Jim Dabrowski

Step V is complete!

Nearing the end here of building the hull. Once again this step was about building some odds and ends that will go in the lower hold, but not actually putting them in place—that’s for the next step. 

First up is a bunch of the stuff that goes in the hold. 

The barrels there were all pre-made. I just stained them a that light brown. Same with the buckets. I also had to make the brass handles they have. The “packages” are small blocks of wood covered in cloth then tied around with the dark brown rope. I think they turned out alright. 

Next up, I inserted the cannons on the lower deck port side. 

This was a bit challenging. I think in a more saner world I would have built and glued them in place long before the upper deck was put in, but silly me, just following the directions and doing things when they tell me to. I had to somehow grab hold of them, put glue on their wheels, then insert them in through the big hole in the hull on the starboard side without touching anything (think of the old Operation game) and get them to stick out properly on the port side. Took me a few tries but I finally figured out a reproducible way of doing it with an alligator clip attached to a long bamboo skewer. It worked. Here is a bit of a closer view of the cannons. 

Finally, I made a couple of oars for the skiff and tied it down to the grating that it’s mounted on. 

I like the wrapping around the handle end. There are a couple of other things, a capstan and a lid with a coil of rope inside it. I’ll show those in the next step. 

That’s it for Step V. Next step is putting all those things in place inside the ship and then I’m about done. With the hull work that is. Then I get to start masts and rigging. yay. ;-)

JIm

Step U is complete!

This step was pretty much all about gluing things onto the ship I mostly built earlier. Recall Step R where I had to make a bunch of things and did nothing with them, well in this step I got to add all those things and more to the ship. 

First I had to build a bunch of ladders? Stairs? Something. Seven of them to be exact. They were kinda fiddly, so I made a jig to help hold all the pieces in place as I was building them. 

Here you can see one completed one, and one in progress. At the top of the picture are the treads, and in the upper right are the pre-cut risers I guess you’d call them. Thank goodness those were pre-made. 

Here you can see three of the seven I had to build all in place where they belong. 

I also glued down the bilge pump there in the middle and the bell hanging from the overhang. Above all that is another rail I built with more of the skeleton bodies and bones for balusters. 

Then here you can see my nice little cannons have been provided with little piles of cannon balls. 

Also shown here are several of the belaying pin racks I’ll be using later to tie off some of the rigging. To be honest, I’m a tad bit concerned. Most of these rails had pre-drilled holes, but those pins are pretty darn close together. I’m not entirely sure how easy it will be to tie rigging lines around them. I guess I ‘ll find out. 

Then up in the bow of the ship I mounted and hung the anchors. 

There is one on the starboard side too. Here you can also catch a glimpse of some additional belaying pin rails and other rails I had to build on the forecastle (I think that’s the right word.) Also, notice the big chains hanging down...

Those go to the figurehead mounted right up at the prow. I think that’s really cool looking!

Finally, here is a view of the front of the ship showing the additional rail and skeletons and bones and belaying pins I had to install along with two more of the ladders I built. For those keeping count, the remaining two will go inside the grating that will support the little skiff to allow access to the lower deck. You’ll see that later. 

And that’s it! That competes Step U. 

Next up I need to take a small detour and complete Step U.5. Recall way back when when I had to build the lighting to go in the lower deck and was stalled for a while because I didn’t like the material that came with the kit and figured I could find other lighting that would look better? That all worked out fine, but I have additional lighting that has to be installed on the sides of the stern and I still have a bit of a wiring mess to clean up. 

This is what that all looks like. I need to finally do some soldering and finish getting all that wiring cleaned up and then add support for the lanterns that will be installed in Step W. In fact, I’ll probably just mount them now. I’m going to call all this cleanup Step U.5, and then continue on with Step V which is building a bunch of stuff that goes into the hold of the ship and mounting the cannons on the lower deck. 

Stay Tuned! 

JIm

As promised, here is my posting for completing Step T. 

Step T is finished! I built a skiff. 

I actually finished this a while ago. Sometime on Step Q or R I was stalled waiting on parts, paint, etc. and wanted to keep working on something. I looked ahead and Step T was to simply build this skiff so I thought, what the heck, let’s go build that. Here is a view from more of the top. 

It’s so cute! 

It was actually a bit challenging to build. The whole thing is made much like a ship with a keel and ribs to which planks are added. All this was done mostly from scratch (well, the ribs were laser cut, but the planking was all from scratch). Then, the piece that goes all around the top was laser cut, but the seats on the inside and whatever those brown sticks are and that “wall” around the outer edge was all by hand. Turned out really cool looking — I’m very happy with it. As you can see, it will rest atop that grating that goes in the middle of the ship and I’ll tie it down with some rope. Later on, I’ll be adding a couple of oars to the inside as well. 

So that’s it for Step T. Next up, Step U. Remember all those bits and pieces I had to make and paint in Step R? Now I get to attach all of them to the ship as well as add some ladders and some additional rails. It’s really coming into shape! 

Take care, 

JIm

Step S is complete!

This was a fun step. I got to add teeth to the prow of the ship. 

I built the gratings earlier. That was “fun”. Took me several tries to make a properly fitting template that I could use to cut the grating to shape. Turned out nice. The teeth are pre-cut and just look cool. 

Then I got to add the rudder. 

Those hinges attached to the rudder and the ship are called pintles and gudgeons. In my case, the pieces attached to the rudder are the pintles and the parts attached to the ship are the gudgeons. This was somewhat challenging getting them to line up properly and stay in place while I tried to nail them in. But it worked. And it actually moves! 

Next up was adding cannons to the upper deck. 

There are four on each side. Here is a close up on one of them. 

And here is what they look like from the outside. 

I like how dry-brushing white paint on the black hull really makes all the details stand out. 

Finally, I attached deadeyes and blocks to the outside of the hull. 

Here is a closer view. 

The round things with the holes are called “deadeyes”. This is where some of the rigging for the masts will be attached. You can also see a couple of blocks there. I sure what yet will be tied to those. 

That’s it for Step S. In step T I get to build a skiff. Spoiler alert, I already completed it. I’ll share that tomorrow. 

Until then, take care, 

JIm

Step R is complete. I actually finished this step a few days ago and am just getting around to writing about it now. This was a step of building out lots of little things that will go on the ship as decorations.

Not a very good picture really, but good enough I suppose. Most of these are cast metal parts I cleaned up and then painted. You can see a couple of lantern frames that will go on the stern. The figurehead of a sailor/skeleton with chains around his wrists, the anchors made from pelvis and spinal bones and a rudder. All these pieces will eventually be mounted on the ship in the upcoming steps. 

That’s really it for now. These next few steps pretty much focus on adding lots of these details to the decks. It’s really coming along. 

Talk to you all soon. 

JIm

Step Q is complete. 

This step was primarily about building cannons. Lots and lots of cannons. OK, 20 of them, but still. In addition to the cannons, I had to make a number of rails for belaying pins and a couple of other posts that just stick up here and there that things will get tied to. Here is a closer view of some of the cannons. 

Next up is step R where I continue with building and painting some more pieces like this. Steps S, U, and V I’ll be attaching them all to the actual ship. Tempting to just do it now, but I’ll be patient. 

Until next time. 

JIm

While various things kept getting in the way of completing Step N, I decided I can move ahead and work on some of the next steps while waiting for parts or whatever. Steps O & P involved putting what I call “greebles” on the hull of the ship. Here are some pics of the process. 

Here is what the ship looked like at the start of this process. 

This is how the captain’s cabin started. 

The ship has these cool-looking “demons”(?) decorations on the outside of the ship. These are made of cast metal and were glued on the both sides of the ship. 

Here is a close-up shot of the balusters (aka spindles) that are used to hold up the railings on the captain’s cabin. 

The standard instructions have me painting the entire hull by hand with a brush (actually, that’s part of step S, but don’t tell anyone). I didn’t want to do that, I don’t think bush painting looks all that good so I wanted to airbrush it. With the deck and other stuff already installed, I had to do a careful job of masking off all the openings so I didn’t get any paint on the inside. You can also see some of the other details added to the hull. 

I probably should have included this photo in the previous post about completing Step N. This shows my repair work re-attaching the right (starboard) wall of the captain’s cabin after I dropped and broke it. 

And here is what the ship looks like now. All painted black and some additional rails attached to the tops of the hull and ready for the next steps. 

I think today I’ll sand and maybe do some of the white highlight-painting to make it look like the finished captain’s cabin looks. All this painting is supposed to be part of Step S so I may just leave it for then.

Beginning with Step Q, I build cannons and lots of other details that will go on the deck. Hopefully those steps don’t take me 2+ months to complete. But hey, I have until Halloween 2025 to complete this so, plenty of time! (Famous last words, eh?)

See you next time! 

JIm 

Oh my god! I finally finished Step N! 

Step N was building the captain’s cabin that goes on the back of the ship. According to my build log, I started this step in September. Yikes. Ran into lots of issues. The build itself took a while, I also took a trip to Scotland you all may have read about, and I decided to do all the lighting that goes here on the back to light all this up, I also dropped it at on point and broke of one whole side of it so that had to be repaired, then my airbrush crapped out and it took a while for me to get that fixed/replaced. In short, one thing after another but it’s finally complete and I think it looks really cool! :) 

While all the above was happening I moved ahead and also finished steps O & P. Those will be shown and discussed in my next blog post. 

JIm

Today’s game feels a lot like the last two. The opponent is bottom of the league in this and that so the #Bears should be able to take advantage of that and win. As the last two weeks showed us, 🤷🏽‍♀️. I can see Bears winning or losing a close one or winning in a blowout.

I’m beginning to think having billionaires isn’t good for democracy.

Day 10

We did it! We completed hiking the West Highland Way! Today we traveled from Kinlochleven to Fort William, about 15 miles. This was actually our longest day of hiking the whole trip. We were a bit worried so we got up and got going a bit early. Turns out we maybe didn’t have to. We made good time and arrived at the end by about 4 pm. Though, which end remains the question. More on that in a bit.

Once again we had absolutely gorgeous weather. Sunny, warm, clear blue skies with hardly a cloud in them. I know, if I say clear skies, there shouldn’t be any clouds, I’m trying to be poetic here. It was just beautiful. Perfect day, again, for hiking. We talked to a number of people this week who said we had the best weather for walking the Way this entire season. Most of the time it’s been rainy, but not for us. We got real lucky. Today was perfect.

Started out with a pretty stiff hike up into the hills for a couple of miles. That was slow going, but slow and steady was our mantra. After that, we hit a crest and walked westward along it for quite a while. Beautiful views of Kinlochleven down into the valley behind us and then hills and valleys ahead.

After a while the way swung north and we began our descent into Fort William. Well, the descent went on for a number of miles, it was a nice overall walk through some pretty countryside. We even saw an old ruined farm house. Not sure how old it was or when it was last occupied. Eventually hit some forests and got to a board that was the half way point. It showed the whole way and where we were, way up at the top. It was cool to see how far we had come. Kept walking, and eventually hit the town.

Here is where things got slightly confusing. The way used to end right there at the start of town. There’s a sign and everything and we got pics there. Then, several years ago city leaders moved the “official” end down a mile or more into the center of this really cute old downtown business district with all sorts of shops and stuff. I can see why they did that. There they built a statue of a guy sitting on a bench with one of his boots off and they dubbed it the new official end. So we go pics there too. So either way, we walked the whole way!

We both are really glad we did this. In some ways it’s actually pretty reassuring that we CAN do something like this. 8 consecutive days of hiking for a total of 96 miles is not nothing. We’re pretty happy with ourselves. Time to start thinking of our next grand adventure. Grand Canyon rim to rim? Maybe. But first two full days of traveling home. Spending all day tomorrow (Thursday) training from Fort William to Glasgow, then switch trains and continue on to London. Spend the night again then catch a non-stop flight home to Phoenix. That will be all day Friday. I don’t think I’ll write about those travels, hopefully they’re really boring and give us a chance to just rest for a couple of days.

Thanks all for reading. Take care.

JIm

Day 9

Our penultimate hike. Left the Kingshouse Hotel a bit later than usual, about 9, since today was another shortish walk of about 9 miles. So no hurry. I have to say, yet another glorious day weather-wise. Sun-shiny, a bit breezy, partly cloudy, mid 40s, a beautiful day for walking. Started out pretty easy, but soon began the climb that led to the “devil’s staircase”. As we suspected, it really wasn’t all that bad. A nice steady climb, punctuated with pauses to look about us at the valleys below and the hills above. Absolutely stunning views. Once we reached the top, met up with that Dutch couple we’ve been seeing and Sebastian took our picture for us. Turned out real nice.

From there it was pretty much all down hill to Kinlochlevin. It was cool to see the trail miles ahead winding its way down the hillside. Eventually came into a nice forested area and then ran across the pipes used to feed water from a loch up above to a hydroelectric plant just outside of town. There were six parallel pipes running down the hillside, each at least three feet in diameter. They got to the plant and then fed back into the river from whence they came. Pretty impressive engineering.

That was right on the outskirts of town and when we got there it was a bit early so we stopped off at a pub for a drink and again ran into our Dutch friends. I feel bad right now, his name is Sebastian and I can’t for the life of me quite recall her name. It was very Dutch, I thought I had it, but now am not so sure. Darn it. I’ll have to ask her tomorrow. Anyway, we sat together and chatted for about an hour. It was really nice to share our various life experiences living in two different countries, but still ending up in the same place at the same time.

From there pretty normal evening. Check in, clean up, go have dinner, then relax and write a blog post. Tomorrow is our last day of hiking. 15 or so miles up to Fort William. Gonna be a long day especially after these last few short days. That’s ok, we can do it!

See you all tomorrow.

JIm

Day 8

I have to begin by saying, haggis is good. Last night at dinner I had some haggis balls (ok, croquettes) and they were really good. Spicy, soft, very tasty, highly recommend. I went with the appetizer sized portion rather than the whole meal just in case, but did enjoy them. Those of you out there reading this, try haggis next time you get the chance.

Today we walked from Bridge of Orchy to Kingshouse. This was our first day of down from the highlands and into the moors and bogs (what is the difference?) and of course today we had wind and rain. I mean, if you’re going to walk around the Scottish moors, you have to have wind and rain, don’t you? It was actually pretty nice. I already posted the pictures and they don’t really show much, but that was really all there was, even if it was pretty in its own way. The overall scene was quite majestic. Rolling hills, clouds around the summits of the Munros. (The really tall hills here are called Munros, the slightly less tall ones are called Corbetts. I can’t tell the difference so I’ve just been calling them hills. They also all have Scottish names to them most of which I can’t pronounce.) It was all really quite nice.

The walk itself was pretty uneventful. Lots of time to walk, talk, and take in the scenery. Arrived at Kingshouse pretty early and had another relaxing afternoon. Tomorrow should also be a pretty short day walking up to Kinlochleven, only about 9 miles but does include the famous “devil’s staircase” which takes us up to the highest point of our entire walk. Though I’ve heard it really isn’t all that bad. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow. That’s it, take care and see you all tomorrow!

JIm

Day 7

Today was a very short day; we like to think of it as a rest day. The official goal for today was Inveroran (no idea on how that’s pronounced, maybe I’ll find out later), which was about 9 miles away. But, our tour company booked us at the Bridge of Orchy Hotel which is about 2.5 miles short of Inveroran. So, we ended up only walking about 6-7 miles today. Despite our starting late, going shopping on our way out of Tyndrum at The Green Welly Stop, and generally walking slowly we still got to our hotel before noon. So we had lunch, checked in, and spent the rest of the day just relaxing. Like I said, a nice rest day.

The walk itself was also very easy. Not much elevation gain on a mostly hard packed rock surface that used to be a military road. Cool and cloudy and again saw many sheep wandering the hillsides. That’s really about it for today. I think I’m going to try some haggis for my appetizer tonight at dinner. I’ll let you all know tomorrow what I think about that. Tomorrow, since we cut our hike kind of short today, will be a bit longer than planned, 12-13 miles. Still not too bad, we’ve done longer days already this trip. Goal for tomorrow is Kingshouse. See you there!

JIm

Day 6

A misty Scottish morning. Today started off a bit cold and misty. Had to put on some of our rain gear but that was about it. Not too bad. Cleared up by afternoon and then was just beautiful, again. Today was also the waterfall day. Started out from Inverarnan and basically followed the River Falloch north then north-east for the first half of the day. Lots of walking through farmland, but not crops just sheep. Lots and lots of sheep and the occasional cow. Somewhat surprised we don’t see more lamb and mutton on the menus here. When we weren’t crossing waterfalls, we were walking along misty hillsides. It was really quite pretty.

About mid-day we ventured off the actual path to find lunch. The place we stayed at didn’t provide one so we had to shop. The trail took us by the town of Crianlarich (I forgot to ask them how to pronounce that), so we detoured off to stop in town to find some food. Turns out about the only thing open was a convenience store so it was pre-packaged sandwiches and chips for us. It was fine. Back to the trail and the onward to Tyndrum (TINE-drum).

Aside from the weather clearing up, the afternoon was much the same. Waterfalls, valley vistas, moss covered forests and generally beautiful countrysides. Made good time and got to Tyndrum by about 4:30. Tomorrow will be a pretty short day, only 6.5 miles so we plan on sleeping in a bit, maybe look around Tyndrum, then head to the Bridge of Orchy Hotel, our next stop. See you all then.

JIm

Day 5

I got my wish! Today was the best day of hiking so far!

Last night we started to get a little nervous. Don’t know how we missed this, but we started looking at what others posted about today’s hike and we saw lots and lots of stuff talking about how it was the worst day of the hike, the trail was difficult, people giving up, and we were like, oh no, how did we not know this? Oops. So starting out this morning we were pretty nervous about how the day was going to go. Turns out, it went great!

Started out easy enough and a couple of miles in we had a choice: the high road or the low road. The low road was the original Way that went down along the loch. It was described as a challenging section. The high way was added recently and stayed closer to the road and was easier. So of course we took the low road. ;)

They weren’t wrong about the challenging part. There were a lot of stone paths and steps, some climbing over boulders, walking along a path where to our left was quite the drop into the loch. But boy oh boy was it fun! This was what we were both looking forward to and we got it. After a couple of miles of this, the two paths joined up again and after several more miles we made it to Inversnaid where we stopped for lunch.

After that came the really challenging part of the walk. As one of our guide books said, the path was more obstacle course than footpath, and it was! Again we loved it. Up and down, climbing, scrambling, over fords, through creeks, everything. All of it right along Loch Lomond with absolutely gorgeous views. I wanted a wilderness hike and this portion really delivered. Eventually we got to the northern end of the loch, made our way across some fields and a small saddle and finally down into Inverarnan (which according to the locals is pronounced In-ver-RARE-ree).

Truly, this was the best hike of the trip so far. I guess Dena and I like “technical” hikes as they’re known. Tomorrow begins our hike really up into the highlands, maybe even cross some moors. Looking forward to it.

JIm

Day 4

Today we went from Drymen to Rowardennan (you’re on your own for pronunciation on this one, we think it’s just like it’s spelled) via Conic Hill. The day started out mid-40s and a light rain. With our rain gear on, it really wasn’t too bad. Rain cleared up in about an hour or so, but it stayed really windy for most of the morning. Started pretty easy through some fields, etc but soon we started the climb up Conic Hill. According to my watch, it was about 1,000 feet high and felt every bit of it. We could have summited the peak but chose not too, it was windy and cloudy and I don’t think we missed all that much. The views from the high point on the way were just fine.

Then came a fairly steep descent but here’s the crazy part, folks were in the process of building a stone path up from the bottom. There were literal bags of boulders piled up alongside the path and guys were hauling them out one by one up to where they were put in place by hand. The amount of work put in to that is crazy to think about. They were clearly working hard! Looked like they had about 2/3 completed, so we were able to walk down it the rest of the way. It was still pretty steep and kinda hard on the legs.

At the bottom we had lunch at the Balmaha (sounds like Omaha) visitor center at a nice little picnic table then on we went again. Like many others, I think, we foolishly believed we were at least half way done when in reality we weren’t. The next leg was pretty nice. Through lots of forested regions along Loch Lomond, but we did have to climb several, what we called unnecessary, stairs. Several times the path would veer off and go up some steep ascent, usually with stairs only to hang out at the top for a bit before descending again to the road or the loch. Why? We had no idea but by the end of the day we were done with stairs. That was pretty much the rest of the day just wandering through the woods on our way to The Hotel Rowardennan which we got to a bit later than expected. Such is life.

So far on this trip the only part that has been a bit surprising to me is the fact that for much of the walk so far, we are very civilization-adjacent. By that I mean we are usually walking along or near a road, or perhaps along some people’s houses, or through parks. I think I was expecting more of a wilderness adventure and it has not really been that. I’m wondering if in a couple of days when we leave the Loch Lomond area and start to cross the bogs and such that it will be, or at least seem, more like wilderness. Not complaining, just noting. The walk these two days has been wonderful and I’m looking forward to tomorrow despite reading that tomorrow’s segment is regarded as the most difficult and challenging of the entire walk! I guess we’ll find that out tomorrow.

Until then,

JIm

West Highland Way Day 3