Marina Chronicles: Hell Week (updates upcoming!)

[Cooper]

It's memorial week. We've had five people* call us and ask for their boats tomorrow.

* at least

We're booked until NEXT Friday.

I was thinking I might be able to take the day off, because it's pouring around here, but I IMed my mother in the morning, and she told me boss J is home with a Kidney stone, and he's expected to go to the hospital later today.

He will be out for the holiday weekend.

I am going to use this thread for anything noteworthy over Memorial week/weekend/day.

All I know is: It's going to be bad.

Let me point out some other things going on backstage: The mechanics are having temper tantrums because they have to work with each other (see COC's 'row in a rowboat') the flies have invaded, (as have the mosquitoes) my relationship with P is getting worse every day, and without J, none of his kids/my coworkers are going to come in, AND one of our mechanics is on vacation.

This leaves 5 employees out of a potential ten. We are literally half-staffed.

[Cooper]

First customer of hell week, if 'yes this is dog' doesn't count.

Can't I just perform surgery on myself?

Customer: My name is [name.] I was wondering if I could come pick up my boat.
me: Did we do a repair on it, or did we store it?
Customer: Well, you did a repair on it, then you stored it.
Me: We aren't scheduling any more boats until next Friday.
Customer: Can't I just pick it up myself?
Me: Well, we usually have to summerize it.
Customer: What?
Me:: Did we winterize it, or just stick it in our lot?
Customer: You shrinkwrapped it.
Me:: Did we do anything else to it?
Customer: I can cut that open though.
Me: Sure but we usually-
Customer:: I just need the battery too, right?
me: I guess but-
Customer:: I'll see you after work unless it's raining.
*customer hangs up*

[sms001]

Hold on tight, you will get through it! Without TOO many stories to add to this, I hope.

[Chromatix]

Not having actually owned a boat larger or more complex than a sailing dinghy, what is involved in winter/summer conversion? I know there's a few things to do to cars before a cold winter, but that is for cars that will actually be driven.

[csquared]

One of the biggest things with a motor boat is the cooling system. They use the water they run in. That has to be flushed out and an antifreeze pumped in. You need to flush the antifreeze before you use it as you don't want to discard it into the lake.

The rest of it are the normal things you would do to a car engine before you let it sit for a long time: Oil the cylinders, stabilize the gas, etc. So the second thing to be done when you want to use it is to verify that the engine is running good BEFORE you put it in the water.

[wolfie]

One of the biggest things with a motor boat is the cooling system. They use the water they run in.

So the second thing to be done when you want to use it is to verify that the engine is running good BEFORE you put it in the water.

And that requires an adapter to feed water into the raw-water inlet, otherwise you'd be running the engine without proper cooling. On an outboard, you'd have NO cooling (direct cooling by raw water). On an inboard, your "closed loop" would heat up quickly, since there would be no raw water going to the heat exchanger.

[Chromatix]

So it's not difficult to do yourself - *if* you have a clue. But if you just launch and start it up without checking, you'll probably vent some methanol into the lake. Which is apparently used for fishing tournaments. Lovely.

Cooper, don't you keep a record of which boats in storage are in what condition?

[EricKei]

This leaves 5 employees out of a potential ten. We are literally half-staffed.

Wellllll~ it's Memorial week, so shouldn't ya be at half-mast/half-staff anyway?

...Put the jetski down, Cooper >_> ...shit *runs*

[dalesys]

...Put the jetski down, Cooper >_> ...shit *runs*

Swim faster, Eric! She's circling in!

[Cooper]

xDD Yeah, we do keep a record of the boats, and what condition they're in, which is why one guy was given an all-clear, but this guy wouldn't have been.

Thankfully J did not go to the hospital, so he's in today, and it's cold today ,so I don't have to go in. And Mr. Grumpypants--one of the mechanic's new nicknames, his other being 'midnight' after my cat, who is very loyal, but extremely temperamental and rarely satisfied--was better behaved yesterday.

I slept in, and it felt wonderful.

As for fishing tournaments, my lake is very high in mercury, so this isn't really a great place to be eating the fish from anyway.

I do have another story from yesterday though.

Rescue woes:

A guy calls, and says he's stuck in the section of the lake by the marina--the lake has four 'sections' that are split by channels, and we're in section 1. He doesn't tell me anything about his boat, but claims I can't miss him.

I have to call down a coworker to run the desk so I can go out. Because the day before yesterday, I had attempted a rescue with one of our grumpier boats, and it refused to start, I didn't take that one. I went to the other rental I knew we had in the water, but I couldn't get it out on my own. (It was stuck behind another boat, which is normally no problem, but I didn't have the time, nor the strength, to get it out from around the other boat.)

I hop in the jetskii, and think, "ok, I'll just push them in. Dad talks about that all the time."

Jetskii said 'no.' It wasn't starting.

While I'm desperately trying to make it start, I see that the boat in front of the jetskii is one of ours, so I hop in it and head out.


Well I go around the lake, and one of my coworkers zooms up by to tell me where they're at. Which I would have found in a few minutes anyway.

They were in the same spot I had gotten stranded in yesterday.

When I got back, I was informed that, as I was leaving, they called to demand to know where I was.

At least they were nice to my face.

Unfortunate names

Finally, this customer wasn't too sucky, just kinda smelly, but I feel I have to share his name: "Mr. Gonorrhea." No, not kidding. That is how he pronounces it. Apparently it's spelled differently. I'd encourage him to start saying it's pronounced differently too. What an unfortunate name.

One of my coworkers told me if he called back, to tell him that "P was too busy to talk to him."

So P was too busy for Gonorrhea.

We're such children. XD

[dalesys]

So P was too busy for Gonorrhea.

Good thing or you would have had a case of "It hurts when I P." ... and it ain't freleigh.

[sms001]

a case of "It hurts when I P." ... and it ain't freleigh.

And thanks for the excuse to dig out 'Joe's Garage.'

Glad you got some decent rest Coops. If the way they're gearing up now is any indicator of the weekend, you're gonna need it.