Here we go: The next, the 4th. decade is starting for me, as of today! I'm looking confidently forward to it, and will splash in, head first.
I'm saying goodbye to my 30-ies. Will I see life from another perspective now?
Getting a perfect finish is a very high ambition for an amateur boatbuilder. A decent finish takes time, dedication and technique. And it is too easy to get lost and loose momentum. Well, at least that is what I think.
São Jorge, or Sankt George plays an important part in the imaginarium of Cariocas. The saint is venerated by many people. Which is why we have a local holiday today.
Oceans take up 70.8% of our globe. They are a vast, rich, and to great parts still unknown resource. Oceans are also marvelously beautyfull. Unfortunaltely we have been abusing of them, in all thinkeable ways. Our seas are under a great threat, which could exterminate millions of species. Acidation due to increasing CO2 emissions, litter, garbage, industial and human effluents, all are dumped into them. If we don't act now, we will losse this wonderfull playground. And more than that, we might loose the very basis that sustains the life of billions of people.
Believe me, when I say that the experience of designing and building my own boat has been intensively satisfying. Anyone looking twice into this blog will recognize that. From my point of view, that validates a notorious sailor's wisedom, which goes: There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats - By Kenneth Grahame"
Last Saturday I took my girl, Adriana, Mrs. Arpex, out for a fine dinner. On the way out we walked by Arpex Beach. It reminded me of our night swimming on a hot summer night, this January. The water looked inviting, and I wished, I had my shorts on.
Weekend has brought little in terms of visible progress. But there was progress, even if only in small steps.
April is the month of important personal events. On the 13th., my girl and I celebrate the anniversary of our first meeting. On the 17th., is the mark of the anniversary of my dear Adriana, Mrs. Arpex. And on the 29th. is the day where I saw the first daylight. This year is special, since 40 years have passed since then.
During the construction of Arpex, I spend a significant amount of time and effort on photographic documentation of the project. That means, that I spend up to 20 to 30 minutes taking pictures. By now I have accumulated a great volume of images of every single step of this adventure. Only very few make it to this blog, actually. They are all stored by date, so I can retrace the construction step-by-step, if I'd like to. And sometimes I do.
But further than that, the images taken help me greatly to develop the boat during the week, when I'm far from the building site. I test proportions, angles, and let them mature over the week, before actually work on the piece in question. I use the images for simulations, that I draw on PowerPoint. That way, I usually know quite exactly what I want to do, when I'm on the site, and don't need to waste time thinking much. Which is why I think, that I use my time fairly efficiently on my build days.
Slowly the rear window is getting its shape. I have already produced the window support, and one of two wedges. The wedge can be seen nicely in the picture below. The pieces now need a second coat of epoxi, and must then be glued in place.
The rear window of Arpex will follow an arrangement which I have picked up in a sailing magazine. I think it was in Cruising World. I love dogs. They give you friendship, keep you moving, and every now and then they make you have a good laugh! And what can be healthier than that?
If you like a good laugh too, watch this video. It dissipated my rather gloomy Saturday morning mood.
The view form inside the cabin forward is the prime view. For a change, here is the view towards the back. As you see, much has to be done still, in terms of finishing. One more floorboard will have to be prepared. The rest will stay without one, as the areas are not intended to be used, except for the odd sailbag or other lightweight item.
Throughout the night and morning rain has continued to punish Rio. I'm starting to worry about the situation in my boatshed. I suppose that the boat will be allright, but my box is subject to infiltration, and thus material might be damaged by the water. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do at the moment. I'll have to wait and check on the weekend. The good thing is that the rain seems to abate now. Forecast for the night is not good, though.
Rio is suffering under heavy rainfall. The heavyest rainfalls ever recorded, have plunged the city into chaos since yesterday. It took me 6 hours to come back from work. Traffic had collapsed, due to flooded neighbourhoods. Landslides have claimed several lifes.
My vacation is comming to an end. To make end this period with a specially pleasant job, I've dedicated the day to the navigation table.
As I work on it, the table slowly develops a couple of neat details like fiddles, grips, slide rails, supports, pencil holder and other stuff.
The table will be removable and portable, so that I can use it as writing support on deck. It sits perfectly on the boats chair's arm rests.
The day was not solely dedicated to the navigation, I have also worked on the floorboards, which needed sanding, epoxi sealing, gluing of reinforcement structure on the underside. The varnished floorboards look nice, but I'm afraid they will not be very practical, since it will probabely be very slippery when wet. Something to solve later, after some life experience. 
In total, the finishing is roughly amateurish, I'm afraid. But it is just fine enough for me. I've never had farflying ambitions regarding that. What I want, is that the boat and its parts be solid, reasonably well built, nice to look at from a reasonable distance. Not much more than that... Of course all these factors are subject to personal interpretation... This is a learning platform for a largely autodidact boatbuilder.
Yes, yesterday's post, was just there to catch an April's Fool. I'm still working, and it doesn't look like I'm stopping anytime soon. An there don't seem to be many fools around, or maybe my story was not plausible enough.
The picture below was taken in July 2009. Which would be 9 months ago.
So, that is the moment many amateur boatbuilders have to face: The eEND - The failure of a dream. The sudden realisation, that it will NOT work out. The strain, the physical effort, the psychologic resources required are just too enourmous, and overwhelming.
Yesterday was a rain day, and unsuitable for epoxi work. I have, therefore, concentrated on preparation of wooden parts.
I have found, that it will also serve nicely to blind the forward window. I have cut "support wedges" where the table will rest upon. They will also hold the table up, as shown above. A neat and helpfull arrangement, I thought.
For actual use, the table will be supported by hinged support angles. I still need to prepare those. When not in use, the angles will be locked paralel to the bulkhead.
I have also prepared the "finger-protection-wedges". I soon found out, the the sloped cabin roof, in conjunction with the hatch, made for an excellent finger squeeze. To spare me and others from that painful experience, the wooden block shown above will be glued in place. It will effectively prevent the mishap. It took me a while to shape them. But it was time well spent, I think.
Another task of the day, was to cut the openings for the akas. I needed exact measures of the distance between them, so that Miguel can prepare the ama accordingly. I found out, that the bulkheads, where the akas will be attached, are perfectly parallel.
