As a tradesman myself or ‘tradie’ as we tend to say, I was under the impression that all tradies pretty much started early and finished early, leaving them a good part of the day to surf, pick up kids, do stuff at home or nothing at all. I am learning that there are significant differences between domestic and marine tradies and starting times is only one of them.
Here are a few insights from last week.
We have had four tradies, over three days on our boat. Happy to say all were very competent.
Surprisingly, none of them did the really early start.
Our first tradies were the Freeze Tec guys who not only started at the civilised hour of 8am, but they turned up on time each day. Love their work. Our new 12 Volt Fridge freezer is super quiet. Matt and Dean were here on Tuesday and Mat on Wednesday for the half day.
With so many tradies on the boat what do we do with the animals?
Naturally, most people fall in love with our animals. At least the dogs. Zac gets locked in the forward berth with some food and water. He is pretty content and sleeps a lot anyway. Around mealtimes, however, he gets a bit cranky. The dogs hang out in the cockpit. They spend much of their time watching the humans downstairs until their attention is drawn to someone going past our boat, and then they sleep for a while. This pattern is on repeat. I disappear, as there is no longer any space for me to work. Matt was brilliant in helping me escape. He would feed the dogs liver treats while I disappeared off the boat to escape the madness.
Marty and I come and go. After all the boat is only 15m by 4.5m and pretty crowded with tradies, equipment and tools everywhere.
On Tuesday Marty and I hopped in the dinghy and dropped the food from our old fridge and freezer over to our friends John and Julie’s boat to keep it cold while our new fridge and freezer were being installed. On the journey there, we rescued a distressed Turtle. The Tradies turned up, Marty went to work, and my morning turned into being a wildlife warrior before attending to some appointments. On Wednesday, I ran my ‘Lost for Words’ webinar from Bill’s office. Thank you, my friend.
On Tuesday afternoon, we realised that Matt was coming back on Wednesday, so we phoned Dean, the electrician, inquiring about the possibility of him arriving in the afternoon instead of the morning. He was accommodating which was greatly appreciated.
Dean was doing work to ensure and certify that Saboteur meets NZ electrical safety requirements. He also turned up on time.
Cool cat Dan, our normal sparky, is remarkably unreliable. This time, he had an unexpected dentist visit and rescheduled with us from Tuesday to Wednesday. Typically, he starts anywhere from 10am to midday. The upside is his work is brilliant. Neat, tidy, finished properly, labelled etc.
On Wednesday, we had tradies on the boat from 8am-ish to 10.45pm. It was a long day. The one thing that does not change is tradie hour… those on the boat were happy to have a beer in hand, sit in the cockpit, tell a few stories and enjoy the sun set. All of us united by a love of beer – well maybe. All of us united by the love of boats.
(Originally this article was first publish on face book in 25 Jan ’22).
