I'm within a data cable of getting internet on my boat through my new cellphone. Once I find or make one that will fit my phone I'll be able to post pictures and have full internet functionality from the boat. I'm thinking the vinyl on the side is in need of replacing to get any kind of finished look. I've tried wax and it just turned white. Tried armor all, and it doesn't look good still, so I think I'm going to just put new vinyl. I'm still getting better at driving. Anyway that's all I have to type about from the library today.

First Voyage

I'm still doing some painting and fixing up, but I took her out yesterday, and it was great. I stayed close to the marina because I don't have much gas or money, although things may be better on that count very soon. It's kinda tricky to steer a single inboard if you expect to do it with the wheel, but once you figure out how to do the engine it gets a lot easier. Reverse causes the stern to turn left, and forward will swing it back the other way if you keep the wheel hard over. It's kind of non-intuitive, but once you get the feel for it it is fairly easy.

She Floats

My Owens has been in the water for almost a day and a half. She floats. There is a little leakage, but I'm getting by well with a 500 gph bilge pump, although I have a 2000 gph ready to install if needed. They say these old wooden boats expand and tighten up after a couple of days in the water, so she should leak even less in the near future.

No worries now. The engine is good to go, and the only thing that kept me from taking her out this morning was having a job interview to go to, and other errands to run. I did rewire some stuff between the batteries, the coil, and the ignition, but the intermittent fail on the ignition key (which I may or may not have mentioned before remains). My theory is that it is in the starter, and that if it stops at a certain place it doesn't brush or whatever to get the ignition voltage.

Anyway, I still have a ton of cosmetic stuff to do above the waterline. She looks a little rough with my spread it with your finger caulk job, but the rain has mostly stopped coming in, and the rest can be tackled bit by bit for as long as I own the boat.

Moved In

I am now living on this boat. It is going in the water for the first time tomorrow, and as soon as possible I am getting a phone for dail up, or maybe cable internet, so I don;t have to go the library every other day or so. I got the motor running with a little help from some friends. It wasn't pumping fuel the way it was supposed to through the carbuerator, so I took that apart on a wing and a prayer, and managed to get it working right by some miracle all by myself.

There are tons of small jobs still needing doing, but I'm anxious to get out on the water Not enough time to type about it right now. But things are still coming along.

Toe Rail Moulding On

The toe rail is on, that was an all day job yesterday. I'm going out there today with my camara. I'll get some pictures, then paint it in. It'll have to dry about a day before I go for the second coat because its oil paint, so while that's drying I'm going inside to put some braces underneath my decks, and then caulk all the way around one more time. If there's time left I will work on finishing my interior vinyl work, buffing the exterior vinyl and brightwork, and maybe building some storage shelves for the front of the V-berth. I need to build some holds below decks to make all the space down there useable for storage, but I'll have to buy some more plywood for that, and probably will wait until I see how much she is going to leak on first going into the water. I've cut and pieced scrap so much for my decks and kitchen I dream of little bitty pieces of plywood butted and lapped with tons of screws in them growing into a ship the size of an oil tanker. I'm getting an early start this morning so I can beat the heat. It had to be close to 100 yesterday, but I must be getting used to it, because I just kept right on going.

More Picture of My Owens

Here is a picture of the whole boat with the roof on. Only thing lacking exterior is to get the toe rail moulding back on. I wussed out and bought some cheap wood because to get the mahogany cut and milled to match what was there was $275, and cash is tight. The wood I bought cost under $25. It's treated, and I'm going to paint it green like the rest of the boat losing the mahogany accent I was picturing, but it has an aluminum strip that goes on it so that will be enough accent for now, maybe I'll redo it when I get the cash.

The before picture of the headliner is just where I pulled the insulation I put in back so you can kind of see what it looked like before. The after is what it looks like now, the stuff you see hanging down in the back is insulation in the places where I did not have enough vinyl (the store did not have enough, they're ordering some).

The windows were just bare wood. I have some of the curtains done. I'm not all that happy with the pirate print, but it was cheap, and it looks ok.

Getting the last of the wood on the outside is my current goal. I figure I will have plenty of time to get the inside finished once I move in (one more week). God willing I will get the motor running soon without any huge expense, and I'll have a full fledged operational cabin cruiser instead of just a floating apartment. Here are the pics.

Working Inside the Cabin

I've spent the last several days working on the inside of the cabin. I also got the external roof back on her, and screwed down. I have about half of my headliner up, with some foam insulation under that to hopefully keep out the heat of the sun. I bought some blue cloth with a print of pirate ships and treasure chests on it to make curtains out of, and a bunch of rivets and a hammer jig to assemble them with. This should be a fun way to get the curtains done without having to sew, and might add a little more shiny metallic highlight to the interior. I wanted brass rivets to match everything else, but the craft store only had chrome, oh well, it'll do.

I'm not happy with my kitchen counter, and I have a sheet of white plastic laminate to try to put over it. If I can manage to cut it, and get it glued in without breaking it I think I will go with that over the plywood because it didn't take a finish like I wanted it to. Still need to do some interior painting in the V-berth, and a little more cleanup if I can remember to take this little vacuum I have out there. Also need to take the camera and get some new pictures so I can share this part on this blog if anybody is reading it anyway. Lots to do, no clue about my future, might have to sell the boat so I can move unless I get a job like I want somewhere around here, or the engine running so I can get the boat to where I am going and come back by train or bus for the car.

So much to do and so few funds left. Oh well, there's always day labor and temp work.