Winter project (and summer and probably fall too)

I just received my plans for Danny Greenes "Chameleon", a two piece nesting dinghy. I hope to do a modest job with it and will post picture of my progress or lack there-of. Here is a picture of one I got from google images. I just hope my finished project is half as nice. The other picture shows it in the space saving nested configuration. Each section can float and is joined by a couple of stainless steel bolt. There are three floatation chambers, one in the bow and two in the stern. It can be sailed, rowed or motored. It weighs (supposedly) less than a hundred pounds combined.

I don't think I'll be making the sailing version.

I realize that hard dinghies are not overly popular as they are tippy, but this puppy is going to be durable to the max. Those that know me know that I am hard on equipment. I need something that can take abuse and keep smiling:).

Oh, one more thing, last night I began a night school course on small marine diesel maintenance. I already learned a lot about fuel that I did not know, and I was a marine engineer in the navy!

More later.

THIS HAS BEEN AROUND BEFORE BUT ITS STILL GOOD TO READ






The difference in His and Her Diaries


Her Diary:

Tonight, I thought my husband was acting weird. We had made plans to meet at a nice restaurant for dinner. I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no comment on it. Conversation wasn't flowing, so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk. He agreed, but he didn't say much. I asked him what was wrong; He said, 'Nothing.' I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said he wasn't upset, that it had nothing to do with me, and not to worry about it. On the way home, I told him that I loved him. He smiled slightly, and kept driving.



I can't explain his behavior I don't know why he didn't say, 'I love you, too.' When we got home, I felt as if I had lost him completely, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore. He just sat there quietly, and watched TV. He continued to seem distant and absent. Finally, with silence all around us, I decided to go to bed.



About 15 minutes later, he came to bed. To my surprise, he responded to my caress, and we made love. But I still felt that he was distracted, and his thoughts were somewhere else. He fell asleep - I cried. I don't know what to do. I'm almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else. My life is a disaster.











His Diary:

Boat wouldn't start, can't figure it out, at least I got laid.

A great resource for DIY sailors...

http://www.cruisersforum.com/ is a great forum I use to solve any problems I come across.. For the most part the people are great, very quick to offer a solution with very little judging or criticizem thrown in. I would recomend anyone doing boat projects peruse the forum, because somewhere, someone has done what you are about to go through.

The forum members are such good people that they will even report on their own follies and mistakes, just so I can repeat them and confirm that that particular idea ond/or method was indeed a folly or mistake.

They don't call me "Do It Twice Allan" for nothing you know.

On a different note, we just moved closer to our boat and further away from work. We now live exactly 1000 meters from our boat, or 1 kilometer which if you still do distance old school about 5/8 th of a mile? It has been a while since I even thought in the old imperial measurements...lol

It is a smaller but way cheaper place, and even with the storage unit we rented we are saving a bundle.

Did I mention it is 1 kilometer from our boat?:)

Future Boat Dreams

Ahhh. Retirement in 6 years, I'll be 55. The Coronado 25 will be long gone by then. It is a wonderfull training boat but we will need something 10, 11 0r 12 feet longer.

We have no set make or model in mind but here are some necessities:

1) Keel stepped mast, chances of losing your mast completely is greatly reduced.
2) Wife insists on a wheel over a tiller, I do see her point.\
3) Shoal keel, the length of the boat.
4) Hammock, maybe two of them.

What we would love to have, but this is not written in stone:

1) Steel hull, for those times I decide to rub up against a coral atoll.
2) Twin keels for careening the boat for maintenance. (We will be on a budget)
3) Would love a center cockpit.
4) There is more but my brain is stalled out.

Here are some courses we MUST take in 6 years:

1) Marine diesel maintenance (Me at Humber College in Toronto)
2) Both of us must take a radio operators course.
3) First aid and CPR.
4) Learn how to use a sewing machine.
5) Take navigation courses, INCLUDING paper charts and how to use a sextant!

As for equipment, there could be an endless list $$$$$$. We are going to keep it simple, the less stuff you have the less breakage you have. That being said, I have to bone up on my refrigeration repair so I can earn a few extra folding dollars while cruising.

This is by no means complete or fixed, except for the first 4 things. We remain flexible about everything else.

Allan

New free stuff

Well, as a cheap sailor, I have to tell you of the cool things I got.

First, for my birthday, I got a brand new, 25 year old radio. Yup, still in its packaging, I have to look closer at it as I can't remember if its a VHF or a SSB. My ancient mind is leaning toward VHF.

Next, a friend in BC bought an old boat and is giving me (It is in the mail) his old GPS/knot meter. It is old, and the chip is only good for the Great Lakes and cannot be updated for some reason. I am excited.

We bought a new flare gun with flares. The old flares have expired.....That's it.

Long time since last post.

Yes, it has been a long time since our last post. Trying to settle my parents estate took up a lot of time, trying to get the co-executor, (actually she's an executrix) to cooperate and act accordingly took almost 20 months since the will was read. Soon we will be able to put the house on the market.

So, this sailing season was a letdown, only getting out a couple of times a week and not one overnighter.

The boat is out of the water and we just have to winterize her. We are hoping to have a larger boat next spring after the estate settles.

We are moving too, right now we are about a half hour drive from work and we are planning to move FURTHER away!!! We want to be closer to the boat.

Dock Spiders

Here is an e-mail from my youngest brother and my reply. It gives you a great insight into my families working dynamics:

From my brother Ken:
...that all pales in comparison to what happened to me last night, I'm just happy to be able to tell you about it today-that's how close I came to my demise.

I hope (and you probably are) sitting down for this. Luckily for me Sarah (his wife) was close by and narrowly saved my life.

Last night as the kids and I were watching an episode of Doctor Who (the good Dr. David Tenant) I needed to use the bathroom, so as I entered the washroom oblivious to what danger lay meer seconds away i proceeded to expose myself (literally) to the imminent danger.

On my way to a sitting position, I caught it out of the corner of my eye, on the edge of the bathtub, poised to strike, was the largest, hairiest, ugliest spider I have ever seen outside of a tank or on tv.

Needless to say I never made it to a full sit down and my scream of defence (not terror) brought the family into the bathroom as i pulled my pants back up the quick thinking Sarah pulled her shoe off and saved my life by striking down my adversary and flushing it down the toilet.

Here is my rely:
Funny, funny story, you could submit that somewhere for money!

Ahhh, I too have a spider story, though in this case it was Ellie (my wife) who almost lost her life. Friday after work Hailey (our daughter) told us she wanted "Me" time and we should spend the night on the boat. Who are we to argue with such logic.

There we were, at the marina, I had a rum and DIET coke, (surprise, surprise), and Ellie had a glass (plastic) glass of wine.

We were sitting in the communal area beside the BBQs when IT happened. A fellow, (Chesley, located on our Facebook), calmly pointed out to Ellie that there was a huge spider crawling up her arm.

I didn't actually see it because my military training took over and I performed a tactical physical relocation to the boat about 100' away. I was later told I was a very fast cowar....I mean runner. In my defense I was getting Spider Blaster from the boat.

I found the blaster, then had to clean my glasses, oh, then I noticed my bunk wasn't made to my exacting Naval standards so of course I had to strip it down and remake it.

So now I'm heading back to save my wife, you know our family motto, "Family First" But on the way, as I was passing the washrooms I noticed a patrol of five members of the enemy spider clan. Big suckers they were. Hmm, what if the Spider Blaster didn't work? I would look the fool now wouldn't I? I decide to do a pre-emptive strike first as one cannot have the enemy behind him. I begin to sneak up on them. Remember they have 8 eyes each, multiply that by 5 and you get the odds that are against me. I go in regardless. I do wish the screaming would stop from the BBQ area, or was that screaming my battle cry? Details are fuzzy here. I do a chemical attack on this group, their deaths are slow, glorious and hopefully painful and full of remorse for being born spiders. I then made it back to the BBQ area but there was no sign of the enemy. It felt good to be a hero.

I was exhausted.......Allan