Cotton Eyed Joe

Have you ever danced the Cotton Eyed Joe?  That is the dance where groups of 3 to 5 people (or more) lock arms at the elbows, forming a line and then dance round in a circle.  The flow of the dance starts forward but then at one point you reverse and are literally moving backwards.  Then the flow reverses and you are dancing forward again.  This happens several times throughout the song.  It is tough to tell if you make any forward progress or not but generally by the end of the song there has been some forward progress gained.

Progress on boat chores can be much like dancing the Cotton Eyed Joe...some forward and then some backward.  Or to use another popular phrase....one step forward and two back.  OR at other times, two steps forward and one back.  I guess it's sort of like the tide  - up and down.  

Example- 

Dinghy patched and painted, New rigging - dancing forward

Freezer suddenly not working - dancing backward

Tom went to store some items in the cockpit locker and immediately knew something wasn't right.  He discovered the freezer not working and the control unit smoking.  YES, smoking!  Seems the pump has give out.  Ugh!  Dancing backward.