Last week at the salt mine! (Patreon)

Hi Guys!

It's official Obelix is sold - contract signed and money transferred. I'm now a one-boat-only guy :D I have a couple of things that have caused me a little bit of anxiety over the last few months. The big one was getting obelix ready for sale and finding a new owner for her. It turns out I didn't even have to list her for sale to find a buyer :) I'm sorry to see her go, but it's a big step in the right direction. I spend a lot of time this week helping the new owner. Next week it's back to focusing 100% on Athena :) 

I've started looking into what species of wood to go with for the toe rail. Teak is hard to find in 6-meter lengths and also very expensive. My current favorite is Ipe. It's heavy but also very strong and very rot resistant. And it's reasonably inexpensive around here. In terms of sealing it, I'll either use oil (easy to reapply) or coelan varnish (very durable) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handroanthus#Description 

In other, behind the scenes news, next week is my last day at my day job! After years of wanting to do it, I'll finally be working full time on Athena after this LAST week at the old salt mine ;) It'll be exciting to no longer be so limited on time during the week! I'll miss from the day job the free coffee and being able to plan out projects aboard the boat in the back of my mind while working at my desk. I need to set aside a bit of planning time, for instance, part of Monday, to make sure I get everything planned and ordered for the week. Exciting times :) Thank you so much for your support that has enabled me to live out this dream! I would not be able to do this without you guys :) 

I'm off to help the new owner of obelix with a couple more things. That should be the last of it :) I'll be back later to reply to comments :)