New stuff going on

So, there's all kinds of stuff going on these days, as you will see from the photos.  This is me clinging to the sealing of the vessel plugging all of the thousands of spike holes (that the sealing is held on with). After they are all plugged, we will cut them off and sand them and then paint the vessel's interior. Whew! It will be great to see it painted and looking awesome.

 These are dummy shafts. They represent where the shafts will attach to the transmissions for the engines. We have put them here so that we can fit the engines properly before we get the engine beds galvanized.  It would be terrible to have to adjust it (cut it up) after the fact.

 This is the pattern for a hawse hole (basically) for tie up ropes. We will cast probably 6 or 7 sets of these in all. The pattern is made out of pine.

 These beauties are belaying pins.  Great for tying off rope. Or ,you know, keeping order. Just kidding. Wouldn't want to get a knock with these things. There are white oak ones and angelique ones in the bucket. Can't wait to see them on the rails.

And finally, although  not finally because there's another work in progress but I want to show the finished piece in the next blog post, we finally added grab rails to the dog house (scuttle, deck house) so now when we're heeled down we have something to hang on to. Definitely don't want to end up in the drink.
We've had lots of visitors lately and I got a lovely card of encouragement today from B and H Webber in Jeddore. Thank you so much for thinking of us and for being with us on this crazy ride. We hope to see you again soon.
Til next time.....