(upbeat music)
- So lately, Lou and I have been trying
to divide and conquer all of the boat projects
we need to get done before Penelope goes in the water.
Which means while Lou goes to the yard
to work on the physical construction,
I'm at home in the cottage tackling the cushion project.
Normally we spend close to a hundred percent
of our time together.
So it's taken us a little while
to settle into this new routine
but it's nice to see the to-do list slowly shrinking
as the weeks go by.
And there's always that exciting feeling
when you get to see all of the work
that other person has done
while you were focused on your own projects.
I feel like by doing it this way,
the dream is setting sail again
is starting to feel closer and closer
and everything is falling into place.
- Okay.
(upbeat music)
- Hi, I'm Dana, and that's my husband, Lou.
For the past five years,
we've been on a mission to live creatively.
It all started when we quit our jobs in New York.
Moved abroad, bought a rusty old van named Odie,
fixed him up in the mountains in Spain,
drove through Most of Europe, wrote a book
sold the van and bought a sailboat.
Our next goal is to circumnavigate the earth
in our 1976, Rasmus 35.
But first we need to prepare
for Nella fee for the (indistinct) lifetime?
So welcome to the winter build series.
Ready to go.
So today I am gonna be doing the V-berth cushion.
So I don't have the foam yet,
and I don't have zippers yet.
This project has like been very piecemeal.
So this is the chaos of the house.
Here are the V-berth cushions.
So I have these three cushions
and then I do things like this.
So this is like what I was working on yesterday.
So you can see the AFT cabin.
I draw out the cushion
do a lot of measuring and yeah, it works very well.
(rustling sound)
So now that I have the kitchen there
I'm just gonna trace around it.
(drawing sound)
Traced, so now I need to add the seam allowance.
Try doing as three quarter inches around the whole cushion.
So that way when I sew it, there's enough room
to actually put the stitches in,
you know, because if you didn't add that extra
and you just cut out exactly
the shape of the previous cushion,
you actually wouldn't have enough fabric.
So, that's the plan.
Hopefully it works.
And yeah, let's do that.
So now I've got all of these measurements for the cushion.
I'm going to do the calculations for the area around.
I thought I would take a second and just explain,
so basically you have to cut out
this piece of fabric on the front,
and then you wanna have a little extra
so they can make the seam
and then you have to make the side pieces.
And then you also have to make here for the zipper.
That piece has to be bigger and the back.
So that's what I'm doing.
It's called the box cushion,
and this front bit and the back bit,
I think are called plates.
And then the side bit is called the gusset, I think.
And yeah, I have never sewn anything like this before.
And because I didn't have the zippers,
I actually have cut out all of the fabric.
So really, really keeping my fingers crossed
that the method that I am doing
is actually gonna work
because otherwise I have cut out all of the fabric,
and that will be a really big headache
but I think I've done it right.
I read a bunch of blog posts,
watched a bunch of YouTube videos.
So that's what we're doing.
And now I'm going to use this amazing gadget,
it's called a hot knife and you plug it in.
It gets really hot and you can cut the fabric perfectly.
And if you use scissors on a fabric like this
it would fry a ton.
Whereas this seals it as you cut
very, very helpful.
(upbeat music)
- So, the first question of the day is done.
I have two more to do that I wanna get done today,
but I feel like it's time for some snacks.
(upbeat music)
(indistinct) very yummy.
(upbeat music)
(paper rustling)
(snow squeaking)
- So there's a lot of very exciting changes to the boat.
Since you've been here last time,
the bathroom sink I have completely removed
and we're gonna redo the faucet on there,
to switch it to a foot pump posit.
And when I was tearing out the sink
unfortunately the countertop broke.
So I'm putting in a new countertop
and there's gonna be a new sink
which is quite a bit bigger.
So you can like do laundry in there
which is really, really exciting.
I also built a workstation outside
on the back of the boat, in the,
like under the cover
but where the stern arch is,
and this way I can keep working whenever it's snowing
and I don't make as much of a mess down in the yard below.
So I feel like it's a, win-win
not having to go up and down that ladder all the time,
even though the boat is absolutely covered in sawdust.
So today I'm gonna vacuum and clean everything
and kind of get the workstation organized.
I've also installed this really cool built alarm system,
like a full monitor with a high water alarm
oil and fuel alarms and a bilge counter.
So you can see the bill just like the bottom of the boat
and it fills with water just like a little bit normally,
but sometimes it can like fill a ton with water.
If you have like a hole or something like that.
And this counter allows you to see every time
the bilge turns on and off.
So if you like left for a week or something
you would be able to see like,
Oh, the bills was on a lot while we were gone.
That's very weird.
I wonder what happened.
I also installed two fans in the AFT cabin
or the back room,
and they're permanently mounted to the wall.
So I'm gonna do the finish the wiring on those today.
And then the other tasks
besides cleaning the boat that I really wanna get done,
is to finally, finally, finally,
install this holding tank vent.
It's gonna be like a smelly job
and I've been meaning to do it for weeks
but today's the day.
So quick tour, the countertop is gone.
This is gonna be where the sink drains down to,
think I'm gonna redo this plumbing
because it takes up a ton of space.
I also rewired the Columbus to here.
So this is my workstation on the stern arch.
It's just like mounted there.
And the tension actually keeps it all in place.
So I'm gonna stick this over the top of the holding tank.
So you don't by accident see, there's a coloration
cause it's really gross
but this is the boat's holding tank.
That is the Aerobahn, which bins out.
And when you're sailing, it smells really nasty.
So I bought this DOMETIC ECO HOLDING TANK VENT FILTER,
and I already bought a replacement.
So hopefully it works.
And I'm just gonna have to install it on this tube.
Somehow all of the like old connections on the boat,
are always sealed.
Like fully sealed with like 4,200 or 5,200.
So you can pretty much have to cut everything to get it off.
It's all like sealed in place.
So I'll cut it here.
And then I'm hoping to install it right there
against this wall.
I think since it's just air going through,
it's not doesn't really matter
if there's as many like right angle turns
as in like normal plumbing.
We'll see.
Hopefully it works.
(upbeat music)
All right, the vent install is in.
I cut it off from there.
Put that guy in, got one hose clamp on there.
One hose clamp on there
and I'm missing the hose clamp for over there.
But overall it looks pretty good I think.
Hopefully it does the job it's supposed to do.
The whole area is gonna get covered in
you're really never gonna see it.
So, yeah.
So these are the kinds of things
that Dana and I get excited about.
New vents, beautiful plumbing set up life is good.
(shaking sound)
(plopping sound)
(upbeat music)
There we go.
(laughing)
There we go
Look at that.
Let's make sure that the lights still work.
(upbeat music)
All right, that wraps up my work on the boat for today.
For the first time in a very long time
I actually got everything done on my (indistinct)
(upbeat music)
- Where to put all the chaos.
(sliding sound)
Welcome home
- Hello.
How are you?
- Fine
- I missed you.
Wow
(laughing)
It looks incredible in here.
- Do not go.
(mumbling)
This is beautiful, right?
- Yeah, this is incredible.
- All the fabric is cut.
- Wow, good job.
- Thank you
- (indistinct)
- Yeah, you're home early?
- Mm-hmm.
- That's nice.
- Finished all my projects.
- Really?
- (indistinct)
- Yummy groceries.
(snow squeaking)
- This snow is so pretty.
The air is fresh.
It's not as cold as I was expecting.
It's time to make them bonfire.
(snow squeaking)
- We have arrived at the fire pit.
Look at that.
- What a day?
- We've been walking by this fire pit
like probably a hundred times
and thought about making a fire.
And tonight is finally the night (laughs).
- Wow. Pretty cool, right?
- It's really so gorgeous out.
It's like dead calm
the water is so (indistinct),
which will...
Should make making a fire much easier.
- Yeah, it's normally super windy here,
which is why we've never made a fire,
but there's no wind.
- That makes it so much less cold.
- Yeah, it's 20 degrees outside but__
- It doesn't feel like it.
- The windshield has really got us to the bone.
Like one day it was negative seven with windchill.
It's like, you can't go out in that kind of weather.
- You cannot.
Shall we?
- Let's do it.
(upbeat music)
- You build this a fire view.
- I don't think I've ever built a fire in the snow before.
- No?
- (indistinct) that I can remember.
(upbeat music)
All right
- Time to light it
(upbeat music)
(fire burning)
- [Luo] (laughs)
(fire burning)
- Well, I think that wraps it up.
Divide and conquer is no longer.
We are back together in the same spot
enjoying this beautiful fire.
Thanks to Lou.
And it's just been a really nice day honestly.
It's been so fun to work on Penelope,
even doing our separate things,
because we know that we're
like working towards the same goal,
like the same dream of having Penelope, UV,
everything that we want her to be.
And you're really crushing your to-do list on the boat.
And I feel like the cushions are coming together.
Well, hopefully they are.
And yeah, that's kind of where we're at.
`So you have a nice day.
- Here is amazing
I feel like I'm like halfway done with my to-do list
which is a very good feeling.
- Yeah.
- And I'm like ahead of schedule for the first time.
I think in my life.
(laughing).
(water bubbling)