she floats!!!

The final push

hooray!!!

T minus 16 days

Even though we were both snotty and miserable this weekend, the windows are rebedded (Dawn is awesome), the rusty bits are sealed and covered with fiberglass and resin, the entire left side is shiny and beautiful, the horrible old name is gone, the inside seems to be staying dry, and Kyle the rigger dude quoted us half of what we expected to replace all the standing rigging. So that's pretty great.

I'll get pictures up one of these days.

more tomorrow.

weekend update

Oscar is doing well on anti-depressants. Apparently, depression makes one urinate. Who knew?

We spent both days at the boat this past weekend, and the rate of improvement is increasing - the rubrail is resealed, the keel is ground down and rust-stopped, the cockpit drain / beer cooler is repaired, and I sucked 15 gallons of nasty bilgewater from under the v-berth - even with a little rain and snow the boat was dry inside yesterday. If the unseasonably warm weather holds, we should be fairing the bottom this weekend and rebedding the portlights; maybe even the first coat of bottom paint will go on.

Lauch date is now March 18th - I'm a little nervous that we'll drop it off the crane or sink it to the bottom of the marina or break every piece of standing rigging when we try to step the mast.

deep breaths....

Also, Brion Toss' Compleat Rigger's Apprentice is heading my way (thank you Mr. Bezos). That might help with the spar anxiety.

Pictures coming soon.

the day of the valentine

Friday we had a bit of a scare with oscar - drinking 5 gallons of water in one 24 hour period is not normal for him. Off to the vet we went for bloodletting, and were sent home with instructions to monitor his blood glucose every few hours.

Dog-stabbing and potty breaks took precedence over boat projects for most of the weekend, plus with snow and wind on saturday we weren't particularly inspired to crawl around in frozen mud.

Sunday we went and looked at the boat for a few minutes, and took some pictures of the really grody dirty dank parts. Then we came home and I began to resurrect the tiller while Trish finished the salon table.

pictures are at the picasa site

interior detail - into the pit

the tiller and table are the last five or six shots in this one

February

New Pictures!

February

slowly.... slowly.... soon Trish won't be allowed to wear her hiking boots on board anymore.

also, the starter chicken has a new neighbor

mmmm - etchells.

the one next to us is a lovely shade of rustoleum brown, and named "Sure Beats Housework"

The starter chicken is feeling a little frumpy.

38 days and counting....

Crane day is now march 19th, which granted us 7 more days to get boat work done. That's nice.

Friday we picked up the last 6 yards of upholstery fabric for the cushions. Hooray for $2 a yard 70" width bolts of extra-durable orange nylon!

This Saturday was sunny and gorgeous, and we finally had worker bees show up, so we were able to get quite a bit done. The keel has had an initial grinding and a coat of sealant, the entire port side has been sanded once (see below re: small boys), and I pulled off the port winch. One would think that backing plates or at least nuts/washers/ bolts would be the appropriate way to attach items like winches, but no... the PO just used screws through the deck. eek! I also started stripping the busted standing rigging off of the mast, and we learned many interesting facts about 8-year-old boys:

- They are the perfect height to sand the bottom.
- Sanding blocks are entertaining for nearly 45 minutes.
- They think it's fun to get all goggled and masked up and then turn blue.
- They enjoy playing fort in the lazarette.
- They would like me to replace the tiller with a missile launcher.
- Three of them yarding on the tiller and making booming noises is an effective way to get it un-stuck. No more squeaking!

Dawn was amazing - she has earned the title of First Mate and all-around-awesome-mom.

When we got home it was raining.

Now it's snowing.

More pictures soon, I promise.