Progress Update: November 21st

(Mary cleaning lockers on the upper deck)

The boat has been moved to a new location about 30 miles from our previous spot. Much cheaper rent with 40amp power and water included. Very grateful!

Now that its cooler, the upper deck lockers, cushions and covers are getting a good cleaning. These had not been touched since the fire due to time constraints when we first started working on the boat and were not yet living aboard. And due to lots of wasps nests, we had to wait till summer was over. And being in Louisiana, that meant it was hot up to about 8 days ago. 

Eric is making progress on the pocket door to the work shop and the last of the large hallway closets has been painted. He is still doing side work so we can accumulate funds for our personal support over the next year. He should be wrapping it up in a while and will then be working full-time again on the boat. 

Mary prepping the hallway closet

The closet needing a bit more cleaning before we can paint.

The pocket door ready for inner panels

 Eric doing temporary install of the pocket door

Varnishing the insert for the top inner panel of the pocket door

 

The table area on the upper deck

 Smoke and soot residue on the inside 

of the lockers on the upper deck. 

Upper deck covers were all salvageable and just needed a good scrubbing. 

 These cushions will be getting scrubbed in a few days and behind them under the cover is the last area on the upper deck needing to be cleaned from the fire.

The old name and hailing port came off easily with a good scraper and alcohol cleanup for the residue. 

 The termites made a resurgence 

but it looks like we stopped them again. 

Hopefully for good this time! 

Progress Update: October 28th

 'Loading the skiff'

DJ has been working on a project in North Carolina all summer and hopefully will be wrapping it up and back to the ship soon. He has been back a few times and this trip we made excellent progress with some very heavy lifting. 
We removed the 400 lb granite top table that was on the back deck and this made room for the tools that have been stored in the utility trailer.

We are really liking that knuckle boom crane! I mean, really really liking. Our backs are liking it as well.

Bandsaw base and motor

A large router table

Joiner and base

Table saw and base

Bandsaw

Our back deck now looks like a workshop like the rest of the boat!

The granite table which was sold to a new home.

Penny was enjoying the empty space with the table gone but that didn't last long!

Didn't take long to put things to work. 
Ripping guides for a new pocket door.

Thanks to Gary Blanton for the donation of the dado set and some extra blades. Didn't take long to put them to work!

The start of the pocket door leading into the shop. Space is very narrow through here so a normal hinged door would impinge on the little space there is.

Progress Update: Oct. 9th

The first wood shop storage cabinets are painted and ready for use. Amazing what can be accomplished with scrap wood from other projects!

Eric has taken a break from building cabinets to complete some other projects. The forward head walls have been prepped and primed and the first primer coat is on the shower stall. The primer has to set a week before we can paint in order for it to cure properly and accept the epoxy paint we will top coat with. There is one section or wall to be cut out and replaced to improve the way storage is utilized. It sure looks and smells much better in there now!

Next he will be building a sliding door for the work shop and then go back to cabinets. The section next to the doorway to the shop has been partially torn out, sanded and painted with Kilz. The door will slide along the wall in this area. The rest will be rebuilt into storage cubbies.

 The last of the scrap plywood cabinets built. More to follow!

Eric prepping the forward head walls.

 Getting ready to prime the shower

 

Shower (before)

 Shower (primer coat)

A really nasty grinding prep and sanding job!

This is the area that held the A/C for the lower cabins, head and laundry room. We have changed the AC unit locations.

The sliding door will be built here.

Primer coat

 

 Lots of fresh cut cleat stock for the

next round of work shop cabinets.

Progress Update: Sept. 26th

In spite of a heart attack and slow healing shoulder wound, progress is being made!






 Upper storage cabinets in forward shop. Still need paint and then snap on canvas covers.

Support collar for the drill press and top step for the forward emergency escape hatch. The drill press is also bolted to the deck, don't want it coming loose at sea.

Eric laying up patterns for the first cabinet. Each piece is odd angles and some curves because of hull shape.

 Eric building the first cabinet

Patterns for every piece! Very time-consuming process but well worth it for the end result.

 The hallway looks wonderful with the new FRP panels!

Eric working on the walls in the lower head. He had to quit after a bit, his shoulder is giving him a lot of trouble while its healing. He's getting a lot of rest but the idleness is driving him crazy. He's not very happy with interruptions in working on projects.

Progress Report: August 27th

On July 28th, Eric was rudely interrupted by a heart attack. He received two stents. The main artery to his heart was 99% blocked. He's recovering now and getting much better! 
Progress has resumed although Eric is working on a small side job to help pay some of our personal bills so he is split between the two jobs for a short time. 

( Eric prepping for the FRP panels)

The shop overhead is finished! The black area is the emergency hatch.

The top outer 1/4 section of the door frame for the lower head was too badly burned and could not be salvaged. Eric made new pieces and they look perfect! 

The two remaining door frames in the hallway were sanded, primed and painted before prepping the walls for FRP panels.

Mary cleaning up after the over-all hallway sanding. 

Our beautiful new panels!!

Right side of the hallway. The left side still needs to be done.

Stopping an annoying leak in the aft cabin we recently painted.

Progress Update: July 24th

(Eric painting large overhead panel)

The last two weeks Eric has been splitting his time between the ship and a temporary marine service job. We made slow progress with on-board projects but progress non the less. The overhead in the shop has the perimeter finished, one large panel installed and another large panel set to go up Monday. 
The crew head is spackled and ready for sanding and the hallway walls are ready to be covered. We will be using textured FRP sheets for the hallway which is similar to fiberglass shower-board. 

Overhead perimeter panels

First large panel installed

The crew head

 Fiberglass station

Adhesives and Putty station

 

 Painting station

Link to past Progress Reports

Island Missions Support, Inc.

The above link contains all previous posts with progress reports and photos from 7/7/14 - 8/27/16

Due to a computer failure in which all data was lost, access to our missions blog has been redirected by Blogger to this former blog.  All future postings will be written here.