Taking time off

I haven't got as much done this week as I might have, because my friend Alan was celebrating his 60th birthday in the Bay of Islands and I wanted to join in.  I took the time to visit another friend, and we had lunch together, sitting on her verandah in the sunshine.  Then a great party and a night spent aboard the beautiful mullet boat, Cora.  Sitting in her cockpit, the next morning, drinking coffee and chatting with friends was a delight.  Building a boat is, in many ways, a lonely and isolated existence.  Friends respect that I  need to be working, working, working if the boat is ever to be finished and don't like to 'waste my time'.  I resist the temptation to spend more time with my friends, much as I would like to, trying to content myself with fantasies of this little boat I'm building, completed, floating and anchored alongside another boat belonging to a dear friend.  It will happen and it's the thought of the good times afloat that enable me to keep plodding on.  I just hope my friends will stay patient - and put up with my conversations being largely by text and email in the meantime.  For me, it's a lot better than nothing, but I fear that my barrages of texts can be too much of a good thing at times.

However, the break was good and I have been making progress.

 I have finally got my galley designed and will have to live with it from now on.  My little stack of drawers are taking shape - or at least the cabinet for them is.

 I made and fitted the runners 'on the bench' and to my astonishment they matched from one side to the other.  I always end up with a nervous knot inside when I come to fit this sort of thing.  Measure twice and cut once? - well, more like measure 50 times and still pray that it will come out OK.

The galley counter wasn't too difficult to cut out and fit - the pattern I made from MDF still doing a good enough job, even after altering the shape and height of the counter.  I cut it slightly over size and then put it on its framework.  I could then scribe the outboard edge and plane it to shape.

 This is the underside of the counter with its first coat of paint.  Next to it is the outboard bulkhead for the drawers, awaiting its paint.  I really have to work hard not to succumb to the temptation just to leave them coated in epoxy, but I know that the inside of the locker will be dark as the tomb if I do.

While I've got the paint out, I may as well paint the bulkhead at the forward end, too, now that I know where all the framing goes.  We are slowly getting there.

One day - not too far away, I hope - I'll be at anchor alongside my friends again.