No paint til next Tuesday…15, 30, 45, and 5=?
The repair is dry, faired, sanded, primed…all there is left to do is slap on another coat of anti-fouling paint on the hull, replace the prop zinc, re-seal the garboard drain plug, and mark and splice and stow the heap of new anchor chain! Hooray! Pedal pedal pedal to town, fuzzy with an oncoming headcold…a […]
Option A, B or C?
In an effort to make Swell watertight in the easiest way possible, Laurent helped me re-glass the area around the shaft log (Option A) after I’d ground, chiseled, sanded, heat-gunned and acetoned the holes in the tube and the bad area of glass as best possible. Option B would entail replacing the entire bronze tube […]
Creepy French Kissers
It’s as if I never left the boatyard: Taputu’s still as helpful as ever, midday lunches with the crew, blazing mid-summer heat, up and down the ladder till my feet ache, and how could I forget: the obligatory French kiss-kiss cheek greetings. The boatyard seems like a rather cruel place to uphold this greeting ritual, […]
Grime Under My Nails Again
Nov 15: My eyes open early and I’m full of energy to get this ship back in order. I’ve got a full a full day before everybody’s back at work, so I dig in. Haul the cushions and pillows out into the sun, commence 9 loads of laundry (the rats peed and pooped on EVERYTHING), […]
Home Sweet Home?
The sky is fading orange in the west as I wander about the deserted boatyard to find a ladder and haul it over to Swell. I struggle to set it vertical and slowly mount the 10 rungs up to the deck. All looks as it did when I left…oh so good to be home! I […]
A Sprint to the Present
Swell is once again bobbing happily in the Pacific for now, only at the boatyard marina, but piece by piece and day by day Swell comes together. Under time pressure from the Dear & Yonder filmmakers to be ready for some action in the next few weeks, I have been busting my tail to get […]
