Work continues on the tub and the rest of the boat is getting a bit messy. Despite my efforts, sawdust continues to accumulate along with debris. I’m going up for another round of Cleanup now, which sounds like a really easy job until you actually do it. But we are getting somewhere. The dividing wall went in last night, so we can start to see how it’s going to come together. Brock will be fiberglassing that wall today and may get a second round of glass on the rest of it as well.

I don’t know that the picture does it justice, but the water level will be about chin deep when you’re sitting on the bottom. There’s room for both of us and a shallow shelf to sit on if you get too hot and want to cool off your torso. Back to work now…

My job is still Cleanup Girl. Plus I’ve added on the job of running cache. There’s nothing like a well-organized bunch of materials to help make a job go smoother. It was always one of my favorite roles in Search and Rescue as well, because I think it’s important for speed and fluidity of an operation.

So far, I think Brock is under-appreciative of that role; he’s used to just having bags of stuff and empty boxes around that he has to continually paw through to find what he’s looking for. Nonetheless, I will continue, because it at least decreases the hillbilly look we’ve started to have on the aft deck this week. And I can flip the tarp over it all when we’re not here, but we’re ready to rock and roll when we want to.

Brock is continuing to work under the tarp. It’s pretty well set up there, but it sure was nicer in the sunshine we had last week! We’re devoting this entire weekend to the project, so we should make some good progress. It’s not an insignificant job and will probably take at least another weekend beyond this one. But we’re getting closer to anchoring out and watching the stars from the hot tub on the upper deck!

(Addendum: Brock says it is very helpful when I keep things organized; he’s just never had a woman who is so helpful on projects. We’re a good team.)

But progress is being made. This was still early this morning, so there’s been a bit done since then. But between cooking and cleaning up and fetching tools, I haven’t had a chance for more photos. You may notice that in this picture, the stacks are completely gone.

And Industrial Strength Dean has a truck worthy of Monroe ~ looks totally smokin’ with those stacks, don’t you think? Anyway, Dean is taking them home and adding 2 feet onto their length so they will no longer be at face level when you walk by them. He’s also going to put them all in a straight line so it look tidier. Apparently that’s important to the boys. I couldn’t care less about this part of their scheme, but am happy to go along with it since it’s getting me what I want in the end. I am hopeful that it will be less diesel-ey when we’re underway and people are sitting on the upper aft deck. That would be a win.

Because, really, I can’t slow him down, nor would I want to. All I can do is direct his unceasing energy in productive ways. It works well for both of us!

We are finally installing the hot tub on the upper deck. The super-cool part about it is that it will not change KJ’s look at all. You won’t even know it’s there unless you open the lid. It’s just a small soaking tub, but definitely big enough for the two of us (and that’s the perfect number as far as I’m concerned!).

Right now, we’re producing all sorts of metal shavings, wood shavings, and random other debris. My role is essentially Clean-up Girl. I come upstairs and run the shop vac behind Brock every hour or so. It’s not a bad deal.

As far as heat? No, it’s not being run off of the engine stacks. It’s connected into the Hurricance diesel furnace that now works all the time, with Brock around. There’s some heat exchanger thing and a skimmer filter and so on. But that will all come after the fiberglass, which is the next fun stuff. Apparently it means all manner of sanding. I do know that we bought 3 different grits, which I can translate into much labor (after my few years of varnish experience). And yes, it’s adequately supported from below. We’ll have an emergency dump valve at the base, in case we need to get rid of the water in a hurry for some reason. It’s about 150 gallons, I think. Further pictures as events warrant.