Wired Up, Fired Up, Mired Down And Beware Of Magic

 Everyone that doesn't build things thinks that such endeavors are magic. Wave your wand and Poof, there's a boat. ​We all start out thinking that we'll finish in a couple years. We will just mix some epoxy and voila (viola?) it will be done. Then you slide into the dark side. There are hundreds of problem solving decisions to make. Pieces and parts to be researched and purchased. When asked what was the most expensive part of the boat, Budge said that each aspect was about the same: wood, epoxy, electrical system, all around the same amount of money (lots). I certainly can vouch for that. 

There are periods of time where you flounder through the morass. never contemplating whether you're pursuing a dream or trapped in the nightmare. You wallow on, only  concentrating on the next step.

So we are, for the most part, done. The parts pipeline has us mired down, but stuff should be in soon. The logistics of pulling it all together, individual's schedule, equipment, is a current entanglement. I made a bunch of inquiries and keep finding dead ends, I'll keep looking.

Budge worked on the stainless protection on the pod top. These 1" (25 milliliters in metric) diameter will protect the solar panels when lowering the sails and the gaff goes "boom" (heh, heh................... gaff? boom?). Oh, never mind....

Budge spent about a leisurely day making the standing rigging. He swaged all the shrouds using our new swaging tool. It went so smoothly, he developed a swager swagger. I posted a video (it's bad). The tool keeps the cable separated to allow for a bit of a gap. He had each pair of shrouds marked on the platform, Four pairs total plus the bridles and forestay.

Budge finished up wiring the masts. 

I tiled the galley. This took a few days and made a mess that I have to clean up. I sent in Grin and Bear It, the boater kidz, in with a vacuum cleaner.

A trip to the big city and a Chinese Buffet produced the purchase of a new generator. I went to  the cheap store and bought this Predator 2000 generator ( the red one) for about half of the price of Budge's Yamaha 2000 watt generator (the blue one), Is it better? Only time will tell who's the fool. I ran mine for a few hours to break it in. These things demand fuel stabilizer.

Budge made a plate to hold the rings that change the direction of the halyard lines, We have adapted these rings to  a few instances: halyard, steering contraptions.

Budge cut the pod top window. I spent hundreds and hundreds on screws and bolts and still had to buy a few more to screw this in. We will leave the protective paper on until we install the top.

The Music♫: Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds "The Ship Song"

Don't sail your ship around me.