It's the life for me

Oh, the romance of a sailing life! The hot and heavy masks, the attractive safety glasses, the splelunking lamp. Working inside with all the hatches closed so the dust and shavings don't blow everywhere.

We're cutting new counter tops from a piece of Avonite, which is a poly/acrylic recycled material that has to be cut with a router, and the shavings come off by the bucket load. The counter is black and copper, but the shavings are white, like shredded coconut sized feathers that have static cling. It actually looked like it had snowed. They go everywhere and blow around when we breath. We've perfected a technique where Steve cuts and I get the vacuum hose positioned just right to catch the worst of it. We still spent almost an hour cleaning up at the end of the day. It's looking great, the colors match really well. Today should be the last of the cutting, glue some seams tomorrow and Voila! new galley. Three weeks of hard work for Steve. This has been one of the most challenging boat projects so far. This is a shot of the cushions with our Florida snow, after the vacuum motor overheated and we had to sit and wait.