| Falcon's Log 10 |
| April 13, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Time is marching on. The temperature is expected to be in the high eighties today and hurricane season is steadily approaching. Yesterday I changed out all my docklines and got rid of another couple of piles of stuff. I also watched an excellent Masters Tournament with an eminently worthy Angel Cabrera winning in the second hole of sudden death. It would have been great to see Kenny Perry win, but it wasn't to be. He faltered at the end and Angel gritted it out. Golf is a last man standing sport. I started the long, tedious 'grind out the taper' process on the large ships wheel I got from Randy. I'm almost there - as far as fit - but I'm trying desperately to keep it as square as possible so the wheel runs true and doesn't oscillate or orbit when turned. It's one of those irritating jobs that has to get done and allows me to sit in the shade while I'm doing it, so I'm doing it. It's kind of fun. I'll store the other wheel below in case I ever need it. Meanwhile, it's getting to be about time to mix the paint and get to painting and epoxying and prepping to get the engine back in place, connected and started. About the books in that section of the website: I have written then or are in process of writing them. As I am able to polish them into marketable final products, I will cross all the legal 't's and dot the 'i's and have them printed, one at a time, and add website notice that they are now for sale. Right now, I just don't have the opportunity to apply the time and concentration necessary to polish them up - but I will. That is the reason for all this - to be able to relax and work in peace and quiet and get back to the writing. There will come a time for more talk on the subject, but not just now. The clearing out of extras is mentally refreshing and I want to do more of it. There is a time when you realize you have looked at something long enough and will probably never use it. So, lose it - move it - give it away or chuck it. I am hoping to hear back from Gene soon. His son, Scott, has been reading the logs for some time now and Gene has finally retired, moved to Florida, bought himself a boat and moved aboard. I actually saw pics of the boat he bought, but didn't make copies of them before the add went offline, so I just did a quick Internet search and got a couple of the inside of a 1980 Irwin 30 Citation, which I think is about the same boat. |
| Gene had a bit of trouble with his engine and somehow settled on the possibility that he'd blown the head gasket. After a short phone conversation, I told him to remove the water lift muffler and clean the 10 pounds of carbon muck out of it, re-install it and tell me what he has then. I suspect it will be a fine running little Yanmar. Those older engines don't just give up the ghost for no reason. They need to be abused or neglected into submission. I finished the grind out the wheel job - well, almost, I still have to make a spacer to mount it - and hand cut a nice key slot into it as well. This took as much time as boring out the hole. There will be pics. Got more stuff sorted out and given away and ordered two quarts of Largo Blue Brightside paint from Randy. We're expecting to have a couple of stormy fronts roll over us tomorrow so I don't know how much I'll be able to get done outside. Hopefully, the morning will be clear and the fronts will pass through in the afternoon, but we'll have to wait and see. Got invited to eat fish and rice and salad with Ken and Sandy at lunchtime - couldn't be beat. I'm planning on having beans with brown sugar and molasses tonight. Mmmmm. Guuud. |
| April 14, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida The fronts we've been expecting are arriving. The first was supposed to be nothing, almost unnoticeable. It just rumbled over us like one of those giant alien clouds in the movie 'Independence Day', and I mean it was impressive. Maybe the first one did pass and went unnoticed and this is the second. Sandy got good pictures of it and I should be able to post a couple of them later on. The temperature dropped ten or fifteen degrees in about ten seconds. I love active weather, as long as it's not TOO active. We are still on a tornado watch and that tends to make you keep an eye out, but it isn't as severe here as it is to the north and north-east. |
| The wind absolutely howled today from 9 AM until close to midnight. Standing on the dock to get these sunset shots was a risky proposition and I felt like I was going to be blown off the dock more than once. Most of the other pics I took came out blurry because it was almost impossible to hold the camera steady. By the way, those shots were the very first time we'd seen any hint of the sun all day. The new docklines I installed got wet and stretched and I had to go out and adjust them several times. They allowed Falcon to move so much that she rinked the shore power connector and I lost power a dozen times during the day. It might be damaged now and require replacement. I have it tied in position for now and will have to check in the next few days. |
| April 15, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida It's calm this morning and the wind has finally subsided. I just went outside and looked around and can see no damage anywhere. It's still overcast though, and the noble weather people keep extending the forecast concerning clearing. Yesterday morning they said the front would pass over us from about 2:30 PM until 4:00 PM. When it hit us at 9:00 AM, they extended it to about 6:00 PM. Around sunset they were calling for the winds to die by midnight to 2 AM. By 10:00 PM, they were 'hoping' to begin seeing clearing sometime early today. I wish I had a job where I could be wrong all the time and still get awards and high pay like a weatherman. |
| April 18, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida I climbed Espin's mast yesterday - twice - but it was easy and I got everything done that he wanted done. We are rapidly approaching the time when the tourist season dies out and Espin takes off in Ajax for the Bahamas. I also mixed five miscellaneous cans of blue paint with the two new gallons of white paint - in a clean 5 gallon bucket - and ended up with 3 gallons of beautiful light blue single part polyurethane enamel which I will soon be painting the interior areas of Falcon with. |
| The first picture is one that Sandy took of the storm front as it charged down on us. It was just this huge wall of boiling clouds moving right to left - north to south - pushing a wall of cold air and high winds. It caused a lot of damage and tornado's. Above is the sunset the next day. |
| To the right is George Carters Bayfield 40. It's a pretty boat with classic lines, well maintained. Below is last nights sunset. Today is the first day of the little classic boat show at the Cortez Kitchen. I'm going over with Ken and Sandy and will take many pictures and post some here. |
| April 19, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Sandy, New Ken and I walked over to the Cortez Kitchen Boat Show yesterday and I managed to take about 50 or 60 pictures. We ran into Old Ken on the way and he said he wanted me to look at something in his boat to tell him how to remove it. I said I'd be back and he said he'd look for me in the afternoon, but I never heard from him. The boat show was pretty good, but there were no snack carts selling over-priced hot dogs, hamburgers and sausage and sauerkraut liver-mugging delights. They really need something like that. Of course, the Cortez Kitchen Restaurant that puts on the show may have something to do with that, seeings as how they want to sell their own food, but still. . . . |
| There's a sort of collage of shots from the boat show. As you can see, they are all little sailboats. They have several races, all for fun, and there are also these fabulous little cedar kayaks. There are always boats for sale and builders willing to build you the best little dinghy you can imagine. It's a fun show with lots of good conversation and no direct threats to your wallet. For days now I have been fighting a knock-down, drag-out donnybrook with Linux and my computer. No matter what I tried, I could not get any version of Linux to load up and operate on the system. And I'm pretty sure I tried everything. I even sat back some and gave the old 'stink-eye', if you know what I mean. I scowled pretty good. No dice. I took it apart to the last dusty screw and cleaned and adjusted everything, then removed the system board battery and allowed all the RAM capacitors to drain. I carefully put it all back together and fired it up and it spit three blades off the CPU cooling fan and the whole thing started shaking like a dog crapping peach pits. Well, that was discouraging. I went to Sandy and borrowed her laptop for a minute and ordered a new CPU cooling fan. I was pretty sure it would take a week or so to get here, so I began shaking, hyper ventilating and gyrating to the computer withdrawal DT's, and hallucinating that my one reader would toss in the towel if I didn't get back on soon. This morning, I took it back apart and recovered the shattered fan and associated shrapnel, then hauled out an old case fan that actually just snapped right back in place of the CPU fan. Hmmm. All of a sudden, down in the dark recesses and catacombs at the bottom of the computer, I saw a white hair. It LOOKED like a white hair. No, it was one of the tiny conductors of my primary EIDE cable that connected both hard drives to the motherboard. YOU SON OF A BITCH!!! I've got about 30 hours of fighting against a broken $9 cable! Awesome. I actually have a shorter spare. Harder to use, but not broken. I blast the whole thing together, load up a brand new copy of Linux Kubuntu with the 2.6.28 kernel and BAM! it works just fine. Now, I need to decompress, keep my computer time to a minimum for a while and then re-apply myself to constructing a smoking hot Linux machine with a Virtual Box holding the weak-kneed Windows system. There will probably not be pictures. Meanwhile, Time to get back to work on Falcon and blast out of here. There will be pictures of that. |
| April 20, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida We're expecting some rain and another cold front here today. Oh, goody. Maybe I'll get something done on the boat. Where to begin? It's 6 AM and I've been up for an hour. That's what I get for going to bed at 9:30 last night. It would be different if I tossed and turned, or lay sleepless in the bitter watches of the night, but I don't. I fall asleep almost immediately and dream those full-color, long story dreams that you remember clearly when you wake up. Almost every night. As a result, I always wake up between 7 to 8 hours after I lay down, rested and ready for the day. I'm probably going to start the day by running a couple of quick errands to stop at the bank, get some hacksaw blades and maybe do some blanket-type laundry at the laundromat - big machines. I still need to get a new power supply for the computer, as well as a keyboard and mouse, and I might get 4 gigs of RAM. Ram is cheap now. I might also get a SATA hard drive and cable and set up Windows on that, leaving the Primary EIDE hard drive for the Linux with a dual boot setup. A second copy of Windows will reside in the Virtual Box in Linux where I can do whatever I have to do there, then transfer transmission files to the SATA drive prior to going online. That way, if I get a virus on the SATA drive, it's easy to wipe clean with a format and reload. I should get my bilge ready to paint today - after the rain. I also need to clean up the bilge pumps and settle the final plumbing for their new locations. The smaller one will be at the bottom and the bigger, 3500GPH unit will be up on top of the lead, 11 inches higher, with it's own float switch. I installed a small red light on the engine instrument panel that will light up whenever one of the bilge pumps fires up. The thing is, which pump do I put it on? Or, should I put another light above or below it and have them signify each pump? That would probably be the best situation. It gives you more information. |
| April 23, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida It has been a busy couple of days. New Ken and Sandy have settled on Cuts Edge Marina and Boatyard to store "Nemo". Yes, they have settled on Nemo for a name of the Schucker. I might have already reported that. I went with them to check out Cuts Edge and have just about decided to haul there myself for my bottom work. I got an email from Barb with a horrendous report that pretty much insisted I call and talk to Donny to see how he was. AS I probably said before, Donny and Barb left in Dulcinea to round the southern tip of Florida and get to Miami to pick up a family of four, Barb's son, daughter in law and their two boys, then return to Marathon for two weeks of fun in the sun visitation. All was going well until about three days ago when Don was hit by one of those motorized bicycles that are getting popular. They look like retro 26 inch balloon-tired bicycles, but with a small, weed-whacker sized motor slung beneath the backbone and somehow linked to the rear wheel. Well, the thing was doing about 30 MPH when the peddle (we can only imagine) caught Donny about mid calf and almost tore the calf muscle completely off his leg, sending him flying and scattering on the ground. The bike rider never stopped. Donny was evacuated to a specialist in Key West where they re-assembled his shredded calf. He is now on crutches, in pain, and still struggling to show the relatives the best time possible. The man is a trooper. He sounded fine on the phone last night, but says that it is difficult to get around just now. After checking out Cuts Edge, Ken, Sandy and I stopped in to see George Pappas at Regatta Point Marina and see how he's doing. Yesterday was not a good day and he was not feeling well. The new chemotherapy is taking it's toll. He is losing his hair and not feeling at all well. He did take us aboard Bill's 83 foot ex-Navy training vessel for a look around. We all came away with different impressions. Sandy noticed that you couldn't see over the bow from the lower steering station. Ken remarked at the cost to maintain such a vessel. I silently drooled over the twin V-12, dual supercharged 12V71 diesel engines. I don't want the boat, just the running gear - I'll put it in something else - like a 200 foot steel schooner. Oh, yeah. |
| Gene removed the muffler from Wanderer and blasted it clean at a car wash, re-installed it, and the little engine runs like a top. Not willing to try the first sail in years alone, he recruited a new friend from St Pete to join him in his trip down here to the Seafood Shack. They arrived sometime in the afternoon while I was gone. Espin told me when I came back, so I went to the boat and verified it by the dolphin painted on the bow, then went and introduced myself. WE had quite a good conversation and Gene will be staying for a few days at least. Randy wants to move up to more power with a bigger wind generator and Gene wants the sweet little unit Randy has on Moondream. Gene is a little sensitive about the dolphins on his bow, so I'll probably ease into any talk about those pinky/purple docklines. Obviously, I have the computer up and running. I have completely reloaded everything on another hard drive and sorted all the standard stuff out. Yesterday, I spent the whole day (in stages, allowing the computer to work while I did other stuff) transferring all the background archive files from one disc to another to reformat infected drives and try to isolate trouble. One truly serious thing I found was that, when there was only 6.5 gigs of program files left on my original C drive, the properties window said there was over 22 gigs of files there. Scary. I found a way to get Windows Service Pack 2 downloaded and saved in a usable format from the Windows Update site. This was good news, but it made the $150 + that I'd just spent for an OEM version of XP with SP2 a big mistake. While I was doing the hard drive setup, I called Tiger Direct for an RA to return the unopened software. It was important that I get the RA before I got the product because returning software can be tricky. As soon as it gets here, I'll send it back and be credited the refund. Whew. I've been getting stuff done on Falcon. One aspect of this is the constant stream of, "oh, yeah, I forgot to do that," situations that I rediscover. I've emptied the four aft storage lockers and started getting them ready for final painting and stowage of gear. As I crawl down into them, the first order of business is to locate the spots for the fuel tank vents and drill them, then install the vents. I did that. I also noticed that I'd never installed a locater rod for the upper rudder bearing. Sweet. Only 23 years on the 'waiting to be done' list. Did that. Also noticed a small area of rot just behind the rudder post exit on the deck. I noticed it because it crunched flat when I went to pry the rudder post up into it's proper position. No big deal, it's small and I'll fix it. I also noticed that the bottom of the last athwartships bulkhead has separated from the hull and needs a bit of epoxy filler and tabbing both fore and aft. That's on todays 'to do' list. I also made the small bushing needed to mount the big wheel and installed the wheel. Then I tightened the nuts beneath the rectangular deck hatches and snapped off all the long screws ends below. I drilled a through-hole for the boom gallows arch wire and fed it into the next compartment. That still needs to be cable-tied into position and fed through into the fuel tank hold, then laced up into position for power distribution. I drilled the second big drain from the aft storage locker into the bilge to allow any hatch leakage to drain forward and get pumped out. I'll need to drill all remaining holes for tracing out the fuel tank vents, any wires, and the remote closers for the engine exhaust and large bilge pump overboard fittings on the transom. Oh, rats - that's right - I still need to design, build, and install the two super-duty rudder stops, in the center of the large aft lockers, prior to making and installing the two Plexiglass barriers that are intended to keep storage items from interfering with the steering or engine controls. Hmmm. I still have a lot to do back there before painting, don't I? I need to add a couple of pictures to make this slightly less boring. |
| Above is the little bushing behind the newly installed wheel and the area behind the rudder post that crushed when I pried the post forward. Below left is the (nut and large washer) rudder bearing support. The thru-hull fittings and valves are on the right. I'm still trying to develop a simple and reliable method of turning those valves off from the cockpit without having to open the deck hatches and dive in after them. I've been caught in a situation before (the Lands End Coast Guard Tow) where a following wave allowed seawater to pour into the bilge through the bilge pump overboard fitting. I figured that since I had to install a valve to prevent that, I should also have one to prevent water from getting into the engine exhaust. Now, I have to provide actuation. I have an idea - we'll talk more later. |
| I have to tie this off right now and get more real work done on the boat. |
| April 24, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Made good headway yesterday in the aft lockers. The rudder stops and valve closers are the hard things, and now I see that the rudder stops are going to partially obstruct the hatch openings, making it a little more difficult to maneuver large items in and out of the lockers. Everything will still work good though, and I'm still working on the valve problem. Spent more time with Gene and Ron on Wanderer. Tried everything to get the stereo radio and CD player to operate but it looks like it might be the victim of as lightning strike, or 'near miss', which damages as much equipment as the direct hits. It had a blown fuse, but when replaced, it only loaded and unloaded the discs without lighting up the display or playing music. Gene's going to get another one at Walmart today. I just got all the stuff I ordered from Tiger Direct. A CPU cooling fan, 500GB SATA hard drive, keyboard, mouse, 15' VGA cable so I can connect the TV to the computer (watch old movies on the computer) and a new 500W power supply. I also got the Windows XP w/SP2, but that's going back today. I already have the RA. Once I upgrade the computer, I'll have Linux Kubuntu 9.04 with XP in a Virtual Box on the SATA drive, and this new version of XP on it's own 250GB drive. That will give me plenty of time to learn Linux and get everything set up the way I want. |
| Wanderer is in a slip at Seafood Shack Marina and Ron and Gene (closest) relax for a minute for a shot for the site. I've had a new stereo for about 4 years now and still can't decide where to put it, so I sold it to Gene to replace his fried one and installed it for him. Now I have to find the paperwork and remote control. Nice dolphin on the bow, huh? I'm actually starting to like it. It gives the boat character and separates it from the endless herd of vanilla white boats. I'm planning on a busy day and have to keep moving. The rudder stops are coming along nicely and I love it when I get to work along on Falcon and get things done. |
| April 26, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Espin is almost ready to go. He brought me condiments and cans of food that he doesn't need and has the boat and himself just about set. Ron went back to St Pete yesterday and Gene is relaxing and enjoying the Cortez area. He seems to love it here and has already made some friends, both in the marina and in some of the local establishments, like Annie's Bait Shop and Cafe. For some reason, I woke up at 3:15 AM yesterday and couldn't go back to sleep, so I just got up at 3:45 and took the computer completely apart and installed all the new stuff. Much better. I like the changes. Love the new keyboard and the SATA drive, though I haven't quite decided what to do with the new drive. It is installed, however, and formatted for IBM, but I'll change it to Linux Ext 3 and load Kubuntu 9.04 and virtual Box with XP inside and start the learning curve. By 6:30 AM I was online checking out the latest news and prices in solar panels. The news is good because the prices are dropping. The power and efficiency of the panels is also going up. I made a decision - no matter how hard I have tried to develop a method of installing the new Air-X wind generator on Falcon, there is no way that does not result in giving Falcon a big, fat goiter. None. And it is a goiter that only provides 400 watts of power on it's best days when the wind is howling. So, that's it - I decided to sell the wind generator and the wiring and mount pole I bought for it, plus the two 45 watt solar panels Donny gave me, and instead start with two big, new solar panels mounted between the rigging banks on either side, and two more stored beside the fuel tanks that I can deploy on the Bimini while at anchor. I can get anywhere from 540 watts (for Kyocera 135's) up to about 800 watts for bigger panels. I have to measure the spots and see what they can take. Last nights sunset below. |
| There was a time when I understood Randy to be saying he was not pleased with the low output of his new wind generator and, I thought, that he meant to sell it and get another. I told Gene about it and he was very interested. When I relayed that to Randy, he said he wasn't interested in selling it - that it JUST BARELY did the job and he could live with that. Oh, well. Gene was disappointed. I told him about my decision to sell my wind generator and the solar panels and all the associated material and he laughed and said he had to get a mainsail instead. Okie doke. I mentioned it to Randy and he snatched it up instantly. That works for me. Randy is going to mount this one on the other side of his radar arch and having dual wind generators with a Kyocera 135 solar panel between them. I spliced the 5/8 inch nylon 3-strand directly to the chain on the two aft anchors and ended up giving Sandy 'Nemo' my extra Swedish Fid. I may show her how to splice today. I had three fids - one large and two small. It turns out all I really need is the one large. |
| April 27, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida I did the sewing job for Joe yesterday and only had to do it twice to get it right. Making the little extension wasn't a problem, but the first time I sewed it to the Pedestal Cover, it came out inside out. I just took it off and did it again. It still reminds me of a goiter, and I'm not sure I really know how to spell goiter but it makes a nice sound when you say it. |
| I spoke with Donny a couple of times yesterday and also discovered that the Marathon City Marine in Boot Key Harbor has a new live webcam cycling around the harbor. I could see Dulcinea clear as a bell and we had a good time waving and watching them wave. Good for a few laughs, Neither Barb or Don is feeling very good right now. Don because of the terrible leg injury, and Barb due to a form of flu-like illness. It ran through the entire family while they were there and only Don escaped infection. Unfortunately, he didn't escape the hit and run driver. |
| April 28, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida I managed to ship out the Windows XP with SP2 yesterday as a return to Tiger Direct. Tiger Direct is, in my opinion, the absolute BEST supplier of Computer, parts and peripherals available in the world. Both the quality of products and the quality of service is tops. And the prices are right there with the lowest anywhere. Now watch - after a talk all glowing about them, they won't credit me the refund. Well, what are you gonna do. I have not been very productive on the boat in the past few days, but I expect to get back into it soon. I need to drag the huge vacuum cleaner out of the boat and vacuum out the four aft lockers so I can start doing the fiberglassing. Espin is leaving today sometime around mid-morning, heading for the Bahamas. Ken and Sand were scheduled to leave today, but Sandy has been knocked flat by migraine headaches for three days now. I've also been headachey. The wind is blowing hard out of the east and has been for days now, bringing huge clouds of hot dry pollen and mold down on us. I can not wait to get the hell out of here. I was not a bit allergic to anything before I came to Florida and now I am way over my toxic limit for allergens. I get sinus headaches now that I never got before in my life. At least mine aren't completely incapacitating like Sandy's. Anyway, Ken and Sandy are now scheduled to leave tomorrow. 2 1/2 hours after they leave the dock I'll drive their car to Cuts Edge Marina and they will bring me back here and drop me off. |
| Above left is Gene, Scott's Dad and the newest member of the Seafood Shack Marina Band Of Gypsy's, enjoying his new rod and some sunset fishing. The shot of the sunset is from the parking lot, where I was involved in showing Espin's Mercedes to Louis for sale. It went well and Louis took the car, which is a 4 cylinder diesel standard transmission model, to be sure it could handle the Sunshine Skyway Bridge that he has to cross every day going to and from work. |
| April 30, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida I've spent most of the day struggling with my prized HP 1220c wide format Deskjet Printer. First, I designed a huge selection of 'dockside' type business cards that only serve to give people this website address - it saves lots of time discussing the details of building Falcon - and then struggled in vain to get the high-end printer to print them out. Finally, in disgust, I went on line to shop for another printer. At the last moment, just in case, I went to the HP website and found a toll-free phone line for technical help. A very nice young woman with a thick Indian accent helped me long enough to tell me that my printer - verified by serial number - was made when she was 9 years old and I should throw it away and get another. Time flies when you're having fun. It was true. The unit was a favorite of Abraham Lincoln and the feed rubbers must have been dry and hard and slipping on the photo paper. So, I'll get a new printer. My idea, previously done by Don and Barb, was just to make up some simple cards and print them out in sheets and cut them apart. Below is one of the sheets. There are 8 sheets and 96 different cards. |
| Having all the different looks is just because I haven't yet been able to settle on a single one. I will eventually, but who cares. The prettier they are, the harder they are to throw away. |
| May 1, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida I've done a lot, and I mean A LOT of downloading this month. My AT&T wireless Internet has shown signs of serious slowdown this morning, not to mention Tiger Directs website appears to be shot right in the ass, so I have to put off the purchase of a new printer for now. Plus, I'm about convince that the right move for me at this time is a multi-function Inkjet unit that copies and scans as well as prints. I had a couple of visits from a guy named Steve who spoke very highly of the site and I was both pleased and flattered. I'm glad people like it. He took a couple of pictures and I expect contact from him through the site and eventually, the pictures, which I will post. Tiger Direct got their site up and running and I ordered the new printer/scanner/copier C3PO droid. $200. I'm lucky to be in a position to be able to afford it, but I have to stem the outflow of my small and precious savings so I can haul out soon. I am blasting in and out of the boat, cleaning up outside and in as I try to settle down and work on the aft lockers. One way or another, I will get back to work and accomplish something. My ability to focus is somehow stunted right now. Maybe I have too many irons in the fire and can't decide which one to hit, or maybe I'm having too many interruptions to allow me to concentrate. I WILL push on however, and move forward. |
| May 2, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida I've been getting stuff done. The wind is carrying allergen crap and I'm having fits of sneezing and headaches, but I managed to launder all my winter bedding, get some work done on the aft lockers, do food shopping, finish the business cards, load Linux Ubuntu (twice) and remove it (twice) but I will eventually pummel it into submission because IT IS A SPY AND A MEMBER OF THE REBEL ALLIANCE! Or, words to that effect that don't come from Star Wars. I hate windows and microsoft and will no longer afford them the dignity of capitalization. I hate the spyware. Not because it spies on me - I have nothing to fear in that respect - I just don't do anything worth spying on - but because it slows the system down, robs me of my own web speed and allows hackers an open highway into my computer. Blah blah - who cares. When am I going to get out of here and start have wild and sexy adventures in paradise? I can't wait to start fishing and having 'Old Man and the Sea' adventures, too. It's a little quiet around here now that Espin, Donny and Barb, and Sandy and Ken are all gone. I have so few people to torment while inventing ways to avoid working. Gene is hardly ever around. I told him that I'd go over the boat with him to help him prep whatever needed attention before he went cruising, but he's having too much fun exploring the area to be interested in that. Good enough, but once I get back up to speed on Falcon, I'm not apt to want to break away. I have 96 different business cards. I'll start thinning them out as I give them out, then decide which ones to add my phone number and mailing address to. I just don't want to give out everything to everyone. I'm also going to stuff my fluffy clean blankets into those plastic vacuum-sealed bags and store them. Can't help but wonder if the bags will actually suck down and hold the vacuum for any amount of time. |
| May 5, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Yesterday I finally crawled into those aft lockers and fiberglassed most of the areas that needed doing. Think of it as being likie emptying out the cabinet beneath the kitchen sink, then crawling in with a roll of fiberglass tape and a pot of hot epoxy, then closing the doors behind you and applying epoxy and 4" fiberglass to all the corners around the bottom and half of those going up the sides. And yes, I did completely epoxy myself in the process. At least I can say it was worse than I thought it would be, so I didn't waste any extra energy thinking it was going to suck. I have four more areas to complete today, then I can secure the fuel line vent hoses, the wiring that routes through the lockers, and the two cargo baffles that will prevent stored lines from fouling the steering or the overboard valves for the bilge pumps and exhaust. A new guy at the marina, Henry, approached me yesterday about working on the Hans Christian he just bought from Steve Baker and his wife. (Can't quite remember her name.) George Carter sent him over. I was just starting to help George out with advice and equipment websites - that's over now. I'm out of patience. It has not gone unnoticed by me that I have stopped snapping sunsets and local pictures to include in the logs. Yeah, I guess I'm a little sluggish right now. I pulled these from my huge library. I didn't take them. |
