More Dory

After the long weekend in the northwest and a doctor's appointment first thing this morning, I headed back to Bullhead for more work on Helen's dory. They'd make lots of progress while I was gone - forward deck support structures built and installed, three coats of epoxy paint in all the hatch areas, the inwales permanently installed, the outwales fitted, and lots of other stuff.

Santa Claus in the form of the guy in the brown truck showed up several times while I was gone. I unwrapped the 36 yd roll of 17 oz. tri-axial fiberglass cloth and started cutting pieces right after lunch

while Tony removed the outwales from the boat. They need to be permanently installed before the fore and aft decks can go on, but that's before the outside of the hull is glassed, so ...

We ran glass about 6" wide down the length of the boat before installing the port outwale for the last time. When we do the rest of the glassing on the hull, it will be trimmed at the lower edge of the outwale, overlapping the glass that we installed now.

Once the port side was completed, we flipped the boat the other way and did the same process to the starboard side.

By 6 p.m. the outwales were back on the boat for the last time. Tomorrow we'll start installing the foredeck.

Party Time!

Mom's 85th birthday celebration was a lot of fun with over 90 people signing the guest book.

We managed to get the family members that were able to attend to be still long enough to get a picture before the party started.

Lots of nearby friends attended while almost all the western Washington contingent paid attention to the weather forecast and sent their regrets. Both Stevens and Snoqualmie passes were closed for periods of time on Sunday.

All in all a very good trip. We managed to eat at Ivar's twice in a long weekend, 

stop at the REI mothership store, and turn in the rental without ever wanting or needing the 4 wheel drive. In spite of the weather report, we never saw any snow on the road on Friday or Monday. This morning at Stevens Pass people were downhill skiing in the rain!

Now we're waiting for our flight - should be home before midnight.

Celebrating Mom

While Helen and Tony continue on the dory,

I'm traveling with family to celebrate Mom's 85th Birthday this weekend.

It could be an interesting weekend with a significant winter storm expected to dump as much as 30" of snow on the Cascades this weekend. Sure glad we were able to upgrade to a four wheel drive vehicle at the rental counter. Hope to be over the first pass before the snow hits.

Sunday afternoon is the big party. Here's hoping people can get there safely.