The goal yesterday had two parts:
a.) Replace Robin's five-year-old batteries and,
b.) Replace the rotting plywood platform which allows you to stand on the boomkin, the array of stainless steel pipes that sticks out past Robin's stern and supports the back stay.
The battery work left me sprained in several locations. Robin has two batteries, one mounted on either side of the engine, under the cockpit. To get to them, it is necessary to take down the four steps of the companionway (inside the cabin) and to physically back into the opening and sit on top of the engine.
The old batteries were Group 31. I remembered that they were difficult to install five years ago because they weighed a lot. I swear they have gained weight in the interim. Each must tip the scale at at least 75 pounds.
Like most jobs connected with a boat, handling the batteries was a one-person chore. So I set to yanking them out, one at a time, hoping that I wouldn't drop one and crush the engine.
Once they were removed, I took them to the local NAPA auto parts store in Cambridge, where I traded them in on two Group 27 batteries, each one with as many amps or watts or whatever as the old ones.
The Group 27s were much lighter, which made installation significantly easier but left me wondering what I'd given up in the process. The older NAPA gentleman assured me I'd forfeited nothing.
Next, I took the screws out of the plywood decking on the boomkin. The wood on the port side was so rotten that it came out in two pieces.
I'd fabricated (as in, made) replacement decking out of a dense rain forest wood, solid planks that I doweled and epoxied together and then stiffened with cross braces epoxied and screwed in place.
Since I'd made the decking at home, I didn't realize that the cross braces were in a space that, on the boomkin, is occupied by a one-inch diameter tube. On Saturday, we'll visit Robin and I'll perform surgery on my decking and then, finally, bolt it in place.
In the meantime, about half of Robin's provisions are on board for the upcoming voyage, now less than two weeks away.