Big Boat Man is back like an excited boy who knows Christmas is around the corner. Just over a year ago a myriad of issues came up as barriers to building the custom trailer BBM had designed for the boat.  All the issues had to do with an external entity not fulfilling contractual obligations, and BBM not wanting to lose the only substantial deposit he has ever put down on a product.

Over the past year we have learned a lot about patience, and the fact that achieving what we want in life is not a race.

At the same time the joy was sucked out of BBM’s dream to launch the boat for last summer, an incredible amount of work hit his team.  Record breaking amounts of residential building nationally kept BBM and his team hopping.  The work was coming in so fast that BBM had to do some of the surveying himself, instead of the quality checking he normally did.  It meant extra income, extra that could be spent on the boat and trailer, so not entirely a disappointing set of circumstances.

At the same time, I started a new role in a new city. As things in life work out sometimes, it was meant to be.  The same day I accepted the role, a friend rang and said that she had been neglecting clients in that city but had not wanted to shift to where she knew no one. We agreed to share an apartment.  I would be there mostly week days, and because of travel, she would be there mostly weekends.

So, I began flying out on Monday, working all week, and flying home on Friday evening. BBM bragged to his friends that he was a bachelor four days a week. It meant that we were both free to work as hard as we wanted during the week, with no guilt from neglecting family in the evenings.  Then on weekends, we were able to focus on time together and catching up with all our news.

Toward the end of last year, our patience was tested in a new way.  All of us came down with a cough that lasted about 100 days.  The three months of coughing took a toll and we moved slowly in work and hobbies.

BBM’s work continued to pour in.  He would curse it sometimes, and revel in it other times. It kept him busy during a time he could not be busy on the boat while awaiting the trailer build.

Finally, a new engineer came on the scene.  Progress moved at a rapid pace.  Now BBM was back to getting up at 5.00 am to do work on the computer so that he was free to be at the boat shed to help on the trailer by mid-mornings.  Brynn was drawn into the activity and learned to do some simple welds.

One weekend I was triumphantly shown the boat sitting on the trailer.  First of all, how did it get out of the boat shed?  The same way BBM designed the boat shed.  The plywood end of the boat shed was knocked out, the boat dropped onto the trailer and pulled out.  Then, plywood was nailed back in place with no one the wiser that there had been such a large object inside the building.

Standing at the bow admiring the boat on the trailer, BBM tells me to shift the boat toward the end of the trailer.  I tentatively push it and find that it rolls along smoothly with little effort.  He insists that I push it farther.  At a certain point, the trailer tilts as if we are off-loading it.  Because it is a flat bottom boat, the trailer is designed with rollers all over the floor (?) of it.

Are we ready to launch?  No, believe it or not, just like with all the earlier wooden forms and patterns for the boat which were put together, taken apart, and reassembled several times – the trailer needs to be stripped of all the rollers and moving parts before being galvanised.

BBM needed to know whether the stays for the mast were the right length and decides it is a good time to put the mast up.  Unfortunately, the boom is not in place yet.  BBM improvises with a 4×2.  He holds it perpendicular to the mast while I pull on a pulley rigged by the wench. Brynn is tall and helps lift the mast, at one point holding the weight of the mast for several minutes while BBM thought things through.  Patience.

And finally the mast was up for the first time ever, the stays were almost exactly the right length already, and we all wanted pictures of the beautiful sight.

Big Boat Man eyes dance, his laugh comes more easily, and he is full of excitement again. The launch cannot be far away. Christmas and holidays mean free time to sail is around the corner.

Patience has brought us through so much over this past year. Life is not a race, it is whatever joy we make of it.