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Do you ever get the feeling that every time you take one step forward you are being pushed two steps back? Today was one of those days. I started the day working on a few projects on the boat and by the time mid-day rolled around felt that perhaps I would have been better off to have just skipped the entire day.

With all of the moisture in our cabins caused by simply breathing and leaving the hatch doors shut (because of how cold it is) so much condensation was collecting in the rooms that some moisture was being trapped under the beds. We decided that we would take all of the mattresses onto the deck and just air dry them out because of the warm sun that had come out.

As the day rolled on I reviewed many of the systems on the boat with my brother-in-law Dan, who came to visit for the weekend and discovered a number of problems that were in urgent need of repair including a bilge pump, some backing up toilets, the still broken heating/cooling system. It seemed that the more I looked at things, the more things would surface that needed attention. Many things which I had not expected. It really became a frustrating morning.

Because of the weight of my mattress with its special foam topper I thought that I would just raise it up with some large number 10 cans that we had in the pantry and blow the heater under the mattress. My son Dailin came to give me a hand and we discovered that it was much easier to roll the cans under the Queen sized mattress than to prop it up on top of the cans. What we forgot to notice was that some of the can had previously been opened. As we rolled one can to the back of the mattress, the lid popped off and out came a huge pile of dark brown cocoa powder. Now this cocoa powder was very dry and nearly impossible to clean up. It was dark and smelled up the entire boat with the tasty scent of rich dark chocolate. I think it was at this point that I decided that I needed to take a quick 3 minute walk outside for a breath of fresh air. It had been a long day and we had been promising the kids since the morning that after two weeks near San Fransisco, we would take them to see some of the cities’ sights.

I decided after letting others help clean up the mess that we should have just taken the day off before we got further behind. We took off for a cooler afternoon at Pier 39 in San Francisco. Although there was tons of Saturday afternoon traffic it was a great break from an otherwise frustrating morning.

The kids enjoyed some time away from project after project and cleaning and organizing. We watched one of the busker’s shows, checked out the “Houdini’s Magic Shop”, the “Solve It!” puzzle shop, the “Candy Baron” Store (with tons of salt water taffy) before ending the day with some yummy food at the “Wipeout Grill”. Perhaps this was more of a break for Dad than anyone else but a great activity after a frustrating morning of chocolate smelling bedrooms… I guess it could have been worse?
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