My Ongoing Compac Project

[Mariness]

This is rather long...

How my morning began:
Starting at 830 - Station toddler in sandbox, with sippy cup in case she gets thirsty. Turn on bug-deterrent.
Remove tarp from boat, climb in. Remove 9 gallons (approximately) of collected bilge water. Yes I measured. Last time was 45 gallons, so it would seem things are improving, gradually.
Take toddler to car (tracking sand through entire living room and kitchen) to get jack.
Jack extraction procedure: Open hatch of stationwagon. Remove stroller. Raise rumble seat and lock in place. Retrieve toddler from running into street. Remove side of interior, which is also the cover for the emergency spare. Rescue toddler, who has tipped stroller over on top of herself. Unscrew tire mount & wrestle spare out of slot. Unscrew jack and remove from brackets. Pull tire iron out of clips. Put spare and wheel cover on rumble seat, add stroller, close hatch. Do not read jack instructions, believing that a jack, being a simple machine, should be easy for someone as smart as you to figure out.
Carry jack and tire iron to back yard in one hand, leading toddler by other. Replace toddler in sandbox, drink some water, head to front of trailer.
Position mysterious blue board (finally a use for it!) under cross-bar of trailer tongue. Try to raise jack; when it doesn't go, try wiggling the handle more vigorously.
Abandon jack and toddler, return to car, read instructions for jack printed on wheel cover. Return to yard, collecting following toddler on the way, and do as instructions said. It still does not work.
Abandon jack and toddler and go to garage to locate a different jack. In haste to not leave toddler unattended too long, grab jack stand instead. Return to yard, collecting following toddler on the way.
Discover that jack stand is not what you need. Return to garage, put jack stand back where you got it. Locate proper jack, remembering to get handle as well. Return to yard, collecting following toddler on the way.
Place jack on blue board under crossbar of trailer tongue. Attach handle. Begin raising. Wonder why car's jack is not this easy to use. Realize this must be why husband doesn't use it. Stop wondering & Pay attention, as jack has now reached, and is lifting, trailer tongue. Be slightly astonished that this seems to be working.
Note in dismay that with every pump of handle, jack is scooching out from under crossbar. Worry about what is going to happen. Discover answer: Not much, as trailer stand is still in ground. However, does cause ominous bounce and rigging noise from boat, which is very close behind your shoulder.
Temporarily abandon jack. Use tire iron to dig hole around trailer stand to see how much gain is needed. A lot - bottom of stand and its wheel are about 6 inches away. Return to jack, reposition, pump up again. At top of range, still not far enough clear of ground to fit paving stone under stand. Try cranking trailer stand to highest, fully retracted position. Still not enough.
Consider giving up.
Return to garage, reclaim jack stand. Return to yard, collecting following toddler on the way. Position jack stand on blue board to support trailer, so as to not lose ground. Lower jack and carry to very front of tongue, which has metal a few inches closer to ground. Wonder if this is going to work, since you have no additional pieces of wood to support jack. Try anyway.
Watch, concerned, as jack begins pushing itself into ground instead of trailer up. Become less concerned as it settles and trailer begins to move. Jack up as high as possible. Still need about half an inch to get that paver in position.
Use hands to scrape dirt and leaves out of the way. Collect pruning shears from porch to remove especially thick roots. Shove paver underneath. Decide that "perfectly centered" is a pipe-dream, accept "not right on the edge" as new goal for positioning. Remove jack stand. Lower jack carefully.
Discover that paver, with dug out dirt under and weight of trailer on top, is not even close to level. Jack up trailer again, remove paver. Scrape as much dirt as possible, as well as several roly-poly bugs and one very irritated click-beetle, out of wheel on trailer stand until it is able to turn freely. Back fill hole under stand to make level spot for paver to sit. Shove paver back into position. Rotate wheel bracket to give wheel best possible angle on paver. Lower jack again. Do a happy dance when everything finally works.
Crank trailer support to highest position, hoping to ameliorate boat's previously long-held bow-down position. It doesn't look enormously better, but accept that it's as good as it's going to get.
Return jack and jack stand to garage.
Take car jack, tire iron, and toddler to driveway. Open hatch. Remove all parts and stroller from rumble seat. Reattach jack to its bracket. Reclaim toddler from wandering into street. Try to reattach tire. Reclaim toddler from neighbor's yard. Place in back seat where she can watch the action - close door so she won't fall out. Open front door for through-ventilation. Spend 20 minutes trying various configurations of tire and support-bracket before finally wrestling it into position and getting it reattached. Decide that clearly no one at GM's design department has ever actually had to use their own emergency spare . Discover that tire iron was left behind. Go get it, return to car, place in clips. Mash wheel cover back into place. Locate rumble seat unlocker, lower seat, replace stroller, shut hatch. Collect toddler from back seat, lock car, go inside.
Take clean diapers from washing machine to clothesline, which is tethered on one end to boat's stern cleat. Discover that entire morning was not wasted, as clothesline (and therefore stern) is noticeably lower, meaning bow-down orientation has been at least partly corrected. Get diapers hung, return to air conditioned indoors. Collect water bottles and shut off bug deterrent on the way.
Take toddler and self to shower to remove dirt, grease, sweat, and sand. Discover new bites on toddler, meaning bug deterrent may not be working.
At 1045, put on clean clothes and sit down for a cooling-off break with snack and drink.

How did everyone else's morning get started?

(I can only work on the boat in the mornings, when the yard is still shady and it has not yet become quite so hellishly hot out there...so not much more will be accomplished today. But feeling fairly proud of myself at the moment. )

[gonesail]

we have a couple of compacs in my marina .. a little bigger than yours I think .. but they are really cool sailboats and appear to be well built.