Sunday, April 25, 2010

last couple of days

man o man, the days are flying by, just like the wind all the things air-born in it! i think i just saw lila fly by... wait a minute... that was one of the many, many osprey living around these parts. hope they don't see lila as a tasty treat. she eats enough tuna to smell like the seafood they live off of!
yesterday was rainy, rain, rain, so i spent most of the day in the cabin. i was tidying this and that, and that and this. it's amazing all the stuff we have in here we hadn't even explored yet! well... i think i found all of it now. i think. trying to put things where they'll be as accessible as is directly proportional to the frequency of there use. cricket's cabin is not a huge house to live in, but she can really "suck stuff in!" which is good, as long as you know where everything is... i suppose it's the same with any household, accept there are times when you need something you rarely use (hopefully never use!), but if you need an emergency tiller, or a flare, or a first aid kit, you need it now. don't want to be rummaging for those things, so i'm going to do what kell (our esteemed, previous owner) did and make a map of every locker on board.
also yesterday i sat down for hours (won't admit how many, but let's just say) and made a new movie! hope you enjoy it...

hey!!! visitors! becca and jason vanderwettering!!! fun! more later (plus the movie)...

Thursday, April 22, 2010

scrape, scrape, scrape...



that pretty much describes the day today...

the bottom half of cricket, when she's truly, happily at home, exists entirely under the water. oh the things her bottom must see! (as if bottoms can see) schools of fishes, skaters (a type of sea ray) flying by, an occasional dolphin, seaweed growing fathoms high, and of course, jellyfish. all this abundance of life under the sea, and under our boat, is an amazing thing to think about, but what's even more amazing is that all this life is dependent on all kinds of other life you can't even really see! and there is a lot of it! i mean aaaaa lot! i just read something that said that there is 300 billion tons of phytoplankton, basically microscopic, underwater plants, in our sea! that's twice as much as all the plants above the water! also there is zooplankton. teeny-tiny little critters that swim around eating phytoplankton, and dead stuff, and some of it growing into bigger critters we can see... and that brings me to the point...

these little critters, of which there are very many, love to attach themselves to all kinds of stuff that are under the water... remember what i said about cricket's bottom half? yup! under the water! now, i'm all for supporting all that life under the sea {one more quick fact... i can't resist, it's so interesting... in the ocean's food chain it takes 10 tons of phytoplankton to produce about 2 pounds of fish we can eat! wow! see why i couldn't resist that one?}... i'm all for supporting that life, but not on my boat! not only can all that life growing on the bottom of cricket slow her down considerably, but it can eventually sink her by eating away at the hull, making those upon cricket part of the seas food chain! now by all this talk you might be thinking that i'm scrape, scrape, scraping that living stuff off of her, and while we did have to power wash and scrape much of it off (namely barnacles. more on them on another blog), the stuff i'm scraping is this awful stuff called "bottom paint." bottom paint is not your regular, run of the mill coating you put on the side of your outhouse. nope. it's special stuff that's supposed to keep the sea-life from growing down under. basically it does this by having pesticide and herbicide built right into it. yuck! it's supposed to be ok in the water, cause all that icky stuff mostly stays in the paint, but take the boat out of the water, and start scraping the paint that's getting loose (just like a flakey barn) and... let me just say you've got to wear a face mask and goggles and such. and catch as much of the chip n flakes as you can. the work itself is not that fun, 'specially if you don't really feel like you know what you're doin', but if you take it one little scrape at a time, keep looking around at all the beauty in deltaville when you can, feeling the sun and the breeze, keep dreaming about when this is all going in the water, and try not to think too much about how much you miss your best pal and wife, it's tolerable. : )
and one more thing. it's about feeling my lack of confidence in how i'm going about this task i've never done before... i found out that if you just get brave enough to go talk to the folks who do know something about the subject, a guy named jim will personally come out to your boat and comfort you that you are doing it right (or close enough), give you more options and advice, and will tell you he'll come by and check on you tomorrow! thanks jim!


Wednesday, April 21, 2010

getting to deltaville video

today i had an early visit from shawn, one of deltaville boatyard's "comeandtalkideasoverandseehowmuchmoneyit'sallgoingtotake" guys. he brought coffee, so i kind of trust him : )
estimate to follow...

aye-yuy-yuy.

today was a drizzly one. cricket kept lila and i warm and dry in her beautiful, wood-rich cabin while i read "how to" books, and made...

the first movie i've ever put together!

it's on youtube. and here 'tis


enjoy!

oh... p.s. the song is called "alleghany" and is by one of america's folk-music jewels, bill stains. we drove thru these lovely mountains on the pennsylvania turnpike (my first time in the daylight!) wow! beauty abounds! the words of this song spoke to us as we drove all starry eyed.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

lila and i are on cricket, on the hard, in deltaville!












this
last week went flying by, like a vee of geese in the sky, heading south, honking by! last wednesday evening my good friend mike thorud and lila (the cat) and i stuffed a pile of stuff into the little honda fit, tied a kayak on the top and left the city of lakes in the rear view mirror, heading for virginia! after the long, lovely journey eastward we finally arrived at cricket's winter hibernation spot on the hard, and began the process of gently waking her up! there are many, many things to report. and so i shall as this week goes by, but for now i will let a few pictures speak a thousand words each: