I'm a bit brain dead having gotten up at 4AM to thrash out a difficult chapter that has taken most of today to make readable. I'm not a natural writer. Like everything I do, I plod along and never give up. The end result is usually pretty good, but nothing comes easily.
That's the same for every occupation I've had, and I've had quite a few. We can't count wrapping groceries or delivering papers, so my first full time job was drafting. And I loved it. Quiet times at a drawing board making exact drawings out of sketches given to me by the company's engineer taught me heaps about manufacturing.
Fortunately I'm a quick learner, or maybe it's just that I worked long hours, but my benchmark is finding someone else with a skill I want then judge whether they're any more gifted than me. Like when we built our boat. I met heaps building one that were low in skills like me, so I took the plunge. Then I had to work sixty to eighty hours a week for over three years to succeed.
Mostly I've found the people with skills are eager to help if you first demonstrate a sincere effort to learn. Like with the wood working. A joiner down from where we built the boat wasn't keen at first, but I'd help out at his shop on Saturdays for nix, and then he started passing on tricks and letting me use his equipment. Little did I know years later I'd have my own joinery shop....
Same goes for sailing a boat. Hadn't a clue how they worked even though I was building a big one capable of crossing oceans. Just figured other did it, so I'd learn when I needed to. But a word of warning. If you do as me, you'd better be gifted and damn lucky because the sea does not forgive. And if I thought I'd work long hours building Banyandah, sailing her can be 24/7, I kid you not.
Hey, I'm whacked. Time for a bit of a workout. More later.
Till then, calm seas and lovely anchorages,
Capt'n Jack
No comments:
Post a Comment