I got another itch but how to scratch it? After going through another gray Pennsylvania winter I got the answer. I’ll build a boat! Then I’ll take it down the Mississippi River from Minneapolis all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Sounds like a reasonable and doable plan.

On April 16, 2018 I picked up a boat kit, brought it home and unpacked it in my dining room. It consisted of plywood parts, some solid cedar and mahogany and two gallons of epoxy. I set to work building a Northeaster Dory from Chesapeake Light Craft in my backyard. I set a deadline of June 1 to be completed a month to train and test it then set off down the Mississippi by July 5. I didn’t quite make it. I actually finished June 24th but that’s ok I can get on the river by August 3. I figure it will take no more than 60 days so still plenty of Summer left and it should even start cooling of before I finish.

I wrote a seperate blog on the boat build itself and it can be found here.

https://hudsonboatbuild.blogspot.com/

If not here are a few photos

Assembling the hull with copper wires