With a blue winter sky calling us forward we arrived at the workshop keen for some action. Today we intended to take the first physical steps towards building the boat. Coffees in hand (skinny flat white for me and long mach 3/4 topped up for Chris) we perused the site and then got down to the dirty business of cleaning up the old 20 foot container that will become our office and workshop.
Now, given that we can look directly into the glistening waters of the Indian Ocean from the container, I’m going to say that we’re not hard done by. Indeed, the irony of working in shirtsleeves on a beautiful 18*C (64.5*F) mid-winter day in order to prepare for an Alaskan jaunt wasn’t lost on us.
Once the container was cleaned and swept out we switched targets to the jigsaw puzzle of a boat. First we laid out the hull pieces as it’ll go together and then set about sanding and dry fitting each piece. The pieces had been cut in a CNC lathe in Tasmania before being shipped to us over 4,000kms away in Perth. What we wanted to do was make sure each piece fitted snuggly together before we went about making up a tub of glue.
Truth be told, it was Chris who lead this level of detail. I’m insanely lazy and would’ve just bashed the pieces together with a rubber mallet on the day.
And that was the day. Each piece had its burs sanded down and matched to its life partner. We’ll get to the gluing on Day 3. Meanwhile the boat was left in a Klingon starship formation to impress any passing dignitary.
