Sailing Instead of Working On the Boat

[Dockhead]

I got back to my boat on Friday after being away from her for almost a month (sniff).

Woke up on Saturday morning with an awesomely long list of work to do on her, plus some things I meant to do for my own job. But it's November 17, the sun is shining, it's not so cold, a gentle breeze is blowing -- WTF am I doing sitting on the mooring??? Was my first thought.

A 54 foot (60 feet LOA), 25 ton boat is not my idea of the ideal single-hander, but, well, you work with what you've got. So instead of doing my work, I got the dinghy up, the canvas down, powered up the electronics, tested the bow thruster, checked over the machinery, secured the cabin, rigged slip lines, slipped, and headed out to sea. Sailed down the Solent to Yarmouth on a lovely close reach, passing every boat I encountered.

A friendly sailor took my short midships spring for me, saving me the terror of jumping off my boat with no one left aboard.

I was going to go to the George for dinner with a book, but in the event it got to be too late, and I ended up eating on board, just as I would have done on my mooring. And in order to get back to my mooring right at the high water stand, the only time when I would have any chance at all of getting tied up single-handed, I had to leave first thing in the morning, so no cycling up the Yar as I had planned. So other than a welcome night on shore power (equalization) and topping off my water, little actual benefit from being in Yarmouth.

Tying up was quite a trick, as I had forgotten to leave a short spring on the pontoon that I could pick up with the boathook. But I managed to get one of the pile lines on before the boat drifted away, powered against that with the rudder over, got the other one on, the trimmed everything up using a sheet winch.

As hard as I try, I'm still finding it nearly impossible to feel guilty about having played hooky yet again from boat repairs and maintenance, with which I am now seriously behind, not to mention my real work.

How do you guys deal with this situation? Why if you just sail every time you get on board, the boat will eventually fall apart from neglect.