Fixing our SALVAGE SAILBOAT | Expedition Evans 9

The grinding saga continues! Our leaking Beneteau 49 has serious structural damage and we’re almost done removing all the gelcoat and interior pieces hiding it from being repaired. This week we kill a shop-vac and an angle grinder – those little motors weren’t made to ingest this dust either!

Covid-19 and 2020 in general have been horrible. Jade is high risk and the efforts we’ve gone through to protect her along side all the anxiety for our grandparents and the deep sorrow for those whose lives have been impacted have felt so heavy. We felt really defeated. We felt frustrated that we couldn’t get the protective gear we needed. We felt frustrated that hospitals couldn’t get the protective gear they needed. It’s been a dark year all around.
In our efforts to “be positive” and “stay sane” we started looking for the blessings hidden in the mess. We realized that for all the terror Covid -19 has been, the government lock downs have helped us in some ways and we decided to focus on that as much as possible. We have been working towards this moment of buying a damaged boat for years and were ready to go to Europe and start looking when the government lockdowns happened. We always dreamed of a big project boat, but had decided to get an ex-charter instead. If it hadn’t been for the lock downs and us losing our jobs (thereby freeing up all our time) we never would have realized our “Salvage Sailboat” dream.
And on a deeper level, at the beginning of this year we lost a member of our family in a tragic accident. It was horrible. It is still horrible. We continue to mourn every day and are so grateful to have this boat project to focus all our energies on. Jade is especially struggling with the loss and as empathic as she is, is struggling with everyone else’s losses this year too. Putting 12-16 hours of physical labor into the boat and then more hours afterwards into editing these videos is a therapy and is the only thing we have right now to alleviate the PTSD and anxiety attacks.
We are very grateful to have this boat and this project and we hope that it can bring others some of that same happiness through these videos. Sending you all love and hopefully a ray of sunshine in an otherwise cloudy year.
Thanks for all the support! We appreciate all the comments, emails, and dm’s from you all. Such an awesome group you all are 🙂

And as always, Thanks for watching-

With love
The Evans’

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*Our Boat*
2008 Beneteau 49
3 cabin 2 head
4JH4-TE
Westerbeke generator
Mast, sails and rig are in excellent condition and in storage
Here’s what we *think* we know about her past. Keep in mind we bought her at auction without ever meeting the owner! The owner was sailing along and ran aground – hard. Hard enough that the keel pivoted and pushed the aft end up into the hull. This force cracked the internal grid in several places and broke a portion of the grid free from hull. At some point an inspection was done, insurance was called and decisions were made. See https://youtu.be/JJ3MruoO2q4 for how we came to own her!

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*Our Gear*
Main Camera: https://amzn.to/3h9CiOg
Main Lens: https://amzn.to/2Q3hYC7
Microphone: https://amzn.to/3iSDGoV
Action Camera: https://amzn.to/324dq43
Drone: https://amzn.to/2Yf3X8S
Laptop: https://amzn.to/3h9ydcL

*Find Us Elsewhere*
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExpeditionEvans
J Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Jadexploring/
B Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_BrettEvans_
EE Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ExpeditionEvans

*Website/blog*
https://www.expeditionevans.com

*Support us*
https://www.patreon.com/expeditionevans