Week 261: Stern cabin is done (mostly)
The stern cabin is painted, the bed made, and we throw a small party for the shipyard.
You always have to qualify anything on Delfine with (mostly) at the moment. Still, it's crucial to celebrate yet another significant milestone. The stern cabin is now (mostly) completed, as much as we can do of it ourselves.
It's been a monotonous couple of weeks. Filling, patching, sanding, and repeating forever to repair all the holes and damage left by the building process, moving walls, and moving lights. The stern cabin has the most angles, the most original woodwork, requires the most taping, and is also the most difficult to access to paint. It's been a pain!
But, we got there! By Thursday afternoon, we'd completed the bed and walls, and on Friday, all we needed to do was clean it and bring in the mattress.
What's left to do? Well, the door for the bathroom needs to go in – that's possibly still months away, and then after that, we need to fit decorative trim around the door and walls. All of that is a problem for future Tim & Karina, though. If we had guests tomorrow, we could live very comfortably in the stern cabin now. Given that it's not a guest accessible area, the door and trim can wait.
Various progress shots in the stern cabin. There was a lot of crawling around the sides of the beds!
And just like that, all the construction work that we can complete ourselves is done. It's a surreal feeling. Yes, there are a myriad of smaller tasks left to complete. But, they are small – a bit of silicon here, redo a patch there. We really are shifting into a new phase.
Jef is installing the windshield wiper.
Jef returned on Wednesday to finish the tasks he could do. We have an anchor light and working windshield wipers now. To complete the electrical work, we need Martin. Unfortunately, he's still not well, so he can't complete the last two tasks yet, which require him to go into the engine room.
Davy and Bjorn from Artestuc returned to patch a couple of small issues in the bathrooms. Nothing major, just the sort of minor detail that you don't see until you're sitting on the toilet, or after fitting the trim and realise that it's not quite wide enough. They were cheery and efficient as always, and it's always a pleasure having them back aboard Delfine. They enjoyed seeing all the progress since they were last here.
Lots of small progress too. Hole under the stairs all patched (again). Fire extinguishers re-certified. Routed out the joins on the dog hatch and re-siliconed them. The finished forepeak hatch door.
The big focus of the week has been the party on Friday afternoon in the shipyard, for the workers there. On Friday morning, we scrubbed Delfine from head to toe. I did a lot of washing on the outside. It's been too long since we did a proper clean; already, the paint is starting to build up grime that takes scrubbing to remove. Now that we've got it back under control, I think a weekly wash will become part of the regular maintenance schedule. We've put a huge effort into making Delfine look good; now we have to keep her that way.
Karina dusted, vacuumed and cleaned all the interior. When the boat is cleaned up, it really becomes such a cozy, homely place to be and enjoy. We're loving having people come to visit and experience the interior, but can't wait to have some longer-term guests, to really make the most of Delfine.
Moving to be near the shipyard party location.
Once Delfine was cleaned, we relocated her next to the lunch room, a short distance of 100-150 meters. It's surprising how long it takes to move a boat, though! I'm sure we'll get more practised again soon, but even so, it involves:
- Prepping the boat - tidying lines etc. Checking the engine.
- Discussing the plan - in particular, thinking about what we'll do when we arrive at the new location.
- Casting off. Tidying the lines as we go.
- Turning Delfine. A slow process! It takes around 5 minutes or so to turn her on her length.
- Moving to the new location. Slow and steady is key. No point in building momentum to have to rev the engines to slow down again. We take it gently.
- Docking. Very slow and steady. Big, heavy steel boats tend to want to keep moving forward.
- Tying up and securing the boat. A good 5 - 10 minutes settling her in and making sure we're secured for the night.
All in all, about 30 - 40 minutes each way!
Next week will be a significant change. We'll have lots of small tasks instead of one big project. And we're going to be chasing suppliers to get them back in to finish the last few tasks, so we can move to "done" on everything.
Until next time,
Tim & Karina
PS: That's the Delfine update, but if you're interested in my writing projects, read on! I have some news and a new book for you to read.
Writing Update
Alongside Delfine, I've continued to write and edit. Back in Week 235: Patching continues (oh look! We were patching!) I mentioned I'd received a "Full Request" from an agent for Goblins and Guidebooks. Now, 25 weeks later, there's been no progress on finding an agent (which is the first step towards traditional publishing), so it's time to move on with self-publishing. Which, I'm not unhappy about – self-publishing means more control and the ability to move faster.
After some thought, I'll be publishing it under a pen name, T.J. Bramble (it has a good Cozy Fantasy / Mystery feel to it!) There are lots of reasons why this is a good idea, but the main one is the need to build out a web presence and create content to promote the book, which I don't want to do here. This is our blog, focused on us and (currently) Delfine.
I will cross-promote here when significant milestones happen, but I'll be creating more writing-specific content over on that site (which is still to be made).
Finally, I've also been working with a friend, Serenity, as their development editor (who, in turn, edited Goblins and Guidebooks for me). This has been a fascinating process, working with them to strengthen and tighten their story. I'm very proud of all of the efforts we've both put into that book, Dear Adam, which is now nearing release.
Ava Sinclair knows how to put on a perfect performance. Behind her fragile veneer of confidence is a woman haunted by the past—a small-town scandal, and a face she no longer recognizes in the mirror. Success might give her a second chance. But redemption love stories are never easy, and healing from trauma and shame is harder to earn.
Her big break comes with a revolutionary AI project she’s been hired to launch… tech that could change lives. But the software isn’t ready. And neither is the man who built it.
Aidan Wolfe never meant to get involved. Hiding behind firewalls and anonymity suits him just fine—until Ava logs in. To preserve the deal, he pretends to be the AI she believes in, just long enough to buy time to fix it.
But what starts as a lie becomes a slow burn romance neither of them expected. And secrets never stay buried.
When the truth surfaces, it won’t just threaten their reputations—it could wreck the fragile connection they never meant to build.
Dear Adam is a literary love story—a character-driven women’s fiction novel about love and betrayal, shame and forgiveness, and the courage it takes to be truly seen.
“I started reading expecting a love story. What I got was a lingering heartache, wrapped in beautiful writing.”
It's a fantastic read (I should know, I've read it about 7 times now).
If you'd like to support an exceptional indie author on her debut, you'd make her day (and mine) if you sign up (for free) and download the five-chapter sample.
Link: Dear Adam Sample Download
If you enjoy the sample, you can request the full copy for free. All we ask is that if you enjoy it, you consider leaving a review once it's published. It's available as a PDF or an EPUB for Kindle. There are instructions on the site on how to install it.
Thank you!
Tim