Alberg 30 Boat Shelter

The boat is finally covered. I had started by looking at different types of covers people had used during refits. Problem was there were as many shelters as there were boats. One that I really liked was a wooden bow shed, which seemed very popular. The only problem: I am not a carpenter. While I can nail two things together, I'm just not a carpenter. At least I'm aware of this and probably saved myself a ton of grief trying to build the bow shed. I also found RV shelter intriguing but there were none in the size I wanted and they're expensive. So I set out to make my own. I found a place in Oregon that sold the shelter fittings and used their template to design mine. After a bit of trigonometry I had one designed and fittings on the way. Below are photos of the building process:

  

First things first: Most of southeastern Virginia is a swamp, or was one before it was drained and settled, and nature works tirelessly to return it to that condition. My yard is no exception. In order to make this into a suitable work area I had some stone brought in, about 5 tons of 57 grey. Cheap and effective! 

With the help of a friend I spread the stone....and soon found out that 5 tons wasn't enough. It was a good start but I will be ordering more in a week or so.

After the stone was spread, started building the shelter. Still not a carpenter, but I can work with steel!

These fittings make it a breeze, and within an hour or so I had roof assembled.

Next we lifted the roof frame onto the boat so we could get the legs under it.

With the legs under it and in place.

There is the shed, just about complete. I need to make this shed look as temporary as possible (to skirt city permits and rules for a permanent structure) so I set the feet of the shed in buckets and then concreted them in. Then I installed the cover. While it isn't quite done, it is now keeping Sal dry. I still need to install some X bracing to stiffen up the structure, but so far we have had 25mph winds on a few occasions and it has held quite nicely.

Now that the boat is covered and shelter nearly done I can get to refitting the boat. I am going to take some video and pictures of how she sits now for before and after photos of the project. These will provide me with references for getting her back together later.

10th Anniversary: Part 1

        I would like to start out by telling you all how lucky I am to find the woman of my dreams. For the last 16 years she has been my best friend and not a day goes by that she does not  make me smile and enjoy her company. 

For months we had been talking about how we wanted to spend our 10th wedding anniversary. I really wanted to spend it sailing the Chesapeake on our Sal. For those that don't know, my First Mate and I met on a boat, got married on a boat, and both love being on a boat. It seemed fitting to me that our 10th anniversary be spent on a boat; this time it would be our own boat, our Sal. Unfortunately, Sal was really not quite ready to go. Her v-berth has been in a construction state for...well...way too long. I am sad to report it is still that way today (updates on this later). After much debate and a few direct commands from the First Mate we decided on a road trip to Cape Cod. We had talked about going there earlier in the year to visit the newest additions to my family but just couldn't iron out any solid plans. If you love boats and the ocean but are forced to be land-bound, there's no better place than Cape Cod. Now we had a destination that was meaningful to us.

We headed off on our trip on the actual day of our anniversary. First we were going to spend a few days at Yogaville, a special yoga community and ashram, for Crystal to take part in her teacher training. We drove out west to the ashram in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, on the James River. It is beautiful there. When we arrived we set up our tent and had a nice relaxing evening. The next morning we woke up before the sun and headed to the top of Mt. Kailash to look out over the river valley and hills.

 Premium sunrise viewing spot for sure. A misty pale morning.

"I think Cape Cod is that way....yea...I'm sure of it."

Looking down at the Lotus Temple

On the James River during our hike

After our trek to the top of the mountain we went hiking for a good 2 hours along the James River, then went for a late breakfast of coffee and freshly baked goodies at Mandala, the small cafe there. It was just about then that Crystal's yoga classmates showed up. They were here as a group to further study some of the spiritual points of yoga. When they all headed off to practice I went down to the campsite to set up my portable amateur radio station and spent some time listening to the airwaves and trying to make radio contacts. After a few hours Crystal and her friends returned and we enjoyed the rest of our day together. The next morning we woke up early and broke down the tent. We were both very eager to hit the road and get to Massachusetts for the rest of our anniversary adventure.