WARNING: This is a big post with lots of photos!

Ruth here:

“First and fore most I need to apologize for the disappearing act. We are alive and the boat is well. This winter has been ruff. It has basically not stopped snowing since my last post 2 months ago. The snow transitions between light and dumping and the sky changes from a lovely gray hue to a blinding white. All days look the same. I’ve never seen negative temperatures but now am well aquatinted with the lack of feeling in my fingers, toes, and nose.

That’s enough complaining about the cold……. I could write an epic about my feelings on this winter

2 months ago Garrett and I had a very tough call to debate. Which led to an agreement which led to a saw hacking through the deck. Let me explain…

“I’ve been thinking…”

Garrett expressed to Ruth.

Inside Ruth’s mind an initial explosion of fear and frustration sets off.

“Ok,” (the only word that escapes)

Garrett continues,

“I’m not sure about the cabin houses. I’m worried that the interior is going to be too small. I might regret compromising on interior space in order to have a huge working deck. I just don’t think it’s going to give us what we really want. The ability to have crew aboard and be comfortable down below just doesn’t seem realistic.”

Ruth agreed with all these points and began thinking herself.

The table fell quite as both parties thought.

“How can we fix this?”

“How can we still make this boat work?”

“Is not changing this now going to lead to us selling Rediviva like her 6 predecessors?”

“Did we make a mistake?”

“What can be done?”

As the boat sat, her layout on deck made a very workable foredeck, huge side decks, massive flush cockpit, and two cabin houses leaving a two foot gap around the main mast where the houses were separated. Down below was cozy but only for a couple. Everything being close together but still a considerable galley, relatively spacious salon seating, manageable main bunk, no shower but room for a plumbed head tucked under the deck between the split cabin houses. Surprisingly in our relationship I, the female, am less in need of space. I feel I could have been happy with this configuration. I also agree that our wants with this boat was to be able to have crew. To have multiple people aboard, to travel with us, to share the experience, and to be comfortable. That just wasn’t going to be possible the way things were. Above all else, I know Garrett. If he is telling me now that he has doubts than this is not the first time he’s thought about it nor will it stop.

It may be a thing I regret, once the boat is completed, that I wasn’t present for the 2 weeks it took to make the change. The change that was needed meant deconstructing months of work and taking a saw to progress we had made. No matter how I tried to push myself into the boat shed I couldn’t. This also means no pictures or video footage.

However, props to Garrett who had the cojones to see what he needed to do and then do it! After it was all said and done Garrett felt so relieved.

“It actually wasn’t as difficult as it would seem. Since the deck was already installed all I had to do was figure out how I wanted to widen the cabin and trace it out. I decided that the best way to solve the issue of space was to make the split cabin, a traditional layout, into one big cabin house, which is more common to see these days. The forward wall remained the same but the side walls were pushed out 8 inches. Giving us 16in side decks versus 24 inches. The aft wall was extended back a station (2 feet) removing only one deck beam. Seeing the new cabin cut out was exciting because the interior space it gave was impressive and what I thought would be a compromise on a workable deck really wasn’t much of a sacrifice.”

Now with the new cabin walls up we are ready for bulkheads! We are back in the game and ready to kick the rest of this winter’s butt. We purchased 6 sheets of 3/4in plywood to start. Here are some concept photos of how we, as of this very moment, plan to arrange the interior:

16 in side decks. still plenty of walkable space.    coming down the companion way. galley to port quarter cabin. starboard of companion way 

Looking aft from v-berth. Garrett near galley. wrap around salon seating to port and a love-couch across on starboard with a half bulkhead to separate from pilot berth further forward.

Pilot berth on starboard. 6’3” long. Elliptical opening with curtain most likely (left)

Head across from pilot berth on port side (below)

and lastly one giant v-berth! still head room 2feet in

Needless to say we also needed to get away!

Some how we managed to still get a decent amount of work done regardless of how nasty the weather has been. For close to 2 years we’ve been pushing our bodies and exhausting our brains. We’ve not had much of a life beyond the dirt the boat rests on. Dirt and snow; two things we knew little about now consume our world. It was about time we go SAILING! Oh, yeah this is why we are doing this! Oh, yeah boats eventually go in the water! Oh, yeah this is what it’s all for, to get back to the ocean!

Our buddy bought a Cascade 27 a month ago in Seattle and hasn’t stopped sailing her since. It was time we joined him. What was talked about was a day sail that turned into 4 days. A night on a pirated mooring, one night anchoring under sail, and another night spent tucked into a slip waiting out a gale. We sailed, we drifted, and we flew! Tested out the reefing system, used every sail, preformed a man-over-board drill to rescue a blue frisbee, and discovered she heaves-to like a beast. God it feels good! Thank you Kyle! We remember now.”