How my life has changed in the course of a week.

It is amazing how your life can change in a matter of days and your view on life can change and your priorities  shift. 

This time, last week I had a quiet Saturday after a busy week at work doing a number of jobs on my clients boats over the course of the week and was looking forward to a quiet weekend at home with the family and planning our next trip up to Chance to continue with her restoration.  Over the month or so my family with the help of my brother John had been getting on well with dismantling the furniture on the inside of Chance. Having cleaned much of the aft cabin and forecabin back to the hull  apart from the main bulkheads between the cabins which keep Chance in her correct shape. 

Much of the galley area had also been removed and so had much of the aft heads and the engineering room. Also 3/4 of the internal pig iron ballast had been removed at this point in time. 

This left just the remains of the locker in the galley area and the small amount cabinet work in the aft heads to remove then make a start on the  main saloon. This would leave the cockpit to do. This being the biggest challenge, the removal of the engines and the tankage in the engine compartment under the wheelhouse floor. 

Then life took a curve ball. Last Sunday night life was turned upside down in a way I did not see coming.  I felt a little under the weather thinking it was just that I had push myself a bit during the previous week. Little did I know that the next few hours that I was going to go into my local area general hospital for emergency surgery  for a strangulated hernia.    Because of my age and other health issues the surgeon laid it out on the line. If I do not operate on you now in the next few hours you will die as you will die of blood poisoning. However, because of you underlaying heath issues you have a 50/50 chance of coming through the surgery. 

So I took the way that gave me the only option to  survive. Thankfully I am still here to be writing this blog to you my patrons. It is good to be alive and still in the game, however with a different view on life and work  in general. 

In the weeks to come it is going to be a time of re-evaluating life's priorities and offloading the rubbish around ones self's especially at work and making plans for the future. 

The main plan is to clear as much of the work in my yard as possible by employing boat builders to get the jobs in hand down to a   manageable amount so that when I am back on my feet I can do more supervisor work until I can get back to a place where I feel able to get back to work. This is a the plan for my future. 

The restoration of  Chance will be put on hold for a couple of months while I sort out my  yard and workshop so that there is room for the boat to be back here in Essex. 

So over the next few weeks there is going to be a lot of planning on how to get the ball rolling and get get on my feet and get my yard up and running again.