Alright! Here we go. Time to get back to work. Rediviva has her spot in the working yard. In this leg of the marathon, Garrett and I have found it hard to keep going. This truly has been the biggest and longest project of our life. It feels like we have to choose everyday to move forward. I’m going to be honest, we’ve talked about taking a break, a step back. Garrett has given Rediviva his all. His body, his mind, his energy, his love and hate. I can see why a lot of boat builds end here. I used to think, ‘how could you give up now? when you’re so close?’ I now understand because there’s not much left. I also think this is a natural path for a journey such as this. I believe this doubt is part of the struggle it takes. We thought about moving the boat back to the storage yard, we talked about it at length. Then one day, when Garrett had planned on speaking with the office, he saw the boat. He saw Rediviva and had this overwhelming feeling, ‘I’m not done. Not yet.’

I am so proud of this man. The words in my heart can’t seem to find their way out. We’ve managed to turn the page, together. Let’s continue the story. This week was full as Garrett dug out the caulking cotton, mallet, and irons. He completed the entire starboard side!

Instead of looking at what’s left to complete Rediviva we’ve narrowed the scope. What do we need to do to launch the boat? This makes the project seem more attainable. A smaller portion to handle. Get the boat to the water, then make her livable, and then make her sail! Trick is to not think too heavily on what comes after the task at hand.

 Task one: Caulk the boat. This entails filling the seams above the chine, the stem and transom, the chine itself, and the rabbet with cotton then priming those seams and finally coming over with seam compound. Task two: Paint the boat. Three: finish the rudder and its fittings. Four: install prop shaft and prop. Five: throw her in the water!

With the majority of task 1 complete the whole thing feels slightly less daunting. I think once we move onto task two and get to paint her we’ll feel closer to the water. Doing the cotton is an important part to unifying the boat as a single piece, no longer just a bundle of timber fastened and glued together. We primed the stuffed seams and are ready to get our first quart of seam compound.

Even Swab’s back in the swing of yard-life:

While I fill the starboard seams with compound Garrett will be moving onto the port side. We got the interior of the boat cleaned out (during the move Rediviva became more of a U-Haul than a boat) so now you can see what a difference caulking the seams makes. The port side has so much light shining through where as the starboard side with fresh cotton is solid.

Port

Starboard

Port

Starboard

Port

Starboard

We’ve come so far and still have so much to do. Getting some work done feels really good. Rediviva’s traveled a long ways and it’s not her fault but there’s a lot of emotions tied into her bones that are hard to escape from feeling every time we lay our hands on her. We’re focusing on healing the pain it’s taken to get where we are today. The wisdom from others has been heard and we’re lightening up on ourselves and remembering to take time for us. Thank you to all that have encouraged us. We want to see this thing to the end. Finish what we started. I can’t wait to live here!

Aloha!

I just got a wonderful email from Fiona with Young&Salty and she’s written a lovely article about our little boat farm in the woods. We spoke with her via Skype months ago and she is just as sweet as her writing. Please check out what she had to say about our project as well as the numerous other articles she writes!

http://youngandsalty.com/building-a-boat/

A big shout out to Finding Simon who included us on his top 15 under 15,000 subscriber YouTube channels!

He has just joined this crazy boat life and bought a 47 ft 1979 Wharram catamaran in need of love! He’s included a few other awesome channels and not all are sailing channels. I love the small YouTube community of people making a living supporting each other. That in mind another channel I think all of you would love and support is:

Leo is restoring this massive 1910 Gaff Cutter solo with a great sense of humor. I’m in awe of his labor and workshop. Talking with these two guys has been a real treat. I look forward to all their success. Cheers to “young people doing shit” as a follower recently wrote. I love my job!

~~Episode 25~~

https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-25-15139320?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=postshare

With the mizzen mast finished it was time to move onto the main

Trimming down to 3.5in diameter

Measuring 40ft

Perfect

Cutting the excess off the base

Garrett trimmed off the top then measured out the 40 feet needed and cut the excess off from the base. As it stands, Rediviva will be gaff rigged on both the main and the mizzen. Both will be keel stepped and the heights for both masts were described in the plans from George Beuhler. These trees have come a long way from the forest (Episode 14) we couldn’t be happier how they’ve seasoned and held up during the 700 mile trip south. Don’t worry the checks on the sides are normal and do not compromise their strength. I like how one sailor put it into perspective: checks are like the wrinkles on my face; character.

Top of the Main

Base of the Main

Let the manicure begin

Garrett started us off by using the electric planner smoothing down all the tiny knots along the length

I followed behind him with the belt sander to ruffly fare all the planner cuts and grooves.

Garrett then followed behind me to more finely sand with the orbital.

After a short beer and some fresh strawberries we flipped the mast over and moved onto the back side. Once we plane, sand, and repeat the main will be ready to join the mizzen in her first coat of teak oil. We’ll finish both with “boat soup” a special concoction of a few things. Primarily linseed oil/teak oil, pine tar, and varnish typically a lot depends on what’s in the locker. Don’t worry I’ll do a separate soup post when we get there. Every sailer has their special sauce.

All for now!

Cheers 🙂

https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-24-14911631?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=postshare

Thank you so much everyone!

Down the road she went

and two days later appeared in Napa on Friday morning

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then the yard brought on the Travel Lift!

The straps were wrapped around her belly and slowly took her 20,000 pounds off the trailer

It wasn’t until the boat was in the slings that Garrett could breathe easy. We’d made it out of the woods. The yard had to break for lunch which gave us time to do the same. Burritos and beer. Listening to the chirp of swallows and the clang of rigging. Welcoming sounds. It’s been 3 years since we’ve lived near water. Rediviva stands tall next to her fellow ships.

We were joined by some familiar faces and some new ones. My mom broke away from work to greet Rediviva at the gate while my dad caught her at an intersection on the way to the boatyard (video will be up for our Patrons)

The engine started and carried her to her new resting place. Awaiting a spot in the “Working” yard. We’re guessing we’ll sit in the storage yard for about a month. Until then we’ll kill time and take it easy working only on the masts and rudder outside the yard.

and it gets even better! They were able to squeeze us in right next to our buddy Geoff’s Cape George which he’s stored here while he’s working up in Alaska. We hope to see him next month

The calm and quite started to seep in as the stands were secured, the straps rolled up and the travel lift backed away. 3rd in on the left she can relax knowing she’ll be safe through the season.

That-a-girl

Garrett’s brother, Reid, stuck around for the whole day and helped us crack our first few beers on deck under the palm tree landscape.

For those of you who’d like to know where exactly we are:

We and the Boat are OK

This morning’s view from our window. A little passed a week ago we were delayed transporting the boat for almost 50,000 acres were ablaze in the hills of Oregon, closing the interstate highway. Last night 10 independent fires began burning all around us. Napa Valley, where we moved the boat for safe keeping, had one of the biggest next to the other monster raging in Santa Rosa a mere 40 miles away. Today the hills smolder across the valley from my parents home.

Tonight we’re on edge knowing 20,000 have already been evacuated and seeing more devastation encroaching 5 miles away.

 I’ll try to keep you informed if anything changes for our situation. Please keep your thoughts positive for those that aren’t so lucky this evening.

Isn’t life a trip; how one morning you can wake up in one place and the next be almost 700 miles south. How that first morning you were in a spot that seemed inescapable, like you’d never get out of there, then 24 hours later you’ve transported someplace familiar yet fresh. Wednesday awoke with firs and pines and Thursday, practically the exact opposite, gave rise to hay fields and palm trees.

Snowden/Acme Rd.

Napa Valley Boatyard

6 a.m. “Beep… Beep… Beep… Click.” The sound of shuffling feet towards the bathroom and a hand hunting for her glasses on the nightstand fill the darkness. The last time she’ll touch that nightstand, the last time he’ll shuffle his feet on that floor.

Moving day has begun.

The sun meets us at the property. Slowly heating the overnight dew on the ground, in the trees, and off the boat. Like the steam rising from my coffee cup. Weeks of packing, years of building, countless hours of waiting all lead to this moment. The sound of a powerful engine chugging up Snowden road.

A smile fills Garrett’s face. It’s here.

David, with Associated Boat Transport, hands Garrett a radio and armed with a plan he backs up the colossal truck down towards Rediviva. Be it nerves or coffee our hands shake with excitement… no eagerness… no suspense. I need a better word! One to sum up everything; a word to describe the indescribable. Passion:

 I’ll take it, something big is happening and neither of us can wrap our mortal heads around it.

So, how does the hydraulic truck work?:

First off it’s really cool! Second, it’s really the trailer its self that’s hydraulic. With air-bag suspension and hydraulic arms that release the weight off our stands and hold her in place during transport. Having built the boat on a “slight” hill we ended up using the arms quite a bit. This process really made Garrett’s dreads stand on end.

This is one of the three hydraulic arms on either side of the trailer

Garrett and David discussing the best “game plan”

 The trailer can lower practically down to the dirt. This was really useful because as you can see the aft end of the keel is way higher than the bow (so that the boat was level while building) but she couldn’t very well sit on the trailer with her tail sticking up like that now could she….

On the sides of the trailer, if you can see the square holes, long beams are slid in which the boat will rest on during transport. Preferably no other blocking should rest between these beams and the boat, to keep her height low while on the road. We just had to lower her butt down a good 3 feet to make that happen.

So the tedious task of lowering her inch by inch (block by block) down to where she lays keel flat on the trailer began. This is where the arms were a key player. David slowly moved each arm independently while Garrett ran around the boat removing the spacing blocks one at a time. Being careful not to remove too many too quickly just in case the boat slipped (a fail-safe.)

One last block to remove

!Success!

All that was left was to get the masts next to the boat on the trailer and strap everything down tight. By this time we were approaching evening and the scales were closed. So we couldn’t get a final weight on the boat (which was required for legality reasons) so we kissed Rediviva goodnight and told her we’d see her when she arrives in the Golden State.

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I don’t know what was harder loading the boat or saying goodbye to friends

We packed Swabie up and leaving only our tracks in the dirt we said a final farewell to the Gorge. Paid our last $1 to cross the bridge, merged onto the interstate highway, accelerated to 60, and traveled south.

(Seeing as a full week has passed since our truck date and I had yet to write up much about it I took some advice to split up the transport story in order to get it to y’all sooner 🙂