A Lovely Surprise for Chris

Chris had a lovely surprise this evening.  Mary, Chris's mum has made good progress over the last few weeks and has now been discharged from hospital and is in a nursing home pending assessment for a care home.

Chris rang the home to see how Mary was doing and was asked to ring back in 10 minutes. When she rang back she was pleasantly shocked to hear her mum speaking to her.  The nurses had brought Mary to the phone so she could speak to Chris and the pair of them had a good old chin wag for 20 minutes.  Chris's face was a picture as she chatted to mum and I could hear the Mary we used to know coming through now and then.

It is such a relief to know Mary is making good progress and that she is happy in the home.   I think this is a big weight lifted off Chris's mind.  It means that now, not only can Chris see her mum when ever she can get back to Essex,  she can also speak to her more regularly on the phone, an option not available whilst she was in hospital.

Here we go AmyJo

Chris and I paid another visit to Alexander boats today.  For Chris it was the first time she could actually see something real.  Like me on my last visit she was like a kid with a new toy.

We parked up and walked into Jim's shed and there was AmyJo.  We could not believe how much Jim had done in such sort time.

Does my bum look big in this?

Jim has the sides in place and all the ribs.  The swim was there and so was the stern floor.

Chris standing at the bows, thinks we're gonna
need an intercom system, or semaphore flags.

Jim was starting to put the last plates of the hull sides in place as we walked in and her hull was starting to resemble a boat.

AmyJo now looks even longer

We walked to the bow and found Jim had cut this to shape already to take the plates that will eventually make the Josher bow

Chris simply could not resist and wanted to walk inside to get a good feel for AmyJo.

No Chris its not going to be the Jacuzzi,  its the engine bay! Silly

Chris playing hop scotch with AmyJo's ribs

Chuffed to bits or what?

It getting difficult to fit all of AmyJo into the picture frame now

 After an hour looking over AmyJo and having a cuppa and a chat with Jim we headed home in the rain.  We'll leave Jim to it for now and we'll visit again in two weeks time as our friends Derek and Vicki are coming to stay next weekend.  Meantime Jim will continue to send us photographs of his progress to wet our appetites.

From flat plates to something resembling a hull

Since I last visited Alexander Boats Jim has been busy working on AmyJo.  Tonight I received some photos showing his progress and they blew me away.

Suddenly it dawned on me this really is happening and we cannot wait until Saturday when we are going to see AmyJo in the flesh as it were

The hull sides rolled and ready to be welded to the base plates

The ribs going in and the stern takes shape

All the ribs are in and the stern sides are fabricated

Bow or stern, only the stern tube gives a clue

At Last, AmyJo is born

A big day today and for us a major milestone.

I went to Alexander boats today and arrived just in time to see the steel arriving.  Jim was busy with the fork lift positioning one of the plates into place so I waited patiently not wanting to disturb him

And here she is.  The first two of AmyJo's three base plates.

The second plate is lowered into position

Each plate measures 8 meters by 2 meters

A few minutes later and the final third plates is positioned

Gently does it

Thats Jim in the distance

After the last plate was laid the full 67feet of AmyJo became apparent.  In the above photo I was standing taking the photo at what will be AmyJo's stern whilst Jim stood at her bows.  My thoughts were, my god she's long!  I'm not too worried I have handled a 68 foot boat whilst on holiday a few years back so am looking forward to seeing how AmyJo "swims" as the term for moving through the water is called.

The steel for the hull sides should be arriving on Wednesday and Jim has promised to mail me photos of his progress so I've started a Build page where I'll put them all.

And we're off, well we will be Saturday

Fantastic news, we just got word from Jim that he will be laying AmyJo's baseplate on Saturday.  Can't wait!

Apparently the Steel will be arriving on Friday so he can get started.  Not sure how much we'll see on Saturday but photos are to follow in the next post

At the starting Block

I realised today that Jim at Alexander Boats only had an email address to contact me by so I've emailed him our telephone number and rang him to tell him.  To be honest his email was knawing at me so much I could not resist.

Whilst on the telephone he informed me he would try an lay our baseplate on Saturday if he can get the steel inside.  He will email me on Friday to let me know if we are go on this or not.  This is great news for us as it means Chris will be able to be with me to see the event as she cannot get time off work at short notice.  I guess she will be please she can be there with me.

So now this week cannot go fast enough but then I should not wish my life away, still I bet it will be the longest week on record.

Email out of the blue

Yesterday I received an email from Jim simply stating the boat in his shed is being shipped out to Fernwoods on Wednesday, 7th November and was getting our steel immediately.

I've replied asking whether that means he is getting the steel on the same day or he means our base plate will be laid immediately.  If the former I've asked he let us know when the base plate will be laid.