No paint til next Tuesday…15, 30, 45, and 5=?

The repair is dry, faired, sanded, primed…all there is left to do is slap on another coat of anti-fouling paint on the hull, replace the prop zinc, re-seal the garboard drain plug, and mark and splice and stow the heap of new anchor chain! Hooray!

Pedal pedal pedal to town, fuzzy with an oncoming headcold…a quart of milk, a gallon of bottom paint, a quart of milk, a gallon of bottom paint…

No blue bottom paint on the island until next Tuesday?!…figures.

Return to Swell and get out the spray paints to mark the length of chain…

“Okay, 5 meters each row equals approx 15 feet, with marks every fifty feet. Starting here that’s 15, 30, 45…so about here should be fifty…”

“Bonjour, Lize! Comment va tout?” Suddenly I’m trapped below a creepy kisser…I quickly wipe my cheeks and smile bleakly…ugh, go away…can’t you see I’m trying to count??!

“Okay, 5 meters each row equals approx 15 feet, with marks every fifty feet. Starting here that’s 15, 30, 45…so about here should be fifty…”

“Bonjour. Tu est, Lize?”

“Oui.”

“Est-que tu veux vendre une planche de surf?…

After ten minutes of explaining that I don’t have a board big enough to sell him…

“Okay, 5 meters each row equals approx 15 feet, with marks every fifty feet. Starting here that’s 15, 30, 45…so about here should be 50…”

“Eh Leez! Ça va? Tu veux aller au surf?” Shouts my 13 year old buddy, Teiki, as he wheels by in a homemade go cart.

“Pas aujour’dhui, mon ami” I reply.

“Okay, 5 meters each row equals approx 15 feet, with marks every fifty feet. Starting here that’s 15, 30, 45…so about here should be fifty…”

By the time I finish my new chain is pink and yellow and red in completely wrong and random places…sigh.