| Falcon's Log 40 |
| July 13, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys In just two more days we'll be 1/4 of the way through hurricane season. See how I say that as if it means something? It probably does, but I can't figure it out. What does mean something is that we seem to go back and forth between too windy and no breeze at all. It's very nice here, but just a little wind to keep it cool inside the boat would be sweet. |
| Still working on producing business cards with some disagreeable, clownish format that no-one will ever tell me is wrong, I took a few shots of the sunset last night trying to come up with another nearly unusable picture. As an aside, I noticed lots of little rings in the water beside the boat but couldn't see a thing, so I turned on the flash and took this shot. Little fish. All with their night vision gone for a few minutes. I got into the showers just before they closed for the day for work, then watch an excellent leg of the Tour De France. Yes, I took note of the spelling. I have no idea who any of the guys are who are out front, but they put on a hell of a race today. Then I took a walk to Daffy Doug, or whatever that guys name is, and got bleach, bread and peanut butter and strawberry preserves, a pair of shorts and big jug of cold Powerade. Oh, yeah, and hot dogs and mustard. The total was just $18 and it's only half the distance that Publix is. I should shop there more. I also stopped into a specialty shop that sell Lifeline batteries, water makers, Solar panels and more, plus all the incidentals needed to install everything. They also said they would deliver the batteries and help me swap them out. The drawback? $3857.76 JUST for the batteries. I will continue shopping elsewhere. I could buy a Burro and cart, camp out and feed him all the way to New Jersey and back, and still pay $1000 less than that. Little sticker shock happening here. I checked with 'The Solar Biz' online and their prices run about $3000 for exactly the same batteries. I would have to see what kind of 'wiggle room' the folks across the street had before making a final decision, but I can't budge on something like that right now anyway. I took down the forward sunshade, fixed it up a little and mounted it beneath the foresail boom. It looks much better and still works fine for air flow. I also think it will do better to keep rain out of the portholes so I might not have to close them all up when it rains. We'll see. I'm not willing to risk the electronics if I don't have to. I also finally renewed my prescription at the VA. I should go online and see if there are forms that I can download to get my disability modified to 'Service Connected', since it is a result of malpractice in a VA Hospital. That would allow me to get a little work to help things out without losing my benefits. Maybe even get a raise in benefits so I can wear two socks every day instead of switch off and always having one bare foot. |
| July 14, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys I feel a little bit 'in limbo' here as I wait for the parts to come from Sailrite, confirmation of the motherboard at Tiger Direct, a reply from Calvert Sails - of course, they may not reply - some companies will only respond to emails that represent potential profit, and not simple inquiries. It's a fair way to evaluate a company though, as they who won't say 'Hi' in the morning will treat you the same after they have your money, so don't expect downstream support if there's a problem with their product. They were probably too expensive for me anyway. But the sails were beautiful. One of the guys here told me the wind is supposed to pick up today. That would be nice. The harbor was like glass this morning, and I mean a 'mirror'. Too bad my limited experience and camera wouldn't allow me to get a shot of it. The Eastern sky was just gray with the coming day and clouds were silhouetted in the East and reflected on the still water. Could have been a great shot. I called Tiger Direct and they say they were all topsy-turvy with inventory last week and may have the motherboard but have not yet logged it in. According to UPS, the package is somewhere 'in limbo' (see a theme here?) between 'on the truck for delivery' and 'delivered'. I don't know how that works, but I may give them a call today. For some time now, I have been tumbling a situation in my head that will break down all of the novels into easily recognisable chapters so I can quickly jump right to a particular spot in any book at any time and write what I have worked out in my head. For the first time, between Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.4, I believe I may have come up with a way to do it. The secret has always been in chapter titles, which can not be numbers - I defy anyone to readily identify specific incidents from a list of 12 novels, each with approximately 100 or more chapters, by number. Okay, you're right, I shouldn't defy anyone because a bunch of people can probably do it, but I can't. Remember that there are going to 12 chapter 44's, and 17, and every other number, so just recalling a number won't do. I wish it were as easy as working just one novel at a time, but the complexities of human situations can often be so intricate that you need to step back and refresh your perspective before figuring out the facets of a scene, and that requires having somewhere else to go. For me, I go to work on the boat or to another novel. I'm a little disturbed by the shorts I bought yesterday. They were on the mens rack and all I checked was the waist size, but when I went to put them on, the button was the wrong way, like the fly. At first I thought, "What are these? For left handed pee-ers?" Apparently not. They are women's. Rats. Well, at least they only cost $8. I'm going to have to get in touch with Joe King from Bradenton and see if he can help me out. He has offered at least twice to get me something from Bradenton if I needed, and now I think I need. I need a few more pairs of shorts from the Goodwill on Manatee Ave. I just can't afford the prices they want in these local stores and now I own about all the women's shorts I can stand. I can wear them on the boat, i guess. It will eliminate my trips out on deck in my skivvies to take pictures. Oh, well, life goes on. We had a nasty thunder cell go over that was so violent I unplugged all the electrical stuff, closed up the boat and waited it out. I took a few pictures outside and discovered that the portholes all need to be closed as long as the forward section of the cabin roof is exposed to wind and rain. The water gets blown back along the cabin and drains perfectly into each opened porthole. I'm a little wet, but I'll dry out by tomorrow. |
| The weather map shows more of the same all day, though not necessarily direct hits. I don't mind, really, though I miss the battery charging sun. I've been working on the computer most of the day, both on the business cards and the setup for the writing. I think I can FINALLY toss out the woman's shorts, well, because they are wet (I sat on a cushion after rain ran in through the porthole over it) and there's no coming back from that. |
| July 15, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys We had a rain shower from about 5:50 AM until just after 6, but it seems to have passed and I hope the sun is coming out. I only got 58AH out of the solar array yesterday and had to run the engine a total of about 45 minutes to charge the batteries. There were times the cloud cover was so thick and dark I thought the sun was setting. I never left the boat nor had any desire to. Admittedly, I used a lot of energy by spending at least 5 to 6 hours on the computer and then watching movies for the rest of the day, but it was enjoyable and I can't complain. I do need some new movies, though. Maybe sometime down the road. I really only like movies you can watch again every year or so, sometimes more often, but those films that once you've seen it, you never have a wish to see it again, are reserved for when I'm stranded in a motel, biding time before I fall asleep. I may not have an engine oil leak after all. I think the remnants of the fuel oil spill on the way south are ever so slowly draining their way into the bilge, where they sit until a big rainstorm provides enough water to kick on the bilge pump. It's suddenly getting dark again and I can't see the keys on the keyboard. I hope it's just a passing cloud. The battery bank voltage has been holding steady for about half an hour and I'm hoping to see it start rising soon. I think I need a bigger boat that I can fit a larger array on. There has to be a way to work this out. |
| This is the handout business card I've settled on for now. I tried printing another as well, but the printer just isn't up to it. This will be fine. There has been a bit more rain and now the sun is shining brightly. I should get something going for lunch. I'll have to get over to Daffy Doug's again and see if he has Dried split peas. I just used the last of them. By rights, I should get a call from West Marine saying my sewing needles are in and come get them, probably tomorrow, so I'll wait and see. You have to walk right past Daffy's to get to West Marine. I have to make up a new master sheet now and print out the cards to finish this project. |
| I like this other one also, but so far the printer won't do it. I might try something else later on. It might have something to do with the setup. Lunch is already smelling good and it's time for me to move onto the writing projects for a while. I'll be back later. UPS and Tiger Direct found my package and all is well with that on that end. The motherboard/cpu package I was looking at is no longer available so I'll be looking around some more. There are some others that look good on paper - until you read the feedback on them and the high failure rate. Those feedback files are important. |
| July 16, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys I couldn't get the sunset business card to print properly, so I'll stick to the other one for now. No time to struggle with things that are not important. All I need for now is the ability to hand out my byline and website address. Okay, I had an idea and had to try one more thing, which I just did. The sheet is printing now and in a minute we'll see if it worked. Ooo - it looks like 'NO'. It's too dark - completely. It looks like an oil stain on the garage floor. It has to be the printer or printer driver and I'm not going to tussle with that until after I get the new motherboard and processor. I'll have 48 cards for now and that should be way more than I need. I will be waiting for West Marine to call and for the parts from Sailrite to arrive. I just checked the tracking and the parts were delivered yesterday. I was probably a bit too 'enthusiastic' when I gave all the tools away in Bradenton - I now lack a special tool I need to fix the Sailrite. If I have to, I'll go up to Home Depot and get one. Espin told me (twice) how to include a 'scallop' of about 6 inches in the leech of the mainsail to alleviate flutter, so I've been working out how to lay that out, exactly, so it will look and work right. He had to tell me twice because it slipped by the first time he told me. It's still before 8 AM and I should have a full day away from the boat. I just got the call from West Marine that the needles are in. The wind is blowing pretty good but I don't expect it to be a problem. At least the sun is out nice and bright. I might as well get the days long walk done as early as possible. Be back later. |
| The walk to West Marine and Daffy Doug's Family Dollar - yes, I finally looked up at the sign and now know the name of the store - was quick and not too hot, thanks to the stiff breeze. The row in and out is another story. It wasn't desperate, but 'desperate' was watching from only a few MPH away. To stop rowing meant to instantly start being blown toward the raised bridge going to Boot Key. The needles were $40 and if I let these get rusty I will take myself out into the cockpit and kick my ass. They are precious to me (spoken as Golem). Daffy's had the split peas for $1 per 12 ounce bag, so I got 5. Because I am a block-headed moron, I left my keys on the boat, meaning the tools I brought in to do the Sailrite work stayed in my pockets all the way and are now back out here with me. Tomorrow will obviously be the Sailrite work day. In the pictures above you can see the business cards printed out on heavy glossy photo paper with 12 cards per sheet. It's also easy to see how poorly the dark ones print. The little plastic tube with the green label is the needles and the plastic bag is the parts for the Sailrite. I may end up bringing the other two sails back and finishing them in the work area. I'm down to 2 weeks left before I have to pay for another month of the storage locker. Chris called to tell me how to correct the calibration between my monitors and the printer to fix the business card printing. He's sending some old software that does the trick nicely, but I won't be trying it out until I have the new motherboard and am prepared to start the new build. At that time, I won't care about potential software conflicts and can try the system out prior to breaking down this unit and building the new one. I got a lot of work done on the writing today and even got to watch a bit of the St Andrews golf. I just couldn't stand sitting there hungry while food was waiting out here. The wind and clouds have been up all day. I've only gotten something like 89 or 90 AH so far and it's already 4:45 PM. Yesterday I got 141AH and the day before 58AH. It's been a real roller coaster lately. |
| July 17, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys Another thing Chris talked about yesterday was my use of the word 'that'. Admittedly, when I am tried or lazy I slip into various bad habits and the writing suffers. I wasn't even aware of it until he brought it up a few days before, but I noticed the minute I started logging after the conversation. Honestly, there are about a dozen like errors I am prone to making while logging, but very soon I expect to be writing again and I'll have my small collection of grammar and composition books on the desktop and will once again eliminated unnecessary words, improper phrasing and all those roots in the trail that cause people to stumble while reading. The wind is down this morning and I will load up the dinghy with sails and materials and get to the workshop to see what I can get done. The first thing will be to fix the Sailrite and make sure it's okay, then I should finish the two forward sails completely. With those two projects done, finishing the main so I can give up the storage locker by the end of the month once again seems like a real possibility. Now, I just thought about the sail covers. Okay, they shouldn't be too awful hard and those should also be a possibility. We'll see. I might also be able to just get the locker for a few days or a week if I have to. I have renamed most of the novels - something I've always intended to do to discourage tracking by hackers, if that were to become a problem - and found, or 'remembered by checking' if you will, that one of the novels is not divided into chapters. I'll have to remedy that. Rats. I hope it's only the one. Probably not by coincidence, it is the very first one I wrote. I wrote it out longhand in spring bound notebooks with Bic pens during my first few months of sobriety in 1985. That should be a peachy read to go over while dividing it up. I did have a few friends read it and they claimed to 'love' it. (Never trust a friend to criticize your writing - they are incapable of telling you how much it sucks.) It is now about 4:30 PM and I just got back to the boat. Repairing the Sailrite was considerably more complicated than I'd hoped, but not entirely unexpected or undue. I've had the unit for 10 years and have not treated it as lovingly as it might have deserved. Naturally, one might expect certain areas neglected for so long would now want attention. As I installed the new feed dog to replace the broken one, I gently rotated the mechanisms as watched everything carefully. Some reciprocating bell cranks below are positioned by adjustable oiled cones centered in their ends. After ten years, these units are in need of adjustment and they are a real pain in the butt to adjust. After a certain amount of success, I wrapped everything up and put it away, then examined the two forward sails to assess the work needed to complete them. Satisfied there are no difficult problems there, I stowed them as well and went to watch the St. Andrews golf. I guy named Ken who I've only just met bought pizzas and he, Tut and I ate and watched and talked about golf, skiing, snowboarding, surfing, hiking the Appalachian Trail, and how cold it gets up north, particularly in Maine. ("The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in Maine." - Mark Twain, and "Maine's got nine months of winter and three months of damn poor sledding." - most residents of Maine) I will collect up more tools and head back in tomorrow and adjust the Sailrite some more, see what I can do about the sails, and probably watch more golf, but maybe not on the golf. It depends on how I'm doing on the sails. I might just take a few short breaks and watch a little at a time. |
| July 18, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys I must have been sleeping soundly this morning at 3:30 AM because I never heard the rain start. The stream of water on my face however, did alert me to the situation and I jumped up and closed all the portholes and hatches. Unfortunately, there was no going back to sleep after having slept soundly for 6 1/2 hours, so I watched 'Two Mules For Sister Sara', then got to the computer. I got 168AH yesterday so the batteries are holding up nicely. I'm hoping for another day like that today. This mornings dawn sky is less than impressive, as the sunsets and past dawns have been for a while now. |
| I will be sure to bring tools - wrenches in particular - and get straight to work on the sails this morning. Right now I'm going to post this and get more work done on the 'Writing' files. I'm still formatting and arranging things in preparation for the rewrites. I also have to make backups and duplicate backups. Much of the work I'm doing right now had been done before, but I lost that hard drive and didn't have up-to-date backups made. A stupid mistake I will not repeat. I rowed in and actually found some way to make my arms and shoulders stiff in the process. The first thing I did was get all set up to sew and then removed the guts from Tim's old inverter and tossed them. Next, I cut and stitched the reinforcement into the head of the jib - by machine - and the Sailrite operated flawlessly. Then I installed a small cast bronze teardrop thimble into the headboard by hand and folded the jib up to bring it back to the boat. It's done. |
| Below are the finished Jib ready to bring back and the used headboards being sewn onto the tack of the foresail. There are two aluminum plates, one on each side, and they are generally used on the head of mainsails. When push comes to shove I will use whatever is structurally adequate and available to me. I have two sets of these headboards, a larger set and a smaller one, and they will secure the tack and clew of the foresail. The larger set for the tack is what you see in the photo. These hand stitching sessions are long and tiresome, but it does work and I'm glad to be doing it, finally. |
| No sooner had I arrived back at the boat but Donny called. We had a great gab fest for over an hour. He and Barbara like the spot they have for waiting out the hurricane season. It's in a little side channel in Alva. One of the subjects of conversation was that 'Alva' was named for Thomas 'Alva' Edison. If he were alive I would SO chide him for having a girls middle name. I just called Randy to see if he ever found the card to put charts in the Garmin 182C GPS chart unit. He never did find it, but he said he can't keep the water maker I gave him because it's too valuable. Eddie and Yvonne have been trying to buy it from him so he decided to give it back to me so I could sell it, rather than him selling it and having the cash. Okey doke. Works for me. I may call RJ and see if he'll pick it up for me and bring it south when he comes down. I'm on the phone with RJ right now. I had to save the post and load it and shut down to save power. We talked for quite a while and he said he'd get the water maker from Randy and bring it down in a few weeks, maybe only two. It's 5:45 PM and I got back here at 1:30 and I've spent most of the time on the phone with Donny, Randy and RJ. Awesome. It's Sunday. A perfect day to spend 4 hours talking on the phone. Good grief. Those women's shorts are having a hangover effect and I've already thrown them out. But in truth, they were making me retain water and made my butt look fat. Tomorrow I'll continue with the foresail and hope to finish it. After that, I'll be ready to finish the main and see what I can do about zipping out some sail covers as quick as possible. I'm also going to have to do a little research into the water maker and see what kind of money I might be able to get for it in a sale. I'll post it on the bulletin board here and see if I can find some on line to consider. |
| The sunset, cloudy as it was, started out golden then turned red as the sun sank below the horizon. It was refreshing to be out on deck taking the pictures and looking around because a very nice, cool breeze accompanied the sinking sun. |
| July 19, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys I was able to complete another novel format yesterday. I'm getting better at it, but it's still a big job. At least I'm getting in the habit of working on them every day. It is once again turning into a fun project, something I love doing, rather than a giant drudge I need to force my way through. Like the sails. They are much more fun now than they were at the outset. Maybe it has something to do with seeing progress, or a sense of accomplishment as opposed to another giant job waiting in the wings. I feel confident I'll be able to finish the foresail today. I should probably stop right there instead of saying, 'then start laying out the finishing work on the main', but it's just my new version of a short list. The foresail is almost done - I forgot to put a few grommets along the gaff edge at the top. I can do that here. I also took the time to re-fold the sail into a smaller, more compact package. It is now about the same size as the jib, which figures because they are both about the same square footage and the same weight material. There might be one more issue with the sails and that would be the actual shackles and other hardware used to mount them. I have a lot of extra hardware, but decided long ago that trying to set aside anything before having the sails made would be foolish. Even now, I should first set up the four corners of the square sails and measure for the slides and tabs between the bolt ropes and slides. The hand sewing is hard on my hands. They have been cramping up since I finished, and I mean SEVERELY cramping, pulling the fingers sideways and all manner of arthritis-looking contortions. It hurts pretty good, too. I'll probably get my hands all in shape for doing this just about the time I'm done. I found some beautiful material, like Sunbrella but only 2/3 the price, on the Sailrite site, and some excellently priced grommets on another site. The minor problem with the grommets is that I'll have to buy 500 of each size, but I don't care. The number of times I've had to go out and buy whole kits that include the cheap tools, just to get 5 more grommets, is ridiculous. Falcon lists over to one side when I have all the cheap-ass grommet tools on one side. I'll get 500 each of my two most used sizes and be set up for a while. The marine sites and Sailrite want like $0.25 to $0.38 each for them, or $17 for a kit with the tools and only 25 grommets. This one website I found sells them for $26 for 500 and $45 for 500 of the larger ones. I'm good with that. They also have much better tools for lower prices. |
| July 20, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys I took a walk down to Daffy and picked up some food yesterday. Grapes, bread, iced tea, peanut butter, chicken hot dogs, strawberry jam and that's about it. Fresh fruit rocks. Geoff called last night and we talked for about an hour. His Toshiba laptop 'stepped out of reach'. It did this by barfing up it's mouse control, so it boots right up, but you can't do anything with it. He tried everything he could, except buying a cheap USB mouse and plugging it in, but rather than fix it has opted to buy a new Netbook, probably one of the smaller, less expensive versions running Windows 7. He has moved off the boat and into Park housing, which is either free or very low cost, and is bringing the big Trimaran to Key Largo to sell. His thoughts are to replace it with a very small, trailerable sailboat that he can launch when he wants to use it and leave parked in the lot when he doesn't. He's right on the waters edge with a clear view of Florida Bay and seems to like it. |
| It rained pretty good at about 5:30 AM, but I was ready for it and only had to close the hatch. A cool evening and overnight also meant I had no need for fans last night. The clouds this morning are towering and ominous looking, but with the recent local weather, it's had to say what they might mean. Life goes on. I've had the Raymarine ST40 depth sounder running for 2 full days now. It reads accurately at high tide - 10.5 feet and above - and plummets to 1.7-1.8 feet whenever the number drops below about 10 feet. I'm going to sign up to the Raymarine website after I |
| post this and see what I can find out. I bought the unit from the West Marine Annex store on Anna Maria Island. It was supposed to be brand new, but I have a feeling John (something) who worked there at the same time he had his 'Affordable Canvas' business, might have had one on his boat - this one - and ordered the unit so he could secretly swap his bad head for a new one. He told me that he'd ordered it and then decided against it, but it never occurred to me that he might already have had one. This buy happened at the same time as my punk Garmin GPSmap 545. Two brand new pieces of equipment, bad right out of the box. What are the odds on that, really, without there being another explanation for at least one of them? I rowed in to the shop and watched the Tour De France and gathered up some stuff to work on the sails here. There was some stuff going on in the workshop and I wasn't comfortable spreading the big main all out on the floor and tying it down to stretch it and take measurements. I talked with a guy from both Naples and Boston who just had his 22 foot Seaward's bottom done at Royal Yacht Service in Naples, where I used to work. Espin called and steered me to the right data cards for the Garmin GPSmap 182c, even getting me on line to specifically view the right chips. I have been using the wrong search data in Ebay for these units and have had terrific difficulty in finding them. This may be evidence of the dreaded E-alzhiemers where people who spend too much time on line begin acting like old cats that walk into a room they've been in a thousand times and look around like they're lost. Anyway, I will start by getting the chip of Florida's Southeast and the Bahamas. I called Raymarine and a guy gave me a couple of tips on the ST40. He said it couldn't be the transducer - it had to be the head, but before considering it bad, go to a special 'Dealer' calibration and reset the unit, then see if it still does it. So I did. Now, I wait and watch. At least now I know I don't have to haul the boat to pull the transducer. I also know it's a flat $99 fee to fix the head if it's bad. Keep your fingers crossed. Speaking of keeping your fingers crossed, there appears to be an unfriendly low developing over Hispaniola that might like to stampede up this way. Well, this stay in Marathon IS going to be fun. I may have to get the hell out of here. I wonder what the status is on the water maker? Tomorrow better be a productive sail-making day and these projects need to get the gas mashed to the floor pretty good. I am developing a heightened interest in traveling to more sheltered waters. |
| July 21, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys We've had some small squally fronts pass through since last evening, many with some rain, but nothing with winds higher than about 30 knots. I did more research on line this morning and found more, newer weather websites and gathered more information about the low forming to the Southeast. It appears high level sheer will not allow it to develop into a hurricane, but it will still be a trouble maker and will probably pass right over us. Oh goody. It should be here by Friday. At least I have enough food and water to hang out here and wait it out. I will bring out some chafing gear from the locker and protect my mooring lines. I'm not a fan of stuff that keeps critical sections of your lines out of sight, but it does protect them and that's a fact. I have not heard anything from Eddie and Yvonne or Randy concerning the water maker, so I still don't know if that deal went through. I'm not very good at patience. I know, it LOOKS like I am, but that's only because I generally know better than to complain about something nobody else gives a crap about. High winds blasting around the boat right now with the coming dawn. I don't know if I'll be able to get in today. The constant wind drives a quick current through here that lays the marker buoys half flat. Stack the wind on top of that and the row is twice as long and at least twice as hard. The thing about it that spooks me the most, however, is the splashing water I take aboard during the trip and the welfare of my phone and camera. These items are not fond of salt water and I can't afford to treat them as though they are disposable. I should probably start carrying them in heavy zip lock sandwich bags in case I take a swim during the row. |
| Last night the sunset was pinched right off by a dark cloud racing from the Southeast. It was moving very fast and in a matter of minutes brought some nice rain and blocked out the sunset. To my right, the marker buoy that I row past to get to the dinghy dock is lying over pretty good. It's a poor shot because the wind was blowing and the boat was moving, but you get the idea. It's almost 2:30 PM and I haven't left the boat. I have been working a little out here, but the wind has been enough to keep me aboard. Right now it seems to have abated some, but I'm not interested in doing anything ashore at this point. The weather near Hispaniola has diminished a bit due to the shear, but that element is expected to fade a little in the next 24 hours and a tropical depression might still form. It's direction is headed straight for us and even if it doesn't get to hurricane strength, it will make for a rainy, windy day or two. Personally, I'd love to see it double its speed over the ground and get past us a lot quicker. Just a thought. |
| July 22, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys As I'd suspected, Ed and Yvonne, after making a big fuss trying to buy the water maker from Randy (they said their idea was to pay me for it when they saw me in Marathon), backed out of the deal. Randy is very busy right now because he blew his engines vibration damper yesterday and is in the middle of a repair job with charters backing up as fast as they can. Once he gets things straightened out again, he'll list the water maker on Ebay and we'll split the money. It might bring $1500 to $2000. The demise of the dollar has caused the prices of new items to skyrocket and the Village Marine unit is known as the best of the best. The wind has died down this morning. It's only blowing about 10 to 15 and I might try getting in to the locker to get some chafing gear I grabbed off the 'free stuff' table the other day. Meanwhile, I will adjust my bridle lines a little to get the spots that have been sitting in the chocks moved a bit. It's bad to allow line to rest on one spot for too long. It hardens and wears. I am also still waiting to see the returned money from Tiger Direct show up in the bank account. I don't need it and would probably only waste it on food. You know, tasty food. Food that makes your eyebrows pop up when you bite into it. Something that isn't beans and dried peas and lentils. Oh, well, at least I'm healthy. But I miss ice cream. Below I have inserted the link to the Marathon City Marina Webcam where you can see Falcon straight out front on the first mooring. It could be interesting if there are storms. If you see someone on board frantically waving his arms during a storm, don't worry, he tends to be excitable and it will pass with the weather. http://www.ci.marathon.fl.us/index.aspx?NID=600 |
| It only took a few minutes to remove the sun shades and clear the deck of anything that could head overboard. I suppose I should take the oars out of the dinghy as well. I also shifted the two bridle lines for the mooring and installed chafing gear on all three lines. I now use a third 'lifting' line to prevent the mooring ball from getting tangled inside the two bridle lines. The picture to the right is the chafing gear on the lifting line. It is old fire hose with the rubber liner removed. Two more identical pieces are on the bridle lines where they go through the chocks. All three pieces are tied in position securely. The low has been classified a tropical depression and is expected here tonight and tomorrow with winds in the 50 knot range. I should be all set. It's too bad I don't have a running webcam that I could be posting live. You'd be able to hear me screaming in the background. I should look into that later on sometime. Maybe one of those 4 camera security systems. |
| July 23, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys I received an email from Dave Calvert of Calvert Sails and not only will he make the mainsail - with two reefs and all the associated hardware - but offered me a huge discount to help me along with the project. It appears he is now located in St Petersburg, Florida. I will write back and tell him that I will do it if I can send him money every month until I have it paid before he actually makes it, and I will sail back up to St Petersburg to pick it up. The cost will be $1300 - a bargain for such a fine sail. Tropical storm Bonnie is scheduled to rumble over us today, but if she doesn't start making a fuss pretty soon I'm going to write to NOAA and request they rescind her name. I mean, after all, the weather is better this morning than it has been in a week and she's right next door. It's a disgrace. I got all prepared and hunkered down. A waste of hunkering. There are people in Africa who have no hunker at all and I just wasted a whole boatload for nothing. |
| Last evening at sunset the sky to the West was completely clear while Bonnie and her sing-a-long friends, The Thundercells, came at us from the Southeast. They never made it - at least, not yet. They will fade as quickly as Bennie And The Jets. NOAA no longer has us involved at all in the probability if 50 knot winds. I may go in to check my mail just because, but I'll have to wait until they open. Barbara and Espin sent me something and it was supposed to arrive yesterday. I have to get it soon because of what happened when the post office taped over the air holes in the hamster's box, and that time I thought it was cold enough to mail ice cream. The wind has clocked around to the Northeast and appears to be continuing to clock Northward. That would seem to indicate the center of rotating is getting closer. It also means that the center will pass to the East and North of us and the faster winds will be on the opposite side of the storm. It is now moving Northwest at 18 mph with winds of 40 mph, and if it does pass North and East of us, we will not see winds above 22 mph, with some gusting, perhaps up to 40 mph. No sweat. I'll probably go up on deck and try out the new sails. Maybe not. |
| I had to take the risk of being caught off the boat in the storm and row in to check the mail. It was desperate. Not because there was a storm - it was sunny and warm and only a little 5-10 knot puffy breeze running - but I broke an oarlock. It is not easy to 'paddle' a very 'roundish' dinghy in against any wind, and I made it worse by looking like Popeye chasing Bluto. I did make it, however, and got a great package from Barbara and Espin. A movie - The Wedding Crashers - and a package of socks - my crack about having to wear one sock at a time must have gotten Barbara's attention because I don't think Espin would have noticed. Thanks very much, guys. Apparently, the socks I do have were once white, like the new ones. Now the little pile of old socks looks like a blondish puppy that just spent a week stuck in a drain. They have to go. |
| We have only had one brief shower so far and very little wind. I tied the broken oarlock to the boat and rowed downwind strait to Falcon. Falcon is now pointing almost straight North with little wobbles Eastward due to the tidal current in the basin. I will lash up a better situation so I can make it to the end of the month, then I will have to bite the bullet and get a pair of full circle bronze oarlocks. I'll check the Internet for the best price. Some time later I will get new, lighter oars another foot longer. |
| July 24, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys |
| As I was relaxing watching a movie last night - the one Barbara and Espin sent - I suddenly noticed the sky go red and got this shot. I dug a long bronze pin out of the spare parts I believe I can use to make a temporary oarlock. I have to do something so I can continue with the sail work in the shed. I'm going to have to keep the locker for one more month. There's no way I can finish the mainsail AND the sail covers in the next six days. I have the oars fixed for now. Two 1/2 inch bronze studs are securely lashed to the oars - which appear to be basswood, so they are good, light oars (just a little short, but they'll do for now) - and a small tube of 1/2 inch plastic water hose slipped over the stud to keep the lashings from rubbing on the oarlock socket screws. That was going on as I was coming back to the boat so I decided to put a cure on it. |
| I heard from Espin and Barbara this morning and no sooner had they hung up than the phone rang again. It was Paul Melanson from the Seafood Shack. Tiger Direct sent my refund there, so he's going to forward it down here. Well, there goes my last hope of having ice cream this month. By the time it gets here and clears my account, my pension will be there and ice cream will have lost it's luster. |
| It's dangerous when I fix things like these oarlocks. They tend to work out well - so well I forget about replacing them - until one of the cobbed repairs gives up in a desperate situation. That's when I say, "Oh, yeah. I meant to get new ones a year ago." Whatever. I might try something Espin suggested with short pieces of line. Whatever I do, it has to be right so I can put it behind me. Right now I am looking at a fairly spooky list of expenditures in front of me. New Camera $350 Weblog Renewal $75 Mainsail $1300 LLC $125 Computer Upgrades $200 ISBN's $275 Bar Codes $138 Library of Congress Copyright registration $35 each |
| To me, that looks like about $2600 plus taxes and incidentals. That will give me a full set of new sails, and 3 manuscripts ready for printing with ISBN's and bar codes for more. The mainsail alone is half of that, but selling the boat without a matched set of new sails might be very difficult, should that become necessary, and not selling it would mean I still need a new mainsail. The time for that item is now. As long as I use my head, I believe I can do all of this by the end of hurricane season and be on my way north to pick up my new mainsail. Of course, that means I still have to finish the one I'm working on, but I'll have the new one to look forward to. |
| You can see how narrowed the top and bottom areas are on the old zinc oarlocks. They were about new if I remember right and have only been being used since May 10th. 2 1/2 months. They were probably not intended to be used so much - just for emergencies. Tomorrow will have to be a big sail sewing day and I'll see how much I can get done on these projects before the end of the month. There's still a chance I can complete enough to clear out the locker and save that money. All I have to do is get all the big machine work done and get the sails mounted and sail covers well started. I can sew them on the boat because they are not stiff and difficult to wrangle through the machine. But that leech on the main has to be all sewn up before I check out of the locker because I am not going to bring that sewing machine back and forth every day. It would only be a matter of time before I dropped it in the drink or something. |
| There I was, relaxing and watching Pirates of the Caribbean, when I suddenly remembered some other money I have to spend. Oars and Oarlocks $100 (about). I don't believe it. I forgot something else again. Oh, I remember. Never mind. I have no idea what new shorts are going to cost or how I'll get them, but I have to stop wearing the rags I'm wearing. Maybe the rowing and walking are thinning me down, but all my pants are now about 2 inches too big for me and I'm starting to look like a left over white rapper from 8 Mile. |
| A cool breeze and nice cloud formations drew me onto the deck with only shorts and a camera. The sunset never became colorful, but it did provide a few opportunities. I climbed the foremast to see how easy it would be to remove the TV antenna - no sweat there - and took a shot down at the deck. I also caught one of reflections off the solar panels. It rained briefly soon afterwards, but only for ten or twenty minutes. |
| July 25, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys I watched the directors cut of Apocalypse Now Redux last night. Wasn't that written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola? Talk about a piece of crap. It's all but unwatchable and has absolutely nothing to do with real human beings or the war in Viet Nam. It's like the guy was in a drunken giggle fit and tossed every cheap trick and 1970's cliché at the screen that he could imagine, even though many of them only existed in his cloistered imagination. Too much power, celebrity and money. You absolutely had to tripping on acid to think there was anything redeeming happening in this movie. I'm grateful it was only THREE HOURS AND TWENTY MINUTES long. I woke up with a headache this morning. |
| We had a nice red dawn this morning and I got out there to take a few shots. The limitations of this camera don't leave much choice as far as what gets selected for the post - the one with the least amount of blurring and distortion. Poor camera tries hard. A guy who hangs around boats and chats with a drink cup and a bottle of whiskey stopped by last night and said there would be a band and singers and it would be under the Tiki hut and it was free. He also asked many questions about Falcon. After a little while, I excused myself and came back to the computer, thinking I still had something working here, but then remembered I was just shutting it down when he came. I should take something for this headache and start thinking about getting into the shop and working on the main. I've noticed that no one else does these projects for me if I don't. |
| I was hopeful about the headache going away when I went in, but no such luck. I took a chance and tied the mainsail out across the workshop floor so I could lay out a guide line by taping it to the floor and arrange and cut the material to fill in the leech. By including the scallop Espin told me about, all that remained was a small triangular piece at the top and a much longer one at the bottom. I matched the warp and fill directions on the cloth and even lined up the seams, then cut the pieces and taped them to the sail. By then the headache was so bad I was staggering a little and nauseated. I got Marty to help me flake the sail, then stowed it and everything else and went to watch a little golf. Sitting and relaxing didn't help the headache either, so I threw in the towel and returned to the boat. I laid down for almost an hour without any improvement, so I got up and ate and now I'm posting. I may take another round of aspirin and call it a day, just lie down and wait it out. It's just one of those things. There is no medication for the situation that is not dangerous to me, so all I can do is be grateful it doesn't happen very much. It is a little after 4 and I think the headache is backing off a little, but I can't be sure. Maybe I'm just a little more used to it. It rained quite a bit today, but not very heavily, and now the sun is out bright and strong. I've gotten 77 AH so far and can't complain, what with all the clouds and rain. I will hope the headache will be gone tomorrow and I'll be able to go in and sew on the mainsail. It does not appear as intimidating now. |