Falcon's Log 39
July 4, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys

Independence Day. Hmm. It seems like any other day. Gratefully, there were no organized fireworks here last night and few
random explosions. I hope tonight will be the same. I'm starting the cycling of the batteries in pairs right now. I got a good bit
of time out of the pair I used yesterday, but this morning they were holding at 11.94 volts - after running the little Carframo fan
all night - but lasted less than 10 minutes when I fired up the computer. Until I find a way to accurately measure the draw of
the computer, it's going to be difficult to estimate the actual usable storage capacity of the batteries. These Gel cells are
about 7 years old now, and that has to mean something. They are not known for long periods of extended life.

I've been cleaning up the website this morning and adding to the 'Specs' page. The very non-photogenic atmosphere has left
nothing to splash across the pages of the log and I am reduced to trying to think. Don't worry, I'll come up with something. I'm
thinking the big breakthrough will be during some sail sewing today, if the work area remains open on the 4th of July. Pretty
soon, also, I'll start slipping in cover designs for the books. I've already changed a lot of the names. Now, on more pass
through the reference material I have and I'll start working out new covers. Covers are important, but not so much as they
once were. The old publishing adage that 'the cover sells the book' has more behind it than meets they eye. For example,
those people making a living off cover art and design would seem to have a vested interest in convincing you that your
'Masterpiece' will whither on the shelf if you try your fumbling and incapable hand at cover design. Also, publishers in general
are prone to displace you as far from the project as possible in order to 'have their way' with the profits. They truly do
everything they can to make your book, their book, and stabbing at your defensive heart with the knife of cover art has long
been an effective tool to loosen your grip on control.

As the truly talented management and ownership of the New York - and other places - publishing establishment has died off
and been replaced by greedy, untalented and often 'alfuenzic' offspring, the skill at masking these incentives has vanished
and resulted in an ever-growing need for the development of self publishing. Now, neither the publishers nor the distributors
possess the financial or influential clout to force a big bookseller to refuse a popular book simply because it might compete
with one of their offerings. Everybody is in it for the money and there just isn't enough to go around. It's a brave new world
where anyone can publish and/or distribute, based not on your established position in the community, but on the quality of
your product and the effectiveness of your presentation. A careful examination of the nay sayers will almost always reveal
they are either working in the publishing industry or living off someone who is. As far as their argument, 'Self publishers exist
only because they are incapable of producing saleable manuscripts', I can only indicate that any person might peruse any isle
in any major bookseller and find hundreds of books that range from laughably poor to cat vomit. And this is what these nay
sayers will hold up as testimony to fine literature. As an aside, some of the best writers in the world today are employed by
special interests to construct filthy pieces of character assassination, mostly for the radical right, used to harpoon political
opponents. These writers should be ashamed, but in the world of 'Gold is God', there is no shame.

The batteries I turned on just a little while ago went south in less than 2 hours. When I went to swap them out, I accidentally
shut down the computer. I have to say, I am seriously impressed with W7. It saved the two previous paragraphs which had
not been saved manually. Every last letter.
I got the top of the foresail sewn, but only one pass. Eventually there will be three passes of zig zag with #92 Dacron sail
thread. I also got started on the bottom a little, but my feet started to hurt and Tiger was playing, so I called it a day. After
watching Tiger for an hour or so, I started getting sleepy so I filled the jugs with water and came back to the boat. I'll be going
in now every day to continue work on the sails and I'll bring them back to the boat as I finish them to try them out and make
sure they are right. Hopefully, the storage locker will be empty by the end of this month and that particular monthly payment
will cease.

I ran the engine for a while again today, but I'm not getting much help from the solar array due to a cloudy sky. It's been like
this for a couple of days now. Not a problem. I should be spending more time ashore this month to get the sails done. I have a
few other things I need to be getting to as well.

I spoke to Espin for a while today. He has a new-fangled Fancy-Dan phone that does everything 'cept butter yer toast.
They're pretty cool. It's made by a company named HCT or BVD or something that sounds like that, and it's called the Aria.
At&t has now made it available as an option when starting a new contract and the whole package ends up being much
cheaper and easier to carry around than the old laptop/aircard combination. Barbara Capron has a Blackberry, I think, and
she loves it. She texts and emails and talks and does everything with it. It's like 1984 and Big Brother is watching us. Well, he
used to, but now he's so bored he just sleeps at the spy station and eats donuts and jelly beans.

I was wrong about the fireworks being absent down here. Apparently they are due tonight. What joy is mine. I wonder if they'll
start just after I'm asleep and shower sparks down on the boats here. Maybe I'll . . . . . . no, nope, no stupid pictures of stupid
fireworks. They never come out good and just say how LITTLE you really have in your life that you need to commemorate
through visual documentation the firing of lame-ass incendiary devices made in someones garden shed in South Carolina
near Fiery Pedro's Mexican Fireworks Park on I-95 somewhere. I've seen the signs a dozen times and still can't remember the
name of the place, but I know you know where I'm talking about.
July 5, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys

My camera is DOA. I went to take a shot of a slightly unusual sunrise and the camera did the 'dying battery' performance for
me. When I installed new batteries, the veiwfinder and LCD on the back were both dead. I tried no less than 10 sets of
batteries and various SD cards and, well, everything I could think of, to no avail. The unit has given up the ghost, gone toes
up, bought the farm, shit the bed, headed to the last roundup, the fat lady has sung and Elvis has left the building. I'll have to
think about what to do. Matt and I were talking and I have a sweet new camera picked out, but I'm simply not in a position to
make a move on it just yet. I think I might try K Mart for a cheapy that uses the same SD Cards I already have, and make do
with that for a month or two. In the meantime, I will sketch out what things look like with a set of crayons and scan them in.

The fireworks were just, like, right over there (picture me pointing South over the golf course where I'm not allowed to play),
so I went out on deck and watched them. They were, you know, weird. At least three times everyone thought they were over
and started going home, then a few more would go off. It's like Curly, Moe and Larry were setting them off with lit cigarettes.
They were just like the ones all over everywhere else and if you saw any, you saw these. What a thrill it was. It's probably
why the camera bugged out on me this morning - in a snit about not being brought out to participate last night. I did sit on the
deck to watch and dangle my feet in the water, which was as warm as bath water. I think a lot of people pee in it and that's
what keeps it so warm. I probably won't be putting my feet in it any more.

I will start this morning by putting the water I got yesterday into the water tanks - leaving it out in the sun in those clear bottles
causes algae to grow pretty quick, forcing me to toss the stuff. Then it's off to UPS to mail out the motherboard, a stop in
Publix to get something to eat and drink, over to K Mart for camera hunting, then back to the marina workspace for sail
sewing. I'll be back later.

This is bogus. It's the 5th of July and everything is closed - well, UPS is closed and the Marina is closed, but I did find a good
little camera at K Mart for $40. Uses AAA batteries and the same SD cards I already have and plugs right into the computer.
It's 5.1 mp, 8x zoom (digital) and USB's straight to the computer. So, I WILL be able to post photos until I can save up enough
for the excellent Sony DSC-HX5 kit. I searched on line for something like this and found nothing, so going to the store paid
off. There were several other models there, but they all had either odd storage, weird batteries or pink colors. I'm not a
stickler for many things, but I try avoid things that might result in my hearing, "Stand still. The gay dude's gonna take our
picture." The one I have is dark purple so there's a chance I won't hear that.
I also stopped in at Home Depot and got more AAA batteries (on sale) and a pot of spackling paste to start smoothing the
walls with inside the boat. I got caught in the rain and transferred everything out of the K Mart bag and slipped it over the
Tiger Direct box to keep it dry.

The camera is quick and easy and fits into my pocket. I just took a lousy shot of it through a dirty mirror to give you an Idea. I
do like the small size and the simplicity.

On days like this with not much of anything left to do but wait out the weather and re-watch old movies, all I can think about is
getting as much done on the boat as fast as I can and move on. I want to be doing something, not waiting for a chance to do
it.
July 6, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys

Once again the morning dawns cloudy and overcast. I'm going to have to start following one of the many weather sites to see
what is going on.  I just never heard anyone say, "Yeah, the Keys turn into Seattle in July and all you get for three months is
clouds and rain." I got 84 AH yesterday and was lucky to get that.
The little Vivitar does not have an 'eye' veiwfinder so I am getting used to using the LCD display on the back. It's much larger
and easier to see than the one on the back of the Kodak was, so I just lift the camera out of the forward hatch or one of the
side portholes, hold it at arms length and shoot.

Once again, I'll head in and take the walk to UPS and try to get the motherboard shipped out. I forgot to mention yesterday
that I also checked for shorts in K Mart, but can not yet force myself to pay $23 for trendy mens shorts or $16 for silly boys
shorts. That's right, I said 'boys'. The national tendency toward obesity makes it possible for anyone my size to save money
by shopping in the 'boys' section. Besides, the waist sizes on the 'mens' section started at 34 inches. Is that for real? Are
there no men out there with waist sizes below 34? That sounds hard to believe. Either way, I opted not to spend that money
this month.
I mailed off the motherboard and got some sewing done, but became impatient because I have some adjustments off and I
was unable to correctly set them due to the poor lighting and the glasses I was using. All I have are reading glasses in
various degrees of magnification, but I tend to use the very weakest ones, 1.25, and when making these adjustments, I really
need the 2.5 set I'd left on the boat. I will also bring in a small LED flashlight with new batteries in it so I can see these small
items and adjust them properly. I should also bring some very fine sandpaper, some metal polish and a couple of rags to
shine up some pieces on the sewing machine that have some rust on them. Soon enough, I will have everything working
properly and make some real headway on the sails.

I managed to get the corner turned at the bottom and a little of the foot boltrope on, but at least half of the stitching is set too
loose. I was messing with the thread tension adjustments inside and outside because the thread would break about every
minute or two. It finally occurred to me that the problem is really that the needle is slightly rotated and the bobbin hook
mechanism below is hitting the needle and breaking the thread. This machine does not have a flat spot on the top of the
needles so they are always lined up perfectly - you have to do it by eye. Hence, the need for the flashlight and strong glasses.

It's time for me to print out another set of business cards. I am starting to have people ask for them. I stopped into AT&T today
on the way back from the UPS store and talked to the girl about the situation that Espin just opted for. The phone he has is a
sweet little number that's a tad smaller than a Blackberry but has no keyboard. The girl was pretty sure I'd like is as well, but
since I've only just started this 2 year contract, I wasn't feeling up to asking her how much it would cost to terminate it and
start a whole different thing with this Aria. Right off the bat, even using it as a Smart Phone (Internet modem) it would save
me about $22 a month - maybe - after taxes and such, I'm thinking $10 - $12 a month, but it would eliminate the need for a
laptop for backup, and I would be able to check email anywhere at any time. I'm straining trying to think of why I should really
need that, but I got nothing.
July 7, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys

I washed off the solar panels and got 161AH yesterday, but it was brighter - more sunlight - than it has been. It's still pretty
cloudy today and I have no idea what's going to happen. As long as I get into the work room before it rains, I really don't care
either. I already have everything ready to go and will head in very shortly. I keep jumping up to do one thing or another. It's
almost 9 AM, but I already wrote a longish email to Ken Keenahan and kept doing the same thing while involved in that. This
new camera is so small I can take it right along without a problem. It fits right in a pocket and is almost unnoticeable. Oh,
yeah, I see - that probably means I'll lose it in short order. I'll try not to do that. Okay, I'm off. Be back later.
For some reason this set of pictures have displayed some sort of odd tinting that I can't explain. Other than to say, "It's a $40
camera, for God's sake! Leave me alone!" But even with the undue enthusiasm, that lacks substance. So, who knows.

I got the Sailrite operating flawlessly by using a new needle and a couple of other new parts and cleaning up some others. I
also spoke with a guy for quite a while about publishing and self publishing and the whole deal. He is a long time published
writer and has abundant experience and knowledge in the field and I'm hoping to learn a great deal more from him. He is still
active in the business.

I shortened another pair of slacks and made a few practice passes through the heaviest build-ups I'll be doing, then packed it
in and came back to the boat to eat.
July 8, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys

I tried a few other shots with the camera yesterday and noticed that indoor shots show little or no evidence of the weird
tinting, but the sunset shot below might have just a tiny bit of it. I also notice some of the other shots above also have some of
it. It might be a design or manufacturing defect that accounts for the low price. The camera will still do for now.
It is my intention today to complete the foresail machine
sewing and bring it and the hand sewing supplies back to the
boat so I can finish up here. I seriously hope the jib will be
much easier. It should be. Then, the worst of the sail projects
takes place - the huge main. It is as big as both the other sails
together. I will bring candy to sweeten my mouth so I don't
swear as much as I might.
The machine worked very well and I only broke 1 needle. All
the machine sewing on the foresail is done and I have it back
at the boat. The locker is looking better. I brought some of the
hardware and a little bit of hand sewing stuff back as well, but
forgot the needle palm, so there won't be much happening on
the sail until tomorrow. Then, I'll see what I can do about the
jib and bring ALL the hand sewing stuff back. Maybe I'll
actually get the jib all machine sewn as well. The mainsail, I
truly expect to be a huge pain in the ass, but I don't give a
tinkers damn. I've come this far and I'll finish a suit of sails.
The sunset shots show much less of the odd tinting. It might be a result of the itsy bitsy tiny little lens they recycled off an old
phone. It may have limitations.
July 9, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys

This mornings sunrise was pretty good. Odd wind patterns for the past two days have the boat facing dead West instead of
the usual East, and all day yesterday, with hardly a whisper of wind, she stayed straight North. The red dawn lit up the inside
of the boat and alerted me, so I got a few shots.
The first shot is East and the second North. Below are shots West, and one more to the East as the sky changed.
Living aboard is much more like living outdoors than living in a house. These things are more remote to those who live
indoors. I mean, you see them and enjoy them, but are somehow out of contact. The sun doesn't just rise and set outside.
Like this morning, it sets and rises in my cabin as well. The wind blows through the cabin and, if I'm not careful, the rain falls
in the cabin. Still, it's a much different way to live and I enjoy it immensely.

I'm off now to sew the big jib and gather more stuff from the locker and bring it back here. I spent a full hour yesterday
searching high and low through the boat for something I finally realized was in the locker in the workshop. It looks like I will be
able to finish the project and vacate the locker before the end of the month. I don't know if an early finish will get me any
money back or not, but it doesn't matter. If I finish soon I will take all the scrap cloth and make a stiff little forestay sail to use
in tandem with the reefed foresail in heavy weather. The forestay and halyard are already on the boat, as well as the sheet
controls and sheets.
Above are a couple of shots of the jib, all sewn and ready to be brought back to the boat. It was a very easy job compared to
the first sail. Both the first two sails still need a bit of hand sewing done, but that will be easy to do aboard Falcon and I'l also
document that work. And you can be sure of seeing the first pictures with the sails up. One at a time and all together.

Below are some shots of the mainsail project. There is still a lot of extra material and hardware to remove from the old sail,
but it is looking less and less intimidating as I go. I started right in on it after completing the jib because it was still so early. At
first I was going to just look at it, then I started doing what I knew had to be done and quickly discovered a few other things
that made themselves obvious, as far as removing old batten pockets and aft reef points and the leech line and pocket. All
the aft reef and clew reinforcement might as well be removed as well. The entire leech needs to be extended aft to where the
separated leech line pocket is resting on the floor.
The luff tape and bolt rope were removed from the top of the luff and the top of the sail was carefully removed to shorten it
and fit it to the gaff. The seems to easily be enough material to fill the gap between the leech tape and the now clean leech.
I'll have to devise a way to stretch the sail a bit and tie it down so I can take accurate dimensions and carefully add one panel
at a time, starting from both the top and the bottom, being careful not to stitch it into a puckered leaf. I know exactly what it
needs at the top and bottom and can do that fairly confidently. The main on Falcon will have a straight leech without roach,
and I need to do that without shrinking the leech and making the center of the sail baggier than it probably already is. Later
on I can rip some of the middle seams and flatten out the sail. My experience removing two batten pockets today tells me the
sail may soon require re-stitching anyway.

It's 3:11 PM and time for me to eat.

The sunset had some interesting cloud formations and a distant shower that rained so hard it looked black against the glow
of clear sky behind it. A great deal of weather turbulence to the South, throughout the Caribbean, it what is causing this. I
never watch weather TV or listen to the radio, so I have no idea what is really going on, but I walked into one of the TV
alcoves in the Cruisers lounge and saw the weather map on the screen for a few seconds. I'm enjoying not knowing. It looked
like such a mess that I'd have to be worried all the time about what might happen. Here are the sunset shots.
Well, there's another badly cobbed photo splice. What are you gonna do? That sweet Sony will cure that. Below are a couple
of shots to the East, then SouthWest, taken at the same time. Most of the sky was lit up, though the sun was never seen.
July 10, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys

The sun rose bright and hot in the East with not a whisper of breeze. All around us however,  are tower clouds of various
types and shapes. Well to the North, in the middle of the state, the sky is supposed to be clear. Just as I'm writing, with a
bright sun burning down, it is raining and my sun shade is already almost completely soaked. This should be an interesting
weather day. I should pend most of it working on the mainsail in the work area.
Rain pouring down in the bright sunlight and one of the liveaboards, a Postal Worker, motors in to head to work. My guess is,
anyone who asks her NOW how she likes the job might get a first hand look at what 'going postal' means.

It's almost 8 AM and I'm about to get ready to head in. I may have to bail out the dinghy, though the rain is tapering off now. It
was probably just a special shower strictly meant to ruin the Postal Workers morning. She must have done something bad.

Not long after I got started in the work area, we had a nasty little thunder cell hang over us and freak us out with near hits of
nasty lightning. It stayed around for almost an hour because there was no wind to push it along. Plenty of rain, but little to no
wind.

I stripped TONS of material off the old mainsail and even stripped off the tip that I'd cut off to accommodate the gaff. It cost
me a seam ripper, but I still had one more good one left. After all the ripping and stripping, I cleaned up everything, stowed
the extra material and started sewing the boltrope over and along the top of the gaff edge at the top of the sail. I got 2 1/2 out
of three passes sewn when a might 'CRUNCH' ended my thrilling life as a sailmaker. The feed dog broke in half. Rats. Just
when I was wondering 'how in the hell do I proceed from here once I get this seam done?'

I got two calls from Donny this morning. He and Barb are on their way to their new 'Hurricane Season' berth in 'Arlo' (or
something like that - I have the address, so I'll find it.) I also got a call from Christine, bringing me up to speed on her life and
what is going on there.

When I got back to the boat I called Sailrite and ordered the broken part, plus a few other spares and 30 needles. With $11
something in shipping, the whole bill came to $80. Not bad. I'll have to busy myself doing the hand work on the other sails for
a week or so.

It's 2:26 PM and I'm starving. I have a pot of Pinto beans cooking right now that I soaked overnight. They have minced onion,
garlic, sea salt and fish sauce (stomped on anchovies) in them and it's beginning to smell REALLY good.

Once again the storminess to the South provided excellent cloud formations and near complete overhead color during sunset.
It also meant that the relatively flat water reflected the colors of the sky very well. As an aside, when I lost the big hard drive
about a year ago, all the hundreds of files I'd spent hundreds of hours manipulating, both for cover design and for business
cards, were lost. About 30 minutes of fruitless searching brought that past incident to mind and it still hurts every time I recall
it. I also lost every last archive file of the development of the website - oh, yeah, that's right, I can tell exactly when it
happened by the date of the first site backup - September 7th, 2009 is my oldest backup file, so 10 months ago.

For now, I will have to start over again and build a new file of photos to start working with. One thing I did learn is that - in the
business cards - the picture is of far less importance that the ease of reading the information, but it should still be attractive
enough to want to hold onto. Book covers are a different story completely, but that basic first rule still applies.
The last two shots were taken both to experiment with the range of the little Vivitar camera and with the format of odd shots
for the business cards. The ideas might not be bad, but the camera is not up to the low light and movement of the boat. Shots
of the boats opposite the sunset, so I can get shots of moored vessels in the sunset glow, were much to blurred to use.
July 11, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys

I'm hoping for more sun today than yesterday. I only got 113AH. Of course, it stormed most of the morning. I have to go in to
the locker and get the palm before I can start the hand sewing, and I should also get some other supplies as well. Yesterday,
Tim was also using the work area to spread sails, so I wasn't able to flake a fold the main properly and ended up just stuffing
it into the locker like huge boobs into too small a bra. Got a little muffin top going on there and I should get it put away right. I
also need to pick up some more WD40 at Home Depot and fix up the jib hanks in case I decide to use them. I really haven't
decided yet. I may not know until I've had a chance to sail in at least 20 knots of wind.
There is one little spot on the gaff edge where the boltrope doesn't lie flat, but since I'm going to space a few slides along that
edge, all I have to do is avoid placing one where the lump is. There also appears to be a fair amount of extra material in the
draft area of the sail, but I won't really know how sad it is until I get it up and stretched tight in a stiff wind. It's apt to act nice in
light air where a bit of extra draft helps out, but if I can't flatten it out some in frisky wind it could cause a lot of heel. Won't
know until I try it.
The mainsail is rolling up into a small and easy to handle
package now with a lot of the extra stuff off, Some of that will
be going back on when I complete the new leech and have
to re-install the corner tabbing and the two reef points, but
not as much as was once on there.

I also did a 'Contact' form to Calvert Sails, who made the two
other sails I've already modified, and asked for an
approximation on the cost of a new mainsail. They are now
exclusively (I think) doing Catamaran sails and may not do it
anyway, and I certainly can't afford it right now (which I
clearly stated in the Contact), but it would be good to know,
just in case this is a disaster.

Don and Barb are going to be in Alva, as opposed to Arlo,
who is the Guthrie kid that lives on the beach in Jupiter.
That's actually true, as weird as it sounds.
I walked to K Mart and got laundry detergent, white lithium grease and two seam rippers, then stopped into Publix for a little
hamburger and some seedless red grapes. That stuff is already gone. Luckily, it didn't rain on me at all during the walk or the
row back out to the boat. Once I was here though, a short shower poured down for a while. It's good. It keeps the boat clean.
I had to add the third line to the mooring this morning to stop the bridle from getting fouled around the mooring float. The third
line holds the pennant eye and the bridle just high enough out of the water to prevent the mooring float (I hope) from getting
fouled in it.
The idea of sticking the camera through a hatch or porthole and taking a shot that I won't be able to see clearly until I
download it to the computer, is still new to me and I'll keep trying until I figure out how to use it. Shooting through the porthole
from inside is easier to decide on - it doesn't seem to work well. The camera can either focus on the near items or the far
ones, but not both. Irfanview sharpens the picture well, but the porthole still makes a poor frame and the outside subject
matter lacks interest. Still, I will keep working on this stuff, because I intend to really start cruising soon and the biggest and
best part of a cruising log - IMHO - is good photography. Good writing is essential of course, and I'm working hard on
improving that, but good pictures are what brings you there.
July 12, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys

I slept late - the effect of being well fed yesterday, I think. The sun was already well up at 7 AM and there is not a whisper of
breeze. It was hot yesterday even without the sun - the Outback only registered 99AH - and you could just sit there in airless
shade and sweat. It was one of those days I had to be sure to keep drinking plenty of water because it was going right
through me. Which reminds me, I have to get my warranty information mailed in to Outback PDQ.

I'll be doing laundry and hand-stitching on the sails today and it's time the forward blue sunshade comes down for some
finishing and repair. I'll also try to get some business cards completed and printed.

The laundry is done and I stopped in with Marty for a few minutes and was able to lend a hand holding a portion of his new
dinghy rub-rail in place while he ran a few screws into it. I watched a bit of the Tour Du France, or whatever it's called (or
spelled - it's a foreign language - I'm lucky to get 'French Fries' out without offending those folks) and some of the Golf
Channel hype around St Andrews - coming up this weekend, by the way - and a VERY boring bit where John Daly showed us
all how to play golf. Poor John.

I was in process of getting drowned in a rain storm as I rowed out here, but Gary was motoring by and dragged me full speed
to Falcon. I had all my folded laundry, hot from the dryer, getting wet. Gary saved the clothes, but I apparently shrunk a little.
The rain has stopped now and it's pretty hot and stuffy in the boat. I may set an all-time low record for AH today. It's looking
pretty bad right now. But this is Florida - I'm sure we'll get some sun soon.

This is a good time to tell you a story. When I worked for GE and rode motorcycles everywhere, I decided to get a boat and
move aboard. Using the old tried and true $/foot theory, I found a 56 foot boat for $25,000 and decided I wanted it. It was built
in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, at the same time as and right beside the famous "Blue Nose" (the second one). It was a ketch
and had been having some work done in a Yard in Salem, Massachusetts, and the owner, rather than finish it, cleverly opted
to get drunk and run away to Florida. Below are some poorly shot old photos of 'Caprice' and me in my old racing jacket.
The yacht yard, Dion, I think the name was, just off Lafayette Street
near Salem State Teachers College, was recently sold and the new
owner wanted desperately to get rid of the boat. I began locating and
gathering all the parts, but now the owners family suddenly developed
a renewed interest and started tussling with the new yard owner, who
wanted the boat destroyed in a very spiteful and vindictive way. I had
to back off - gratefully, as I look back now (my friend Bob Sproul, who's
shadow is in the foreground of the second picture, agreed that
Caprice was indeed a beautiful yacht and that, in her day,
she was a masterpiece to behold, both in appearance and
performance, but now she was in every sense a derelict and
would drag me kicking and screaming into hell before I ever
got her seaworthy).

Now, I know this to be true and I'm grateful for his
unrestrained advice. At the time, I thought he was being a bit
of a killjoy. So Fred, the new owner of the yard, had a
Sheriff's auction and bought the boat with the one and only
bid - his $25,000 bill for services and yard rent. Then he
called a demolition company to have it crushed. The
bulldozer arrived and was unloaded by a well known
cocaine user who had Fred sign the documents, turning the
boat over to him for destruction - - 'or disposal'. Then the
man quickly informed Fred that he'd have the boat 'off the
property' in 12 hours and Fred was to 'stay off and away
from my boat, or I'll have you arrested'. I'm told Fred about lost his mind, but his copy of the contract he'd just signed forced
him to do just that. Unbelievably, the bulldozer operator had the boat moved to a new house lot his sister had just bought in a
newly exclusive area along Route 97 in Topsfield, where he started stripping it for anything he could sell to the scrappers to
keep himself in drugs. The neighbors also immediately began complaining and the sister probably threatened to dig
brother-dears heart out with a tablespoon if he didn't get that wreck off her house lot.
To the right is a shot of the boat on the house lot in
Topsfield. I don't know how long it stayed there, but I'm
pretty sure it was for about a year. Shortly after it
disappeared, Bob Sproul told me he and his wife had
gone to visit friends in Groveland and he'd seen the boat
in someone's back yard. He gave me directions and I
tracked the boat down and knocked on the door of the
house.
I vaguely remember seeing the wife, young, holding a new
baby,and decidedly unhappy with her husband, who came to the
door glowing with pride and eager to tell us (I completely forget
who I was with, but there was an 'us') how he got the boat and how
he was going to 'fix it up' and blah, blah, blah.

He'd secured a Home Improvement Loan for $10,000 and had used
it all to buy the boat and get it here. His poor wife. As he spoke, I
realized that he had not the faintest clue what he was up against
and even I, a novice at the time, was forced to inform him the local
lumberyard would not do as a supplier for the wood to repair the
boat. That he would have to order Cedar, or Mahogany, or clear
Douglas Fir planking from special lumber suppliers, and he'd have
to use special bronze fasteners. He was still pretty sure he could
do it with regular 2 by 6's and 2 by 8's and fiberglass over it.

I remember wishing him luck and driving away wondering if I was
'one of them'. The drug using demo man and the dreamer who's
wife was sure to make his life a version of hell he had coming.
That was the last I ever heard or saw of Caprice. The only thing I can imagine is that it must have eventually got broken up
and junked. Too bad. It was once a beautiful boat.