less is more

i made a new friend today. there’s this wonderful, little sailboat at the docks i’ve been admiring everyday as i walk down there to stare out into the watery world. she’s maybe 20-25 feet long, with sweet old fashioned lines, a simple, straight forward rig and a cabin that could be big enough for one bunk and perhaps a small galley and no more. her name is “madcap” and it’s looked like there’s been someone living aboard her. at night i see the the light on in the tiny cabin. i’ve felt a strange longing to meet the person who would own/live on this beautifully simple boat.

today i stopped as i passed madcap and had a nice conversation with skip, the owner! great little conversation. we talked much about sailing in maine, which he has done quite a bit of. someday we’ll sit together and pour over charts to hear tales of the seas and harbors of that area, which skip loves. also we discussed a lot about how nice it is to live life simply. he said he’s got a pendant from his family that he’s going to fly from the boat as he sails her. it says, “less is more.” amen to that!

the ironic thing is... he is a yacht broker who sells a brand of sailboats called island packet boats... i took a look at one docked a few boats away from his. he even let me board it to take a look around the very roomy cabin. huge! luxurious. 650+k of luxury... i said that owning that boat didn’t seem like it’d be much like simplifying. he smiled and said, “it’d really simplify your bank account.” too true. as i walked away i told him i’d rather own madcap than the island packet. he said he would too.

shaken, not stirred

more work on the hull today. are you getting used to that sentence? t’was applying the real stuff though. yup. bottom paint. filled in all those spots i’ve been scraping, sanding and priming! nice to get to the final kinda stuff for that. the old can of paint i was using recommended that i take it to a hardware store and have the heck shaken out of it, so i got me a trusty (yup, you guessed it) deltaville marina bicycle, threw the heavy can of paint in the front basket, and pedaled over to the local hardware haunt. after the bumpy ride i would guess the paint was already pretty well shaken! but the guy there was more than happy to attach the can to the ol’ paint shaker machine and give it a double dose of “shaken, not stirred.” no charge! really? yup! and here’s a couple of stir sticks to boot! nice!

after i got done with all that work stuff i grabbed an iced tea from the ship’s store at the marina, and sat on the dock to watch the waves on the bay (super windy day). along came a new friend, graham. he’s got a sailboat newly put in the drink, and docked right where i was sitting, unbeknownst to me. he invited me aboard and we chatted for a while, while he worked on a few things. he’s got a lovely english accent. a very personable, friendly guy. he even invited me to his home in richmond. i declined this time, but hopefully pam and i’ll get a chance to visit.

guess what?

i’m going home next weekend! yup. and i don’t mean minnesota as “home.” nope. even though that is where i’m going. by “home” i mean i get to see my best pal and wife! that’s home! the reason i’m heading west is that my good buddy danny, ho happens to be my bother, is getting married! and i get to watch the whole thing take place! he’s marrying his good pal karen. i’ll be flying back on friday, going to the wedding in wisconsin on saturday, hopefully getting to see deanna graduate from mcad in the afternoon, savouring hanging with pam on sunday, and flying back early monday morn.

this evening lila was sitting on the ground near cricket, meowing up at me. i knew what she wanted... she wanted me to take her for a walk. something we’ve made a bit of a habit of doing in the evenings. she’s so cute. she explores all day (and often all night), and yet she loves it when i go with her on walks! we walked down to the docks, and she tentatively, but bravely joined me there. a good way to wind up a good day! i think she’ll make an excellent ship’s cat!

under the wing of a gull

forgot to publish this to my blog a while back...

ah, deltaville!

time has been nonexistent in this sweet place! don’t get me wrong, there’s been a-plenty to do. working on cricket’s belly, her water system, working with the boatyard on all the electronics to be done, ordering this and that… all that stuff, but there is no defined deadline. we would like to be on the water in early to mid june, but hey! we’re sailing now, and you do what you can, you don’t stress, and go with what the “wind” gives you each day ; )

this morning after i woke up, and was just about to make my morning cup of coffee i excitedly remembered that the cute, little coffee shop in town was reopening today!

so i walked over to the bike racks, grabbed a deltaville bike and peddled there! t’was fun to get coffee in a coffee shop (they’re rare in these parts... i miss my dunn bros. coffee back in the ol’ hood!) and sit for a small spell sippin’ me brew and readin’ me book! it was also nice to meet the new owners of the place, and tell them i’ve been missing them, even before i even met them!

today the wind blew in some time to epoxy up a couple of little holes I opened up on crickets cute little hull to rid ourselves of a few small blisters (kind of like little fiberglass zits that need to be popped). I discovered the perfect epoxy mixing and spreading tool! a ice cream bar stick!

also I crawled on my belly on the gravel for a few hours to put some primer paint way down on the very bottom of the keel. there was only a few inches of space between the bottom of her bottom and the ground, so it was tight brush work. i also put another coat of varnish on a few wooden blocks (pulleys). also met with mike. he’s the guy who’s gonna help with all the electronics work to be done soon!

in the evening i offered my “on the hard” neighbor, curt to go kayaking with me on the bay, and he did! fun! it was his first time in a kayak, but he said he loved it, and was thinking about possibly getting a couple for his wife and himself. it’s nice to pass some of life’s joys off to the folks around you!

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)...

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!

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.