Farewell and Thank You

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With Mission Navigation, as with any ministry, we have a number of dedicated, behind the scenes, people helping make the organization run. A critically important group is the board of directors, who handle the considerable legal and logistical tasks necessary to keep everything moving properly. 

I am blessed to have talented and dedicated people on our board. And it always comes with a degree of sorrow when one of those members steps down. This past meeting it was with sorrow, but also understanding, that we received the notice from Stuart Lewis that he was stepping down.

Stuart has been with Mission Navigation since its inception and has served faithfully as our Board President up until this past year. His personal ministry, as a youth pastor, has taken him to another community, and we know the Lord is using him there.

So I say, Thank You Stuart, and God bless you, your family, and those whom you serve there. Your dedication and diligent service has always been inspiring.        - RV

Oriental Boat Show 2018 - Part 2

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At The Show
Hope for Haiti was well received at the Oriental boat show. This was our 4th year at the show and it was really good to finally bring our project out for show-and-tell. We made a lot of new friends and have a number of new volunteers who are planning to work with us. Time will tell about  support.

Big Load
Our overall length (truck and trailer) was within the legal load limit to travel without an oversize-permit. I think we were 57' long total. However, the boat had to shrink 1" in width to fall within the legal limit of "under 10 feet wide." Actually, it only had to shrink 1/4" to be legal, but since I am a professional builder and not a professional driver, my nerves were already at their limit with that load size. So, I decided to shrink the boat by just a little more than an inch. I'm sure it made no difference on the portability of the load, but it settled my concerns.

How to Shrink Your Boat on the Trailer
Shrinking a boat in the ocean is easy business. Simply travel offshore. The farther you go, the smaller your boat gets. It's a different story on the trailer. So I turned to a trusty old friend. Geometry. 
Geometry has helped me solve many problems in life without having to do everything the hard way. I calculated that if the hull was tilted 10° it would measure 118.5" horizontally. With some simple application of leverage, hydraulics, and good old fashioned blocking, I was able to settle the hull at a happy 10° list. That put me comfortably under the 120" limit. It must have looked perfect because, of the eight or so Highway Patrol's I saw on the round trip, none of them gave me a second look. I had my level, tape measure, and witness stick handy just in case.

Working Outdoors
Now we are working on the boat outdoors. That is not necessarily bad, but it does put us at the mercy of the weather. So far I have gotten the boat off the trailer, lowered to a decent working height, and leveled. I've also cleaned up around the boat. The building/rigging can now commence.

Stay tuned for more updates and opportunities to help.

Oriental Boat Show 2018 - Part 1

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The past few weeks have been busy preparing for the Oriental Boat Show. Getting the boat out of the shop turned out to be a much greater task than anticipated. However, with a lot of help, a tremendous amount of effort, much prayer, and probably an impossible-to-count number of miracles, we did get the boat, Hope For Haiti, out of the shop and onto the trailer and, eventually, to Oriental, NC, for the boat show. And it was all done without any collateral damage to the workers. In other words, no one got hurt.

I'll report about the show next week. Stay tuned.

Silent But Not Absent

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I have been working in the shop for some portion of the past four (or so) weekends. For the most part, the projects have not been photogenic, and the lack of pictures makes it difficult to convey the progress.

Today I spent a good eight hours sanding, grinding, and cleaning on the boat. The progress is still a long way from eye-candy, but it will be a great offset for the next step which is ... primer. Yes, the boat is ready inside and out for primer.

Gold Nuggets in Disguise

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I don't personally take well to schedule changes. But there are times when you just have to roll with the seas, metaphorically speaking. Today was one of those days.

We had our day scheduled pretty fully, but an unexpected, and fairly urgent, project popped up at work, necessitating a last minute plan change. We were fortunate to get a swift resolution to the work task, which left me with yet another plan change for the day.

Finding myself with a few unscheduled hours, I was able to get into the Mission Nav shop and work on the Hope For Haiti. That turned out to be enough time to complete the fiberglass work on the tops/edges of both of the cargo lids. 

So, despite my consternation about schedule changes, there were some great results. It's still hot here in North Carolina, so I had to work fast. Consequently, there are no "in process" photos from today. But here are photos showing today's progress.

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There Never Seems to be Enough Time

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This week I heard from the missionaries in Mole St. Nicolas, Haiti, where this boat is going to serve. They were hoping to have the boat in time for hurricane season to use for evacuations and relief ministries. That, along with the undoubtedly myriad of other uses, will make this vessel a tremendous asset for them.

Sadly, I had to report that it is not possible to complete the boat in the next few weeks before hurricane season starts. My work schedule is extremely busy. But being impossible is not a good reason to stop. And yesterday I was able to build the lazaret hatch lid, which is the last lid, and I got the inside of it glassed with Xynole. 

In the boat building trade we use the term glassed as a verb meaning: sealed with fiberglass cloth, bedded in epoxy. I also use it freely here when I refer to sealing a part with Xynole cloth, bedded in epoxy. Xynoled doesn't have the same ring to it.

The pictures are not super fancy, but you can see what I'm building.

Please pray for Mission Navigation and our efforts. We are in the process of planning for the day when I will be able to work full time on the mission boats and host a regular schedule of volunteers. The amount of good we will be able to do is boggling. 

Blessings.
RV