It was worth it

The wind was pretty stiff, so Neil proposed pulling out the jib alone and sailing a bit, just to take the opportunity. I didn't have the jib fairleads in, but he ran the jib sheets all the way back to the spinnaker blocks and made it work. (Translation: the right hardware wasn't there, but he found something to make do with.)

With my foot on the tiller (since my hands aren't too reliable) I steered dead into the wind while the guys set up. Then I veered to starboard (the right-hand side) while Stewart -- all 77 pounds of him -- hauled out the jib. Neil prompted me through a couple of course corrections until we were sailing a sweet and effortless downhill run, the jib flying out like an angel. No really, it was. A slightly tatty angel, an angel that had seen better days perhaps, but then so have we all. (Except maybe Stewart.)

I turned off the motor, and that first silence as the wind takes over the boat is my favorite moment in life. Everything is so pure. The floating, flying motion, the shimmering silver water, the perfect sense of one-ness.

This time it was different. Looking behind me and seeing the shape of my hull's motion. Looking in front of me and seeing my home. Looking ahead and seeing nothing my gods didn't put there.

There's a Pratchett quote I've always had a little trouble with, because it's so very hyperbolical but it's also very pretty, and finally it came true: "Against one perfect moment, the centuries beat in vain."

I thought of the years, the struggles, the waxing pain and waning money, all that hopelessness and helplessness and fear, and held them against this moment. I grinned fiercely, but said calmly, "It was worth it." It was some moments later that I realized that tears were pouring down my face in a couple of unruly little waterfalls.

It was worth it.

Harnessing the horses

It's been an unbelievable year. I won't go into most of it because it sucked -- until fairly recently.

The capable, kindly, and inspired folks at Ship Shape Boatworks (phone 925-395-3616, email ssboatworks@live.com) rebuilt my motor bracket, reinforced the stern, hooked up my outboard, and (after an adventurous Saturday when I left my slip but not the harbor) scrubbed my hull and replaced the propeller and all its retaining hardware. Then the guys took the boat out with me to make sure everything was really going to hold, now.

Neil (early-ish 30's) and Stewart (10-11) are absolutely fearless. While Neil was locked in battle with the carnivorous barnacles on Voyager's bottom, Stewart told me about sailing his 12-foot dinghy from Richmond to San Francisco's Aquatic Park -- that's straight up the craziest part of the Bay -- in 20-knot winds. In his mind, it was an interesting exercise in boating dynamics, since his main concern was to keep the boat from plowing under the waves and doing a headstand, and to get a moment to pump out the water when it was nearly up to his hips.

I grinned from ear to ear. My kind of people.

We fired up the engine, which didn't take long. I experimented with the speed that gave me the best steering, without being faster than I can react to. (A narrower window than I'd like, but I'll adapt.) We swizzled out of the slip (it's a very narrow fairway, there) and got safely past all the other boats and out of the harbor. The engine smoothed out as she ran, until she purred like a 2-stroke kitten -- in a big deep barrel. 25 horses make quite a sound.

Good morning!

Last night I couldn't settle down for sleep. I went up on the cabin top and sat down against my mast with one arm around it until my brain stopped whirling, and soon I could lay down. I looked up at the few stars the Bay Area sky allows, and in awhile I saw a meteor scratch a notch across the sky next to the tip of my mast.

This morning, I had to be up betimes. A painful thing, but I managed. I got up to use the shore head and stepped out into the kind of sky that looks like it was finger-painted by a 4-year-old: little skill, few colors, and no taste at all, but LOTS of enthusiasm. It was glorious, especially with the soft air of a warm morning caressing the mouth with each breath.

I came back to find Arthur had come down the dock to greet me, his long fur fluffed out and waving with the gentle humidity, a tuxedo-colored cloud of purry contentment.

I like living on a boat.

Character moment

I got a tool to finish installing the footpump with. I also found the best used-crap store I've ever seen, selling everything from old LPs to hand-knotted Persian rugs and kilims, of which even the huge ones were under 2k. I picked up a movie for a song.

Walking back to my boat, I had a sublime moment when I realized I was carryng a Jane Austen movie in one hand and a foot-long wrench in the other. That's one way to tell that it's going to be a great afternoon.

Hair spray. No, really.

The endlessly kind & helpful Rick installed a foot pump for my fresh water. This means no more flailing away at the wretched hand-lever whenever I want to drink or wash something.

Installing it was a really stunning case of one damn thing after another -- 5 hours to do a job that we thought should have taken 2 -- but it finally looked good to go and he had to leave, so I sent him off and went to fill the water tank so I could try it out.

It did pump, but it couldn't hold the seal, so each time you went to get water you had to stomp on the pedal several times just to get started and then put up with a couple geyser-like bursts before getting good flow. I replaced all the freshwater tubing when I got the boat, so, full of a sense of my own righteousness, I couldn't stomach a sloppy freshwater system. More fool I.

Turned out it was leaking anyway, so it had to be dealt with. Mind you, it was leaking a lot more by the time I gave up trying to fix it.

Weak points in the system: we had to change tubing size to get the inflow tubing onto the inlet nozzle, and the nozzles on the foot pump were smooth -- no christmas-tree ridges, no screw threads, just smooooooooth, oily plastic, for which there is no really good glue. As far as I could tell, it was leaking in all 3 places: size-change, pump inlet, pump outlet.

I went to Pagano's, where Medium Chris (as opposed to Big Chris, the boss) had -- I thought -- wasted 10 minutes of my precious time that morning explaining this multi-part system for connecting 2 sizes of tubing. I found him, sent up a flare, and he dropped the inventory he was working on to get me a really impressive-looking Chinese puzzle of brass that connects dissimilar sizes of soft-walled tubing absolutely air-tight. He also told me a trick for dealing with slick nozzles so bizarre it has to be true, or at least worth trying: cover it with hair spray, crank your hose clamps on tight, and let it dry. The hair spray dries as glue, and it forms a water-tight seal. Chris says he heard this from another boater, so it must be true.

Buzz-cut Rick is coming over again tomorrow. He thinks he's going to haul me up the mast. Little does he know he'll be messing around with hair spray.

happy month after Valentine's Day

this blog has been on hiatus as survival issues pushed everything else aside. Rest assured that Voyager is still afloat, as am I. At least in the physical sense. Metaphorically, it's still an open question, but one we're working on daily.

For those of you who haven't guessed, those wish lists are irrelevant right now. If anyone wants to help, just come over for a couple of hours, because any of you who aren't quadriplegic can do a lot more than I can around here. those of you I know who are quadriplegic, you can help me with the problem solving, since you're good at that.

Task List

Top item on this and every wish list: anyone want to buy my boat for around $7000 and sell it back to me for around $70? (My clothes stay on, but apart from that I can only think of a couple of things I wouldn't do to keep it, and they're highly illegal anyway.)

Where timing matters, I've noted when things need to be done: Yesterday, (in a) Week or 2, Summer.

• - Move battery switch and patch old hole. (~1 day.) Yesterday.
  
• - Bolt down stern pulpit (2-person job. Less than 1 hr.) Yesterday.
  
• - Reinforce inside stern transom - grind off gelcoat, wash down, lay up ply & glass, fillet corners all around, glass the reinforcement to body of hull. To do all that: suspend, then remount, engine. (Several days continuously; several weeks for me, with help.) Week or 2.
  
• - Make mounting bracket/plate for engine controls. Attach to stern pulpit, so I can operate them while tillering with foot. (Use a right-angle bracket from old engine lift. Have wood to cut/drill. If block needed, ?teak block at Blue Peli.) (1-2 days.) Week or 2.
  
• - Go up mast – check for leaks, test wiring, examine lines (esp. topping lift – it’s stuck), inspect & maintain equipment & fittings. (One day to go up and assess. TBD days to make repairs.) Yesterday.
  
• - Finish open-position supports for nav table. (Hour or two.) Yesterday.
  
• - Build shelves & backrest/cupboards in main cabin. Books @ port, household & kitchenosity @ starboard. (Once plans worked out & supplies in hand, 3 days.) Yesterday.
  
• - Put straps on hatch covers under bunks. (1 day.) Yesterday.
  
• - Settee cushions: cut to shape, make partial covers (2 sets), install quick-change fasteners. (3-5 days.) Yesterday, but Week or 2 would do.
  
• - Finish Fe-Lid, the cat’s commode cover that will eliminate the whole litter-box syndrome. (2 days, once top mold is made (1 day).) Week or 2.
  
• - Finish hanging the table. This will involve considerable marlinspikery. (2-3 days) Week or 2.
  
• - Service 5-6 winches and 4 sets of pulley blocks. (1 hr per winch/block, barring problems.) Week or 2.
  
• - Install insulated ceiling in qrtr berth. (1 day.) Yesterday -- it's freezing in there!
  
• - Install boathook-mount in cockpit. (1-2 hours.) Summer.
• - Replace windows. (~1 week.) Summer, definitely; maybe Fall, which can be drier here.
  
• - Install stringers, with drainage & integrated tie-downs, in stern. (2-3 days.) Week or 2, or Summer.
  
• - Install convenience hatches in portside coaming of cockpit (1 with baffles for mugs & things, one full-length for tools & supplies.) (1-2 weeks?) Summer.
  
• - Install lee cloths for equipment in forepeak. (1-2 days.) Week or 2.
• - Grind paint off and repaint from bottom up, including deskid on the deck. (2-3 weeks, barring disasters.) Summer.
• - Replace zincs. First, go down and check them. Need to rent wetsuit. (1-2 days.) Yesterday.
  
• - Install library in forepeak. (3-5 days.) Week or 2.
• - Install step in head to forepeak. (1 hr., if no wires get nicked by the drill.) Yesterday.
  

Done List
It’s useful for me to notice that things do get done around here.
As of 2/1/2009..

• Door to head refitted, with latches open and closed and with handles on both sides.
• Fe-Lid form cut, fiberglass backsplash in, bottom (hemp canvas) layer resin’d in.
• Table hung, main part; eye splice made; line stretched.
• Folding nav station installed, except for securing it in "open" position.