I don't like planning. The reason being that, what ever plans I make, I can guaranty it is the one thing that will not happen. Life is full of surprises, good and bad.

Tuesday night I got a phone call from my sister: my mom had an accident. A horse fell on her as they were trying to load the not so collaborative animal in a trailer. My mom has two broken legs and has been in the hospital since.

Ouch, I have been neglecting the blog again. Much has happen and now I just have to much to tell...all at once. I'm making my blogging difficult by always putting it back to later. Ok, I will not be able to catch up all in one post so, I'll take the pressure off, and try to limit myself to some short little reports over the next few days.

 

The problem about posting after a long web absence is:where to start? I should start with where have we been? Still here. What have we been doing? Hibernating should be the right word. Strangely this winter has been the mildest my lifetime has known here in eastern Canada. Had the sandblasting been completed it would of been a great winter to work on the boats interior. Unfortunately more blasting and painting has to be done before moving on, so I didn't do much on the boat this winter. As it turned out, a boat building break has been pretty beneficial for the boat building motivation: I know feel like a race horse at the start line again.

Not much progress on the boat these past couple weeks, but I figured I should still check in on the blogging.

As planned, Mark, Marley and I went for a road trip to Saguenay, Quebec, where Marley and I competed at the sled dog dryland world championship. We were away for five days, leaving the cats behind to hold the fort.

So? How went the race? I'd say that if I was there for pain, I'm a winner; if I was there for fun I'm a champion; if I was there for a podium....well I have a lot more work ahead of me. To resume: we had a great time with a good bunch of friends, the trails where challenging (fun) and the Europeans are high level competitors...I'm more of a go happy racer. It certainly was a very exiting way to start the dogging season.

This evening, I'm quite cozy on front of the wood stove with Mack-a-pousse purring on my lap, Murphy is laying on front of the fire and Marley curled on her couch. It's feeling wintery in here tonight; it has also been feeling wintery outside lately.

 

So I said it, I'm ready to be done with the boat building and get sailing. Unfortunately, we're not there yet and as I am not keen on giving up we have only one way to go and that's forward. So be it.

 

What a long week... Last Saturday we were starting the sandblasting and painting under the deck of the main compartment, nine days later I am typing this from Brittany, I am in Nantes airport boarding room on my way back to Canada. Meanwhile so much has happened, I feel like a month has gone by...I am exhausted...physically, mentally and emotionally.

 

 

We are finally done painting our bow section..oouff...but that's only a little part of the whole, we have to keep going. We are sandblasting and painting the boat in parts, this was a first step of many. Not having a real shelter over the hull, we decides not to blast anymore than we can reasonably do in a day, about 500sqft per go on the interior. It does split fairly well. We just did our bow section, will next move on to the under deck of the main section, than the inside of the sides of the hull and finally the bottom plates and bilge. That will be it for this fall, it will allow us to insulate our living accommodations and hopefully get working on woodwork this winter. The aft section (engine room, navigation and storage) still needs metal work and only be blasted next year. The deck and topsides will be done when all the interior is finished and we are ready for the outside woodwork. The hull will be blasted when the boat is ready to be launched, it will be the last step of a long journey.

The sandblasting of the bow was not easy. To start with, it's a small volume and the air saturates quickly with sand; then, over the tank I did quite have standing room, meanwhile the rest of it is really high. I will always find something to complain about when it comes to sandblasting but believe (hope) the rest of it will be much easier...well, maybe not the stern, that will be a piece of hell.

 

 The blasting of the bow started in our gigantic integral sewage tank. That started on Thursday the 27th of August. It seemed to start well, but we soon noticed trouble with the sand regulation. I say noticed but should say suspected because, working in a tight volume, it's rather hard to judge the amount of sand coming out of the hose. After much head scratching, the regulator finally seized, bringing a clear answer as why we where having so much trouble adjusting the flow of abrasive. What a drag, I was just not quite done the tank but we really wanted it finished so we could at least seal it to blast the rest of the section.Why can't things just go smooth, oh well, bite the bullet and get it done...we finished with the little detailing blast pot, at least it worked.
It ended up being a bit of a rush but got everything cleaned, painted and covered up before dew o'clock.

 

 

 

 

It's simply too hot to do anything today so I must as well write some more. I realized I didn't make any mention of how we prepared the boat for the sand blasting and painting phase. Our experience sandblasting the previous boat had been far from a good experience and it was clear, right from the designing stage, that we were going to do everything possible to make the sandblasting of this boat easier.
What had made the sandblasting of the previous boat so difficult?