A visit from the captain

Capt. Dan flew home from Cape Town, where the Barque Picton Castle is currently docked, to Lunenburg this week to check in on the Twin Schooners and other Dawson Moreland & Associates projects. As you can see, his meetings with Dave went really well.

Actually, things did go very well and though it was 'a flying trip' (the captain flew back to Cape Town after just four days to complete the last leg of Picton Castle's 30,000 mile voyage around the world), the pair were able to sort many details regarding these beautiful schooners being built here at The Dory Shop. Capt. Dan and Picton Castle will sail back into Lunenburg in June.

Winter wonderland workspace

Okay, so it doesn't always feel like a wonderland, especially when you suddenly have a couple of feet of snow in your workspace. But our gang liked the fact that when the snow came down, the temperature went up.

As you can see, Dave and Bub have been fitting and installing all manner of knees - hanging knees to support the ends of the deck beams from below; lodging knees, which fasten the forward side of a ship's beam to the schooner's side and bosom knees, which fasten the afterside of the beam to the vessel's side.

Don't let the sunshine fool you!

As any mariner will tell you, you can't fight the weather. All you can do is watch the forecast, plan as best you can around it, prepare and deal. And that's basically what the schooner gang has been doing lately as we alternate between sun-filled but deeply cold days and a few snowstorms, the biggest of which is forecast for tomorrow.

Needless to say, work continues but a lot of it is taking place indoors.

That's why the boatyard is empty, despite the deceptive looking sun, in this photograph taken from the loft of plant one here at The Dory Shop. Later, we caught a glimpse of Bub out tracing the exact angle of a knee on a piece of cardboard before heading back inside to shape the final product.

The forecast for the next 36 hours is calling for 20-25 cm of snow, so we'll see what mayhem that causes.