Gluing on Front seat

YO.

Today I glued on the front seat. I also epoxy sealed the rear watertight compartment.

Im just going to let you know that today was the most productive, least disastrous, most efficient gluing event yet on this boat. Still some mistakes, but NOTHING like gluing the boat together or putting them bottom on. Which makes me worried that I screwed up or was deficient on the most important parts of building, but alas, what I have, I have, and well see if she sinks or swims. Hopefully, she soars.

Anyway.

When I realized that the garage was holding steady at 44 deg. F (7 C) I decided to get with some gluing. I mixed up about 3 pumps of resin and the corresponding hardener and dumped in a bunch of thickener, and applied it to my pre-coated seat cleats and BH1 + 2.


I just really dumped the thickener into the mix. I figure this: If I have a tight fit, less silica, if I have a loose fit, more silica for a more filling mix. It took me this long to figure it out. This, with some valuable information from the Storer forum has helped me make better epoxy mixes. One rule to follow: Pulling the mixing stick out of the glue, if the point droops, its good for gluing, if the point stands tall, its good for filleting. Variations apply to temperatures, however, as you will soon find out.

After I applied the glue, I realized it was stiffening up because of the cold temps in the garage. This is not conducive to smearing and filling holes. I grabbed a hair dryer and tried to warm it up the best I could. Using this information that is stiffens, I kept my fillet mix a little thinner than the point "standing tall." I applied the seat and it dropped right in nice and tight. I threw some bricks on it to weigh it down, and took a few pictures from inside the compartment to see how I was faring with the glue. Here, were looking towards the bow:


As you can see, good squeezage on the middle cleat, not so good up around the bow. I added some bricks. I DID have good squeezage from the sides of the seat upwards, so I know I have good contact. Im not bothered I dont have excess spilling off the side of the cleat. Next up was some fillet work. I was using a squeegee and then a PLASTIC SPOON that did absolute wonders to throw down a sweet sweet fillet. Nice and clean. I kind of eyeballed what looked good to me, and this was the result:


I think thats sufficient. Heres the forward seat glued in position with the forest of bricks:


Im pretty happy with the result. However, after I was done I wandered into the kitchen where my beautiful wife asked me what I did.

Wife: So howd it go?
Me: Oh it went great, Im the man, Im the next Herreshoff, I glued on the front seat. I am The Man.
Wife: Great! Youre great. Im so glad I married you! Thats the watertight compartment, right?
Me: Yup! The seat forms the forward watertight compartment!

Then I wandered downstairs to get a beer and realized... Son of a GUN... Do I have any gaps between the plywood seat and BH1 that forms that watertight compartment? OH NO! Look at this picture again, pay attention to BH1 starboard side and glue amounts:


Now look at this picture snapped from within the mast-well between BH1 and 2 looking forward on the starboard side!


Gaps! And while I dont think they run through, there are photodocumented gaps on the inside of the tank as well. Dammit.

Im too tired and whooped to worry about it tonight, I will make sure to squeeze some epoxy in there in the future. Its also a strange spot to get to, I have to get into the boat to make this one work, and shes up on buckets, so it will have to wait.

Thank you, wife.

OH YEAH, heres my heater tent. I can keep it 56 F (13 C) in there with my little space heater.

A Week in Mammoth

We took picturesque highway 20 from Nevada City to Interstate 80, then skirted the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe on Highway 28. About halfway down the lake, we picked up highway 50, going east until we reached the 395 which took us south to Mammoth Lakes, where we stayed a week, hiking, biking and fishing the beautiful lakes above the town.

Lake George

With the lakes freshly stocked, young rainbow trout rushed our hooks almost as soon as they hit the water at Lake George.

As the Labor Day holiday weekend approached the town of Mammoth Lakes began to swell with people. By Saturday, the hotels, campgrounds and day use areas were packed. To avoid the crowds we drove down highway 395 to Rock Creek and hiked up to the Gems, a pair of pristine lakes high in the eastern Sierras. The trail starts from Mosquito Flats at an elevation of 10,200 feet, and winds through aptly named Little Lakes Valley up to an elevation of 10,900 feet, where Upper Gem lies.

At nearly 11,000 feet elevation, the Gems are not far from the timberline.

I was surprised to see a little patch of snow in the shadows on the south side of the lake.

Still reluctant to face the crowds around Mammoth, the next day we drove down to McGee Creek Road, about 20 miles from Mammoth. Turning off the highway, we drove southwest past the pack station to the trailhead at the end of the road. From there we hiked up the trail through magnificent scenery along the creek until we arrived at the Pond, which lies at an elevation of 9,000 feet.

McGee Creek Trail starts here.

A midday moon

The beaver dam widens the creek into a pond of several acres.

The beavers lodge is located near the upper end of the pond.

The water level in the pond is about four feet higher than the creek below it. You have to admire the engineering skill of Americas largest rodent.

The North American beavers habitat once extended from Canada to the deserts of northern Mexico, but the animal was hunted almost to extinction in the 1800s. Beavers weigh an average of 44 pounds. On another note, Oregon State University, with the Beaver as its mascot is not ranked in the AP Top 25 football poll this year, much to Lisas chagrin.

Tomorrow, well head northeast through Nevada and Idaho to the West Entrance of Yellowstone NP.

Road Trip to Yellowstone

With most of our boat projects finished, we have some time on our hands before the synthetic teak arrives, so we decided to take a road trip to Yellowstone National Park, with stops along the way to visit friends and family in Berkeley and Nevada City, then a week or so in Mammoth Lakes before heading northeast to Yellowstone. We packed bikes and backpacks in the truck and headed up Highway 101 toward Berkeley. Along the way we stopped at Pinnacles National Park long enough to check out the unique caves near the west entrance to the park. These caves are made of enormous rocks that tumbled down into steep ravines, leaving spaces between them. Some of those spaces are cavernous, others are too small to fit through. After a couple of hours we continued on to Berkeley where we met friends and family. We spent a couple of days in the area and took an afternoon putter around the Bay aboard SF Joe, our friends Grand Banks 36.

Pinnacles National Park. The "Balconies" cliffs overlook the ravine where the caves are located.

The trail to the caves crosses over a dry creek bed. Unfortunately we saw many signs of Californias severe drought along the way,

Entrance to one of the caves. 

In some areas the caves were pitch dark and we were fortunate to have brought along a flashlight. In this area, light filtered down between the enormous boulders that make up the caves.

Lisa checked her camera after bouncing it on the rocks as we scrambled through the caves.

On Monday, August 18th we drove northeast toward the town of Grass Valley where we spent an afternoon and evening checking out the town and visiting a couple of our favorite wine tasting rooms. At the Sierra Starr winery, we were invited to visit their vineyard, which is located in the hills just out of town, where they were taking the first harvest of sauvignon blanc grapes. So the next day we drove up to the vineyard and spent a couple of hours with a merry group of volunteers harvesting these tasty grapes.

Rustic and quaint, Sierra Starr is a small, family run vineyard with about 25 acres of land under cultivation.

Phil Starr runs the vineyard while his wife, Anne manages the tasting room. But when harvest time comes, everyone picks grapes.

Its hot, sticky work, but for a few hours it was fun to pick the grapes and learn about the rudiments of viticulture.

Lisas first bunch of grapes.

The colors of the grapes were amazing.

Picking grapes is hard work. I wouldnt want to do it for a living.

Son Jack Starr is the chief winemaker. After the grapes are crushed and cleaned they go into the stainless steel tanks where they are inoculated with yeast and allowed to ferment. 

The next day we drove through the town of Nevada City and up into the hills along Banner Lava Cap road to visit family, hike, bike and relax. We spent an afternoon riding our mountain bikes through a beautiful forest of pine and oak along an old aqueduct. Another day we went tubing on the Yuba river, enjoying perfect weather and lovely scenery.

We hiked down to the river from the road and were greeted with the sight of the beautiful old Bridgeport Bridge. It was completed in 1862  and is a fine example of a truss and arch covered bridge. It is the longest bridge of its type in the world, so I guess it beats all the bridges in Madison County!

Bridgeport Bridge is the longest single span covered bridge in the world. 

The bridge has fallen into disrepair and is no longer usable. Fortunately the governor of California has allocated some money in the state budget to repair and restore the bridge so there is hope that it will survive. 

It was fun to navigate our inner tubes among the rocks and float down the gentle rapids of the river.  

After three days in hills above Nevada City, we headed to Mammoth Lakes where well stay a week or so, hiking, biking and fly fishing. 

Road trip Guanajuato

We left the town of Tlaquepaque in the early afternoon and arrived at the outskirts of Guanajuato around 4:00 pm. Its not a very large city, with a population of around 154,000 in the municipality, but it is tightly packed into a narrow and steep-sided valley. The original town was built on the banks of the Guanajuato river way back in the 1500s.  During the rainy season the river often overflowed its banks and flooded the town. By 1905 the place had been flooded 68 times. The federal government then stepped in and rebuilt the city on ruins of the old town, and in the process created a system of tunnels beneath the streets of the new city. Some of these were based on the course of the river and some were dug out of hard rock. Since the town was originally the site of some of the richest silver mines in the world, there were plenty of miners around to do the work. The result is a truly unique city with most of its thoroughfares underground. It makes a lot of sense and for a few moments I tried to imagine what LA would be like if its freeways were all underground.

Aside from its network of tunnels, Guanajuato is famous for its confusion of narrow streets and "callejones", which are really just alleys too narrow for motor vehicles. We were unprepared for this and immediately got lost searching for our hotel. Eventually a local climbed onto the back of our car and, shouting orders from the rear bumper, guided us through a couple of tunnels and bunch of twisty little streets to the staircase that led up to the Hotel Chocolate, which was perched on a steep hillside at the top of a row of tiny hotels and restaurants. It was sweaty work lugging our baggage up what amounted to about nine flights of stairs to the hotel lobby, then to our rooms which were three flights further up. But the view was spectacular and we enjoyed our brief time there.

Hotel Chocolate. The views from this quirky hotel were splendid.

View of the Jardin Union (Union Garden)  from the Hotel Chocolate. This is ground zero for the incredible festivities that go on every night. With lots of loud music and throngs of people out until around 4:30 every morning, its a tough place to get a good nights rest.

We could only stay one night at the Hotel Chocolate so we moved down to the Hotel San Diego, which was across the street from the Jardin Union. We could see all the festivities from our third story balcony and of course it seemed like the band was playing right outside our window.

The narrow streets and classic architecture of the city give it a distinctly European flair that was an enjoyable change from the more modern and Mariachi flavored Guadalajara. Because of the confusing streets and tunnels, and the fact that the car was parked miles from our hotel, we hired a guide to give us a tour of the city. This turned out to be a great way to see the place. With the four of us, the guide and a driver in a van, we visited many interesting places and quickly got acquainted with the lay of the land. After the tour we were able to explore central G-town without getting lost.

The church bells in town toll every fifteen minutes 24-7-365.

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A pair of mermaids guard the entrance to a home next to the Hotel Chocolate.

Guanajuato Cityscape. The building with the beautiful facade on the left is the University of Guanajuato. 

Main mercado in G-town.

Parrots waiting to be sold at the mercado.

The city of Guanajuato has adopted the classic novelist, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. His most famous work is Don Quixote and the city has built a museum in honor of the author and the book. It was interesting to learn about the author, but is was far more fascinating to wander the galleries and see modern artists interpret the the main character of the book, Don Quixote.

A whimsical interpretation of Cervantes Don Quixote.  

A bust of the Man of La Mancha

Pipili became the citys most famous hero when he strapped a large stone on his back as a shield against Spanish bullets and set fire to their fortress way back when Mexico was fighting for independence from Spain. He is everywhere in Guanajuato.

Pipili, the hero of Gunajuato stands guard on a ridge overlooking the city

Guanajuato is by far the most interesting and beautiful city we have visited in Mexico. We would have liked to stay longer and learn more about this fascinating town, but after three days it was time to move on to Morelia.

Small progress daggerboard gunwales mast step partner

Ok!

I continue to slowly progress on the boat. I am really stymied by the fact that its been all of 0 deg. F (-18 C) here at the house for quite a bit now. The garage has been holding temperature at just under freezing. Im not interested in doing major epoxy sealing work in these condititions because: a) its cold, b) the epoxy thickens and is difficult to spread.

However, I can do small spot gluing jobs. For instance, I installed the mast step and partner yesterday:



My Step was placed in first (obviously) as a whole piece, as in the 6mm ply backing was already glued in position. The fit was relatively tight, but not perfect because my BHs are not exactly perfectly parallel along the bottom. Im talking a few mms here, but still. Anyway, when you drop something into a tight spot to be glued, pay attention as to how youre going to place it in and glue those places accordingly. To clarify: Dont put the glue on the location that is going to get scraped by the incoming piece, put it where it will be squeezed in so the glue remains.

The partner went in nice and simple, except I dropped it on my heater fan. My partner deviates from the plans as in it is two pieces, with the bottom piece extending underneath the seat cleat on BH2. This is for stability issues, I could twist the top of the BH with my hand. This partner makes it very burly.

Notice my heater and my brick compression system. Its a $12 heater I bought at Lowes. With a plastic sheet, temps went up quick.

Next up I screwed the gunwales into place. I didnt want to necessarily do it, but its almost essential.

The next picture illustrates a non-screwed gunwale. Basically, the flare from the sides of the boat in the stern and amidships is translated to the gunwale to the bow, where there is minimal flare, the sides are relatively straight. Only muscling the gunwale with my hands could I make contact. Not conducive to gluing, as you can imagine.

Storer (el designero) promised that screwing the gunwale would pull it in. I had doubts and didnt want to deal with it, but I tried. Working from the stern forward, I placed one screw in the stern, two amidships, and two right in the bow area where the twist was most apparent. I used the 1 1/4 screws with the ply pads from the bottom screwing event.

SOB, it worked:


Nice and tight, all pulled together. This makes me happy. All ready for gluing. Screws were hidden underneath the areas where I am going to place my inwale spacers. Speaking of spacers, all of them are cut, and I have marked where I will be adding them. I started at the seam between the two pieces of ply for the sides, one will join them at the top, then one will be place next to each BH sidearm, with BH3 sidearms getting two small ones on either side due to the fact that it does not meet the side near the top. Re-enforcements, if you will. I need 52 spacers for this scheme.

Next up, I glued my daggerboard together.


I precoated the sides to be glued, then made a thin epoxy mix with the filler, not too much since the wood had been run through the joiner. The typical GIS clamp scheme as seen below:

And were off to the races! Looking good. Looking good.

She arrives, one step at a time boys, one step at a time.

On the metaphorical road again heading for more small boat sailing adventures

The brotherhood of the travelling boots.

Its occurred to me that the hikers boots that I’m wearing have been to seven different countries so far, they’re good friends the two of them, get along well even though they’re almost twins. One of course is a lefty and the other a righty but even so they seem able to co operate and generally arrive wherever it is that they’re going at about the same time.

I’m on my way again, this time to Chile,  will arrive in Santiago in about 18 hours.

Right now I’m sitting in Auckland International airport, within a few metres of the Percival Gull aircraft that Jean Batten flew from England to New Zealand in 1936, setting a number of aviation records on the way.  That flight took 11 days and 45 minutes to cover a bit more than 14000 miles. 

I’m going to be travelling in an aircraft that barely resembles that tiny single engined spruce and canvas plane.  In fact it would be no real problem to fit the “Gull” into the cargo hold of the big Boeing that I’ll be imprisoned within for the 13 ½ hour flight across the Southern Pacific Ocean. We’ll be travelling at around 590 nautical miles per hour, how different it is from Jean in her little light plane t125 mph.  I bet she didn’t complain about the cabin service in her tiny cockpit .

Jean Battens Percival Gull airplane, as I write this Im sitting about 2metres away from the wingtip on the left of the picture, its a graceful little thing, but a real reminder of how much aviation has progressed since then, remember too that Jean Batten was with us until 1982, so most of this amazing progress has happened within the space of a long lifetime.

This trip I’m making is by the way the longest uninterrupted stretch of ocean that there is north of the five great capes about twice the distance that it is across the North Atlantic from USA to UK.

Which brings me to why I’m travelling.  I’m to meet up with friend and co teacher Howard Rice, and we’re going to be setting up for the big voyage of exploration that he is undertaking next southern summer.

That voyage, in a modified SCAMP, all of 11 ft 11 in long ( 3.575M ) will leave from Punta Arenas in the Straights of Magellan, carry him out through the channels and straights into the Pacific where he’ll turn left, and head south toward Cape Horn.

That latter is not necessarily the objective of the voyage, but rounding “The Horn” is a possibility.  The real purpose of the voyage is to explore the least populated and most rugged coastline on the planet,  riven with steep sided fjords, many with glaciers at their heads, backed by mountains, many un named as yet, and battered by the incessant gale force winds of the Roaring 40s this is an extraordinary place, and one which Howard will be exploring, and documenting.

There will be cameras on the boat, as well as within his support crew back at Punta Arenas, there is already some video “in the can” and the intention is to make a comprehensive video of the voyage, a video which will be available to anyone wishing to see the grandeur of the wildest place on the planet from the viewpoint of a small boat sailor.

There is more on the boat and the voyage in Howards Facebook page here

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=howard%20rices

Yes it costs by the way, and if you’d like to support this, check out the directors website here. http://www.below40south.com.  There is also a lot of information on the voyage there.

  Any donations would be very gratefully received, we’re covered for the actual filming but the production costs will be significant and even a small amount would help to get what will be one of the great small boat adventures out where people can share it.

So I’m sitting here in Auckland airport with several hours to wait until the big silver bird roars down the runway and turns out eastward over the sea.

Its not boring, I’m in a quiet corner upstairs, this is one of the better airports that I travel through, and I’m alongside a glass wall where I can watch the people flow like a gently stirred anthill.  It’s the arrivals area just below me, and there are friends, parents, siblings and visitors arriving, it’s heart warming watching the enthusiasm and emotion with which they are being welcomed.

But I’m going the other way, I’ll be among that crowd downstairs in 20 days.

Road Trip Guadalajara

After the Banderas Bay Regatta we were ready for a different kind of fun so we joined our friends, Ed and Connie for a road trip up-country. We drove about a thousand miles, or perhaps it just seemed like a thousand miles throughout west-central Mexico. Here is a list of the notable towns and cities we visited on the trip:

Tequila
Guadalajara
Tlaquepaque
Guanajuato
San Miguel de Allende
Morelia
Angangueo
Patzquaro
Chapala
Mascota

Thats a lot of traveling, so for this post Ill focus on Tequila and Guadalajara.  Ed has a car here in Mexico and was kind enough to do nearly all the driving so I was free to just watch the world go by from the backseat of his Isuzu Rodeo, and occasionally hang on for dear life as Ed demonstrated his high speed driving prowess on the unpredictable roads of Mexico. Actually, we only stopped in Tequila for some beer and tacos along with a couple of souvenirs from the Jose Cuervo distillery. Anyway, we blew into Guadalajara and took rooms at the beautiful old Hotel Morales in downtown.

After the high speed run into town, I was more than ready for a stiff drink and we were fortunate that the hotel had an excellent restaurant with a fairly good bartender. The next morning we began our tour of this sprawling, gritty, bustling city. With about four and a half million residents in the metropolitan area, Guadalajara is the second largest city in Mexico and is a major center of commerce and industry. It is also the capital of the state of Jalisco. It has a long and colorful history dating back to the 1500s, and if youd like to know more about this fascinating and diverse megalopolis, feel free to check it out on Wikipedia.

Like most of Mexicos cities, Guadalajara is full of churches, and we wandered around several of the biggest ones, taking photos and people-watching. One thing I have noticed in all of the churches and cathedrals Ive visited in Mexico is the strikingly beautiful architecture and sculpture combined with a musty sense of dilapidation inside them. Outside, soaring spires and magnificent bells. Inside, cracked icons and peeling paint. Never a fan of organized religion, these aspects of the churches seemed to me to be a fitting metaphor for the Church itself.

Guadalajara is also a city of music. In fact, it would be fair to say that Mexico is a country of music because almost everywhere you travel in this beautiful country, someone is strumming a guitar or singing. This is a happy country in spite of all the troubles it confronts. I think the US could learn something about enjoying the simple pleasures of life from Mexico. Anyway, Guadalajara is said to be the birthplace of Mariachi music, that distinctively Mexican musical style. We were treated to lots of this kind of music but we also experienced a wonderful classical music concert in the plaza a couple of blocks from our hotel as well.

Atrium in the Hotel Morales

Central Square with the obligatory church in Guadalajara 

Guadalajara is the commercial center of Mexico but it is also a city of music. 

Cellists 

Violinists

Guadalajara is said to be the birthplace of Mariachi music.  This sculpture is a tribute to the genre.

After a couple of days in the city we were ready to move on. Our next stop was the town of Tlaquepaque, which is known for its artisans and craftsmen. I found it to be a bit too touristy for my taste and Ed agreed, so while the women shopped we set out on a mission to find some decent margaritas. Alas, we failed and had to settle for some watery concoctions that the waiter claimed were margaritas, but tasted like Fresca and lime juice. With that we piled back into the car and headed for the beautiful city of Guanajuato.