CLOSING THE GAP

It’s Even Harder if You’re Not Sure How Wide it is

Janice Anne Wheeler Jun 8

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There are gaps everywhere, of course, in time and place and memory and friendships, just as there are still gaps here on STEADFAST. However, those are growing smaller and smaller….Mother Nature has continued to rain rather torrentially and often, but we are doing the best that SPARRING allows.

Back in September STEADFAST’s bow area looked like the photo below: No stem, no knee (which attaches the stem to the keel), and the majority of the planks (many more than are shown in this photograph) were removed. Our at first minimal, then extensive project had come to fruition and after the course of the winter got even grander. We added lots of we-might-as-wells which are better done out of the water so she’s looking wonderful underneath her winter cover, all freshly painted, varnished and rejuvenated, even with much of the exterior still unfinished.

The best news I can convey is that we are closing the gaps.

Here she is today, much closer to being put back together, only three planks out of thirty-one still need to be attached, and those three have been chosen and milled to proper thickness. It’s a huge step. There have been a tremendous number of other ones along the way, too, both inside and out, but I had to show you this accomplishment.

Stay aboard. We will delve into the occasional video, too, and as soon as I figure out how to make all that happen here on my ‘Stack; I’ll show you some juicy and potentially interesting parts of this rebuild that haven’t even been discussed as of yet! It’s incredibly complicated, this SAVING A PIECE OF HISTORY task we’ve given to ourselves. Joyful, frustrating, draining, rewarding. AND Very importantly it has brought many people into my life that I never would have crossed paths with, for that I am forever grateful.

SPARRING WITH MOTHER NATURE received fantastic comments on STEADFAST’S first-person recollections. This is, of course, anthropomorphizing; one reader called me out on that specifically and I am guilty! Most of what I own is she/her/he/him. I have written seven memoirs in the first person for an assortment of clients and have the unique and sometimes unnerving ability to be able to put myself in someone else’s shoes. I love it. For more of my work, please visit my website.

My favorite comment is from the gentlemen who spent years on her first rebuild and then more years enjoying her to the fullest, “No doubt about it, she of many names, now STEADFAST, is a very lucky boat…..and her people have loved, loved, loved her…..in turn the seas have allowed her to bring them back safe and with more than when they departed…..” Dmitri

We are all incredibly anxious to be back on the seas, having some fun again, that much I know.

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Messages come directly to my in-box and are not for public viewing, so if that’s better for you, please do. If you’d like to further support my work, please share and RESTACK (the little recycle symbol) —-free and easy to do so. The algorithms simply love it apparently….and I have picked up many new readers via that mysterious method. I’m old fashioned here, SPARRING along, so not sure how all that works, but it does. The ultimate support is symbolic in that it means that my writing is worth the price of admission. For those of you that have chosen that option, I’m sincerely thrilled.

See you next week my fine readers, I certainly appreciate all the forms of support you give. I truly enjoy the comments. ~J

© 2025 Janice Anne Wheeler
Living aboard Sailing Yacht STEADFAST again soon!