Jersey Girl

Houseboat update Part 2, Thursday, September 20, 2018 -- Speaking of drainage from the poop deck, what's to prevent water from running down into the cabin? I'm installing a raised sill with a saddle of white oak, a beautiful, tightly-grained, tough wood that I think will resist wear over the years. To prevent water from leaking across the saddle under the aft cabin door, I am angling the red cedar undersill down toward the stern, so any water will drip away from the cabin, not into it. To do that, I'm making a series of angled cuts, using a Japanese pull saw, then a hammer and chisel to knock out the waste blocks between the cuts. It probably would have been easier to cut the angle into the cedar with a table saw, but I didn't think of the potential for inward water flow until after I glued it into place. Yet again, the opportunity for problem-solving.

Houseboat update, Friday, September 21, 2018 -- Jersey Girl's poop deck is virtually complete, now that I have installed a white oak door sill leading into the cabin below and just forward. What could be more natural than moving from the poop deck, which has nothing to do with poop, to the head, which does? In the second photo, you can see the framing in a compartment on the starboard side of the aft end of the cabin, which support a flat floor in the head. I don't know anyone who would relish a squat on the pot while sitting on a slope, which is the shape of the hull bottom. Flat and level is the way to go. By the way, I've seen WCs in New York City apartments smaller than this. So we're living large, folks.

Houseboat update, Wednesday, October 10, 2018 – Disaster averted! Lesson possibly learned, again (or not). I had an Idea that it would be nice to have access to storage below the fore deck from the pilot’s position inside the cabin, so I made sure to plunge-cut an opening in the forward starboard bulkhead, literally years ago. I saved the cut-out wood to turn into a grain-matched door. I actually found that wood, from three years ago, in the dusty clutter of my shop. Feeling pretty puffed up, I turned that piece of wood into a beautiful door, and I was just about to attach it with a continuous hinge this morning. But a little, mocking voice prodded me into wakefulness last night. “Pretty proud of yourself, aren’t you,” it said. “Okay, smart guy, exactly where did you intend to install that gorgeous antique wooden-spoked ship’s wheel you bought a couple of years ago, huh?” Yes, I was about to install a cabinet door in a position where it could not possibly be opened, barricaded in place by the ship’s wheel at Jersey Girl’s helm. So, instead of being a door, that framed-out and finished piece of matched-grain plywood will be inserted back into the place from whence it came, in my three-year-old burst of creativity. It’s not the first time I have learned – and forgotten – the lesson, not to fall too deeply in love with the sometimes misguided peregrinations of my own wandering mind. It has happened before in this project -- remember the aluminum runners I was going to install with bronze screws, until someone pointed out the corrosive consequence of combining these particular dissimilar metals – and I suppose it’ll happen again. One thing I have learned: it seems I never learn. Oh well. And, by the way, I’ll still have access to that storage compartment, through a deck hatch outside. I’m sure I will need that access, first to install the cable connecting the helm to the motor at the stern, for steering, and then to maintain it over the years.

Houseboat update, Tuesday, November 20, 2018 -- The California grands are visiting for the week, so a special tour of Jersey Girl was arranged. That's Noah at the helm, and Taylor with me in the cabin.

Houseboat update, Tuesday, April 30, 2019 -- First things first: after a night and morning of drenching rain, the lilacs are in full bloom. Nothing signifies springtime so much as the sweet aroma of these sadly short-lived flowers. And, yes, the rain also gave me an opportunity to brush up on my bailing skills. But to the main point at hand -- I am starting to fit the aft cabin bulkhead in the starboard side! I will finish cutting it today, but before I install it I will have to sand it and give it a couple of protective coats of epoxy on both sides. That will take at least two more days, probably three. I’ll probably shop for a couple of used ship portholes for the aft and port sides to break up the solid expanse of wood separating the head and galley from the aft deck