This is a wonderful post! I like the nice story behind the project, the detailed description of the steps involved and the troubleshooting process :)
Just wondering what the text in the image says... is it a story about the sailor or just some instructions?
Thank you, @plushzilla!
The original article does not say much, just a few words on how the author found out about the toy and some very basic (and not very usable) assembly instructions. I guess, the picture was supposed to be self-explanatory...