Thirty-two years ago

While we work on day by day, getting the Black Pearl ready for re-launch, it is fun to look at old photos. This shot from inside the growing hull, taken in 1979 or thereabouts, shows John doing the original welding of interior frames.

Twenty years ago....

Here we were, sailing on the Neuse esturary

The lathe is fixed

It only took John a day to repair his lathe! What a hero! He just took it apart peacefully, and put it back together again happily, and no more clunka-clunka.

We have been back at work putting an interior plywood cladding all over, trying to make noticeable  progress before Uncle George arrives on Valentine's Day to lend his support. I've blown the USB port on my computer, so I now need a different approach to uploading my pictures of all this progress, but any day now!

Having a gear loose

I took this picture this morning, and it looks like progress to me: almost a place to live aboard! But as usual, unexpected impediments to progress arise. We were planning to put plywood cladding on to-day. Last night John set to work  to machine a thread on a piece of pipe for extending the sink drain. Suddenly there was a loud noise: cruncha cruncha! 

It could be the end of the lathe he bought second-hand from Otto Bruder's machine shop in Ottawa in 1974. It has lasted almost as long as our family's mythical toaster. Today he is investigating  whether or not the cruncha cruncha was terminal: so far he has found a loose gear