Head Refit: Cabinets Part 1

The cabinet in the head will serve to hold the sink and also to store the bathroom necessities. The main issue we had with the old sink cabinet was that the doors opened towards the midship which means that if we healed hard to port, the doors would swing open and dump everything they were supposed to be storing. 

The solution is to make this new cabinet open with a door fore-aft. But first, we need to build a frame! 

To make the corners stronger, I mitered all the corners. 

The outermost corner of the frame needed a compound miter to make sure that all the edges and legs are fastened together properly.

The cleats for the aft side of the cabinet were merely glued to the iron frame that attaches to the chainlate with no mechanical fastener while the cleats on the bulkhead were fastened with screws. 

Now that we have a frame made, we can begin planking the bock and building our head once again! 

Head Refit: Painting Part 2

The painting in the head has been progressing nicely. Bilgekote applied directly to the walls and floor has been taking nicely and leaving a very good slick surface. The first coat was very thin to avoid having runs in the paint.  

The second coat is masking over the wooden surface while leaving a strong and durable finish. 

We are planning to build a cabinet over the sink area which means that I might be needing to fiberglass to the bulkhead, so I’m not putting any paint there that might need to be sanded off again!

The frame for the sink and cabinet is assembled but not planked yet. 

I also mounted the cleats for the planks on the side so that I could effectively paint up to them but not waste time painting beyond the cleats. 

Lastly, the hose for the sump pump was run before the shower floor was glassed in fully. If you look closely, you will only see one hose run (the hose from the shower sump to discharge the shower water) but no hose to drain the sink. This is because I forgot to run that hose and won’t discover that little fact for a long time! 

American Style

Ever been at a grocery store and seen “Italian Seasoning” or “Asian Spice” and wondered what an “American” item might be in a foreign country? 

Wonder no more!  

At a local grocery store in the Azores they sell “American Style” cookies! To be honest, they were delicious.  

What are they? Really thick chocolate chip cookies! They were delicious and greatly appreciated. 

Stairs to the Bottom of a Cliff

The Azores were created by volcanic activity, rising from the floor of the ocean in a mountain of fire!  

Humans don’t exactly thrive on cliffs, so they carved stairs into the sides of these cliffs. What are these stairs leading to? An excellent fishing spot! 

The tall cliffs of these islands mean that the waters edge can lead right up to very deep water. Fish will frequently run along the edge of the land in the very deep water and are easily hooked by landslide fishermen. Yes, right up against the shore you can experience water that is well over 100 feet deep! Deep water fishing at the bottom of a staircase. 

That is the splendor of the stairs in the Azores. They could lead to an abandon fort, a great fishing hole, or a beautiful lookout.

Split Rock

Off the south coast of Terceira, exists a small pair of islets affectionately dubbed “Split Rock” for obvious reasons. The real name of the islands is Goat island, but Split Rock sells better to the tourists.

When we sailed into Angra do Heroísmo, we saw Split Rock in the distance, but we never got a view as magnificent as this!  

On the south side of the island are these incredible lava formations which create a natural swimming pool. At high tide, the waves feed fresh water and nutrients to these small pools, and at low tide, these pools warm up. 

Even more amazing are the incredible worlds of life inside the pools. Plants, fish, and all sorts of life that has washed into these pools live out their lives isolated from the ocean across the rock.  

It is very interesting to look at the fish in these pools. They live out their entire lives in these pools completely unaware of the universe of the ocean right next to them. So close yet so removed from the world beyond them. It makes me think about our lives. Incredible adventure might exist just beyond what we think of as our “world” and yet completely out of mind. We do not know about it and we do not see it, yet we could just reach out and enter this amazing realm. 

Just the same applies with our boat in the harbor. We exist and live out our time in a protected pool just across from the ocean beyond the breakwater. When we finally leave the Azores for Porto, Portugal, we will slip out of our “pool” and out into the great ocean beyond. We will be the fish that leave the pool while the other fish who remain will wonder what ever came of us. The only difference between the fish and us is we have the power of the internet.  

We are able to keep in touch with the fish who remain in the pool and let the know about the wonders that exist beyond the stone wall.