Boat Bonding!

Last night was interesting. At around 4:30 am I woke up burning hot so I threw my covers off and turned off my heater. Then I had a sudden thirst, so I decided to go downstairs to get a bottle of water, I downed one bottle and put a couple in the walk in fridge, it felt nice and cold in there so I stood in the fridge for about a minute, then headed upstairs. I laid down and then could not fall asleep due to some weird banging noise I heard. I decided to check it out, so I crept up to the bridge, the windows were foggy, so I used my shirt to wipe one down and was peering out side. I got kind of creeped out so I went back into my room, and finally went to bed. I woke up this morning and found out that everyone had got up some point at night, and wandered around the boat hearing noises. Weird! But anyways, i'm in the process of making the downstairs bathroom look pretty, painting and cleaning, etc. We are cleaning the rooms and getting them suitable for the people comming on board. Also, David confessed to me today that he felt guilty because I guess he was preping my room before I arrived and he noticed that my pillow was way better than his, he told me that he was in the process of switching my good pillow for his not-so-good one, and that while he was doing this, he realized that he was wrong and that he didn't want to be that person! I'm glad that David is openning up to me and he feels that he can tell me his secrets! I thought I should return the gesture, so I confessed that last night when I went down to the fridge I drinked from the orange juice container, because I was too thirsty to get a glass.

bits and pieces

Hi Everyone-

Michael Bailey convinced me to cancel my flight home, so I will be in Norfolk for a little while longer. Melodie has been a great addition to the team and things are progressing as usual.
Tomorrow morning I am going to rent a truck and load it with a 600lb plate, which will be galvanized in Richmond.
We are also doing a thorough safety inspection for the exposure suits, vests and life rafts. We need to take the rafts to a specialist for inspection, repair and certification.
We are thinking about moving the ship to a different location. The idea was to move it to Nauticus, which is a tourist hot spot, but we will probably need a more industrial site for continued ship work.
Since we are outfitting the boat from the bottom-up, we have had to do a lot of shopping. Basically, we are ship workers by day and shoppers by night. Slowly but surely, the place is starting to look like home.
It looks like were starting to make it to the big time.
Congratulations everyone!
-Dave

Foggy Day

It's a rainy, foggy day here in Norfolk. Dave got up at 5:30 this morning to drive the base of the crane over past Richmond to get it galvinized. The winches are being installed as I type. We enjoyed our first dinner onboard the Weatherbird last night. Keeping busy, lots of stuff going on, and we are making progress!

Big News!

The Life Aquatic

Onboard the R/V Weatherbird II. I am impressed with the amount of room inside, and the boat (I mean yacht) is overall larger that I expected. The vessel makes me feel like I’m in the movie “The Life Aquatic”, minus the Jacuzzi, hot-air balloon, and Filipino pirates. Although, we did see nice jacuzzi at home depot today. My sleep last night was surprisingly good, although it took me a while to actually fall asleep due to some minor jet lag and pondering the black sharpie message in the wood right above my bunk that reads, “Hi Rob, Have fun! Hayden.” I wonder who Rob and Hayden are? Well I’m hoping Hayden had fun, as I am sleeping in his once upon-a-time bunk and following his legacy of crewing the great Weatherbird II.
Today, David and I, worked on sorting out safety equipment, We went through and checked the “Harvey Suits” (which are basically survival suits, you only wear if you're in big trouble, and when activated look surprisingly similar to a bright red version of the “marshmallow man” off “Ghost Busters.” We also checked the life vests and work jackets all of which need their strobe lights replaced, due to expiration dates. We are also replacing all of the batteries in the “E” (Emergency lights), which are located all over the boat. Locating these “E” lights reminded me of a “Where’s Waldo” puzzle, these suckers were hidden everywhere from the corner of the galley to the room behind the room of the engine room, which you can barely fit in. The time not spent checking, noting, and organizing safety stuff was spent cleaning and filling up my cup of coffee. Overall there’s lots of work to be done, but it was a good day and I feel optimistic that the boat will be ready by the end of the month.

news from the (water)front

Hello Everyone-

Everything is still going well on-board and off. The ship is no longer dry-docked, and it has been moved across the water, where it should be parked for a while. The weather is still cold, and they expect a little snow tonight. We picked up a couple of space heaters and sleeping bags to fight the chill. We figured that the folks on winter detail could be allowed to have some warmer bedding, which won't be necessary for our adventure on the Pacific. The ship is cozier now, and the state rooms are comfortable. As far as deck work goes, the crane is being readied for installation. Right now, they are cutting a giant slab of steel that will be placed under the base. The shipyard workers are also starting to remove some metal from the back deck, to get it ready for the vans. In other news, TJ the engineer enjoyed his first burrito today. I hope all is well, and I will send more updates soon. -Dave