Kai O'hana
10/25/06 - On a Roll...
-A word from Captain Bach
My last update spoke of working between rainsqualls and being very frustrated about not having a dry place to work or a close place to securely store our tools and materials, but that didn’t last long. There was no telling how long it would take to get our container to the new site, so Daniel and I broke down the “paint booth” (an 8ft x 8ft plywood shed) and moved it in pieces on the truck to the boat. This way we could store a few essential tools and materials near the boat, get out of the mud and have a place where we could quickly duck out of the unpredictable showers. Within three days of the container’s arrival Preston and I had remodeled and expanded our little shed into a fully enclosed and secure, L-shaped, 300 square foot workshop that wrapped around the back and side of the container where we are all now working as productively as is physically possible.
Daniel, our Czech welder, has moved into the back portion of the shop, which turned out to be a good thing as flying molten slag tends to be as bad for passersby as plywood sheds. Other than trying to burn down the shed, he has recently completed fabricating the new mid-ship cleats, a matching line chock for the stern and the boarding ladder. He has also fabricated many components for Chad’s engine projects; yet hit a wall when it came to the exhaust system. We were told by a one of the crew of Saudade that during their Atlantic crossing from South Africa the exhaust had been leaking. We discovered the water-cooling chamber surrounding the inner exhaust pipe had been abandon, and we noticed that after it failed a pressure test that the whole system was full of holes. Daniel attempted to weld the holes closed but the arch disintegrated the 40-year-old stainless steel around the hole so we ended up having to scrap the complete system and replace the whole lot.
While Chad spent the majority of the month putting the engine back together (that is, when he wasn’t roughing in the plumbing and electric necessary to install the water tanks, tearing down the windlass, or rebuilding the hydraulic steering system), Lauren and Sara finished cleaning and painting the inside hull of the engine room, or as Daniel calls it “the hospital” (I don’t think he’s used to seeing such a pristine engine room). Once finished with that, Sara dove right into her teak finishing role without a word of guidance or advice from me, while Lauren, working from 9:00am to 3:00pm, prepared the bulwark gates and the splashguard around the helm.
Our days always start out the same – I turn off the alarm at 6:50am (my days of waking up at 4:00am are long over), grab the TV clicker and turn on Tropical Update on the Weather Channel. After being convinced and relieved that we are not going to be blown away by a hurricane within the next few days, I wake everyone up and make coffee for me and tea for Lauren before everyone else has a chance to get in the kitchen. After breakfast and our sack lunches made, we all pile into the truck (sans Tracy – she stays at the villa and works on this wonderful website) and drive 5 minutes to the Portofino Marina (where the Whaler is docked) drop off the crew (Chad and the kids) who motor to Marigot through the lagoon to the Kai Ohana (about a 7 minute boat ride) while Lauren and I drive the truck over there (about 25 minutes). Lauren then takes the truck back to the villa at 3:00pm, usually stopping at the chandleries on the way for the next day’s supplies, to make dinner. The rest of us typically stay and work until we roll up the tools, lock up the shop and container, and motor back to the marina in the dark where Tracy waits for us in the truck, usually between 7:30 and 8:00pm.
Once the kids get to the job, they always get themselves started and are well into their projects by the time Lauren and I arrive. Sara started refinishing the balusters around the stern deck and worked her way forward along the bulwark rails and then attacked the “dog house” (the exterior of the salon). Not only has she worked tirelessly on sanding and varnishing in the hot sun, she has also taken to patching much of the areas of teak that have rotted using round or diamond-shaped plugs that she makes herself.
Alexis finally finished the passerel (the ramp from the seawall to the stern of the boat). I put her on that project for two reasons. The first, it was a very difficult job and I knew she would stick to it and mind the details, and second, I knew she would have a tremendous amount of pride in it once completed. As I was helping her and Lauren assemble the newly gleaming parts, all the guys in the yard would come around and complement her on the fantastic job she did. So not only did she refinish something very beautiful for the boat, she cut her teeth on one of the boat’s toughest finishing projects This has made her somewhat of an expert in the field, and since then, she has taken on any and all of the finishing projects in and out of the boat including helping Sara.
Preston continues to improve his fiber glassing skills. He is wrapping up glassing all the decks and the chain locker among his many other duties. His last large glassing job and crowning achievement will be in the new shower stall in the fore head. Though he also works tirelessly at any task he is either given or chooses to do on his own, it is tough to keep him from working on “his corvette.” This is what the family calls the 30-year-old Boston Whaler that I purchased in Austin and shipped out in our container. As any 17-year-old kid would take to his first “set of wheels” (usually the oldest of the family’s cars) Preston spends an inordinate amount of time tinkering with this and with that on the boat. When I catch him I always yell out over the seawall, “Preston, would you work on the boat that is going to take us around the world instead of playing with that old jalopy!”
And I, well I’m still the project manager and driving force behind the vision. When everyone naturally wants to run off and play on the island, it’s me, the mean old boss that reminds them that as soon as we finish this project, we can go play on any island we want. Not that they haven’t had fun, however, it’s also my job (with Lauren reminding me) to strike the balance between working and knowing when enough is enough.
So in the beginning of the project where my sole job was to design, purchase and pay, I now get to play – actually work on the boat. The only designing I do now are drawings for Daniel’s stainless steel fabrication, Lauren and Chad have taken over the purchasing, and Lauren does all the banking. There are so many woodworking projects that need to be completed that I have set up a priority system – I speak with Chad, Daniel and Lauren every other day and ask them what wood working projects are holding them up from doing what they need to be doing. Those are the ones that go on the list and get finished first. So on we work, day by day, until she is finished.
