We’ve made slow but steady progress at the boat yard.  At least with shore power we’ve got electric heaters running at night to keep us warm.

I continue my attempts of boosting boat yard morale by sharing tasty home cooked meals.

We even helped our friends on Dulcinea paint the bottom of their boat with some super fancy copper coat. They had spent weeks stripping off all the layers of old bottom paint because the copper coat can only adhere to the cleared hull.

On paint day, each batch of copper paint they whip up cures hard in less than 20 minutes, so it was all hands on deck to apply the paint before it hardened. With the extra hands we finished that job in less than four hours, and spent the afternoon drinking well-earned mimosas and other delicious beverages. Our boat will not be getting such special treatment, although we do still need to paint the bottom. It’s on the list which is not shrinking as quickly as either of us would like. More often than not, when we cross one item off the list of boat work, we add another to-do item to it.

With Dulcinea’s help and spiffy sewing machine I now have new windshield panels that can be zipped into the bimini – not only will it provide us some shelter as we cruise south, but we’ll also be able to see through it at the same time! I could not boast as much about our old plastic windshield. I’m still holding out hope that we’ll be heading south soon.

Eric has finished hacking away the rotted wood core! Huzzah! Now we are starting to put the boat back together, which is a huge relief after spending so many days throwing trash bags full of the boat into the dumpster.

 

For this next stage we’re bringing in a professional to make sure SV Wild becomes sturdy and durable. Eric and our very handy boat yard staff Mark taped up the top layer still on the boat (in the above picture – just above Eric’s head – you can see some cracks that exposed the bottom of our bed frame). Eric and I cut the fiberglass that laid like large bolts of fabric, and then Eric and Mark rolled the fiberglass over their heads and cemented it to the boat with resin.

Once the bottom dries it’ll be super hard, and then we’ll add the foam core to replace the rotted wood. And then, and then. There are many more steps to go, but at least we’re making progress.

Eric’s fortune cookie this week gave us a real zing:

“Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.”

Wish us luck. There’s still a lot to do, and Winter is barreling at us with a fury.

 

To remind myself of warmer times, here’s a backdated blog post from February – Paddle Boards and Pizzas 

• I even managed to throw together a couple of short video clips for this post, check it out!