Recently I was discussing this CubicFun Flying Dutchman Pirate Ghost Ship 3D puzzle model in a Facebook group, and realized I’ve never shared it on my blog!
(I also never shared the fact that I had COVID (Delta, I suspect) during the summer of 2021, which may well have been the sickest I’ve ever been. I was sick for about 6 weeks, very sick for 3 of those weeks, and extremely sick for the first 10 days. I missed work, lost my sense of taste and smell (everything smelled and tasted like burnt rubber) and I lost 15 lbs, finally had to start force-feeding myself. Eventually, I recovered—though my sense of smell never fully returned. But hey—at least now I have natural immunity! (And I wonder: what kind of premium will we start seeing on unvaxxed blood donations?)
Anyway, during that lengthy illness, each afternoon I would have some soup and sit down to work on this “puzzle” for around 3 hours. It was about all I could do during that time, and 3 hours wiped me out! But it gave me something to do, helped keep my mind off of how awful I felt.
Overall, it took me about 3 weeks to complete. And even though I was sick, I thoroughly enjoyed the process! It ends up being a fairly good size:
And, it includes LED lights inside, which is very cool turning on in the dark:
And it was quite a learning experience too, I’ve since built some mechanical puzzles/models, such as the ROKR 3D Wooden Globe Puzzle:
And this Acadamy da Vinci Clock Model:
And more recently, I attempted the UGEARS Skywatcher Tourbillon Clock (though that one didn’t turn out so well, once completed I was trying to get it working properly, and noticed some parts inside coming loose, and when I attempted to take it back apart to fix it, it exploded (it’s spring-loaded), parts flying everywhere. There was no way I’d ever be able to repair it after spending so many months building it, I doubt I would even find all the parts (if they weren’t broken already), and so the whole thing went in the trash can, sadly…)
But here’s a stock photo of it, as you can see it was quite complex and was very challenging, just didn’t work out for me:
And here’s a short video showing what it’s actually supposed to do (if it doesn’t explode on you!):
And finally, I’ll soon be starting the Tortuga Pirate Bay Pirate Shipwreck 3D Puzzle, plan to work on it over the winter, when taking breaks from my novel and other work (most of you are aware that I’m taking the winter off my job to work primarily on my novel Primeval, along with several other “life’s work” projects). However, the Tortuga is a slightly smaller project than the Flying Dutchman Pirate Ghost Ship, so it shouldn’t take long):
Anyway, just thought I’d share something lighthearted and fun for once—and I’ve included text & photo links to all of these puzzles in case anyone’s interested, especially with Christmas right around the corner! Enjoy! ~ R
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