Still Planking

Here are the progress shots . . .


The 2 planks clamped on are now riveted, so that is 11 planks down, 15 to go. I'm currently working on #13, the mid-way plank! We are pushing hard to get 5 planks on every other week. At this rate we should be done planking by the end of February.

Another milestone just reached : we are now planked to the waterline everywhere on the boat, meaning she really is a boat now! It will float (I hope).

In other shop news, 3 other boats almost completed.

The Peapod . . .


The Herreshof 12 1/2 . . .


And the Brave Little Mouse . . .

As you can well imagine, the shop is a beautiful place to be right now. The big boats are coming along and the small boats are getting their final paint jobs and varnish. The joy of seeing these boats completed is somewhat tempered by the lack of new commissions. We are starting 2 new boats (2 different types of yacht tenders) this month on speculation. Hopefully we'll get some good new projects for the summer.

Outside of the shop . . . it's shrimp season! I can stop on the side of the road and pick up a pound of the sweetest little shrimp I've ever tasted for $1.25. I'm a little bummed the guy took Sunday off, I was really looking forward to ceviche tonight.

Interlude - Mexico

Happy New Year! Nicole and I just got back from a couple weeks in Mexico. Our friends Rachel and Noam also came down, as well as a bunch of folks from Nicole's family. Her parents and sister/brother-in-law now own this place in Zihuatanejo...

With this view........


It was pretty much heaven. A vacation from my vacation, as it were. We spent several mornings learning how to surf. This was the first day.... by the 3rd day we were in waves as big as ourselves. It was great, but after about 3 hours of breathing salt water, Corona starts to look awfully good, even for a beer snob like myself.


We also did a lot of cooking, and shopping in the markets. The seafood and fish was particularly good, but all the veggies were fresh and wonderful.

It was Christmas, so pinatas were everywhere.....
We did a cooking class one day. The cooking part wasn't all that great (we made soup), but the trip to the market was wonderful. She described how to handle all the weird stuff in the market. Here is a dish I made up for our last night in Mexico.... Grilled Octopus and Cactus over a Roasted Tomato and Jalapeno Salsa.


We also got a little sailing, hiking and snorkeling in. We hiked a new volcano. This is unique in the world.... a volcano, whose birth was witnessed in modern times. In 1942, this land was completely flat. A farmer was tilling his fields when the ground started to bubble. He called his friends over to try and fill the holes with dirt. It didn't work. 9 days later, the volcano was formed (about 1000 feet of vertical above the plain) and a town was destroyed in the lava flow. The remains of the church are still there. The church was brand new and almost finished. They were working on the 2nd tower when the volcano erupted.

This is the 2nd floor of the church... the lava flow is about 1 story high.


Back to work tomorrow!