On a stormy day while working on Restless, the trailer loses its footing and starts to roll down the slight incline towards the sea. She breaks through the boat shops plywood doors, splintering them as she gains speed. Once outside in the open she heads towards the end of the dock. Ted and I try everything to stop the boat. When she gets to the end of the wharf, the trailer abruptly stops but Restless is catapulted into the water. She bucks slightly in the rough water as she enters deeper water before quickly sinking, due to the missing planks. Then I wake up.
This was an actual dream I had. I woke up thinking "oh god, something else we have to figure out." Thankfully, it was only a dream and when we went to the boat she was still safely inside on her trailer. There are several aspects of that dream that would make it unlikely for that scenario to unfold. Mainly that she sits on a level floor and I don't thing she could bust through the doors. The sinking on the other hand, that is something she does every spring when she is taking up!
The last few weeks have been very hard on me because there has not been a lot of visible progress. When I am working on a project and I set out to complete something in a day, or a few I usually get it done. I think it is because I am very stubborn and I work a lot alone. I have come to realize, no offence to Ted, that I prefer to work alone because I get to complete what I want when I want! Ted works on a completely different rationale. So things happen slower then I would like. But I guess as long as it gets done in the end it will be fine!
The visible progress. If I am painting it it means it is ready to go in soon!
This is another point where we disagree. I wanted to complete one plank at a time, but Ted started working on the second plank before we even had the first plank painted!
One of the things I decided to do to make our lives easier was to draw out a little road map. Below the empty hole I drew the ribs, showing where the old screw holes were and where there were screws/bolts that I had to grind off. You can't reuse the old screw holes. Also, next to the wooden frames are metal frames and in those metal frames are bolt holes. We needed to find those. That was a lot of me upside down in the bilge with a pencil while Ted held the new plank in place.
We could not just leave empty holes in the ribs. We were advised to fill them and the easiest way was with tooth picks!
We had an issue with the end of the new plank. Seems that it had somehow shrunk and that it was suddenly not connecting with the remaining bit of plank. So I glued a little piece of wood on the end and while it was drying I made a template that would tell us the shape and the length it needed to be. The bolt holes came in handy, I was able to use the hole in the frame which corresponded to the hole in the plank. It's the small things!
LOOK! There is no hole! Try and figure out which one is the new one. Hint: It is on the starboard side.
We needed a little extra help getting the end in and Ted came up with this brilliant idea. The only reason we were able to do this is because we removed the rudder this season. South Shore Marine is making us a new fiberglass one. We had patched the old one so much with epoxy last year we were surprised it held together. We are excited to see what it is like not to have a soggy rotten rudder trailing behind us.
What a pretty bottom.
Its in, its in, its in!!! There are beautiful bronze screws holding this brand new piece of Mahogany in place. We are still on the hunt for bronze bolts. We have a mish-mass of stainless bolts in place for now while we hunt for the real deal. We needed to put the bolts in to help pull the plank in, we could not rely on the screws alone.
