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After living a little more than a year on Scout, and then a year on another 40 footer, we have come to the conclusion that one is too small and the other is too big. Yeah, there a lot of gaps in the story of our adventure (?) of the last couple of years, and I'll be happy to sit down and "chew the fat" with any of you all. But long story short, Scout is for sale. I have her listed on sailboatlistings.com and the first reasonable cash offer will get a great little boat with a lot of character (and inventory). Take a look at the ad and contact me if interested or curious. She absolutely has to go and I am hoping one of the members here knows someone who can make this gem their dream.

Just got settled back in the Riverside boat yard in a spot suitable for working on Scout.  When Mathew came to town we came back down here to get hauled out onto the trailer so we could move to a more sheltered spot.  Once on the trailer we thought, "well, may as well just finish up a couple of things while we're here."  The plus is we actually have internet on board! Yay!  The bad thing is we actually have internet on board...  Productivity plummeted once we got on the water, and installed an A/C unit and I fear internet access may hinder progress as well if I don't resist.  

I'll start being more diligent with the posts now that we've invited the web into our home

...just what it says.  Here we are waiting for the travel lift.

Thank you, captains.  It has been over 16 years since she was last floating in water.  And though it doesn't make any difference, it was fresh water back then.  Some of the issues we have to work out yet include tracking down a leak in the main cabin on the port side.  I think that one came about when I drilled the scupper drains for the seahood so some exploratory surgery will be in order.  In "hind site" (former name of 113 before Dream Weaver) I should have added them during construction of the hood.  Oh Well.  The other major aggravation is our mast is canted forward probably 5+ degrees and that has put a lot of stress on the cabin top in the v-berth and some deflection became noticeable forward of the mast step.  A longer toggle is in order for the lower forward stay and hopefully that issue will be put to rest.  Another "hind site" is the lack of tolerance in the opening for the forward hatch.  It appears the expansion coefficient of aluminum and wood are far from each other on a scale.  The hatch fit "nice and snug" in the coaming, and once in the Florida sun it began to exert its force against the wood and glass and won the fight.  Once we resolve the other issues, finish mounting all the other deck hardware, get the electrical installed, and finish off the starboard setee, I may peel the forward hatch off and route a larger opening to relieve the stress.  I dunno.  

We have spent the last three weeks in MN visiting our family and friends while we repainted our O'day 22 and her trailer to sell off for a little more cruising funds.  Even though we have been in a heat advisory here, it is going to be hard to acclimate back to FL summer but we really want to get "out there" and start life away from the yard and dock.  

We truly appreciate all of your support and comments, and, if you have any suggestions speak freely.

We had a bunch of ash strips for the overhead and ceiling in the v-berth when we left MN but I knew we didn't have enough to finish so I thought we'd just pick some up in FL.  Turns out you can't find ash that easily BUT they had douglas fir in abundance! (virtually impossible to find back home)  So we built a table saw and ripped down some 8 foot 2 X 6s and used that instead.  The Douglas fir is what I would have chosen in the first place so sweeto-burrito!  To top it off, all of the ash strips we brought were highly sought after by another boater who is using them to build harps.  win-win.

Although we are a long way from where we were hoping to be by this time, at least we are on the water.  That alone is a big improvement over the back corner of the boatyard where the bugs and heat were inescapable.  We stepped the mast, but, we will have to do a little more work on "sorting out" the standing rigging due to adding the roller furler.

[fun]

Hey, Frank
No pictures tonight, I'm sorry to report.  We had to take a couple of days away from the boat yard (aka dirt yard) for our sanity.  It's so easy to forget that we are doing this for the experience and fun when we are continually focused on getting things done.  recently we got the bronze straps on our rudder, sea cocks and through hulls installed and sealed, rub rails shaped and primed, water tank plumbed (and filled with DRINKABLE water), new burners installed in the Taylors, dinghy outboard running, new prop on, companion way slider installed, cleaned the generator and got it running again (Carol's the mechanic in this family), got the backstay polished to a mirror-like shine, boot stripe painted, and started on the mast and boom.  We make a pact that at least once a week we would go to the beach so we wouldn't loose track of what we are here for, and now we try to go there every afternoon to swim the troubles away and shower in less-stinky water.  Add a couple of odd jobs on other boats and lending a hand where we can and the weeks just seem to fly by.  We'll be posting pictures of "stuff" soon and hopefully we'll have videos coming in the (relatively) near future.
thanks for asking and..
Peace, Love, and Coconuts!

Ebb,
dump it, man!  As model citizens we have WAY too much stuff in general, and, the challenge of doing things with less is kind of rewarding (except when you botch a job and know you could have done it better with the "right" tool) when it works out good enough to get the job done.  As a side note, I just worked on a boat yesterday that was packed with so much stuff that the owner didn't even know what was where. It felt like I was at a crime scene! Glad we won't have that problem on our little boats.  "Less $#!%, more substance" is my new mantra-let's see if it takes hold...

One thing on the list that has been dragging out far too long is the main companion way.  I never really had a solid plan for how it was going to be finished off.  I just knew I wasn't a big fan of the hinged doors she had when we bought her.  I wanted simple and easy but there wasn't a straight path there because of a number of things going on with the hatch; like the drain gutters coming aft, the positioning of the slide tracks, the S-shaped curve in the aft end of the cabin top.  

To get down here all we did was cut a couple of dados in the edge of 2x4s and screw a chunk to either side of the companion way.  I called it the Jethro Bodeen look..


Finally after visiting as many boats as I could and trying to adhere to the KISS principle, I cobbled together some pieces of plywood, made some compromises, and glued them in place.


After we got things primed and one coat of paint on the cabin top, we made a couple of simple drop board guides out of some of the teak we brought with us.  Once the painting is done and we attach them with sealant, we'll add plugs for the screw holes and varnish them.


We scored some 1/2" acrylic from our neighbor's garbage pile that was crazed something awful on one side but looked pretty good on the other.  It will serve the purpose well for the time being.


We have some new 1/2" smoked acrylic for the slider, but that will have to wait until after the last coat of paint.  For now, the plastic wrapped plywood will do...

We finally got the primer under control.  It took a day of travelling around the area to get a shade cloth which we rigged up over the boat.  The next day it was amazingly cooler on deck and in the cabin.  The primer was high-build and naturally thicker than some of the other stuff we have used in the past.  It hid some "whoobees" which was fine by me, but again, my finish standards are taking a back seat to the desires to get if safe, sealed, and sailing.

Here's what the new shop looks like.


Not what I was used to back in MN!  Oh well, I never have to sweep the shop floor .

It turned out to be more on the order of roll, drag, and smear. Carol rolled and I handled the rest  on my own... Tomorrow is a new day. We'll fix her make up and pick up where we left off today.  It looks like we have a couple days before the rain returns.

Ok, I'll try to get to the office tomorrow so we can update this thread with some pictures. We got the first coat of paint on the top sides today and it was atrocious. Hopefully it will all sand out tomorrow morning and we can get the final coat on and then start on the cabin top and decks. We'll have to take some "in progress" photos for the real feel. ; )

You know, the usual. Sanding, filling, sanding. It was 104 degrees in the cabin the other day. That made just about anything difficult, except sweating!  If we can keep the rain away this week we hope to get some priming done. Hope to have a progress report later this week.

I think I'll cut and grind them flush and install screw in throughulls and ball valves. More work but better piece of mind.

That's what we did.  The peace of mind is worth the effort. You've spared no expense elsewhere on GG so it makes perfect sense to go that route. I used 1 1/2" but 1 1/4" might have been a better fit.

Thanks for the kind words, Frank. And the inspiration, I might add.  Your cruise along with Craig, Rose and Peter dog carried me for years through the hard times.