Because I can....

People often ask me why I do things. It doesn't seem to make sense to them why I would waste my time building a boat instead of just buying one, or why I would just up and sell everything and leave not knowing what my plan might be, or why I rock climb or even climb in general, or whatever it is...I just seem to do a lot of things that people just don't understand. And of coarse I get nearly the same precautionary tale or warnings from people about how the things I do will not bode well for me or that they will get me hurt or even killed. I do truly understand people's concerns and all, but where would we be if we didn't have people like myself that ignored others constant precautions? Would we have ever even discovered the America's or set foot on the moon or even have been able to survive as a race? I have found that I am uniquely me. I find enjoyment in doing the things I do...even if they seem to be abnormal or uncommon. If by chance one day the lifestyle I choose to live decides to bite me in the ass...well then I suppose I will deal with it when that time comes. But don't think that I'm not willing to be responsible for the repercussions of my actions in life. I think that's all for today. As always I wish you all only the best. Have a great day today!

-Jesse

Why have a disgusting dirty mustache?.....Because I can haha!

Too Good!

This commercial was just too dang good not to share! Exactly what motivates me in life!

The little phone that could....

Well my busted up, old, dilapidated Iphone finally gave up the ghost today. It just went black and unresponsive out of now where. Its a sad day for me since its made it so long for being so so so beat up. I'll almost miss having every single person I meet ask me "HOLY CRAP! What did you do to that thing?"....almost. I suppose I'm just not meant to have a phone at this point in time? I mean I do have a boat to build and all... And after deleting my facebook and other social media sites; I think its fair to say that I will have yet again disconnected myself from the outside world. This is the third time in my adult life that I have gone without a phone. Which to be quite honest I really enjoy it. It seems to make things pretty simple. You run into the people your meant to run into and the people who really know you or really want to get a hold of you seem to. If any of you really want to get in touch with me, well.......I think you'll figure it out. From this point I guess I will say "I'll see ya when I see ya" and as always I wish you all the best. Have a great day!

-Jesse

Busy busy busy....

I have been going like crazy the last few days on the boat! And yet it still seems like all that I have been doing is drilling holes and plotting and planning. I swear that by the time I'm finished with this project I will have build this boat a million times over again in my head. I have the luxury of having four days off in a row this week and am planning on taking full advantage of them. Today was my first day off and I put in a solid ten hours of work on the boat already today and am contemplating going back out to work some more after this post. But I figured I would take the time to write another post and try to motivate myself to get back out there. In the last two days I have actually gotten a good deal done. Tuesday night finished glassing in the two bulkheads I fared in last week. Yesterday morning after waking up with a killer headache from glassing without my respirator. (I know not good but it just skipped my mind.)  I started mocking up the chain plates to be placed and organized some things around the boat. Unfortunately that was all that I had time to finish before heading to work. I woke up today and got right to work. I finished drilling my holes for my chain plates and figured that if i had all of my bits handy I might as well go to town. So I continued to drill away until I had all of the holes drilled for everything I needed to bolt down on deck...rails, travelers, lifelines, bow rail, mast plate, wenches, well I think you get the point. I seemed as though it was never ending, but at last I finally finished. After sitting in the boat for a good thirty minutes trying to think of what to do next I decided to make book shelves above the quarter berths. This project was fairly straight forward and only took me about an hour or so total to finish both sides (although they still need to be trimmed but that's for later). After I finished my book shelves again I found my self sitting there looking around for something to work on and stumbled across the old beat up backing plates for the life lines. So I took them down to template out and and cut out replacements. The last project of the day so far was to get a few pieces of gear working again. There were a moving components that needed a bit of love to get them back to the point where they were working properly. So I spent the last bit of my evening freeing up locked pulleys and and stuff. Shortly after finishing Don called and offered to buy me dinner and chat about some questions on the boat. I feel like I chat the guy's ear off all the time, especially lately. But he is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to offshore sailing and is always more than grateful to share it with me. He has really been a large influence on my life over the years and has always had great advice for me on any situation, whether it was about boats, girls, work, or whatever really. I am very thankful to have him as a friend. I think that's about all for tonight, but as always I wish you all the best. Have a great day!

-Jesse

Templating out the bulk heads

Transferring the templates to cardboard

Test Fitting the cardboard templates before cutting out the bulkheads

Tracing out the templates

1/4 berth shelves

Trying to figure out where things go...

Mocking in the chainplates

Pushing hard on the boat

Dodger and Stern Rail going on

The boat project has been pretty full on lately. I have been working hard lately on it and have been feeling like I haven't been getting a lot done. I now understand why it took so long to finish Don's boat. I find myself getting distracted with multiple projects on it at once and get them half done or run into a spot where I need an extra set of hands. I was up early this morning (5:45) to bring the boat home from the boat shop. Soon after I got the boat home this morning my good friend Kevin came over and helped out for a few hours. We got the dodger and the stern rail sealed with 5200 and bolted down. I think Kevin is just as excited to be working on it as I am. I am glad to have a friend that is motivated and willing to help. Soon after Kev and I got everything bolted down and cleaned up, we headed over to the lake to have a little sail session on the Hobie cat before work this afternoon. The winds looked promising this morning but as usual it died off by the time we got there and on the water. But either way we still got out and made a few passes in front of the NIC shack and that's all that really matters. After work tonight I came home and got to work on the boat again. I finished up glassing in the bulkheads I had made last week. I am very relieved to have those glassed in place and hopefully in the next week I will have my last few bulkheads glassed in place and the galley mocked up and on its way in. Hopefully you all have a great week this week and thanks for reading.

Getting the first post out of the way...

At last time has come for me to start a blog to catalog my adventures, mishaps, stories, and well what ever it is that I feel inspires me to share with you all. I will do my best to try to post as many pictures for your viewing pleasure since of coarse I know how great it is to have a visual to go along with any stories I may post. As for now I will post a few pictures from trip to Rainer earlier this year. Coming soon will be pictures and short explanations that will catalog my sailboat restoration project.