Our-Tholes Part II

So, I am back from my world tour. As I may have mentioned before you really have to travel a lot to maintain your "International Playboy" status otherwise you get downgraded to "Domestic Playboy"... Well it doesn't have the same ring to it does it ?

Here's my abridged travel guide.

• Vancouver was like Wellington but bigger, there was a lot of scenery, bears (apparently) and a disproportionate number of sea planes. I couldn't stop myself saying "Hey" like a Canadian.
• New York is not at all like Wellington, it's much bigger, it's noisy, smelly, hot and fantastic. I'd go back at the drop of a hat.
• England, and it's big brother, Team GB, was in the throes of the Olympics, it seemed in a much better state than when I left it 9 years ago.
• Hong Kong is much more expensive than I when I left it 29 years ago. The waiters in the "American" restaurant are just as rude, the food is just as good.

Ok, the boat.

We've made a list on the bit of chipboard that we used to cover the window we broke with the bow of the boat. It's a complex and detailed project plan and we're going to work our way through the list until we're rowing our way into history. At the moment it says "finish the boat" and "row the Waikato" I think we need to get a little more granular. 

Ok, we finished our-tholes, there are two in the stern and two in the bow, so, like us, we have a couple of pairs of our-tholes. (A pair of our-tholes..??? Go on. say it out loud). The picture below shows a finished Thole.

We decided to ignore the instructions, in fact I actually think we've lost the instructions, I certainly haven't seen them for more than a year. So we winged it. One of the issues was getting a "cap" to fit the curve, we made a steam box out of a bit of old down-pipe and tried to bend it, but we are either too impatient or we are just not very good at it. In the end, we got it nearly right and applied a liberal coat of glue and some "boat-nails" to hold them down. 


Can you tell how we did it, and can you see the boat nails. Enlarge the picture if you can't quite see them.

You will note that the boat looks surprisingly finished. Trust me it isn't, we've got a lot to do and there'll be lots more blogs, oh yes. But the next picture actually does give a sense of completeness. And she really does look good.  

Two pairs of our tholes.