Saturday, March 1, 2014

I Was Told There Would Be Beaches And Sunsets.

I never wanted to write a refit blog. What I wanted was a travel blog. A place to write about all the amazing places we were seeing. A place to keep all of those happy memories intact so that we could look back over them in years to come and remember where we had been. The colossal mistakes I made in executing this plan was A: buying a boat to travel on and B: buying a boat with my darling, perfectionist, Type A engineer Captain. Until this fall, a refit blog it is. Le sigh.

Work continues on the front cabin. If you recall, this wasn't going to be on our to do list as we hired a shipwright to do the work. The shipwright was a very charming, affable guy who unfortunately did not possess the necessary skill needed to fit out the cabin to our standards (granted, we KNOW we are picky) nor did he seem interested in doing things in a cost effective manner. Lesson learned. If you want something done right, have Mark do it. Just try not to look too closely at the calendar.

Mark has been finishing out the cabinetry in the front cabin. We had seen a couple of sisterships who removed the cramped, front head to open up the cabin but it seems no one else took the time to or spent the money to improve the functionality by increasing the storage and providing a secure place to sit while underway. We needed more storage, a place to sit to while getting dressed and most of all, a beautiful finish. We are well on our way. The cabinetry work is just about done and soon, very soon it will be time to insulate the cabin roof and install the headliner. Then it will be my turn to have a go at the soft goods to turn the cabin into something worthy of a couple who has lavished care, love, blood, sweat and a whole lot of tears on a little boat.

When you are working with teak, there is a level of anxiety that comes anytime you fire up a power tool or take a planer in hand that you just do not get when working with another wood. Teak is incredibly expensive, a diminishing resource and can behave in unexpected ways. Given this, you can maybe understand why Mark was so very chuffed to have perfectly cut, routed and shaped this piece of molding-


I know, I know. It's a piece of wood and not a sunset on a beach. Sometimes, you have to take the happy where you find it. We were similarly excited about...wood when Mark managed to nail the construction of the fiddle around shelf here.


Sitting on the work bench, it doesn't look like much but once you see it all coming together...



Then you start to think, maybe a refit blog isn't quite so bad after all. Beaches and sunsets are beautiful but you know what? My front cabin is starting to be pretty darned beautiful too.

6 comments:

  1. Sounds like there is possibly a light at the end of the tunnel!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. OOH Lovely! Things are really coming along and that cabin is going to be lovely. Sunsets and beaches on their way, for sure. I'm totally enjoying Scotland, except for the driving. Terrifying

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice job on the trim piece!

    ReplyDelete
  4. You do the refit blog to remind you in the travel blog as you are attempting to form thoughts in a haze of sun, sand and "the fog of rum" of all the hard work you put in at the front end.

    You are most fortunate to have a husband and boat partner with this bounty of skills. I can build a few things out of wood, but I don't have the talent or patience to make it pretty: I'd rather mold it in FG.

    Also, nobody needs two heads on a 40-footer. That's twice the number of plumbing problems!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very very nice!!! Seriously, Beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gorgeous gorgeous woodworking.... sunsets are okay too. :) But that brightwork gleam makes me happy too. And you can enjoy it in cloudy weather too!

    ReplyDelete