Falcon's Log 11
May 5, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida (Cont)

I'll get back to taking pictures soon. I just need to make more headway faster on Falcon. One of the problems just recently is
the unending wind out of the east, carrying with it a noxious cloud of allergens that either has me fighting a constant
headache or dumbed down on Benadryl. It actually just occurred to me - as I was typing that - that I stopped taking cold
medications in the 80's because something in them put me into depressions that lasted up to a month at a time.

HEEYYYYY!!! What the hell? Am I struggling with Benadryl induced depressions? I will drag me out back and kick my ass if I
find out I'm sabotaging my own life again. I thought I wasn't risking that because I will only take 1/2 of one of those tablets
once a day and no more, regardless of the headache, for exactly that reason. I haven't had any for about four days now and
notice I'm feeling better. I am SO lucky that I can't bend my legs around enough to plant a swift kick on my own keester,
because I'm just the guy to do it.

I should clear the cockpit today and also epoxy the cockpit hatch while I'm finishing the aft lockers. That hatch will be sealed
down when it's done so I can mount a small pedestal on it to hold the compass and the Garmin 545 GPS Chartplotter. I also
need to finish the cockpit seats and waterproof them. And, now that I think of it, I have a little work left on the console. It
needs two little wing-a-ma-bobs to cover the gear rack for the steering, as well as a layer of fiberglass over the top and the
cockpit VHF needs to be mounted beneath it. Pictures to follow.
I got a lot of stuff moved and finished the fiberglass work in the
lockers, as well as pulling the inspection port off the top of the
console, sanding the console, and applying a layer of the
heaviest Fabmat I have. Above is the still empty engine beds,
waiting for paint. To the right is the dirty cockpit waiting for
cleaning, paint, final seat installation and final sole hatch
installation. Not to mention the radio and compass pedestal.
Below is the glassed console top, and to the right is the
glassed cockpit sole hatch. The beat goes on. I'm back in
gear. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do tomorrow, but it
doesn't matter now. Whatever it is, it will need to be done and
represent headway. I've got to get out of here.
May 6, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida

I started off the day by grinding the edges on the cockpit sole hatch and the console top - leaving me nicely coated in
fiberglass dust - then mixed up some thickened epoxy and squeegeed on a thin coat of fairing to minimize the weave
print-thru from the coarse Fabmat. It's not necessary to eliminate the pattern as I'll be applying non-skid to the cockpit sole
anyway and the texture only lends character to the console top.

It looks like a short round of twisting and cussing in the aft lockers should have me close to the painting stage, so I might do
that next. I need to secure the wires and hoses and make and install the cargo baffles - though, actually, I can do the baffles
after the painting. That'll make them easier to paint around, you know, if they're not there.
With the skim of fairing cured, I cut and added the second layer beneath the cockpit hatch and ground off the points of the
screws that poked through the top. Those will be covered with another skim of fairing and the bottom will be soaked with a
coating of straight epoxy. The console will get another coat of epoxy, a light sanding and primer, then one of the blue colors.
Either Largo Blue Brightsides or Ice Blue Awlgrip. I still need to get the little covers made for the gear rack ends that protrude
out the sides of the steering console. Everything is custom. Every single last part of this boat is a one-off, special design,
hand made custom project, and it's what makes the boat as much a work of art as it is a classic schooner.

I also still need to come up with a satisfactory fix for the teardrop shaped hole in the deck above the rudder bearing. I will
probably apply wax to the rudder post - after grinding the top flat - and make up a thick putty of West epoxy and graphite
powder. It serves to epoxy the seal the boundary between the graphite object and the wood/fiberglass deck while making a
tight bearing joint between the graphite bearing and the stainless steel rudder shaft. I can inject a little insulation foam deep in
the void to prevent the liquid graphite from running down before it hardens. Yeah, that's the trick. Later on I'll make an
emergency tiller for it. Don't tell Espin because I don't want him getting all excited that I might be tossing the Edson steering
gear in favor of a poorly varnished, groin-stabbing tiller. For an emergency tiller, I will cut a 1 inch square hole, 1 inch deep
into the top of the two inch solid stainless rudder post, then use an ordinary 1 inch drive breaker bar from a good heavy duty
socket set. A leangth of heavy-walled aluminum tubing to fit over the breaker bar completes the device. Sweet, clean, easy to
store and easy to replace. The only hard part is hand machining the 1 inch square drive hole into the rudder post, but I can
do that.

Below is the before and after pictures of four of my freshly laundered winter blankets in one of those vacuum storage bags. It
does help that I have a 6 1/2 HP shop vac that will collapse an elephants head if you stick it on his trunk, but still, it looks like
it works good. These bags of off season clothes and bedding will be stored under my berth.
May 7, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida

The large shrink-store bag looks slightly less 'krunked' this morning, leading me to believe the incredible - which is that a
cheap storage device may not be all it's cracked up to be. I know, I know, hard to believe, but still, there it is. It still works for
me. Like 'krunked'. I'm sure I've heard it before but don't know where or when. But it fits. Crunchy-shrunk? Krunked. Perfect. I
hope it's not intended to describe what happens to your dick in icy water. Oh, wait, that fits too. Okay. I'll stuff these things
under my berth and not think about them again until I need them - unless the berth suffers an explosive failure and I'm
suddenly launched and crushed against the underside of the deck. But then I won't care anyway. Win/win.

I've already put the first coat of paint inside the aft lockers and have also already put a couple of light blue fingerprint
smudges on my new mouse. It gives it character and welcomes it to my world. Pictures later. More work to do now.
There are now two coats of paint inside the cockpit lockers and the aft storage lockers. I didn't try to get every last corner and
crevice as the paint job will do what it is supposed to as is. I only wanted it to collect and absorb any remaining fiberglass
dust and lighten up and give a 'finished' look to the lockers. Thanks to my sloppiness and some wakes, the deck didn't fare all
that well during the process, but it's finish paint job will be coming up soon as well.
May 8, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida

I'm happy with the progress I'm making on Falcon and am determined to keep going and finally make it a viable cruising boat.
It's difficult for many people to appreciate the magnitude of such a project under such conditions. I'm sure there are many who
feel they could do better, faster. That's what I call 'the view from the cheap seats', where all they have to do is say it and not
prove it. Like fat-bellied sports fans criticizing a major league pitcher for not throwing a no-hitter. I have a clown like that in the
marina right now and he irks me a bit, but a quick survey of his circumstances makes it impossible to 'tune him up' with a
couple of shots. He's got nothing and is living on an abandoned boat he doesn't own. It's just best to ignore him.

Donny sent me the keys to his car, which is sitting in the parking lot out front. The old factory installed security system has
given up the ghost and won't let the engine run. At first, it wouldn't even allow the engine to turn over, but Donny installed a
sort of 'hot wire' to deal with that. Now, the car will start and run for about 5 seconds, then it shuts down. Actually, the ignition
is somehow killed in the electronics. I'm thinking I might be able to sort that out and install another shunt to bypass the ignition
kill function, so that is my mission this morning. Of course, the biggest part of my mission is to be sure not to cross the wrong
wires and burn the car to the rims.

I chased out some wires and took several tests and discovered that the ignition voltage was not the problem. Instead, it was
the 'Fuel Enable Signal' sent to the chassis control computer. Wondering if this was either a ground signal or a +12 volt signal
- keeping in mind my wish not to burn the car down - I went online and discovered a library of complaints about this horrible
VATS (Vehicle Anti Theft System) and that the required signal was a "pulsating ground" and it could only be repaired by an
Authorized Chevrolet Dealer at the stunning cost of $1000. Well, junk the damn car. Who's going to pay $1000 for a 'maybe'
fix on a 15 year old car with 150,000 miles on it? I called Donny and gave him the bad news. He decided to look for another
car when he gets back. He had the stitches removed from his leg yesterday and says he's healing just fine. He also says that
Espin got there yesterday.

I took a run to the bank for laundry quarters, stopped at the dollar store for coffee and checked my mail. We are in the heat of
the afternoon right now and after getting baked on Donny's car, I'm willing to give it a bit of a wait before heading out and
getting something done on the boat. Meanwhile, all the paint is drying up and hardening very nicely. The rear deck is a bit of
a mess, but I'll take care of that soon.
May 10, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida

Yesterday started early - just shortly after sunrise - when Randy brought supplies I ordered. The West epoxy pumps, 2 quarts
of Largo Blue for Falcon's hull and some trim pieces, and a quart of white for Falcon's spars and other trim. He was here early
to start putting his transmission back into Lil' Toot, his charter boat. Right away, I swung into the big job I'd been mulling over
for the day - completely emptying out the truck (again) and sorting out stuff, retrieving stuff, and tossing stuff out. Also, I had
to give Randy the solar panels, which I did. Today I'll also give him the Air-X wind generator.

Way down at the bottom of the pile of stuff in the van were two cases of office paper that I had to get to. I needed to get 2
reams of 24lb bond to print out hard copies of the website traffic analysis reports for the past 15 months. Like so many other
things, understanding everything offered by such reports is only revealed when you study them enough to begin to see the
relevant patterns and information. Without enough study, they are no more than meaningless pages of colorful charts and
confusing lists. I'm beginning to get the hang of it, however, and need to get a solid grip on the data prior to initiating the
marketing strategies I'll be employing when the first books are published.

You know those awful piles of documents, statements, receipts and correspondence that you put aside with an, "I'll sort these
out later," mutter in which 'later' becomes 'never'? Yeah, well, I've brought a couple of milk crates worth of those stacks back
from the truck for going through. I can usually shrink them down pretty good, but this time, with my new all-in-one HP miracle
machine, I may finally find a way to reduce them all to a single Data DVD and send a copy to one of the kids for safe keeping.
On the other hand, I could just toss it all and wonder why I ever kept old paperwork that has no plausible use.

Stuffed somewhere down in the ageless stacks of paper was a slip of memo paper with a single name and two phone
numbers on it: Janie Moon. Judy Turner, who used to work as the receptionist/office manager for Royal Yacht Services in
Naples when I was there, had given it to me years ago and told me that Janie had called looking for me. That's all I remember
and I didn't remember that until Janie recalled it to me. It was back after I'd moved to Palmetto to start treatment with the
contagious disease section of the Bay Pines VA Hospital. I'd come back to borrow one of the shop trucks to move my storage
locker stuffing to Palmetto and Judy handed me the memo.

Anyway, I called Janie yesterday at about 4 PM and got her in her car driving her grandson somewhere. She was very
surprised to hear from me because, after the conversation with Judy, she'd assumed I was dead. (Rumors of my death are an
exaggeration: Mark Twain) She also told me that she'd told Bob, a doctor from Arizona and mutual friend, that I was probably
dead and would have to call him and straighten things out. She excused herself and said she would call me back in a couple
of hours, but so far, has not. I can't blame her. After all, I haven't called her since I died. Except the one time last night.

I have not yet decided what to do today. Probably because I haven't looked around outside. Right now, I just seem to need to
clean up and get organized a little and get done whatever I need to get done with the old printer before canning it, as well as
the old flatbed scanner, and let those jobs run as I go through the stacks of old paperwork. Yeah, that's the ticket. And when I
can't stand it any more, I'll pull the engine instrument panel and paint the entire engine room and bilge. Okay, I have a plan -
catch you later - pictures to follow.
Here are two shots of the engine compartment. The first was taken while I was working on the lead removal, and the second
was taken today. Some of the wooden areas will be covered with sound proofing soon - before the engine goes back in - and
that will also probably be painted with the light blue. It's used stuff - good, with the lead inner shield (so Superman can't spy
into my engine room) - but some of it has old dirt on it that I can't be bothered trying to clean off. None of the fiberglass bilge
areas will be coated with soundproofing, so they'll get a second coat tomorrow.

The engine instrument panel is also removed and will be sealed back in before the soundproofing goes up, and the speakers
will get mounted as well. I also need to reassemble the aft water tank fill manifold that I had to take apart to put the fuel tanks
in. When that manifold is remounted, I can run more wiring across it to wire both sides of the boat. There is a part of me that
wants to . . . . . Yeah!  That's it! Never mind - I just had a sweet idea to run wiring back and forth over the engine in the
engine room - way up high in the speaker/engine instrument trough - sweet. My world rocks.

I've been printing out the website analysis reports all day. That old printer is courageously making it's last stand, but it takes
over an hour for each report. Granted, they are in color and printing at high resolution (300 dpi), but still. At this rate, it will
take another day or two.

I am very blue. I even have blue paint in my hair, and this day was nearly record-breaking hot, so I will be blue until after I'm
through painting tomorrow.
May 11, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida

I was about to say that I'm getting off to a slow start today because I've spent the past 2 1/2 hours working on various
computer file jobs, but it's still only 8:30, so I don't feel so bad. I'm going to get up to Home Depot to get a bit of supplies to
install the engine room soundproofing, some silicone for the Instrument panel, and maybe some other stuff. Oh, yeah, I need
diesel for the truck, too. And a donut.

The more I let the old printer run, the better it does. It's heard me typing about it's ultimate fate and is trying to butter me up.
We'll see how that goes. I'm sure it also knows that I bought a full box of . . . . . of . . . . . good grief!! I thought it was 11 x 17
Photo paper - it's just bright white 24 pound printing paper. Well, good thing I've been carrying that useless crap around for
the better part of ten years. This is what happens when you're a moron. I should take a sheet out and ball it up and throw it
away just so I could say I used some of it. Now I have to either invent a ridiculous reason to keep it (unlikely), or give it to
someone with young children who can make giant silly drawings their parents will have to post on the refrigerator.

Still nothing from Janie Moon. Oh, well. She may be busy with the monkeys. She has monkeys. They keep you busy, you
know, what with them throwing their crap around all day and all.
May 12, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida

I got diesel in the truck and calculated the mileage - 14.6 - amazing, it's improved about 0.6 mpg since fixing the front end
trailing arm bushings. I'm sure putting the new thermostat in will also help considerably. Diesels like a nice hot 190 degree
engine temp. It improves both horsepower and fuel economy. I probably won't do it. It's a long hard job on a vehicle I intend to
sell as soon as I can. But I will give the new thermostat to the next owner and tell him to do it.

I also made it to Home Depot and got everything I needed there, as well as a little extra - a $13 bottle of gorilla glue for pranks
around the marina (no, for work on the boat), and some stainless 1 5/8 square drive screws for securing the cockpit seat tops.

I also got one of the killer headaches yesterday - maybe from the paint drying inside the boat - so that's about all I got done. I
WILL have to be painting inside again today because I intend to get that engine room done and that engine re-installed. I also
have to re-route a couple of the big battery cables and may have to sort out the battery switch distribution sequence to
accommodate the new cable pattern. I suppose I'll have to number the batteries and switches in preparation for Alzhiemers, or
I'll never remember which is which and what goes where.
May 13, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida

Yesterday I spent another day under assault by headache. It started around 10 AM and kept up until about 6 PM. The new
stuff I'm trying from Walmart, a milder pill without the Pseudoephedrine seems a little better, but it still makes me groggy and
sleepy if I slow down at all, and it's slow to ease the headache.

Mostly, I emptied out one of the dock boxes and threw a bunch of stuff away, as well as giving some stuff away and
repackaging other stuff. I'll be doing some more of that today as well. I also need to dig into the other dock box to find some
fasteners to go on with the wire loom hanging and tracing out the basic wiring through the boat. As soon as I get that roughed
in labeled, I can also get rid of a couple of hundred pounds of extra wire I will no longer need to hold onto.

I just couldn't force myself to paint inside of the boat yesterday. I still need to get that done, but damn, it's stinky and
nauseating. I will get rid of the large-format printer and flatbed scanner today, as well as the new Kuuma grill and the turkey
deep fryer. All these things are big, unneeded and in my way. Also, as soon as I can get the wiring strung, I will get rid of the
five speaker system for the computer that clutters the desktop area. I'm thinking I'll make a special draw/sliding shelf for the
new unit that will keep it stored beneath the desktop and keep it safely sheltered when not in use.

That's all for now. Time for me to get outside and get some stuff moving. It might rain today.
May 14, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida

I dug out the Kuuma Barbecue, the turkey deep fryer and two 20 pound (now limited to 17 pounds) propane tanks from the
truck and gave them to Eddie. I also removed the old printer and flatbed scanner and placed them next to the Kenyan
kerosene stove on the 'give-away' racks in the dumpster yard. I also put the two old alternators that Jay, from Blue Heaven,
the 45 foot Hardin at the end of the dock, brought down to see if I could sell them for him. I told him they were 'throw-away'
items, old, with questionable regulators and weak, with only 55 amp outputs. Even my little Ferris unit on Falcon's Pathfinder
tested at 130 amps, and the really big ones jacked out well over 200 amps, with some approaching 300. What he had were
two old automotive spares. He left them for me to toss out. Thanks. I put them on the 'free' racks.

Next, I sealed and re-installed the engine instruments. The 'clear' sealer I used was noticeably white, but that's okay. I'm
trying something different for some locations. There are areas on board that may well work just fine with quality sealers from
Home Depot as well as the ones from the marine industry. Not everything, for sure, but some things. All I need around the
instrument panel is a water leak stopper. I got a Dap acrylic latex caulk with silicone - $2.00 per tube versus $15.00 for the
same size tube of 3M or Boatlife marine product. So far, I'm happy with it and it will allow me to continue on pretty good in the
'cockpit/aft storage' areas without the need for expensive and marginal sealers. I get to call them 'marginal because at $15
per tube, they'd BETTER freakin' work, but sometimes they don't. At $2 per tube, if it holds for three years, I'm happy as a
clam.
Next thing I did was to open the box with the new
all-in-one HP printer/scanner/copier and set it up.
I'm pretty impressed, I have to say. It came with an
OCR that I can't wait to try out sometime. I also gave
away the 11 x 17 24 lb bright white paper yesterday.
I gave it to Eric, who has a 17 month old baby that
can't wait to learn how to scribble on the walls.
Anyway, the software that came with the unit is
pretty extensive, so all I've done so far is to set it up.
Oh, yeah, and get a load of this - the unit has four
slots in the front that LOOK LIKE places where you
can put in memory cards like the SD cards that go in
digital cameras. Wait.  . . . . . .  Cool! The files I
could never get off one of my cards because it was
too big for my camera to see (loaded up by my son,
Matt) now are easily available!! My new unit rocks.
And it looks great. I am totally going to give it a
sound system and big rims with spinners.

More to come.
The headache came back early in the afternoon but I took one of the milder Benadryl tablets and worked through it. It might
also have had to do with the blazing sun and 90 degree temps. I took the mainsheet strap off the main boom and tarred it with
the first coat. It seemed to fade pretty good on it's first year in the sun and I know the tar protects most fibers pretty good. I
also dug most of the small fasteners out of the bottom of the red dock box so I could locate some special screws I used to
install the two cockpit speakers. It was crazy hot outside today. Even screws and nuts got so hot just lying in the sun that I
could hardly hold onto them.

Yesterday I also removed an old wooden dockbox from the end of the dock, cut it up and tossed it into the dumpster. I
intended to get two new covers for my own suffering dock boxes out of the wood, but it was either too small or too rotten, so
no deal. I also separated and checked out all my extension cords and dock cables, as I will soon sort out exactly what I keep
and what I use for boat wiring and what I toss out, or bring to the scrap-all place, or give to Randy so he can bring it to the
scrap-all place.

I got the good copy of Linux Ubuntu 9.04 but haven't had the time or motivation to completely strip out the computer just now
to install it. I'm sort of losing my enthusiasm for the system as a whole. Frankly, I'm suspicious of an operating system so
cryptic and crippled that each and every little function in it needs to be delicately coerced into existence by a series of
completely non-intuitive commands, of which there are almost 700, many with hundreds of variations with each command.
This may be computer geek heaven, but for those of us who have another life going on, it's akin to learning ancient Greek
specifically to write out a menu for every meal. I shudder to think about the weeks and weeks of mind-numbing labor needed
to install the new printer/scanner unit. In Windows XP, all I did was insert the disc in the DVD drive and follow a few easy
instructions. While I can also install a Virtual Box in Linux, from which to install Windows and run Windows-specific programs
for the publishing, I fail to see the benefit of starting with a Linux shell that offers me next to nothing in return for all the time
and trouble it takes to get up and running. Once you address the Internet within any of the Windows programs, your security
is shot right in the ass anyway. Still, I have to do it and learn the system to be sure. If the publishing goes well and I need to
set up an office and support my own server and Web IP, I will certainly want to use either a Unix or Linux OS and firewall to
prevent hacker breaches.
Above are the cockpit speakers, which I will cover with small circles of the same Sunbrella as on the seats, and the heavy
nylon web mainsheet bridle that I removed from the boom and tarred. And yes, of course, I made that also.
May 15, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida

Slobbered another coat of tar on the mainsheet bridle and worked in the cockpit, installing the two battens to thicken up the
top edges of the inboard supports for the cockpit seats, then permanently installed the cockpit seats. As soon as everything is
dry, I'll seal all the edges with the white caulk and paint over them. Oh, yeah, I have a bit of touching up to do on the edges of
the port seat to blend the two sections together nicely. Then I'll cut and support the two hatches under the seats for cockpit
item storage, and trim the cushions on the inboard forward end for clearance for the battery switch hatch and install the
Velcro under the seat cushions to keep them secure.

Sooner or later I'm going to come up with some sort of back cushions for cockpit seats to make it a bit more comfortable to sit
there. The next thing in the cockpit after that will be the VHF radio, the compass post and the GPS chart recorder, all which
will be in need of wiring.

I need to get the last of the painting done in the engine compartment and get the engine back in. It's getting to be a pain in the
ass working around it. It will make installing the soundproofing and some other stuff more difficult, but not un-doable. Yeah,
that's right, that's right. I said 'un-doable'. It might not even be a word, but you knew what I meant. If I was younger and wore
my hat sideways and drooped my pants below my ass, I'd spell it un-Dewable.

I started making the patterns for the two cargo baffles for the aft storage area. As soon as I get those done, I'll need to drill a
couple of water drain holes from the very aft line lockers into the mid storage lockers, that already have nice drains into the
bilge. Then all these areas will be completely done, so I'll load them with what goes there and move to finishing the engine
area and finishing up the last details around that, making sure the engine starts and runs. I'm sure it will. I built it, after all.
May 16, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida

After about three weeks of hot, dry weather, we are now entering a phase of afternoon thunderstorms and rain. Typically, in
concert with Global Warming, apparently, these once boisterous but manageable seasonal events are becoming increasingly
violent and destructive. Trees are coming down, tornadoes are being seen everywhere, and the only thing for people trying to
work outside on their boats (imagine flashing arrow pointing at me) to do is to cover everything and hunker down inside. At
least we're not getting much hail here. Yet. I gotta get out'a here. The headaches seem to be every day now and the only
thing changing is my willingness to work through them. I am confident that they will abate if I can move farther north along the
Eastern Seaboard where mold and pollen do not swirl through the air for twelve months a year.

I talked with Jammer on the phone for over an hour last night. His new direction involves his passion for photography and the
booming business of Internet marketing of said products. It sounds good and he's certainly talented enough to compete.

One of my first missions today is to prevent any more damage to my tools and supplies from the rain. Yesterday, some of my
hand tools got wet and some of the Colloidal Silica filler for the West epoxy system. I need to make them easier to store. The
truth is, I need to get rid of a bunch of tools, but not before I finish the main projects on the boat, but I DEFINITELY have to
prevent the Sailrite from being exposed to direct rain. It's in its case, but was still left outside.

Okay, it's near sunset. I got some stuff done today and didn't suffer much from thew headache. I'm going to head outside and
see if there's anything good going on with the sunset.
I took a bunch of pictures hoping the sun would eventually light up the bottoms of the dark clouds, but it never did. Still, I got a
couple of good shots of the unusual sky and a fair sunset.
May 18, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida

The forecast for today is for pretty solid rain, so we'll see how it works out. Right now, it's solid overcast, but with zero wind.
Hard to sort that out.

There's this element I'm trying to work out in the cockpit with the compass and GPS.
May 17, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida

It rained pretty good last night after sunset and I didn't open the portholes again until this morning. One of the things about
these logs is that they display in stark relief how slow some of the work proceeds on Falcon. It is a combination of many
things, I know, not all of which are within my control, but it still screams to me to mash the damn throttle down and get sailing.
My tasks for today are; a) - get the cargo baffles made and installed in the aft lockers  b) - get the cockpit sole hatch secured
down and sealed  c) - get the cockpit seat hatches cut out and battened.

We'll see how that goes. If things work well, I'll be able to add more to the list as the day goes on.

I'm back. It's 8:40 PM and I've just got done listening to some Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and Rod Stewart at full volume, so
my ears are ringing pretty good. Let's see - I got the cargo baffles made and installed and loaded the stuff into the aft lockers
that belongs there, Then I re-installed the freshly tarred mainsheet bridle and cleaned off the shackle rings (they were pretty
well slobbered with tar). I marked the cockpit seat hatches and got them cut out, then cleaned up all the sawdust and
removed the old lacing twine from the new ships wheel and tossed it out. I cleaned up the dock and tools and emptied the
trash, then salvaged a little plate aluminum to help with the seat hatches. Then I sorted out enough fasteners to seal down
the cockpit sole hatch and got it ready to install. So, I know what I'll be doing tomorrow. Hope it doesn't rain during the day.
The first picture also includes the cockpit VHF radio, but I removed that as well as the face cover on the GPS.  OOps - the
rain is starting. It was just misting when I went up to the showers a half hour ago. When I came back, I re-laced the lazy-jacks
and re-attached the mainsheets to the bridle. The bridle is still a bit wet with the tar, but it's protected now and can dry just
fine right where it is. I should get a shot of it, as well as the cargo baffles. I made them out of a piece of scrap Plexiglass
Randy was tossing out.
As you can see, the heavy webbing mainsheet bridle is now soaked through with sweet black tar. I'm not sure how it might
stiffen when completely dry, but a little use will cure that in short order. Most importantly, the tar will protect the webbing from
ultraviolet disintegration. In case I never explained it before, the use of the bridle is to provide a rotating purchase on the main
boom so that the direction of pull on the boom moves around it, rather than to have the mainsheets secured to the bottom of
the boom, where it could be trying very hard to twist the main boom, or shear off the gooseneck, when the boom is off to the
side of the boat when reaching off the stern quarter or running. The pull isn't a problem when pointing or on a beam reach,
but schooners point like cats obey, so those of us who love the unruly creatures we choose to sail adjust our expectations
accordingly.

The baffles work just great and I can reach right into the aft hatch and operate the valves when needed. There are three exits
in that area of the transom. The engine exhaust, the large bilge pump and the smaller bilge pump. The exit for the smaller
bilge pump has two duckbill valves right at the thru-hull, preventing any back-flow from following seas, but the two large exits
do not, hence, the valves. It takes some pretty serious following seas to create a problem, but I've had it happen before and
it's best to have an option that doesn't include running the engine and bilge pumps constantly.

Still raining lightly. Okay, I just went to Wunderground weather radar and we are due to get clapped right in the teeth with
some mildly nasty weather, starting in an hour or so, and nothing good between now and then. I may end up inside all day
working on the computer. Randy and some others on the dock think I should get rid of the computer and I'd get more done on
the boat. I'm not sure the two are related. When heat and exhaustion drive you inside for a rest, not having a computer
doesn't make the sun any cooler or magically restore your energy. Maybe I should turn it off right now and see if it stops
raining outside. Maybe if I throw it away I'll become Benjamin Button and start getting younger. Yeah. Yeah, that's the ticket. I
can see how those things are tied together. Meanwhile, it's raining and I haven't explained about the pictures with the
compasses yet.

I went to Marine Surplus a while ago and bought a few thingy-dingy's. Pedestals, actually. I had to go several times -
incidentally, on trips with Donny and George while they bought stuff and I mused over the pedestals - but I finally bought the
two pictured below. They may both need to be cut down - the thicker one, for sure, as it is intended to be my saloon chair for
the computer desk. The other, for the cockpit compass and GPS, I'm not sure.
I placed the thinner one directly on top of one of the batteries to get an approximation of how high it will be in the cockpit, and
it sort of looks okay. The socket I got for it is a recessed unit so that it will not be an encumbrance (read that, 'toe breaker') on
the cockpit sole if the little pedestal is removed and stored below the cockpit seat while not in use. Now to the two
compasses. I love the classic look of the much older compass, and the fact that it's magnetic compensator case isn't cracked
in a hundred places, but the larger compass has a much larger and easier to read card. I will most likely salvage what I can
from the older compass and leave it in the 'free' rack and use the larger unit. Or, on the other hand, I can just sell the older
one 'as is' and make use of the other. I will have to cut the old mount system off the larger one and mount it differently. By the
way, they are both Danforth Constellations, so I have to refer to them as 'big' and 'small' because, well, who cares. I'm going
to have to trim the top two inches off the post so I can - HEYYyy! I just got a sweet idea! - Okay, picture this, I make a small
tabletop with a hole aft to mount the compass, mount the GPS right on top of the post on its pivoting mount, and place two
drink holders just forward of that! I'm liking it - as long as I can still easily pop it up from the sole and stow it under the seat. I'll
install the wiring inside the post and have a plug in the socket on the sole. I'll also make a watertight plug to place in the
socket when it's not in use.

Twice yesterday the marina was flooded with old fuel someone is dumping off their boat, and today it's unbelievable. Paul
and I and Henry all searched the marina to find where it's coming from, to no avail. The tide has changed direction and we
can't know when the spill occurred or where it originated. It is a thick, nasty layer of old diesel and I hope we can catch
whoever is doing it. I have my ideas, but mentioning anything when not absolutely sure is stupid and reckless.
May 19, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida

Sweet. Another long, dull day of rain and wind, and not a lot of either - just enough to be sure I won't be out there working in
the cockpit. Oh, well. I may as well see what I can do in here. Okay, done! Yeah, that's right - I'm thinking 'not much'. If I think
of something, I'll be back.
May 21, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida

It is still raining, all day, every day. It has now been going on for 6 or 7 days, depending on where you live in Florida. I've only
been able to do small, puttering around things so far, but hope this weather pattern will break soon.
May 22, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida

Ditto. Since the 16th of the month and no real sign of clearing. A big low is churning out in the gulf, not going anywhere, but
circling and raining on us and trying to do something about the three-year drought and the 30 inches of missing rain.
Unfortunately, streets becoming rivers and runoff that rushes into the sea does little to replace the empty water pockets deep
below the surface. The lakes and reservoirs don't get filled and the dry timber doesn't really get wet through like it should. We
need about six months of this with plenty of sunny days sprinkled in between so we don't all lose our minds like they do in
Seattle. Well, you've seen 'Sleepless in Seattle'. People stand stupidly in the middle of traffic, grown men ask other men how
their butts look, they call in to talk radio, people who live on the beach take an open boat to another beach for no reason, ALL
IN THE RAIN!!! The town is a mess. Everyone has a shrink. That's what we're heading for. I, myself, am very close to
watching Bridget Jones' Diary - and I've seen it before. I've been reading cruising logs of people who are less interesting than
me, and that's like finding people who's noses are weirder looking than Michael Jackson's. There's only like two in the whole
world and both of them have legitimate excuses.
May 25, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida

The sun is out today and I'm going to be able to get back into the boat work. It was fun sitting inside here and watching the
TV and the weather outside, taking the computer apart and putting it back together for no good reason, downloading half a
dozen old computer games from SourceForge.Com and only mildly entertaining and frustrating myself. (Much of the old
gaming software on SourceForge is incomplete, still in development, and sometimes, all but abandoned, so you can't expect
polished code.) The first thing I did this morning was to move the old games to archive and clean up the C drive.

I watched the Indy race yesterday. It was OK. There were so many crashes and yellow flags that, at any moment, I expected
to hear someone with an Alabama accent shout, "An' John Andretti gits the lucky dawg!" Didn't happen. John Andretti finished
about 15th, which was better than Marco Andretti who got punted out of the race by a rookie on the first lap. Danica Patrick
finished 3rd, held back by too much wing, behind Dan Wheldon, who got second behind Helio Castroneves who had his wing
adjustments backed off enough so he could just drive away from everyone and there wasn't even competition for the finish.
Admittedly, he did ease up on the throttle a little so as not to make the advantage blatantly obvious to those who don't know
anything about Formula and IRL/CART racing. I'm not exactly saying 'the fix was in', because it has to be an educated guess
on the last pit stop about how much wing will get the job done, and no one knows what the other teams are doing up pit row,
but like Al Unser told Danica Patrick before the race, "The first hundred laps is to get all that sorted out and get you in
position to be competitive in the last hundred laps." I can promise you one thing though, if Marco Andretti is still in the race,
and still racing on Andretti Green Racing with Danica Patrick, there is no way on God's Green Earth that Micheal Andretti
allows her enough speed to beat Marco at the end of the race. No way. Anyone who thinks so is kidding themselves. A touch
less wing for Marco and a touch more for Danica and the outcome is assured. Now, if you know that, and you watch a finish
where one car is CLEARLY and SUDDENLY 2 mph faster than anyone else on the track, well, the outcome seems less
exciting than if it was allowed to be a fair finish. I guess in those years when I miss Indy, I don't miss much. As much as I
dislike the management of Europe's Formula One Organization, at least the racing is real. Don't get me wrong, I love Helio
Castroneves and wish him all the best, but now I understand why Micheal Schumaker laughed when asked if he would go
Indy Racing after Formula One and why Juan Pablo Montoya went to Nascar instead of back to Indy Racing when he retired
from Formula One. Something smells at Indy and it's not the drivers.

I need to put in the cockpit floor today and finish the cockpit seat hatches. I suppose it's time for me to stop grousing and get
outside and to work. I'll take pictures and make whatever I do sound harder than it was when I come back.

Geoff is back from a delivery he was on. He brought a 40' Beneteau (I believe) from Trinidad, off the coast of South America,
to Texas. Frank and Heather are here for the Memorial Day holiday, and Frank brought with him the unfortunate news that
Joe Albright's wife, Barbara, died last night. I didn't even know she was sick. I don't know, maybe Joe told me a while ago, but
didn't make it clear how serious it was. Too bad. She was a very nice woman and ran the school where Randy teaches.