I was really surprised to hear about Steve Jobs, he was too young, what a shame! Life can be brutally short!
Some words of wisdom:
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.
Everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.” There is no reason not to follow your heart. “
– Steve Jobs
Well said!
The Splendid transformation is moving at light speed! It reminds me of the joke about the snail in the guys driveway. The guy picks it up and throws the snail into the field across the street. A year later the snail knocks on his door and says “ What the hell did you do that for ? ”
It may take me some time but I will have a beautiful sailboat soon. As you can see the aft cabin house is nearly done. I need 
to do the non-skid which goes really fast. I can do the whole boat in a few days.
I’m thinking another 4-6 weeks to finish the decks & cabin house. Then I will think of the hull.
Restoring an old classic 40’ ketch by yourself with very little money may move at a snails pace, but what a fun job. The reward immeasurable. My home for life that will transport me throughout the world…, priceless!
After painting I have 3 large tasks left. I will build hard bimini & dodger. I will build a proper rowing 
& sailing dinghy, and my last big expense is the addition of a drifter and mizzen stay sail. The hard bimini & sailing dinghy wont necessarily get done here in Panama but I will need the drifter & mizzen stay sail before voyaging.
You can see here how a mizzen stay sail works, its the colorful sail.
When I leave Panama, Splendid will leave as a sailboat. My diesel consumption will be at an absolute minimum and Splendid will be capable of sailing in all wind conditions. With my drifter on Namaste I would sail in 5-7 knots, I will do the same with Splendid. I’m quite proud of only burning 60 gallons of fuel between Panama and Australia, half way around the world :)
The beauty of a drifter as opposed to a spinnaker or asym is it will go to weather. It doesn’t have the same horse power (mass), but in my opinion a much more versatile light-air sail. It is relatively easy for a single hander to manage, and I’m not so into going fast so I don’t need the mass of a larger sail.
With the mizzen stay I’ll basically have two drifters, how cool?
I’ve been spending more time with my monkey buddies on Linton. If I do build the bimini & sailing dinghy here it will be in an abandoned building on the island. My friends Mel & Fab just built there optimist sailing dinghy in a room there. They managed to close it off so the monkeys couldn’t get to their tools & epoxy. They do get into everything and like to steal stuff.
I’m planning on shooting time-lapse video for my next film, I’m excited. Time-lapse isn’t so easy to do but will be appropriate for my opening. I’m also going to capture 
a squall rolling through my anchorage so I can show people how different boats & keel designs react to wind, current, and the lack of wind. That coupled with underwater video of anchoring and how they set should be a helpful tool in deciding where to drop your hook. I always try and anchor next to similar designed hull/keels so we all react the same to weather conditions and don’t hit each other.
Anyway , time for me to wrap it up. It’s almost 9am, the sun is shining, and I have work to do.
Sail far and live slowly.