Andy in Wales

puttin El Prop on!

2008-05-01T14:34:00.000-07:00

Well, today we put the prop shaft in permanently! Heres some pics of it! still to go on though, is the rope cutter and the anode, the reason we look like chimney sweeps is because Drew and I were sanding some fairing earlier in the day.
first the prop shaft...

then the prop!...

tighten the big nut!

and its done!

How I woke up on the 21st.... no comment

2008-04-27T14:39:00.000-07:00

How I woke up on my 21st... dont ask

hey guys! took a trip this weekend to get boat parts and such, but also went to tour all the sweet old ships and such in porstmouth, went to stonehenge, went to the boat jumble at beuleigh, camped out in some field, spent the night in a pub in a marina. All to be written for now haha, heres pics to tell it all.

The hms victory, nelsons flagship at trafalgar

the henge

the spot on deck of the victory where nelson was shot

Got the Black Lung

2008-04-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

Hey Dudes, good picture for yah of the work were doing right now, the weather is nice so now were on to the exterior. What we've gotta do first is us filler and then sand everything to get everything nice, flush, round, and shipshape. The problem with making a yacht out of steel is that when you weld it all together it gets warped and then you hafta fair it in. Anyways, this was the dustiest day in the history of the boat, we had to put a tarp up over the aft deck while we ground out fairing that had cracked all over it so that the dust wouldnt get on neighboring yachts. Their yachts stayed clean, we looked like chimney sweeps. Cheers guys.

Led Zeppelin and Welsh Cakes

2008-04-08T00:51:00.000-07:00

The first beach we went to, sweet, but no sand.

Howdy All, Sorry its been so long since a post... again... but will actually be doing more posts when we actually sail 'cause they'll be a little more exciting. But anywho the lowdown for now. Work is cruisin along, were working even untill 8 or 9 pm somedays because it now stays light that late and were getting in the groove. Finishng up the deckhead cladding at the moment which takes a long time. We hafta mix up this glue that has formaldehyde in it (remember that from biology?) and then we have about two hours to use it before it sets up. this may sound pokey but we can only get about 7 full length cladding planks out of each pot and it takes the full two hours to do it. Mostly because we have to fit the planks around all the studs we welded to the deckhead which hold the whole affair up. Were about 2/3rds done with all cladding though! Woo hoo! and have started working on the exterior on nice days. When you see the pictures of the cladding just to appreciate the time it takes, first we hand machined every single piece, split them in half on the table saw to get them so slim, and then routed the edges to get the bevels. Then we can only do about 20-30 planks a day and that takes ALL day. But it looks fantastic! In other news, been going to this local church here now regularly thats great. You've never heard a worship service until you've been in a huge wooden hall with a hundred welshman belting out hymns accompanied by String Instruments, Woodwinds, Grand Piano and Drums. Also the other day Drew and I took a day off and went in search of some sandy beaches to use our skimboard on. We made it to one beach in a village called southerndown but there was no sand. It was gorgeous though, sooooo it being the UK, we went to the next village over ( called Ogmore-by-sea?) to check out that beach... it took a minute to drive between the villages... literally.. haha! And we found a sweet sweep of sandy beach complete with sheep grazing and " 'er ladyshi'p" riding horses on it. The heavens shown down saying "this is the beach" and we promptly ruined the picturesque british scene with our vulgar Yank frisbee and skimboarding for the afternoon! Take it easy guys!
Puttin Cladding up in tha Saloon! Cladding everywhere you can see A little skim action!
Drew cruising along

Holy Ship! literaly!

2008-03-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

yep, its a big bow
the tres amigos

Howdy guys! sorry for the infrequent update, computer was out of action again. - Boats goin well! Steering is almost done! Weve got our wheel up! and should have a fully steering boat in a few days. Drew and I finished all the ply wood up on the deckhead and should be doing cladding soon! On tuesday we drove to bristol to pick up some stuff and decided to stop off at the S.S. Great Britain. - the first( I think) Iron ship, which was also the fastest ship in the world under power at its time. It was an amazing feat of engineering for 1843 including the 4 piston steam engine that was larger than almost our entire boat! It was abandoned in the falklands but then barged up to bristol and put in the dry dock where it was built which is where it is now. The real cool thing about it is the glass you can see in the pics around the water line. Its got water on top of it so it looks like its floating but what it is really doing is preserving the bottom half of the ship which you can walk around. Below the water line the iron was so impregnated with salt it would decompose if left in the open so under the ship in the drydock is actually entirely conditioned with warm air and dehumidifcation to stop the ship from disentigrating. It was quite wild to see! by the way, the ship was full of holes. our wheel!imagine making that when folks were still riding horses around.

Tea Break

2008-02-27T14:58:00.000-08:00

Quickie for yah- heres a pic of our tea break today, been a long day of some sweet hard labor. It was warm, sunny, and windless today so we actually sweated! Wish I was back home sitting in class on a day like this? Nope. For all of you that were in class today, Carry on! And one day, you'll be able to afford us paupers to sail you around! Haha take it easy guys. Oh, and we gave ol duke a haircut!

The Brecon Beacons! and a few pics of some work

2008-02-21T14:40:00.000-08:00

Howdy all, short post but lotsa pics. Quick rundown! - Work on boat is goin sweet, getting a lot done, weather is getting warmer so soon enough should be able to get to final fairing and painting of the boat! Interior is about to get majorly underway with putting up the Deckhead ( ceiling) so pics will follow of that soon. Other happenings- Fell in with a sweet crew, met some folks that love the outdoors as much as drew and I do so been going on some good trips, weekend before last went to the welsh national climbing center in the valleys and climbed all day. last weekend we went to the brecon beacons national park and did some great hiking in the mountains, it was so beautiful and different to hiking in the u.s. Parts of the hike were on an old roman fort road of which there were still a few stones in place, next to that were sheeps haha! God has made a beautiful world. The crew weve been going with is pretty international haha, a girl from germany, a guy from sweden, the trip to the beacons a swiss lady and some welsh folks came along too. The pics of working are from this morning when we were modifying the rudder. Take it easy! - Andy
a perdy little frozen pool on top of a mountain
our trail
duke welding, drew cutting, the rudder is hollow so it can be filled with oil, it makes it lighter in the water
doin a little cutting m'self
the crew at a peak about to eat lunch
eating an apple on the verge! so pretty from up top

The Great Flood and' I be Da Beach Mon

2008-02-09T13:55:00.000-08:00

Howdy guys! Two stories for this update. First of the new stuff, kallum the aussie arrived finally from thailand, quite a crazy dude, unfortunately, while we went to pick him up at london heathrow we left the water on to fill our water tanks on the boat. While we do have a 640 gallon water tank, 6 hours of hose filling over flowed that so that when we got back water had been flowing into the bilges and the hold for quite a while, wouldnt of been a big deal except a bunch of real sweet books dave was saving for the ships library got soaked, so theres a pic of the flooded hold, and me cleaning it later haha. There was about 1000 gallons of water that overflowed because the hold was a foot and a half deep and the water was flowing into the engine compartment and had been flowing into our diesel tanks ( which hold 460 gallons) for a while. So that was a bummer but all clean now.

Other sweet stuff! boat is going well, should be gettin a lot of work done in the next few weeks. Also I finally made it to the ocean! Took a run there the other morning because its about 3 miles away. We are on the cardiff bay, but the bay has a dam with a lock between it and the bristol channel. The bristol channel has a 40 ft tide rise and fall which is ridiculous, the only way the bay can function is with the locks keeping it at high tide level the whole time. Heres pics of the bay and the crew, you can see how far the tide is out in some of them, its ridiculous. Take er easy guys!

Update-!

2008-02-05T01:21:00.000-08:00

Hello Chaps, Ive been meaning to update this here blog for a while but my computer has been cheeky blighter lately so I just finished fixin it. Anyways happenings: Weather is crazy, the other day it was hailing with the sun out. Its either sunny and windy, rainy and windy, or just windy. Tea is phenomenal, I dont know if I will ever not spend a day with at least one cup of earl grey with sugar and milk in it and some biscuits again. Work is going slow at the moment, were all ready to start putting up the deckhead(ceiling) which is done by first using a studwelder to weld a little threaded stud every foot on the metal roof beams, then fitting in and putting a layer of 4mm ply along the deckhead, then curving pine cladding to the curve of the boat on top of that, then laying teak beams along where the metal beams were. Should look sweet. Anyways were all rarin to go but were dealin with a bum studwelder. Other news: we get our aussie tommorow, should be a blast. Oh and I bought a second hand fiddle, try and learn how to play some ol bluegrass tunes. At the moment sounds like a cat in a cement mixer. anyways heres some pics for yah. a typical day of work haha
it was hailing in this picture
sort of what our boat should look like when done, its a schooner as well but ours will have a wooden deckhouse.
a beautiful small wooden boat thats abandoned right next to ours, if possible I really wish I could restore it as its still in decent shape. (It usually serves as our urinal sadly enough.)

Our behemoth!

The Living Quarters!

2008-01-22T12:02:00.001-08:00

Hey guys, saw the Welsh sun for the first time since arriving, its been rainy and windy most of the time I've been here which ain't to great because you've gotta go pick a boat in the boatyard and "water" it when nature calls and when youve gotta answer a call and do some reading youv'e gotta hike to the boatyards loo. Lol Beautiful day today, finally got my luggage! (after being 4 days without it.) and put some clean clothes on. Cooked some sweet porkchops for dinner and have had more tea and "biscuits" in 3 days than my entire life, pretty good stuff though! Spent the day trying to find a second hand bike to bruise around on and doing other such stuff, not too much work as were waiting for a electric welding "stud gun" which gets in tommorow so we can start attaching wood to metal! Got the "Aft Cabin" designed and started construction on it yesterday. (made wood bulkheads.) Anyways here pics of the inside! (these are from fore to aft w/ no picture of the fo'xl which is the formost cabin and is small, the yellow stuff is insulation.)

In Wales!

2008-01-20T16:34:00.000-08:00

Well Guys I made it! Everything I hoped for, pics of Cardiff and the boat will follow soon! Been a crazy few days, in fact just finished having some hard cider with a tibetan monk (he wasnt drinking it.) a 32 yr old german climber, drew and dave while watching american Idol of all things. American Airlines lost my bags so I should get them tuesday so I may smell a little but now but big deal. The boat is surpisingly real warm and cozy which is fantastic because its been cold and rainy for the past two days and weve done nothing but sit around inside, do a few things, play some guitar, and wait to be able to get stuff done. Got a sweet meal at a classic old pub called the halfway, had a pint of dark with some lamb sausages and mash and peas, best meal of my life. The boat show was phenomenal, heres a pic of Drew ( young dude) Dave, ( crazy welsh dude) and I at the london boat show which was a blast after we finally made it there. Bout to hit the sack but so far, havin a sweet adventure, more pics and posts will follow, Take er-easy, Andy

2008-01-07T19:51:00.000-08:00

Got my tatto! here it is, only 10 days till I'm heading off now, will start posting actual cool posts then. Take er easy-Andy

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T22:16:00.000-08:00

Good News everyone! Its the birth of our savior today! Anyways got a sweet digital camera for christmas and to compound that fact with the fact that I leave in 20 Days the blog should be taking off soon. About to head back to college station to work a little more and move out. All I really still need to sell are my hobie cat and mountain bike, the rest the Lord has been incredibly faithful and provided buyers for. (And someone is looking at the hobie when I get back to CS.)
As a second subject, about to finally get my first tattoo- heres two sketches of options. Both will have the latin phrase Sola Fide inscribed with them. Sola Fide is the original "tower revelation" of Martin Luther that started the reformation and ultimately the protestant church. Sola Fide means Faith Alone. Through faith alone in the incredible gift of Christ's sacrifice are we saved from the eternal damnation our sin bought for us long ago. Through faith alone we are God's beloved and he will take care of us in this life or the next can we wake up each day to live for him without fear. Thus faith is the guide to my life and that is why I incorporated faith with the compass rose. How's she look?

Done with college Ahoy!

2007-12-11T22:52:00.000-08:00

Howdy all!
Today was the last day of college for me, I woke up at ten, rolled out of bed, and started the day with realizing we were out of toilet paper almost just in the nick of time. Made a quick grocery run to pick up the staples: granola, milk, eggs, peanut butter, bread and of course TP. I then rode my bike to campus for the last time, grabbed a dining hall meal for the last time, went to the RPTS computer lab and studied for a final for the last time ( all of ten minutes) and BS'ed my way through an essay question for the last time. As I walked out the door I realized it was my last day of college, and got pretty stoked. The rest of the day was spent sailing at the lake, cooking up some fried apples in rum sauce over icecream, smoking a great cigar with a cup of coffee, and hanging out with some buddies.
GREAT DAY!
Anyways for those of you who don't know, I am dropping out of college after this semester to pursue a calling that I have felt for 1 and a half years now. That calling is reminiscent of nike advertisements and all comes down to "just go do it". I first felt this calling during my second summer at tbarm where I would spend the time during mainthings dreaming about just going out into the world to serve in some form or fashion. The first conversation I had about it with anyone was with A.J. Perea my covenant leader on top of the trapeze tower at the pool. God has definately been calling me to do something different for quite a while now but I believe the last year and half he has been directing me and helping me grow in faith to come to depend on him in a way that I am so much more prepared and so much more NOT prepared for what is to come than ever before. One struggle that will come up in the next year is that I will have to continue to give each day to God and rely on his own strength and provision and that will be a great challenge.
Through the past year and a half I have tried many times to quit school and each time God has closed a door and narrowed the search of an opportunity. First, the marines turned me down for eyesight (due to the corneal transplant.) then the coast guard turned me down for "Asthma". After that I began to look at wooden boat building school which has led me to where I am headed today. This past semester has been wonderful as I have discovered three things I would like to do the rest of my life.
1. To cook for others- God has brought people into my life that it as brought me no greater joy than to provide with food.
2. To build boats/work with my hands- this semesters backyard project has been to build 14.5 ft long cajun piroguewhich is nearing completion and has been more fun to build than to ever paddle.
3. To combine 1&2 to serve others with any means necessary- The rest of my life I would like to serve others through cooking for people, working with my hands, and trying to let Christ's love shine through me.

-This brings us to today, today was the last day of college, and a day closer to the adventure in January. On january 17th I will be flying out of midland with my laptop, few clothes, my harmonicas, a hammock, a backpack, a bible, and the foxfire book( a book on mountain remedies, recipes, weather prediction, snake lore, the art of moonshining, and wood carving). And flying to Cardiff Wales where I will be for the next year. For the next year I will be living in the hull of a 65 ft. Sailboat with a retiring Welshman Dave, a 24 year old from wisconsin Drew, and a 22 yr old from australia Kallum as we finish construction of the boat in preparation to at years end when it is hopefully finished, sail to the Mediterranean and charter for several years. This should be a great adventure and a great way to serve others, cook, build a boat, and show Christs love. I will be living without income as Dave provides lodging and most of food, until the chartering begins but the Lord well e'er provide.

P.S. I hope to see everyone over christmas break for a goodbye! - Andy