Co-conspirators in The Escape

Without a doubt the most fun part of rebuilding Oceanus is working with my wife. She is smart and hard working with skills that complement my own. She is constantly coming up with ideas that will make the boat more livable and beautiful  -- and then helping me bring them to life.

Jobs that I hate, or I'm not good at, she tackles with aplomb. It was such a relief to be able to turn over all of the painting to her. She is fast and good at it. She kept me racing along with the filling, sanding and other prep work so she would have things to paint during our weekends together working on the boat.

Popping plugs: The Plug Queen at work. More than 800 plugs so far and counting.

When I grumbled about all the screw holes that needed to be plugged after installing the ceiling, she volunteered to do it. She soon became the Plug Queen, spending hours gluing more than 800 (so far) plugs in place. Then, she learned to use a chisel to pare the plugs off flush. Now, she claims to love plugging screw holes. Another tedious job I don't have to worry about.

All 78 pounds of Virginia's new sewing machine.

A huge job she shouldered is the many sewing projects on the boat. Since the boat has an entirely new layout, it will need all new cushions. She picked out fabric (Sumbrella) and foam to make the new cushions and bought a heavy-duty sewing machine to sew them.

She is experienced with sewing, having made many of her own clothes over the years and even sewing covers for our other sailboats. But sewing a new dodger, bimini, cockpit enclosure and other boat-canvas projects will stretch her abilities. She is also learning to do sail repair and even make new sails.

She also thinks of ways to incorporate our favorite things into the boat to make it ours. For instance, she pasted old park passes, Fast Passes and other memorabilia from trips with our kids and grandkids to Disneyland onto the insulation before we covered it up with the ceiling. We won't (I hope) ever see it again, but it's fun just knowing they are there. We did the same kind of thing by incorporating an old paperweight of mine into the wood trim.

Mementos soon to be buried behind the ceiling. 

More than anything, Virginia is my inspiration on this project. Whenever the thought creeps into my mind to take a shortcut in the work I'm doing I think, "No. I want this to be the best work I can do because it will be Virginia's home." I would hate myself if, for instance, I failed to round over a sharp edge and she banged into it and hurt herself.

While she has always been supportive of my sailing obsession -- including three years when I disappeared into the garage to build a faering -- this time is different. This time she is fully engaged. She usually works with me two days a week on the boat. When I work alone, she always asks for a full report on "our escape-pod project." She spends hours watching how-to videos on making all the canvas work needed for our sailboat and carefully selecting fabric and just the right fasteners.

The result is that we are closer and more in tune as a couple than ever before in our 37 years of marriage. Working together on the boat and planning for our New Life is about the most fun we've had with our clothes on. I tell people that we are doing this project because I can't stand to be more than 40 feet away from my wife. And that's no joke.

Now, if I could just talk her into doing the plumbing....

Installing a wood ceiling

The new African mahogany ceiling in the forepeak of Oceanus.

There is nothing that improves the looks and comfort of an old fiberglass sailboat than a properly insulated wood ceiling.

Wood frames fiberglassed to the inside of the hull.

Pink foam insulation.

Jason, the previous owner, did the nasty work of fiberglassing the frames to the inside of the hull. My wife and I insulated between the frames with 3/4-inch thick pink foam board. Then we covered the entire section with Refletex, which is bubblewrap covered on both sides with foil. Then we covered that with a 1/16-inch thick white plastic sheet and sealed the edges with white duck tape. Then we could install the wood slats that make up the ceiling.

Stripping the the forepeak.

We were able to get some African mahogany at $3.50 a board foot. The boards were cupped and had a lot of checks in them, but once I milled it down to strips that were 1 1/2-inches wide by about 3/8-inch thick it looked great. It is just thick enough that I could countersink the screws deep enough that my wife could plug the screw holes. Since I made the plugs from the scraps of the left over wood, they matched perfectly. I also milled the trim from the same wood.

The burn marks from the saw blade sanded out easily.

It turned out better than we hoped. Each finished section has at least a couple of coats of my home-made varnish oil mixture. Eventually it will also have a couple coats of thinned spar varnish as well.

The ceiling in the main saloon.