LUTRA Update: Building Blues and Bloom

 

A Work in Progress

Rome wasn't built in a day.

-- Old saying

LUTRA Update: Building Blues and Bloom

There are two things I yammer on about:

1. Small is beautiful.  - E.F. Schumacher
2. Curves and angles add to building time and effort.  - Me

Yeesh. I should listen to myself.

We're just rounding the one year mark on what we'd estimated to be a four month project. Six months if the stars mis-aligned.

A winter build - now approaching another? -  interrupted work with deep-freezing spells and general hypothermia, leaving us staring stupidly at simple tasks. Weather - exceptionally cool/cold and wet stretched from that winter, through spring to latish July, bringing mildew in its train. A series of guests (whom we thoroughly enjoyed) brought a warm spell that ended promptly with their last departure. Back to hypothermia. Our short-handed community has needs with few to step up. Our own life has chores that can't be indefinitely deferred.

It adds up to a blues riff.

But one step in front of the other. The structure is complete and we're building and tacking on gear (hatches, tabernacles, bow rollers, cleats, rails, rudder/tiller, etc.). In a week or two - barring further issues - we'll start the simple interior, then windows, then launch. we're hoping for 2025.

So we persist. We dream of returning to life at large among the islands.

We bloom.

*****

It's a challenge taking photos from point blank!

Rowing Cockpit from Forward
Longitudinal Seat/Lockers between Self-Bailing Decks
Main Tabernacle at Main Bulkhead

Rowing Cockpit from aft

Longitudinal seat lockers to Leanbank/Fo'c'stle Hatch

Fore and Main Tabernacles visible

Hitchhiker's Guide to Wooden Boats: Review

 

Margo St-Finch singing her Tide's Going Out

I almost look at it as being a little bit religious;

putting yourself out to the world and saying,

What do you have for me?

Where am I going to go?

-- Ryan Hashagen

Hitchhiker's Guide to Wooden Boats: A Review of Sorts

Every now and again we stumble upon a story that we relate to on some deep level, for reasons hard to identify, much less to express. 

This little film - presented by Northwest Maritime of Port Townsend, WA - is the story of a young couple's weekend adventure by land (camper van and bicycles) and sea (in HA!, a lovingly restored Bolger GLOUCESTER GULL).

Turns out, Ryan lived for a time afloat in Eagle Harbor, where we took our first steps in life aboard. HA! may even have originally been our friends' dory... the one which inspired our own. We surely have friends in common.

Turns out, Margot is a lover- and writer of sea-shanties, among her other artistic pursuits. Her Tide's Going Out was born with the patina of... well... je n'sais pas quoi. But it carries us out on its ebb.

Turns out it's a joyous adventure on the scale of Wind in the Willows, but shared by a couple obviously in love.

There. You see? These descriptions express nothing of why this one is worth your while. The best I can do is recommend that you invest a half-hour of your time to watch. To find out for yourself if it speaks to you.

If you're anything like us, you'll find yourself reviewing it on occasion, to lift your spirits in troubled times.