Scuba Adventure, Dory Build, and School Woes...

It has been over a week since my last post, and I do apologize, busy, busy, busy!

Congrats to my fair lady, Kelly, she is now NAUI open water certified! We had a great weekend at Mammoth Lake finishing up our cert. Actually, is was a bit of a debacle...

When we surfaced after our first dive on Sunday, I looked over to Kelly and I saw the most unsettling vision ever. Her mask was just completely filled with blood and snot. The best part was that she didn't know yet. So did I try to see what was wrong and make her feel better? Did I suggest that she not dive our final dive in order to look out for her safety? No way. I told her "babe, I think your nose is bleeding a little bit," and quickly whisked her away so the instructor wouldn't see. I didn't want the instructor to see because then the last dive would get canceled and we would have to go back out to that dirty, muck-water pond and fork over another 40 dollar entrance fee. "No babe, your nose isn't bleeding that bad, you'll be fine (hand firmly gripping wallet)." I know it sounds callous, but wait until you see the underwater pictures of this place. I felt like I was scuba diving in a bowl of miso soup.

Kelly was tough though, she knew what was at stake and she soldiered on. Nose full of snot and blood, she completed the final dive-Victory! Well, not exactly, still waiting on the results of our written test, but we should find out soon. In the mean time, check out Island Divers, Tom is a real cool dude and can help with all your diving needs.

Isn't this a blog about a boat? Yes, but patience grasshopper.

So busy this week, I took a test in American History of Seapower... it was ridiculous. I wrote 11 pages I think. My main essay was 6 pages. That is too much, but interesting stuff. Check out this guy Alfred Thayer Mahan. Pretty visionary, maybe we should listen to him... Then I just had a test in Environmental Ethics and Logic. Talk about a swift kick in the pants, this has been the week from hell.

Onto the Boat!

I'm on my way out the door right now to start on cutting the sides of the timbers (like frames, but this is a unique boat.) Check out these pictures:

Here I am cutting out the timbers and the cleats.

This is an important process and can be very tedious. It is important to measure twice so that you can cut once. I understand this concept, but sometimes am reluctant to apply it. 

I made some smaller saw horses about 3 feet off the ground. I'm gonna use those as the boats main resting place. From here I will finally cut out that bottom shape, and then apply the 4" rocker to it. The rocker is a slight curve to the bottom. This was usually done by bracing boards to the ceiling and applying pressure downward, giving it a convex shape (concave depending how you look at it.) But the ceiling in this building is 30 feet tall so that's a no-go. Instead I will be using a complex system called cinder-blocks. I'm just gonna pile a bunch on to make it sag in the right spots.

Small sawhorses, or sawponies

I really need to cut out the bottom, but I'm kinda having analysis paralysis on what hardware to buy. I mean, everyone uses silicone bronze ring nails, but they are expensive! I find it hard to believe that with all the technology we have that those are the only option. What about deck screws? Those withstand the elements, so you would think, but I don't want to take a chance before I know.

Anyways, off to Home Depot and then to the shop.

Tell a friend, tell an enemy, tell anyone.

~Brett~

Found Lumber!!

That's right, found lumber at Ideal Lumber in Galveston. It's beautiful too, and I have many choices. It threw me for a bit of a loop though, what I consider "finger-jointed" is not the same as what they consider it.

My limited knowledge about finger-jointed lumber is found in studs in pine on houses. The joint looks like a bunch of sharp V's or something, joining several 2 foot sections together. These finger jointed boards almost looked like a very fine type of particle board. It was like they had a bunch of 6 inch by 1 inch pieces and they combined them all together to create these massive 16 foot by 1 inch by 12 inch boards.

I looked them over carefully and they appear to be very good quality. I have also combed the internet for info on these boards and some people like them and some people hate them. After much deliberation, I think I am going with the just straight lumber and not going to risk the finger joint. This breaks my heart because the finger-joint stock was soooo cheap in comparison. It was about $30 whereas the straight stock was about $55. Thats a difference of about $15, multiply that by the estimated 10 boards I need and, you get the picture, that's just less money for beer, eek.

So in the morning, I am going there to make the purchase for the base and the oak for the frames and have it all shipped to Sea Aggie Island. Hopefully, this week I can get the bottom started and finished. I underestimated the number and difficulty of tests I would have this semester, so that is slowing down my schedule a lot, but I'll make do...

In other news, Kelly and I have been getting our scuba certification, we will dive at Mammoth lake this weekend to finish up our open water dives, and from there we will be able to find the shark that killed and ate our friend, we will fight it but we'll let it live. We are taking class from a cool guy named Tom at Island Divers, be sure to check him out. He has an awesome shop and a great selection of ScubaPro gear.

Ok, keeping this one short, I have to finish reading In the Heart of the Sea about the Essex whaling ship. I will never look at whales the same way again.

If you like what you saw, tell someone, click some ads, leave a comment, or email me

Was it a deliberate choice not to show the jaguar shark?

~Brett~