The one thing I’ve never mentioned before is where in the world people have been following our blog from. Understandably the majority of the views have been from the US and Canada but there have been several other countries represented on my stats page.

Here is a screenshot of the statistics page on my blog. Yesterday alone there were 38 visitors from 5 different countries with 374 views. We are blown away. Aside from the countries listed below there have been visitors from China, Australia, South Africa, France, New Zealand and Finland.

When I started this blog I only planned on it being a way of allowing my father (and the rest of my family) and my friend Kevin to follow along. I figured Jason would be out here every weekend without fail helping me so he really didn’t need it.

There was no way that we could have dreamed that there would be this many people interested in what we were doing. Every once in a while we get a comment from one of you. They are always positive and always appreciated. We will be keeping this blog going long after Becky is in the water to have as a journal of our boating experiences. I have no expectation that anyone would be interested in continuing to follow along but it will be here in case you are.

Anyway… back to boat day…

Yesterday was another good day on the boat. They all are really. I had access to a quality pressure washer and wanted to use it to clean out all of the grooves in the port and starboard side windows. I was hoping that it would work and would save me quite a bit of time cleaning them. It worked perfectly.

I only had four window frames but I figured it would take me about an hour each at a minimum to get them clean. Using the pressure washer only took me less than a half hour.

Here is a before shot…

And after…

It is hard to see in these photos but the big difference is how clean the little 1/8″ wide channels are. I have a bit more sanding to do on them but I am very happy with how they turned out. These will be going to the finishers on Wednesday.

Once I was finished cleaning them I reinstalled the windows so that I could work on cutting the openings out of the 1/4″ MDF we fastened to the inside. This is a photo from the last blog post of those panels.

I needed to mark points along the opening that would be square to the panel. This way I could accurately cut an opening in the MDF that would be the same size as the window in the frame. Using a small corner mending plate I was able to mark dots on to the panel.

I took that frame back out and then drilled holes at these marks ending up with this on the inside. Simply connecting the dots I had the shape of the window.

Using a jigsaw I ended up with this.

Once we get the windows back from being powder coated we will put in the new plexiglass. Then comes the painstaking job of filling in the gap between the window frame and the inside panel. This will eventually be covered with the white vinyl and will definitely be a process of trial and error.

Donald worked on the cabinets on the port side at the stairs. Here he is explaining to me what he wants to do. He is an amazing cabinet maker but sucks at drawing.

The first thing to do was install supports for the shelf that the upper cabinets would be sitting on.

And then boxing out the inside corner. The plan is to have a bench in that corner so we will need to have it finish into something. We also didn’t want that much of a space beside the top step.

Fitting of the one part of the top…

And then the second…

He then started making the upper cabinets. This one will be without a door to display books. Similar to the cabinets on the starboard side.

The cabinet on the right will have a door and will be for storage. The one on the left is obviously for the electrical panel. Donald put it on on a hinged panel so that we can access the back.

The track has finally come in for our sliding door so that will be Donald’s focus on Tuesday. We are getting to the point where he has most of the cabinets in place now and will be finishing them off with doors and hardware.

The weather should be consistently warmer in a few weeks so it will be perfect timing for Donald to head outside and for me to continue on with the headliner.

Until later… have a great and healthy week.