We are still here. Chugging through the process. We are at the stage of doing many small things. We coated the final aft beam and painted it. Budge is doing small necessary projects. I finished up the winch base and stored it. Sadness marred the week with the passing of Pat C. Dog, official shop yard dog, gentle soul and Ben's buddy. She was our walk companion asking for naught more than an ear scratch and an occasional treat. Rain cut the heart out of the week and the truck, Ol' Rusty, needed a new cat. Thanks for the comments from my two blog followers, Ken, ATW, currently recuperating from a barge trip and pub crawl, and Mike, for their comments. I try to keep a stiff upper lip and a stiff middle finger to see me through the adversity. I check Neil's blog regularly. I wish someone less chipper would post a blog so people will know what it's really like to build a boat...........wait............ that's me. Read on.
So that dream of building a boat eventually degrades into one of those dreams that somehow isn't quite right. You know, where you discover yourself in a place that you don't recognize and something is off.
And with things in this state of entropy, you press on hoping that maybe you'll wake up and you're in a place where everything is lovely (tra-la).
Where you can see wonders and have the time to appreciate them.
Where tiny things the diameter of a nickel can spark a scintilla of exuberance. But such enjoyments are fleeting and the boat calls your name ("Hey. Bozo, get back to work!")
Ben experimented with the polycarbonate to see if you can flame polish the edge. You cannot.
Budge cut out and edge sanded the two ports for the hulls. Bolts are on order so we can install them. We still have to drill the 52 holes in each one.
Budge vacuumed out the pod for the final steps (painting).
The mast beam, where things are not quite right morphed into that surrealistic dream where things are bizarre and puzzling. Do we know what's wrong? Nope. Probably several things involving drilling new holes, moving the motor well support over so they would clear the hull (major surgery) and repositioning the mast step. In short, we screwed up again but we don't know how or why. When building these boats. take the measurements directly off the boat, not the plans.
I cut some plugs.
And stuck them into holes. These boats are repairable. It doesn't mean that we have to do it every damn week!
we sanded and epoxy coated the exterior of the pod.
Primer coated the epoxy.
And applied two coats of paint.
And did the same to the aft beam.
Budge has a couple creative ideas about painting the holes. Me, the creativity is not there this week. You're lucky you got this blog.
The Music♫: Liam Clancy "The Parting Glass"
So here's to you, Pats, a life lived. In the end, it's all we get.
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