Sailing SweetHaven: Mark the Builder.

It's been a busy four days. Mark has started his off rotation, where after five days of working the midnight shift he gets four days off, and Mark being the hard worker he is, has had 96 uninterrupted hours of working on the boat. Of course it isn't the most fun way to spend your days off poor Mark has been living and breathing that boat, literally. Since the kids and I flew out two weeks ago Mark has only been back to the house once to do laundry, he works his shift then goes to the boat and works there, sleep and repeat. Although it hadn't been very fun it has been productive, which is what we have needed, boat work being accomplished.

Mark has been starting up forward and working his way back and has spent pretty much the last two weeks working on the head, considering there was no head at all when we bought the boat, there has been a lot to do. Last post he had put on the new flooring and installed the NaturesOwn Composting toilet. Now he worked on building the counter for the sink.

Shelving under the sink.

A closet with access from the V berth creates a wall in the head, a place to hang a mirror and hooks and so on.

Looking from the main cabin, into the V berth.

Mark is not a builder, he has worked with wood very little, he is more of a techi, you need a sound system setup, a computer fixed, software programs rewritten, Mark is your man. But this past year he has really branched out and started to become much more 'handy'. First with his two motorcycle fixer uppers he's gone through this year he has honed his electrical skills and gained some understanding of how engines work, which of course has come in useful. But now he has had to build almost

everything inside the boat, counters, shelves, heat shields, pantry... The list goes on and I am very proud of him for all the hard work he has done, especially since he hates building so much.

Sanding the floor where the table goes to varnish it.

Shelving in Aislinns cabin. She has a small cubby behind the wood stove so we build some shelves for her to keep her treasures, she is a little pack rat.

Decided the fill empty space in the main cabin with a pantry for storage (food probably) before there were three rickety, lopsided shelves hanging off the back wall there, this is much more efficient and now Mark has a nice big place to put his TV.

This is the inside of the closet that is in the head, if you were looking into it from the V berth. Mama needs a place to hang her clothes.

Floor varnished.

Our tiny Nav table, the stain was a bit more yellow than I would have liked. I know boat interiors are generally darker wood finishes but our boat is so small inside I didn't want anything to make it darker.

The window shelf in Aislinns cabin.

Mark is thankful, as he is about to head back to work tomorrow, that he has accomplished most of the major building and he can move on to projects he is more comfortable and happy doing, (plumbing, electronic hookups, etc.) Mark has two more weeks at home alone before he flies down to join us here in Florida, so we'll see how many more projects he can get completed, I've been encouraged with how much he has done already.

The wood stove is FINALLY 100% completed! This is the first project that is completely finished. A lot of projects have been started and almost completed but the final touches are always waiting, but now the skippy is completely installed, smoke pipe, damper and lastly bolted onto the shelf.