(rain falling)
- [Dana] 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 Penelope
for the voyage a lifetime.
So welcome to the winter build series.
(scraping)
(lighter flicks)
(chill ambient music)
(clock ticks)
(calming ambient noise)
(water pours)
(bubbling)
(stove flicks)
(water pours)
(kettle whistles)
(slicing)
(splashing)
(water pours)
(keyboard clacks)
(upbeat music)
(pages rustle)
(pen scrapes)
(rustling)
(footsteps)
(engine starts)
(faint music playing)
- [Lou] Boatyard in the rain, right?
- Good thing that she is all covered.
We won't get wet,
other than getting into the boat, but otherwise ...
What are you gonna do?
Where are you gonna store all of the wood that you got?
Hmm.
It's gonna be tricky to get it through the door,
on the, like, plastic shield thing.
There she is.
(car door opens)
(rain pours)
(chuckles)
Welcome to our other home.
- It's a wet one today, huh? - [Dana] Yeah, it's gross out.
- Look at this awesome cover though!
- But it's so good in here!
(chill acoustic guitar)
Welcome back to the winter boat build!
It's another rainy day here on Penelope but,
it's the beginning of an exciting week.
We're just kinda getting our bearings with the build.
We finished most of the toilet problem,
but now we still have to wire the pump.
And wire the gauge for that.
So that we wanna finish up this week.
We also, we have a huge electrical cabinet
that has all of the charge controllers
for the solar panels and things like that,
but we actually have two more solar,
or two more charge controllers
and we have wind power coming soon.
So we wanna make room for that.
So I think Lou actually wants to redo the entire cabinet
'cause, you know, this guy.
- I want to redo the wiring in here
because we need to fit two new charge controllers.
So this is gonna be made just a tiny bit bigger,
and we're gonna make it out of mahogany
so that it matches the rest of the boat.
Then once that's done,
we need to wire the pump
in the front that we installed for the waste tank.
That's gonna become the accessory on the 12 volt panel,
and we need to wire one of these gauges
so we can see the holding tank level.
And yeah, there's just a lot of like,
little things that need to get done this week
so that next week we can tackle the whole kitchen project.
(dull cutting)
(objects clatter)
(indistinct)
- [Dana] It works!
(lighter flicks)
(objects clatter)
(cutting)
There we go.
(chill music)
(chuckling)
(power tools whirring)
(indistinct)
- [Lou] There we go!
- Ta-da!
The boat is moving around a lot.
It's so windy outside.
It's not gonna tip over, right?
- [Lou] No.
- Okay.
(storm rushes outside)
(scraping)
(waves crash outside)
(chill music)
(lighter flicks)
Oh my gosh, Lou!
Merry Christmas. I thought I cleaned it all out.
- [Lou] What is that?
Wow.
(sighs)
What a surprise!
- What a nice (mumbles)
It's 'cause like,
it has that thing in the shelves, you know, that blocks it.
- [Lou] Yeah.
- And that was just like, hidden.
Wait, what else is back here?
(clattering)
Oh.
- [Lou] Not quite as exciting as the chocolate bar.
- No.
Yay!
- [Lou] Here you go. - So I have a treat.
- [Lou] Mhmm.
(wind blows)
(rain patters)
Road closed.
- [Dana] Bummer.
(rain patters)
(birds chirping)
(cutting)
- All right.
So I just connected all of the wires for the two gauges
and now hopefully everything will work when I
turn on the lights.
I wired them to the aft cabin light switch
'cause we're kinda running out of light switches
and that one's always on.
So we'll see if it works.
Moment of truth.
When I click the aft cabin switch,
hopefully those two guys will turn on.
Hey!
Wow.
It works!
So both tanks are empty,
but you can see that the lights turned on.
I'll just manually move the water tank
and we can see if it goes up and down.
(quizzical music)
Pretty crazy.
They both work.
That is a huge win.
I started installing those in the summer
and just never really got around to finishing the project.
But that's the beauty of this winter build is
all of these little projects can get done.
- Good job today.
Thanks for letting me enjoy the house.
I actually got a lot of computer stuff done, which was good.
(footsteps)
(rustling)
- [Lou] Ohh ...
I don't know about this guy.
- He's never done well.
I thought we were gonna be able to recover him
but he kinda came like this.
I'm gonna keep trying.
It's a funny, the other one did so well.
Like these were the same.
I don't know.
It's still learning.
(chuckles)
(water trickles)
(snips)
♪ I'm acting surprised ♪
♪ But I know I'm not over you ♪
♪ I keep missing our fights ♪
♪ Even though they're so overdue ♪
♪ We had a fire ♪
♪ Now I'm watching it burn ♪
♪ Oh ♪
(pop music)
- All right.
So today I had a fun, easy job.
I'm going to uninstall the icebox.
Dana doesn't know I'm doing this this week.
I wanna surprise her.
It's this massive insulated thing.
And we've decided we don't want it anymore,
and it's actually on the schedule for next week.
We're gonna uninstall it.
But I think I'm gonna surprise Dana and uninstall it today.
And I feel like she's gonna be really shocked
when she sees the entire icebox gone.
We decided we don't really want an icebox anymore.
It doesn't have a drain.
And once you fill it with ice
there's like hardly any room for food.
So we're switching to a fridge
and we're gonna use the massive amount of space
that the ice box takes up to put in shelves.
(acoustic guitar music)
♪ Putting a life in boxes ♪
♪ Erasing the memories so you won't notice I'm ♪
♪ Taking the time to focus ♪
♪ You're by yourself ♪
♪ I'm by myself ♪
♪ Wish I could solve your problems ♪
♪ They're stuck on my wall like neon paintings and I'm ♪
♪ So tired of being honest ♪
♪ To everyone by myself ♪
♪ I do it so well ♪
♪ We were so good at flying ♪
♪ But we can't keep flying ♪
♪ We keep getting stuck ♪
♪ On the wrong side of the mountain ♪
♪ We were so good at trying ♪
♪ But we can't keep trying ♪
♪ 'Cause we only end up ♪
♪ On the wrong side of the mountain ♪
All right.
Project is done.
And I wrote Dana a little note
'cause I want this whole situation to be a surprise.
So I'm gonna put the note down in there.
(trunk opens)
(bag thuds)
(exclaims excitedly)
- [Dana] You ready to go?
- [Lou] Yeah.
Are you ready for your surprise?
- Is there a surprise?
- [Lou] There's a surprise for you.
- What do you mean?
- There's a surprise at the boat.
So, because we live in such tiny spaces,
like the van or the boat,
I almost never get to surprise Dana
'cause she's like always around.
And this is one of the few times
where she hasn't guessed it.
Normally she guesses what the surprise is like right away.
But that's probably 'cause it's like,
not that good of a surprise.
Here we are.
All right.
Just give me one second to get the surprise sorted.
(chuckles) - You want me to wait here?
- [Lou] Yeah.
All right.
So I got this Brazilian dark sea salt chocolate,
and a handwritten note.
And I'm gonna put them in the bottom of
where the icebox used to be.
All right.
Let's see if you notice.
- There's stuff all over the floor.
- [Lou] What could it be?
- My gosh.
Did you?
(squeals excitedly)
Lou!
What?
You got the whole ice box out?
No!
Lou, it's chaos in here!
There's stuff everywhere.
Aw!
A little note!
(chuckles)
That's literally so sweet.
I cannot believe you got the whole thing out.
Was it a mess?
You didn't even break anything!
- [Lou] Nope.
- So we'll put shelving in here.
- [Lou] Mhmm.
- Wow.
It's gorgeous.
- [Lou] Isn't it cool?
- It's really, really cool.
I didn't even read your note yet.
I'm too excited.
- [Lou] Like, how much bigger our kitchen just got.
- Yeah.
I mean it's like, this is all of the storage we need
because this guy's a goner.
(rewinding sound effect)
There is like, stuff everywhere.
- [Lou] Yeah, and I cleaned a lot.
- What was it?
It's like, was it- - Styrofoam.
- [Dana] Weird.
So, what you, cut it? Or what?
- [Lou] I bashed it apart with a hammer and a screwdriver
and the (indistinct) tool.
- [Dana] Complete war.
- [Lou] Yeah. It was like war for two full days.
- Wow! This is crazy!
- [Lou] Right? It's so much space!
That's the good part.
- The best part.
- [Lou] Dana's love notes.
- It's my favorite thing.
Yeah, it's really exciting
and I'm very happy!
It's really cute that you
are trying to make my dream kitchen.
It's like, like starting to feel real, I think.
When we're actually like, moving towards the dream.
And it's also so funny because it's like,
compared to last year's build.
When we like hadn't been sailing,
we didn't really know what we were doing.
It's so much different because now all of the experiences
I feel like I can visualize so much clearer.
So the work putting in now makes so much more sense,
if that makes sense, you know?
Like ...
Yummy.
Mmm ...
You're adorable.
- [Lou] All right. You wanna try out our gauges?
All you have to do is switch the aft cabin light on.
- Okay, let's see.
- [Lou] And our little beauties should light up.
- [Dana] Hey!
- [Lou] Isn't that cool?
- [Dana] Wow, that's awesome!
So we got water and then waste.
- [Lou] This is all new right here.
Look at that.
- Wow.
You're taking this lead contractor role
very seriously, and I appreciate it.
I've been studying weather
a lot while we've been home.
While I've been home.
And learning tons about high pressure systems
and low pressure systems.
How to route around systems,
when to leave, when not to leave.
All that good stuff.
(drilling)
(clatters)
(drilling)
- [Lou] All right, let's see if it comes out.
(chuckles)
- [Dana] I thought it was glued on.
Yep.
- [Lou] Of course.
Sounds like-
- [Dana] Whoa!
- [Lou] There you go.
- [Dana] Hopla.
- All right.
- It is time to clean up Lou's big mess.
(laughs)
No, really though,
that styrofoam stuff goes everywhere.
And so-
- It's really itchy, isn't it?
- Yeah. And it's like, in the air.
That's why we've got these things on,
and yeah, it's fun.
We'll get this place cleaned up
and then the next thing we will get done,
not today, but is get going on the whole kitchen!
- Yeah, today is the last day of-
- The prep.
- Bits and bobs prep.
(chuckles)
♪ An ocean ♪
♪ A cave ♪
♪ A dream that no one could save ♪
♪ A shelter ♪
♪ A hole ♪
♪ A light that die with the night ♪
(melancholic music)
- Hello, and welcome back to the Live Creatively Podcast.
- Here we go again.
- Yep. It is Dana and-
- Lou.
- Obviously.
And we're really excited to chat with you guys.
It's Friday afternoon,
we just got back to the cottage
after a nice day working on the boat.
It wasn't a long one.
It was like, nice.
We just did some ... We just have a lot of like,
odds, like, what do you call it?
Like ...
- Like weird little loose-end projects to finish up.
- Just closing out, like,
preparing the boat for the big winter build,
which is gonna get started I think on Sunday.
- Yeah, that's wild.