer to him as, ‘injured person #1.’
Injured person #1 is also a boat owner and do it yourselfer. Here is a short excerpt~
Not much sailing going on here, but getting a lot of stuff done. I have managed to almost completely remove my fingerprints from all of my fingers twice in two weeks, once chemically and once mechanically. Surprising how the pain from that is pretty minor at first and then continually increases until you can’t think about much else.
I built a concrete block enclosure for the garbage and recycling. It used to be on the side of the house and trash cans were right there to greet you when you pulled up to the house, now it’s disguised and actually looks pretty good. In a couple of weeks I’ll see if I can teach myself to stucco and then paint it to match the house. I lost my fingerprints for first time on this project when I used my fingers to stuff mortar into the vertical gaps between the blocks and then used my hands and fingers to smooth the mortar for a pleasing appearance. I knew that the lye in mortar would leach the fats from my skin, but I didn’t realize how quickly that would happen, or that the process would make the skin so soft that the sand in the mortar would rip the skin off like I was touching a sanding belt. That hurt for about two days.
Yesterday I started another project where I’m laying wall block and pavers to build up a modest terraced planting area near the front door. All that requires a lot of leveling and stuff and the final layers are sand and this tiny gravel. I again used my hands to distribute those materials around the area, and even though there was no lye involved this time it sanded the hell out of my fingers. Only took off one or two layers of skin this time, so no blood and not really painful… but close. It makes my fingertips feel funny enough that maybe I’ll remember not to be so stupid for a week or more this time around.
One of my other friends, Nat, has been doing a major project on his boat. It has to do with varnishing his cabin sole (the boats inside floor) in the summer with all the hatches closed. There are injuries there as well. How could you hurt yourself varnishing? Well, there are razor knifes, screwdrivers, sanders, and a host of other sharp objects involved in any boat project. Adding varnish fumes in an enclosed space just can’t bee good.
Well, the sun is up and my day is beginning. I salute my injured friends this morning and really mean it when I say, “I feel your pain.”
Time to plug in the saws-all.
Filed Under: Travels
About the Author: I'm a retired deputy sheriff turned sailor and author. Please feel free to leave comments and suggestions for anything you might like to read about. Hopefully I'll see you out on the water!