Slow progress

After a late start, yesterday, I worked on the main hatch and washboards. I've glued on the cap board, and shaped it properly. I also fitter the washboards and figured out how to install them. Little detail work, which I have a hard time to get on with.

It seems I was getting swifter progress while tasks were "bigger", and where more hands on work was asked, than fine woodworking skills, and thinking out of detail solutions. It is not that I don't like those jobs, it is just, that here my skant woodworking skills become apparent. And also the obvious lack of appropriate tools, and a decent workbench. You just can't get a clean job done without those. The combination of these factors seem to nag on my motivation lately.

The result I am achieving on the main hatch is so-so. Working with the router is prooving more difficult than I had thought. Also, the wood, Peroba do Campo, looks lovely. But its fine grain seems succeptible to splintering. ... Or maybe its just me, showing poor tool handling...

As an addict reader of magazines like "Wooden Boat" and "Classic Boat", it is just too easy to establish too high demands on finishing standards. I must actively work against silly expectations of the finishing kind. Afterall, this is my first boat (not counting the canoe), and I have no proper woodworking or boatbuilding education. ... As if those were good excuses...

In the end of the day, the result will be acceptable - and it will work. And I suppose that is not too bad for a start. And I rememeber reading a wise, old chinese proverb: "Never mind the gaps - afterall, that is what epoxi is there for."