| Falcon's Log 6 |
| January 31, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Before I had a chance to ask Barb for a few shots of the haulout, I got an email with these photos. Either she is clairvoyant, or . . . or, . . . she reads this log. She said she read the log, but I'm going to be careful what I think around her, just in case. Only horses and elephants in slings are more unnatural that suspended boats. After years in the yards, you'd think people would get used to it, but people who have spent years in the yards have also seen the boats fall out of the slings - sometimes over the water, sometimes on the hard, and sometimes halfway in between, the worst. Always a relief when it's safely down on the ground or the water. |
| Dulcinea is a big girl and no doubt about it. She isn't fast or flashy, but she is comfortable, safe and roomy, and that's exactly what Don and Barb are going for. They expect to head off for Marathon, in the Keys, by the end of the month (February) and after a short stay there, over to the Abacos before heading south through the Bahamas. If you were sitting here, you would have heard me sigh heavily just then - everyone leaves but me. Well, it's cold outside and I'm inside working on getting the excess lead out of the keel areas that need it. It's hard work and keeps me warm, so I have no complaints. One day soon, I'll post a list of accomplishments that have to happen for me to toss the docklines and head south. One day soon. I just have to make it first. |
| February 3, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Yesterday and the day before (Superbowl Sunday), I spent time helping Donny on Dulcinea, watched some of the Superbowl - mostly, the first quarter and last quarter - and the rest of the time worked hard on removing the lead. I gotta tell ya, once you've melted it down into the keel, it's a bear getting it out. Still, I'm almost done with the hardest section, WWAAAYY up in the bow. After that, I'll make the new sump area under the shower, then move to the big job back under the engine where I started this a month or so ago. Below there are shots of the bow area where you can just barely see the lead I'm working on removing. Of course, the boat need to be lightened up some, but in this area, the biggest reason for removing the extra lead is to provide a perfect location for the depth sounder transducer. |
| As per Espin's suggestion, I've started using the Rubbermaid clear containers for food storage. I get them at Walmart, where they are reasonably inexpensive. So far, I like them a lot. The large ones have brown rice, oatmeal, red beans, and instant potato's. The small ones have black-eyed peas, sugar, coffee and tea, and Crystal Lite drink mixes. Sunsets during these cold and blustery days have been clear and unspectacular, but the stars at night have been awesome. Orion is my favorite. |
| Ken Keenahan, who built the other Horne 33 (that we know of so far) has agreed to let me post his pictures and correspondence here, so I'll start just as soon as I finish this update. This is going to be fun. His boat looks great. On Sunday I helped Donny install a few things by being the guy on the other side of the wall holding a wrench on the nuts. I also just finished building and filling a long page about Ken Keenahan's Horne 33. It has a link on the home page. |
| February 5, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida It is brutally cold (for Florida) this morning. Temperature inside the boat was about 35 F when I got up. I have one of those little ceramic heaters that I use now and then, but I think it needs a rebuild or a toss into the dumpster. The one Espin has is a little Walmart cheapy (not ceramic) and it blasts out way more heat than my high-end Maserati ceramic toad. They are both rated the same - 1500 W. Mine is lame. It limps and whimpers. Yesterday I finished getting the lead out of the most forward area. Right now, almost every job I have to do is in a 'hard to work in' location on the boat and it is wearing me out. Mentally, I mean. I can't wait to get these jobs done. But they are progressing. I've been corresponding with a guy from Texas named Scott, who's Dad will be retiring soon and moving to Florida to live aboard a sailboat. It was Scott who inspired me to construct the 'Falcon's Specs' page and I'm glad for it. It just never occurred to me, but as time goes on, I'll be adding detailed information about everything, just because I now have a place to put it. It's still early in the day and I may have more to add later, like a picture of a polar bear floating by on a chunk of drift ice. |
| February 8, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Yesterday I worked most of the day on Donny and Barb's 'Dulcinea'. We had to do a little engineering, a good deal of running after parts and supplies, and a couple of hours of hard work, but we got the new dinghy davit pedestals securely installed on the transom. We also went over todays project, which is to make serious headway on the anchor situation up forward. There is a new windlass to install, a second anchor davit, a starboard shield for the bow gelcoat just below the anchor davits, and a serious starboard support for the outer ends of the two anchor davits. On Friday I got an email from an old friend, Dave Bourbeau, who once won the Harley Davidson drag championship at Bolling Green, Kentucky. He also had a sweet, restored Egg Harbor Sportfisher in Lynn, Massachusetts. Well, he wrote because Cary Nebelkopf was Googling his own name and found the things I said about him and called Dave, who now lives in Florida, so Dave emailed me through the sites Contact page. To be fair, just as Ken Keenahan wrote just a few days ago, going through all the old pictures and writing down events and stages brings back the entire experience in a flood. For my part, I will always feel I was cheated. Cary and I had a deal and he broke it. Still, Dave states that it WAS 18 years ago and I should get over it. Of course, that has the sweet ring of Dr. Phil's syrupy daytime TV philosophy, coupled with the easy assertion that the injured party has no right to feel injured if it makes anyone else feel uncomfortable. Still, as I reviewed the things I wrote and sat for a minute in Cary's chair, I saw no need to leave them there, so I edited the section about the Cadillac down to a more civil and less mean-spirited tone. Forgive and forget is always easier for the offender than the offended, though Dave was just acquaintance at the time and had little or no knowledge of the events. He also said he'd run into Dana on the other coast and I'd like to hear from him to see how's he's been. And his Dad, Wally, I suppose, and Wally's wife Joanne, a very nice woman. |
| February 9, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Again, I spent most of yesterday thrashing away on Dulcinea, trying to help Donny get everything done that needed to get done before she gets splashed either today or tomorrow or whenever. Another day of drilling fiberglass and being sprinkled with the itchy, angry dust. But, we made good progress and will be heading over very early today to get more done before the yard crew shows up to continue work on the boat. I got an email from Cary Nebelkopf yesterday and updated page 1 of Building Falcon accordingly. It was a good email and I am happy to have received it. I also heard from Dave Bourbeau that Dana's Dad, Wally, passed away a few years ago from something hard, slow, and painful, and I was very sorry to hear that. Wally and I had our differences and butted heads pretty hard at the end, but there was a lot about the guy that I liked and he could be as funny and likeable as anyone I've ever known. Apparently, Dana is not into computers at all and can not see the site or email. I'll have to send Dave my phone number and see if I can get in touch with Dana that way. Ten minutes to work time. I'll be back later. |
| February 10, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Don and I finished our final steps on Dulcinea (until she's back at the Marina) in an hour. Back at Falcon, I started digging a sump into the lead keel beneath the shower - not yet in existence - to install a shower sump pump. I'm using a 3500 GPH Rule bilge pump, not because I think that's appropriate for a shower system, but because I'd like to have a seriously capable bilge pump forward that will also help save the boat should the need arise. Besides, I already have the pump. I'll just need to get a float switch. Maybe. I already have two of them, but with two big bilge pumps aft, a 3500 and a 2000, I've been planning to give each one it's own float switch, the larger pumps float switch being mounted about 6 inches higher than the 2000's so it would only kick in if the 2000 couldn't keep up. There's just no need to always have both pumps kicking on. |
| Above are shots of the shower sump with the 3500 sitting loose in it, and Sam, who has just spotted me approaching and is getting into position to get his back scratched. Below are Sandy and Ken from the Schucker. Sandy is an artist and has drawn a great scene that I will scan and include here, to be carved into my companionway doors. Ken is an incredible carver (though I will do my doors myself) and he carved this ceremonial mask out of a chunk of tree right in front of us on the dock. |
| January 27, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Yesterday was a banner day and I am still basking in the glorious glow of FINALLY getting the fuel back into the tanks and the drums off the dock. The tide was low enough that the siphon setup worked great and each drum only required about fifteen or twenty minutes to empty. And they emptied completely. I tipped them and rolled the fuel into the center of the pickup tube until it made that sweet sound of an empty soda at the movies. See evidence below. |
| Below here are Kim, who owns the Endeavor 37 next door to me, and Dustin. The boat is not small. He is 6'4". This shot didn't come out too good, so I'll have to get another and replace it. Kim was once married to Greg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band, and they had a son together, Jesse. Jesse died In a road rage incident and Dustin was his best friend. He now calls Kim 'Mom' and has a wife and kids of his own. |
| January 29, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida I got a lot of 'home chores' (laundry, etc) done yesterday and helped a bit with Donny and Barb getting Dulcinea over to Andy's yard for haulout. This morning I touched up those details on the Great Wall Of Dumpster and got another shot of Dustin. This one came out much better. I'm going to see if Barb will email me a shot or two of Dulcinea in the slings to post. |
| Dustin's a great guy and I figure after posting the dark shot of him, I owe him a bigger picture to show his kids. I'll bet they like it. I've received a great email from Ken in New York with lots of pictures and explanations and I have to get the 'OK' from him to be able to post it. I may either include it in this log or dedicate a separate section to it. The boat is beautiful (much prettier than Falcon) and he actually finished it, so I see the section as inspiring me to get going. I'll keep you abreast of what's happening in case you just come straight to the logs. |
| February 15, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida I know, I know. It's been 5 days and I'm usually not that lax without a good reason. The thing is, I've been spending a lot of time still helping Donny and Barb on Dulcinea. Yes, yes, I know, I said I wasn't going to work on other peoples boats anymore and blah, blah, blah, but there is no way they are going cruising without certain systems installed, up and running. They are giving away the trailer in the park across the street and they have sold the house in Englewood. Once they move aboard, with most of their worldly possessions (they still have a storage locker) it will be all but impossible to complete most of these jobs - as they have daily proof, watching their dear friend 'Ben' - so, there you go and there I go, off to work on other peoples boats - again. It has me in something of a blue funk, but at least there is light at the end of the tunnel. Meanwhile, I have decided against installing the kerosene stove in Falcon and have instead opted for a counter-top propane two-burner unit. Now, here's the thing about those items - they are some pricey little bits of boat gear, and I know the one I'd REALLY like to have, but I'd also really like to have the $750 it would cost to just get started. Then another $500 for aluminum propane tanks and hose, regulator and shut-off solenoid with control panel and on and on. Right now, I have the money I need to get hauled out and I have to keep that issue viable or I will lose my mind. Searching the Internet for a reasonable substitute has produced the little sweetie below, which is out of Harbor Freight for only $69 and change. It has a little broiler, just perfect for a filet, and if it lasts a year, that'll be long enough. By then I'll be able to afford one of the best Marine versions and the rest of the system will be all set up. Also below is the sweet little hot water heater I just picked up out of Home Depot. It's a 4 gallon unit with a 1500 watt heater element and hangs on the wall directly behind the shower. It should easily serve me on the hook. $169. |
| We've had some sweet fog lately - well, it's not sweet if you're trying to navigate in it - but it's great to wake up to. Fog means calm, peace and quiet, glassy water. Of course, it's always good to see it burn off by the time you have to get moving. |
| The shot above left is south towards the bridge that is RIGHT THERE but which you can hardly see. The one on the right is towards the north. Yeah, I know, this happens 350 days a year off the coast of Maine, but not so much here. Below is a shot over Falcon's bow, and another one of the alien flying saucer that is landing atop her foremast. Damn! That TV antenna is ugly. I can't wait to see if TV antenna's will get smaller and more compact when the signal goes to all digital and analog is discontinued. That big pancake is really just an analog unit that happens to work halfway good for digital. |
| February 16, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Yesterday Don and I worked on the new head and positioning the new dinghy davits. Both jobs require more trial and error than I usually like in any task, but for Donny and Barb, it's important that the final product both look right and work right. Can't argue with that. Today, I'm not going to be working on Dulcinea because I just have to ease my head a bit. I'll probably do laundry and continue to prep the work area for more lead removal. I also have to clean up the truck a bit and get more stuff packed into it. Another cold front came through last night. The first thing it did was to screw up the Daytona 500. Most of the race looked pretty good with only a moderate amount of yellow and only one big mess that I saw. None of my favorites were able to place well due to the early stoppage. |
| February 16, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Most of what I managed to do yesterday was my laundry - and a lot of talking to folks around the marina. New Ken is carving a pelican. Geoff is going to be climbing a couple of masts to paint them. Espin might get a Cape Dory 25D at a good price and put it beside his 'Ajax' 31 Southern Cross and slowly fix it up and decide which one to keep. Donny and Barb got back from Oldsmar with their new watermaker and 2 huge freezers for Dulcinea. Randy is getting ever closer to tying off his house situation, moving 'Lil Toot', his charter tour boat, and heading off cruising on 'Moondream', his Corbin 39, which is docked right beside me and can be clearly seen in the photo just above and to the right. Eric, the dock man for 'Waves', the boat rental company, has somehow contracted 'Murser(?)', whatever that is (I'm told it's very, very bad) from a fall into the water here at the marina. Speaking as one of the hundreds of others who have taken a dunking here, I'm more than just a tad skeptical about the origin of his malady, not to mention all the divers who work here regularly and skin themselves up on barnacles and oysters. Go figure. I waited until late in the day to do my laundry and was treated to a sweet sunset from the second floor laundry room. While the Kodak 7.1 MP digital camera I have is usually excellent, every once in a while it seems incapable of capturing certain shots on the 'automatic' settings. It has a manual mode, but to use that I'm pretty sure I'd have to read the manual or something, and I don't see that happening. Below are two shots I took, and one I tried to manipulate through Corel Photopaint. It wasn't, or maybe, I wasn't able to help much. |
| Anyone who can read and count can easily see I spoke of three shots and only posted two. That's because when I posted the last one and saw it beside the first, I couldn't see any difference at all and just deleted it. It is now condemned to spend eternity drifting in limbo with all other deleted digital matter, until someone on a TV detective show wants to 'restore' it magically and prosecute someone. I occasionally format all my drives to avoid prosecution for poor photography. Today, I'm expecting to see Al Giles, who I met on the first day of the first grade in the brand new 'Great Oak School' in Danvers, Massachusetts, where we both grew up. Al was a good deal bigger than me, so I lost the fight we immediately had. For some inexplicable reason, we've bee friends ever since. Al is now the full time caregiver for his parents, who are in their 90's. This week, he has a bit of a reprieve as his older brother, Stan, will be relieving him of duty for a few days and Al will be coming over here for a short visit. He and his folks split their time between the east coast of Florida and their property in Alton Bay, New Hampshire, on Lake Winnipesaukee. That is a beautiful area and one of the places I miss being down here in the land of flat. Al should be arriving sometime this morning. We'll do a bit of touristy driving around and I'll take plenty of pics to post here. |
| February 19, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Al wasn't able to make it on the 16th, but did get here on the 17th and we had a pretty good time. One funny thing happened right off. Donny and I were walking together and talking and I stopped at the little bridge just before the Seafood shack, where I'd just directed Al to meet me. Donny continued on to Cortez Street, heading toward the trailer he and Barb have across the street, when Al came around the corner and stopped, mistaking Donny for me. Even when Al started talking and Donny said he wasn't me, Al thought it really was me, pulling his leg. Donny started cracking up and pointed to me standing on the bridge a couple of hundred feet away. Anyway, Al and I drove around some and viewed the sights, as well as stopping for a great feed at the Rod and Reel Restaurant on Anna Maria Island. I took a steady stream of pictures from the car and while we walked, so I'll pick some out and post them here. |
| Above, Al is talking to a gent from Michigan who spends two months at the Paradise Bay Motel, where Al got a room for the night. The other shot is north from the Cortez Street Bridge that shows up in a lot of my shots from the marina. This is the first time I took a shot from a car window as we crossed. It's a good view. I'll have to try and get a shot southward from here. It's better. Below are two shots at the Rod & Reel Restaurant. People fish off the dock all around the building at all times of year and day. |
| Below left is another shot of the area northward off the Rod & Reel pier, and a shot on the street of Bradenton Beach, a little town just over the Cortez Street Bridge. This area always reminds me, and Al too, of the vacation places we used to visit when we were kids on Lake Winnipesaukee. |
| Yesterday Donny and I finished his dinghy davits and installed the deck organizer aboard Dulcinea. I forget what he has lined up for today, but it doesn't matter - we'll just do it and get through it. I can't wait to be able to work on Falcon. |
| February 25, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida I have been busy working on Donny and Barb's Dulcinea and doing a few other things as well. For one thing, I bought a turkey fryer on Craig's List. I'm not sure that's how to write 'Craigslist' or if the second try is correct. Anyway, I've been searching for a way to melt down the lead that I'm chopping out of the keel. The first 200 lbs or so has filled a milk carton on the dock. At first, I thought I might bring it to 'Scrapall', the scrap buying place in Sarasota, but when I called them, they said (gleefully, I might add) that with the new jump in price this week, they are paying five cents a pound for lead. Are you putting me on? You think I'm going to cart a half a ton of lead 20 miles for $50? For that kind of money, I won't go further than across the street. So Espin gave me $20 for the first 200 pounds for his friend Volkaar in Pensacola, who needs it to tame the motion of his little sailboat. Back to the turkey fryer. After searching high and low on the Internet for a little single burner propane stove, such as was popular in plumbing supply houses forever, but is non-existent now, I finally started looking at turkey fryers like the one I used in Naples to melt my feet together. (Building Falcon, page 7, halfway down the page) The prices, with tax and shipping, etc, plus the need for a new tank of propane, were just too high for something I only needed for a short while, so I went to Craig's List and found the whole setup, with an almost full tank, for $50, the value of a half ton of lead. Now, the thing is, what should I use for a mold? I'm actually thinking about getting two divers weight belt molds - one for the curved 8 lb weights, and one for the square 4 lb weights, and casting the whole 800 lbs left (still to be removed) into divers weights, then selling them over Ebay. Possible. Also possible to go across the street to the fishing company and sell them the whole load in 30 lb ingots at once. Until I get it out, I'll have time to mull it over. By the way, the guy selling the thing was in Bogata, Columbia, in a hotel with only the front desk phone to communicate with. Made for a couple of interesting calls with employees who don't speak English, but it went well anyway. Yesterday I climbed Donny's mast and installed four components of his new 'stack-pak' type sail cover device. Might even be an actual 'Stack Pak', I don't know. I have to make a couple of special low friction line guide devices to protect the lift lines at the spreaders, which will mean another trip up the stick to install those. We also cut open a big hidden storage area under the main berth and installed a 120 quart, self-contained refrigeration cooler, which was another tough job. This all started with Donny asking me if I could help him out for about 4 hours sometime. Now, there is so much work that I cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel. Espin is also lining up to get me to help him install a hatch in his cockpit floor, which is the only way he can get to his packing gland to adjust it. I told him I'd help. I have decided to include a couple of shots of peaceful anchorages for my serenity. |
| March 3, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Yes, yes, six days again. If I had anything to say about progress on Falcon or hope for my leaving here soon, I would be making log entries, but I don't. I am still up to my eyeballs in other peoples problems. I am still working on Donny's boat, Espin is still after getting a hatch in his cockpit floor, and now Paul has asked me to fix the busted off piling by sistering in a couple of pressure treated 2 x 8's. My only consolation remains in my dogged determination to work my way through this and become a much more surly and unpleasant person so others will avoid me and allow me to complete my own projects. Oh, that's right. I never mentioned how the piling got broken off. It was a cold and windy night. Or, at least, that is how Snoopy would have started the tale. None the less, it was and a big Hatteras yacht trying to dock snapped off the piling. End of tale. But I also have pictures. Or, picture, as it were. Who says that 'as it were' thing anymore? |
| A good, steady 20 knot breeze was holding the boat away from the dock as he tried to get her tied up, and Donny, seen smiling at the camera, snubbed a line around the worn, dangerously thin piling in the background. (Middle of the five pilings.) Then the captain blasted the bowthruster to starboard to swing the stern in toward the dock, and snapped the piling off. It is JUST teetering there, trying to fall into the boat and topple into the water. We all thought that the owner, seen shivering on the foredeck, was country singer Mel Tillis, but nobody asked. I thought it was Tom Cruise without his makeup. It's not true what they say about Tom being the same height as Danny Devito - he's a tad taller with his lifts in. Below is a group of rowdy drinkers tearing up the dock. Sandy, Eddie, Sandy and Ken. Sandy is wearing sunglasses and Sandy isn't. |
| March 4, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Yesterday I finished with my share of the projects on Dulcinea. From here on, Donny is confident he can manage alone, since all the heavy lifting, two-man jobs, and technical installation options have been considered, reconsidered, beaten to death and settled upon. It's always good to have these things discussed openly before starting to cut away at sections of your boat. It avoids those embarrassing situations where you have to do a lot of backtracking and repair before doing the job RIGHT. Anyway, that phase of my present situation is over and I am decompressing and lining up the ducky's to proceed on the other hanging issues. One hanging issue I was not aware of until yesterday was that huge segments of the previous versions of this site were still hanging in the wings and jumping up in response to various online searches. I have a small site traffic analysis program that I play with once in a while to see if I can figure out any relevant indicators that it might reveal. The very first one happened yesterday when I noticed that someone had spent a good deal of bandwidth examining page 19 of Building Falcon - except that page 19 of Building Falcon doesn't exist any more. That is, it's not SUPPOSED to exist any more. I condensed the Building Falcon pages down to 8 pages, total, and tied it off when I went to this log as a way to keep a better, more concise record of what is happening. I went on line and searched for the old pages specifically by URL and not by searching the website, where they didn't show up anyway. Sure enough, there they were, a couple of dozen old pages. Unfortunately, these pages were still full of old information that I'd copied and pasted to the new pages. After making sure I had everything I wanted, I deleted the old pages. The problem is, the SiteBuilder tools provided by Yahoo have no way to delete the pages from the site itself, so, even though there is nothing in the updated site to point to them, they are still there attracting Google and other engine searches, as well as the search-bot creatures that now prowl the Internet sniffing into every crevice. I made several attempts to light up the pages again in the SiteBuilder software, to no avail. Finally, I called the awesome Yahoo Business Site Help Line, only to discover it is out of existence. It directs you to an online email-type 'ask these questions' dead end - which is also out of service. I'm a little spooked by my choice of Internet Website Hosting services. Yahoo appears to be teetering on the brink. I may have to move the whole operation somewhere else. Finally, I went back into my archives and found a complete version of the website with it's maximum number of pages. I uploaded it to the site, then, one by one, stripped every single last page to nothing, and uploaded that version. I went on line and searched for the URL's and found them to all be blank white pages. Fine. Then, I removed that file from SiteBuilder and replaced it with my most recent backup, which I did JUST PRIOR to this whole exercise, and uploaded the entire site once more, checked it, and, satisfied that the problem is fixed, have started this log update. I have a lot to do today, so I think I'll be back later with more. And because I'm such a visual person, I'm pretty sure I'll be including pictures. |
| It was supposed to be a warm day today as the north wind clocked around to easterly and the bitter winter chill left the air. Right. Someday I'm going to run right over a weatherman and my defense will be, "He said he wouldn't be there." Anyway, Sandy and Eddie decided it would be a good evening to put on a little wiener feast and set it up and invited everyone. The biggest reason is because Sandy and Ken have their very close friends from Buffalo (they drove down - don't tell me people don't want out of the frozen north) visiting, and they are planning on leaving tomorrow to head farther south. They say Ft Myers, I'm suggesting Cuba where the Great Gulf Ice Shelf is already melting. In the pictures above, Ken is wearing his "I'm a northern woodsman" red plaid shirt and Joe, Tammy's husband is next to him. The next shot is Tammy and Sandy, who are soul sisters in the white meaning of the phrase, which I think signifies they both burned old boyfriends photos and swore off men in their second year of college. I could be wrong. |
| Yesterdays sunset was spectacular and I didn't have my camera. Tonights was blah, so here ya' go! Sorry. |
