Sailing Adventures of SOS

More Pictures

2012-01-20T05:21:00.002-05:00

Some more pictures from the build.

Dagger trunks are now installed. You can see now my finished foils CNC machined on the Shopbot. I went for a simple 0012 and the trunk is glass. The foils will ride on strips of hard felt inside the trunk.

Also visible is the forestay chainplate integrated into an angled forward bulkhead tied into the hull and glued in under the bow deck. Below is the finished main cockpit coaming. The coaming was fist shaped in 5lb Airex foam (did I mention there is a lot of scrap around here). Then carbon was applied with 3m spray adhesive before wetting out and vacuum bagging.

Mosquito...it Lives!!!!

2011-11-20T23:48:00.013-05:00

In case everyone figured I was just goofing off for the last few weeks here is the latest. My mom has been down here almost every weekend for the last 2 months and she has been a great help. It has also helped to start familiarizing herself with the boat. This weekend my dad came down and offered his assistance cutting out parts and gluing them in. It's amazing how much more you can do with 2 people.

We have finished up the cabin sole or sleeping shelf of whatever you want to call it. I prefer "great cabin" and this weekend we installed the main deck with it's hatch opening. The deck is made of a strip building product called duracore. It is 3/8" end grain balsa sandwiched between 1/16" strips of western red to give it some longitudinal stiffness while planking. We laid up a 25" wide cambered panel of it on a curved mold (bent plywood) all in one shot in a vacuum bag last weekend. The panel was 9lbs before fiberglass which is a little more than 4mm plywood (0.4lbs/sqft versus 0.6lb/sqft) but the advantages are that the inside of the "cabin" has a smooth roof for sleeping comfort while still giving the deck adequate stiffness for tromping around and raising/lowering the mast. The deck could have been a foam core layup but this stuff was laying around and about to become firewood.

The daggerboard tunk halves are laid up and ready to be joined and then installed in the amas. The daggers are ready for a final fairing and last coat of epoxy.

The Amas will get some 2lb expanding foam and then the decks will be going on as soon as the trunks are complete.

The next big milestone will be the first float and test paddle sometime in early december. I will be going out of the country over the christmas holiday so work will be on hold until I get back to finish all the rigging and get her sailing sometime in February with the race the first week of March. Yikes.

Current weight breakdown (I know your curious): drum rollllll....

Main hull: 105lbs plus bow deck, hardware, more epoxy (looking like it will end around 125)

Amas: 45lbs each plus some expanding foam, decks and trunks. (looking like around 65lbs a piece) Daggers: 12 lbs each

Rig: recently purchased a carbon stick that was on a Bimare Javeline 18HT catamaran. maybe 30lbs

Add sails and rudder, rigging, lines and some more epoxy and she is closing in on 350 at an alarming rate. I am doing my utmost to keep this in check. I'm still emotionally ok with the her weight. We will see. Whatever it comes out at you'll wish it was lighter but thats just the way it goes.

She has also earned her name. 'Mosquito'

Aside from the many mosquitoes that have met their end by flying into my wet epoxy and become part of the hull (and those that I have swatted), she will be a fast racing machine in all wood and so a nod is given to the de Havilland Mosquito which was a wonder in it's own time. Once the fastest plane in the world at 400mph and constructed of all wood. Pretty Amazing. I often feel like I am building a fuselage as much as a sailboat. Mosquito video link

UFC Tri Update

2011-11-06T23:20:00.007-05:00

Time seems to be flying by and I have been working night after night. My mom has been driving out to help on weekends and this has been a great help. I'll bring you up to speed on what has been done and what is left to do.

All three hulls are now in existence. 2 amas at equal stage of constuction. The second ama went together more smoothly and is very fair and tight and I believe a bit lighter. All hulls have a coat of epoxy on them. The daggerboards have been built, machined and sanded and await epoxy coating. The main hull bulkheads are complete. The waterstay connection points are complete in the main hull. The transom has been installed and the "cabin" floor is going in in the next few days. The aft and bow decks are cut out and coated and will go in within the next couple of weeks pending the fiberglass aka tubes being installed. I have layed up a cockpit seat and the bow cockpit size and location was finalized and cut out this weekend.

Among the remaining tasks are the daggerboard trunks, Ama decks, aka-ama connection structure, aka-vaka connection structure (fiberglass tubes). installing deck support structure, installing decks, making hatch covers, making another seat, installing seats, making main hull aft cockpit. Make structural bow cockpit hatch. Sand everything and apply second coat of epoxy. make a rudder, tiller and cheeks. Those are the big ticket items at least.

Oh yeah, I also need to aquire a mast and sails, trampolines, trailer, rigging and hardware. No problem right? EEsh.

Ama part 2

2011-10-09T22:11:00.003-04:00

Today, the inwales were fitted and slid in from the stern and the inside of the ama was coated. With the inwales in the temporary gunwales used to pull the sides in could be removed. I weighed the side panels and bulkheads pre-torturing at just under 30lbs. I expect that with epoxy coating, bottom paint, crossbeam structure, dagger trunk and a deck it will easily finish up around 40 which would be ok with me. 45 would be less ok but whatever it comes out at, "i'll own it" as they say.

This time I glued in the bulkheads near the keel pre-torture and that caused the hull to be a little less fair than I would have liked but its rock hard now so no going back. I don't plan to make changes for the port ama. Its not that bad.

You can see that I went for the inverted bow, wave piercer ama shape with influences from the Nacra Infusion, and Seacart 26 tri.

Apologies for the quality of the pictures. the shop is dimly lit at night.

Ama: tortured but alive

2011-10-09T00:14:00.006-04:00

You know why they call it Tortured Plywood right?... Because sometimes it dies.

Fortunately the starboard Ama (on which I am now working) underwent severe torture today but the plywood told me what I wanted to know so I let it live. All in all a very satisfying shape achieved (more pics tomorrow). Below is the challenge. Turn flat panels into the wave piercing round bottomed form of a fast ama 1/2 shape at left. After determining what 2d shape I wanted to start with (part, geometry, part "maybe this will work") I joined the panels with a finger joint and stitched them together.

A pictoral journey of the events that followed can be seen below. I knew there would be some compromise in my desired hulls shape something I learned on the main hull but I wanted to really push the tortured shape to the limit of what I thought was possible and I don't think I could have gotten any more out of it. Then again, it didn't crack so who knows.

It was obvious to me that my desired bow shape was going to be a problem so I cut two splits in the bow section 40" long following an isoline from the tip of the bow and curving up along a line of max curvature. By re-stitching these, I could set them at an angle and help the curvature process. It also let me lock in the shape in that area so I don't end up with too fine a bottom near the bow. I have never seen this method used with torturing so I guess I'll call it "split-tortured plywood". The rest of the keel was glassed together over a generous fillet of 3.75" diameter with 20 degrees of deadrise. This angle is crucial to making it work. The smaller the deadrise you set at the get go the more compound curvature your asking for. Unlike the main hull, the ama is made of just two panels.

While the seams were curing I whacked out the bulkheads of 4mm ply on the shopbot. Sooo much faster than hand fitting. This worked great as you can see in the pics. The discrepancy between the bulkhead and the hull in the 1 photo where it is obvious occurs on the way to the bow where the deadrise angle must increase. Eventually at the bow, the angle is 90 degrees so there has to be some compromise there. The rest of the bulkheads fit like a glove.

At the start of initial torturing 2 cracks alerted me to a problem which was recognized at the finger joints. One of the fingers opened up on the outside as tension was placed on it. Work was put on hold until the joints were glassed in the area of maximum curvature. This is the joints weakest bending axis. They are strongest in axial loading such as overall compression or tension of the entire ama structure. This problem was not seen in the main hull presumably because the whole bottom panel was glassed before bending.

Once the patches were kicked, the torture continued. In the end, I was able to get all of the bulkeads glued and filleted and the stem joined tonight, just 3 and a half days after cutting the panels.

Tomorrow, I plan to turn the ama upside down and apply boiling water soaked towels to the outside of the skin in hopes of relieving some of the stress that is built up in the sheet before epoxy encapsulating.

Weighing in

2011-09-24T23:29:00.009-04:00

It's been just about a month and a half since I cut the first wood for the boat. I spent the better part of 9 months designing in Rhino 3D and I am up to saved version 103. I have 12 ama iterations and about 6 of the main hull. All that and I'm still making major changes to the boat. Such is boat building.

A few days ago I removed the temporary frame that held the sheer line in place while I was installing stations. I've been anxious for that because it meant I could weight the hull. Drum roll.....62lbs as it sits. That is minus a couple of bulkheads, stringers, cabin sole, seats, cockpits, hatches and of course epoxy coating. It's heavier than I had hoped but not a death sentence. She is still on track to be significantly lighter than any production multihull of this size and power.

Below are the visible epoxy marks of a bulkhead that didn't make the cut. It's not that I put it in the wrong place, its just that I moved it after it had already been installed. Oops.

I'm closing in on the last few bulkheads. Once they are all in, I will be able to install the stringers for good, epoxy coat the inside and start closing it up. There isn't really that much in this hull.

One down side so far has been the artform that is tortured ply in a 1 off scenario, there was no way I could predict the exact section shapes and no one has built this hull before. Sometimes you have to let the wood do what it wants to do. All of the bulkheads in the main hull have been painstakingly patterned and hand fit. This just won't do for the amas. I need to speed up construction so I'm working on a more precise way to predict the ply shape so that I can CNC cut the bulkheads and have two identical amas. This will hopefully speed up construction. Stay tuned. Amas are on the horizon.

Steady as she goes

2011-09-20T19:30:00.007-04:00

Foreword: Awesome work being done on "The Rise" which is the last remaining Wa'apa that sailed to an amazing Everglades Challenge finish after being built by some crazy college students back in 2007. For a history lesson, just dial back this blog a few years. It's great to see her sailing again at http://redbeard-hazard.blogspot.com/ . And she makes her return to the racing scene in under 2 weeks at the North Carolina Challenge under Captain Redbeards command.

The new screen I bought is quite amazing. (HP 2311x) It is a far cry from the 10.5inch screen of the netbook that I have been doing all of my design work on thus far. "Holy cow, now the whole boat fits on the screen. Oh thats much easier!"

Below, securing of the 4 partial bulkheads that will support the floor of the main cabin. Nevermind that the "main cabin" is the size of a sleeping bag. Notches are for longitudinal stringers (11mm x 25mm of Western Red Cedar) of which there are 4 plus the keel batten. The floor will also act as a longitudinal stiffener.

Below, a dry fit of the bottom stringers. They must be slid in from the still open transom after all bulkheads are installed. One disadvantage of building from the outside in. Seems to work fine so far.

View forward from the transom. Far bulkhead is the approximate position of the mast. Note limber holes for drainage. The cabin floor will be semi-self draining with holes to the outside to allow a large amount of water to escape automatically. floor hatches will be "water resistant".

Unfortunately for now, the weather is conspiring against me again. The bulkheads that I cut and fit last night no longer fit the hull as the humidity has swollen the sides of the boat just enough to cause a significant gap. Open air shops can be good...and bad. Hopefully I can sun dry the hull soon and get back to work. A coat of epoxy in it's dry state might be next on the list. In the meantime working on cut files for the Amas.

Interesting geometry problem below related to my hull swelling. If you haven't seen it before, the answer might surprise you or maybe not depending on how much of a nerd you are. In any case,

Say I place a 25,0000-mile-long metal band snugly around the earth. (Assume a smooth planet.) Then I cut the band and splice another 50 feet into it, thus loosening it all around. Can I get my finger between the new-length band and the earth? Can I crawl under it?

Answer here.

Irene Aftermath

2011-09-09T22:28:00.004-04:00

We have only now just begun to return to normalcy here at the shop. Irene brought with it a 9.3 foot storm surge into Chapel Creek in our section of the Bay River. One of our boat shops flooded 50inches above the floor. Our "high and dry" shop still received 16inches. Irene sucks.

Some of the tools have come back to life after careful cleaning. Our shop bot tool is now operational again. A new computer had to be ordered. I spent a week remodeling the interior of my small cabin with new insulation and wall panels. I had about 15inches of water in my "house". Work has resumed on the 45' power cat and on the trimaran. Another update maybe next week.

The Trimaran main hull was on a pair of short sawhorses in the higher shop and the hull was "splashed" but suffered no damaged. There is a tub-ring type line around the bottom of the hull. At least now no one can say that I didn't put it in the water before the race.

Step into my office

2011-08-24T12:29:00.006-04:00

The Hull is tortured 4mm plywood. Unlike conventional tortured ply cat hulls, I used 3 panels to form the initial shape seen in the previous post. This allowed for a more semicircular cross section with plenty of rocker. With a traditional 2 panel and keel joint, a more V'd bottom is required for the same rocker.

Hull shape finalized. Bulkheads and stringers going in next.

2x4 technology here. A compression strut used to force the

bottom down and narrow the hull.

The first bulkhead. Note also that the inwales and keel stiffener are installed now. The outer 1x2 gunwales are just a form for the hull and will be removed later. I got a bit greedy on the transom shape and wasn't able to pull that much curvature out of the panels so I cut into the joins about 18 inches forward from the aft end and wired them together so I could "reset" the joint angle and narrow the transom further. This angle could have been set when I joined the panels in the first place but this is an experimental 1-off so we go with the flow.

On the cutting edge. Note, again the temporary 1x2 gunwales. She has about a 10 degree half angle of entry so I expect very little wave making resistance from this hull shape.

Trimaran

2011-08-19T23:44:00.002-04:00

The design and construction of the trimaran for UFC 2012 next march has taken over my life. The goal is to be sailing her by the end of November. I won't be doing any in depth posts about the build but I will post pictures whenever I feel like it.

Folding up the main hull. First Panels are joined, not much of a boat yet. How did I know what shape to make the panels so that it folds up into a sleek and sexy hull you ask? Well wouldn't you like to know.

Main hull almost to final shape. Compression posts will be used to force the bottom to the final depth which will flatten the sides and narrow the shape further. More pics to come.

Fishing is Hard

2011-06-01T18:15:00.002-04:00

Second try fishing off the dock in Chapel Creek off of the Bay River. I was able to catch some minnows off the dock with a little net but this is all I could manage to catch. Need some smaller hooks (lots of bites and lost bait) and... some better bait. I want a flounder BAD.

A Slightly Longer Commute

2011-05-02T22:33:00.005-04:00

Some pictures from this week. I've been working on my hatches and Sunday I took the boat out for an overnight in Swan Creek to meet up with Steve on Spartina and another sailing friend who is sailing around the outer banks for the next 2 weeks. Steve was just wrapping up his "walkabout" trip and it was fun meeting up with them and getting the boat out on the water. This morning, I had a slightly longer commute back to work. A 16 mile sail back to Chapel Creek from Swan Creek out in the Neuse River. Sailing to work... allllright, now I can check that off my list.

Hatch Mold. 3 coats of honey wax and 3 coats of PVA partall release film.

Hatch mold with part under vacuum bag.

Drip ring hatch frame installed in port side.

Sailing out to Swan Creek from Chapel Creek. 16 miles out the Bay river and hang a right.

A beat out the river, some paddling around Maw point and a staysail reach down to the creek.

A relaxing sail. Very glad that I got the boat back in the water. I started working on the hatches a couple of weeks ago and wasn't finished but some ducktape and red plastic board fixed that temporarily as you can see in this picture. I'm sure Steve will have some good pics on his blog from his trip over the weekend. Can't wait to read his report.

Boat Hatchathon

2011-04-28T21:10:00.003-04:00

I just finished laying up a fiberglass hatch frame tonight (the first of 4) that will go into the CS17 Southbound to replace the old hatches and shore up the seat tops. An advantage of living at a boat shop is that there are lots of scraps of material. This frame is made of recycled fiberglass which would have otherwise ended up in the garbage. Big boats make big scraps fortunately.

There are some hairline cracks and some delamination in the seat panels that I wanted to seal up and the old hatches were needing some love. My stomping around on the seat tops during the last few outings on the boat didn't do them any good either. I decided to just make some "stock" CS hatches off of Graham's trusty hatch frame mold that will be more watertight and strengthen the seats as well. I want to try resin infusing one of these but I really needed to get a move on since you can't sit in the boat without the hatches in. This one I just layed up and vacuum bagged conventionally. There have been some really nice sailing days lately that I have had to pass up. Plus if I really get it in gear, I may be able to meet up with Steve on Spartina on Sunday who has planned a multi day trip in the area this weekend.

St. Thomas Vacation

2011-04-14T20:19:00.010-04:00

Taylor I just returned from a 5 day romp in St. Thomas USVI. Originally planned as a training trip for the upcoming (and now cancelled) Tybee 500 catamaran race we turned it into a great vacation with friends and some great sailing thrown in for good measure.

Sign outside a snack bar on the East End

We stayed with friends of mine, another Alan and his wife Cristina in their new home on the north side of the island. He owns and operates 104.3 "The Buzz" radio station serving the USVI and Puerto Rico with nonstop rock and roll and he organizes a lot of charitable and community oriented fund raisers and events through the station. He's a busy guy but knows how to have fun. After being reintroduced to cat sailing a few years ago when Trey and I flew down to do the Rolex regatta he has been with it ever since. He now sails a Hobie 16 and last year he raced in the Tybee 500. Another mutual sailing friend Mark owns a Nacra 20 on island and he was nice enough to let us use it during the trip. Thanks Mark, it was great sailing with you.

Team Alan rig the Nacra 20 for warp speed and maximum ferry chasing capability

Mark- "Hey, you guys can use my boat, no problem, here are the sails, lines, rudders..."

Alan- "Mark, we will take really good care of it."

Mark- "I know you will"

We had a great time blasting around Pillsbury Sound but the above is why we felt really bad about accidentally sailing into a very small and obscure coral patch off of St. John outside the ferry channel. After impact, we managed to keep the boat upright despite Alan's trip to the tip of the spinnaker pole. Afterward, Team Alan limped back to the beach clutching the unfortunate dagger board and generally feeling just SICK about the damage. The starboard daggerboard also known as the "good news board" as well as the hull itself fortunately suffered no damage

As predicted, Mark thought nothing of it and wanted us to take the boat out again the next day. "Just switch the board, you'll be fine". Mark your the nicest guy ever. But no, we picked up some epoxy and glued it back up Wed. night. Just needs some good filler and gelcote and it will be a fine spare but we've got a lead on a new one for him. The least we could do.

"Hey Alan, that water looks kind of funny..." Crunch.

It was a very memorable island vacation thanks to Alan and Cristina's generous hospitality and we can't wait to get back down there again. Maybe for a sailing trip from St. Thomas to Puerto Rico? We'll see.

Goose Creek Island Sailing Weekend

2011-04-04T21:55:00.003-04:00

This past weekend my mom talked me into joining her on Goose Creek island (20min from Vandemere) in Hobucken, NC for the second annual paddling party. Of course, I would rather sail and Sail I did. It was a very windy weekend and even today it has been blowing steady 20knots all day out of the West which is unusual. Saturday it was gusting to 35 and I was solo. It wasn't long before I had the main down and was sailing with only the reefed mizzen. Even the windage from the main mast was overpowering little Southbound and so I strapped it to the deck. The boat took great care of me. I have some great video that I'll try to get put together. Here is a picture planing towards Jones Bay at 8 knots with...a reefed mizzen. I really put the boat through her paces and now I'm doing some repair work to pay for it. Don't worry ken, nothing major ;)

Saturday, everyone paddled (I sailed) out of Pates Boatyard and into Jones Bay. We made our way down toward a narrow cut that joined up with the ICW and the plan was to return via the ditch. I made it through the cut to the surprise of many and partially myself but was stopped by fierce headwinds and a knock down where I decided to turn back. If I had looked closer, I might have realized that just a little farther and I would have made it into the ICW and saved myself a couple miles of hard upwind sailing back to camp. Oh well. Sean, the owner of Pates boatyard was on hand with his pontoon boat to pick up those who did not wish to endure the elements further. I think I did about 12 miles on Saturday.

I was able to make it up the narrow channel again the current by a combination of motor sailing and poling with my paddle. It was about a half mile.

Sunday, my mom was up for a sail as was John a resident of Hobucken who is an aspiring sailor and a possible CS17 convert. Maybe he will end up building himself a 17 pretty soon. What do you say John? He seemed quite taken with the boat and was a natural at the tiller. We made good use of the 20 knot breeze on sunday with all three of us on the rail and a reef in the main and mizzen. We sailed down with some other kayakers to a spot known for having pieces of old clay pottery from injun times. We found some stuff that looked like clay with some printing on it. Not sure if it was real or not but was fun to find anyway.

Above, the result of a hard weekend of sailing, The back screws holding my lower gudgeon on worked themselves out and I torqued some slop in the hardware as well as the glue joint at the base of the rudder. Some sandpaper and epoxy will have her strong as new in no time flat.

Happy Boat

A Three Hour Tour

2011-03-30T00:59:00.002-04:00

At about 6:30 after work it hit me that it was a pretty nice day (clear and not too cold) and that I had a boat! I could...go sailing. I thought it would be a fun little adventure but couldn't have thought just how cool.

Fleece, Jacket, Pants, PFD, radio, cellphone, hat, sunglasses, SPOT, water bottle, banana, apple, and a jar of peanut butter. (always bring peanut butter). Bam in the boat. Bam masts up, rigging and sailing away from the dock at 6:45pm. 3 hours later I returned, a little changed.

It was chilly and my hands were cold. Gloves would have been a good addition to the list. There was a good breeze from the SE and I decided to just keep going till it was dark and then turn around. Normally that would seem like a bad plan but the sun was already nearly set and the river is pretty narrow so the chances of being lost are slim to none. I made it to the Flashing green #5 just outside of Vandemere (about 4.5 miles from the dock. I rounded the marker and started back. I made it about a quarter the way back on a light reach but the wind died soon there after. And the fun began.

It was just after twilight and the stars were out but the shore and water were illuminated by various streetlights with views of the water and house lights around the river. The boat was ghosting along and I was just sitting in the silence thinking about picking up the paddle. It was very quiet and still. I heard a sound and then another and turned to listen. I recognized the "pshh" as dolphin breath! I sat silently as more breathing came closer. They were too far away to see ripples but judging by the breaths and directions I guessed there were between 5 and 8 of them.

I heard the sound getting fainter and at that point I was very happy to have heard them and so many. I pulled out the paddle and started making my way back. Just as soon as I started paddling, the dolphins returned. This time they were curious. I guess because of the paddle noise and motion. They came closer this time. A LOT closer. At the height of it, there were at least 10 dolphin around the boat. 2 off the bow, then 3 in formation, 2 off the stern, but on either side as well. They were all around and within 2 boat lengths of me. I could hear them talking to each other as their squeaks echoed in the cockpit. It was like I was sitting in a speaker cone. Amazing. I have only heard this once before on board the WTP during my trip with Eye of The World.

I stopped paddling and could hear them breathing and talking all around me which probably lasted only a minute. As they swam farther away, I started paddling again stopping occasionally to see if I could still hear them. What an amazing 3 hour sail. Just when I thought, "crap, now I've got to paddle back" I was reminded what an amazing environment I have access to right outside my back door. It also occurred to me that with a small outboard, I would have been tempted to use it and get back to the warm cabin and would never have had a chance of hearing the dolphins.

I ended up paddling the last half of the return in a dead calm which was ok because the bio-luminescence in the wake of the paddle blade was incredible.

Hitched

2011-03-27T16:53:00.007-04:00

This weekend the trailer hitch came and I got it installed. Got the lights working so i'm ready to hit the road with the new trailer hitch upgrade done on the Corolla. Of course now I'm realizing that the next upgrade is some new rear struts. Can you say low rider.

Of all the trailer wiring and lights I have installed or worked on never ONCE has the operation gone without (wait for it...) a hitch. This time was no exception. I got the converter wired into the tail lights in the trunk and used the little tester. Looks ok. Ok plug into trailer. Left signal, good. Running lights, GOOD. Right signal, uh oh. Brakes, Houston, we have a problem. Then after some more fiddling the signal fuse blows and now the car has no signals. Awesome.

So, after more diagnostic testing... A right side trailer bulb was found blown and a new signal fuse was popped in. Also I found a lost connection in one of the little blue plastic clips used to attach the converter. (operator error). With all that set right the lights work fine. Sigh.... I hate trailer lights.

Off we go to some saltier water.

Southbound to Jordan Lake

2011-03-21T01:26:00.003-04:00

Well, its been a busy few months lately. My dad and I are back from the Everglades Challenge which we took the win for in class 4 this year in the Dawn Patrol. We have not yet even fully unpacked from that adventure when off we go again. This weekend marked a momentous occasion for what is sure to be the first of many great trips in my new boat 'Southbound'. The story...

A sailing friend of mine who for some unknown reason decided to get married AND move to Australia has charged me with the care of his beloved Core Sound 17 which he built with his own 2 hands. I know full well the value of a hand made boat since I have built one as well and although his boat wanted to accompany him on his big move south-bound (ha ha) it was not to be. I only hope that I can continue to care for this boat as well as he did by regularly watering it and making sure it gets plenty of wind and sunlight! Taylor and I had been anxiously looking forward to this past weekend when we planned to take her out for our first trip in her, and believe it or not, only our second overnight trip in a boat.

We couldn't have picked a better weekend. Great weather, a full moon, clear skies, and even a Sunday regatta with the Carolina Sailing Club which I of course signed us up for. :)

We had a relaxing start Saturday packing up some camping gear, cloths sunscreen and other miscellaneous sailing stuff and after stopping for food and subways for lunch made our way to see the new boat. Knowing full well how much this boat is used to being sailed and having sailed it before myself. I knew that the boat was probably way more ready to get out on the water than we were. We found the boat sitting patiently in her storage unit with all possible sailing accessories one could ask for. The boat must have really wanted to get to the lake because it followed us the whole way there.

We got to the lake and found ourselves surrounded by bass fisherman, their trailers cars and boats everywhere. Some kind of fishing tournament it turned out but we managed to find a spot and started figuring out how to rig the boat. Well that took all of about 10 minutes since everything was either already rigged or snapped together almost as if someone had put a lot of thought into minimizing rigging time and maximizing sailing time. It took us way longer to get ourselves ready.

We had a great time sailing that day, It was warm and breezy and we focused on getting Taylor caught up on her sailing skills since we plan to do this a lot more. As it turns out she is an excellent sailor and after about 15 minutes of expert instruction she was sailing and trimming like a seasoned pro. By the end of the trip, we were practically finishing each others sailing sentences.

We saw another double masted boat on the lake which just had to be a sea pearl and sure enough when we finally crossed paths who did we find in said sea pearl but none other than fellow watertriber and UFC finisher RunningMouth! who is living in Raleigh and was at the lake testing out his new vertical battened sails with his lady friend. We yacked about watertribe and current events and did some drag racing until they packed it in. We headed back to the ramp to load up our evening gear.

We relaunched with camping gear aboard and motor sailed (paddled) out to a small cove off Poplar point campground and dropped the hook. We set the cockpit tent up (yes she came with a cockpit tent!!!) in the slightest of breezes which kept the mosquitoes away and after getting the boat stowed away and blowing up our air pads we were enjoying the sunset and eating some nice hot hot freeze dried dinners. We agreed that in the future we will try to plan dinners a little more formally. I one day strive to eat aboard like our friend Steve does on his trips. Log of Spartina.

It was a chilly night but we were warm and toasty in our sleeping bags and the moonlight was incredibly. Like sleeping in a tent under the soft glow of a streetlight. I woke up occasionally and watched the moon arc over head until it set across the lake. We took our time waking up and hosted the tent up to dry out in the morning sun. We got underway around 10am and did a quick intro course on setting the stay-sail which we planned to use in the race! We got our system down pat and headed back to the ramp to make some lunch and see what other boats had showed up.

We had about 13 boats on the water. Lasers, Flying Scotts, Lasers, Thistles, a 505 and what came to be our main competition, a buccaneer. We got to the line on time and as I sailed past the race committee boat they asked, "Are you here to race?". Yeah, I said. I signed up on the website. We are the Core Sound 17. "Oh ok. I got you here" they replied. so we were off.

We got in 3 races in very light and on and off wind. At one point I commented that it was just like a game of 'red light green light' where you have to stop and go and stop and go. This is not the CS17's favorite wind condition and we came in dead last on the first race but we had a crappy start. I was still getting warmed up. The second start I was ready and we were fighting for position with the 505 but we both got pushed out right at the committee boat and lost some ground but still managed a win over the buccaneer...who came in last. Ok so the Core Sound isn't much match for large overpowered sloop rigged round bottom racing mono hulls in light and variable conditions but I would have really liked to have been out there in 15 knots just to see the difference. We did however, learn how to sail the boat in light wind and after a while we were heeling the boat hard to leeward to reduce our wetted area and that helped tremendously. The last race was a pretty exciting drag race downwind between us and the buccaneer with our staysail pushing us right along which ended in a photo finish for last and second to last place but we probably had the most fun. We were the last boat back to the beach but thats ok, we were there to sail anyway. And yes, I left the paddle (and one of our anchors) in the car to um...save weight. I'll probably not do that again.

We left the lake with warm and slightly sun and wind burnt faces but we had more fun than we could have asked for and can't wait for next time. Trip #1 down in the books.

Out the door

2011-02-03T18:02:00.004-05:00

Lately at the B and B shop we have finished the major fiberglassing of the starboard hull and slid it out the door. We can now start building the 4th and final "side" of the complete boat. The completed starboard hull will be living outdoors until the other side is caught up.

Here is a video of the move. As you can see, the hull is still relatively light weight and 4 of us (and Mandy, the dog) can maneuver it pretty easily by hand.

Moving Big Things

2010-12-16T22:44:00.003-05:00

Well it's been a while but I'm settled in now in coastal NC working for Graham Brynes, fellow watertribe adventurer, naval architect, sailor, and owner of B and B yacht Designs. B and B is a small company with big ideas and an abundance of knowledgeable people who love boats. I am having a blast working on the latest project, a 45 foot power catamaran. Designed by Graham for a client as an efficient live aboard cat she has wave piercing bow bulbs and a very narrow entry angle. This is the largest project that B and B has taken on but it's something that has been on paper for a long time.

In addition to glassing, sanding and brainstorming, I have been modeling the Cat in Rhino 4.0, a popular solid modeling program. It is possible to build such a large and complex shape with very few people with the help of CNC cut parts. We use a shopbot table large enough to cut shapes out of 4x8 sheets of plywood. Computer cut parts can be joined into large and accurate jigs for building the hull panels.

This week, we rotated the Starboard hull over with the help of computer cut circular cradles in order to fair and glass the outside surface. Eventually, the hull will be rotated back and the process repeated for the inside surface. Below is a time lapse video of the move.

Before and After

2010-11-14T20:30:00.008-05:00

Before and After. The new floor looks great. The engine mount holes are drilled and bedded. The battery box cover is done, the new vents hoses are installed, the steering cable was routed through the new tube and the bilge is now bright shiny white with a second coat of epoxy. Some things remain. Installing the motor, fuel tank, hull hardware and eventual finishing out with carpeting or possibly wood veneer. I'll post updates as I get them but my work here is done so I hand it off to Bobby for re-powering and getting her back on the water.

In other news, I just bought a new car! a 1998 Toyota Corolla. Some dings and dents but a solid engine and a roof rack to boot.

Floored

2010-11-13T22:48:00.003-05:00

The floor is on. I had originally planned to knock it out in one massive layup but I quickly realized that it would be impossible for 1 person and such a complicated part so I ended up breaking it up into 3 pieces. I did the port and starboard side floors up to the ski pole and then the bow floor and battery box in one large layup after laying the bow section. I did the bow section wet with a layer of peel ply but no vacuum bag.

For the last 5 bagged layups (port stringer, starboard stringer, port floor, starboard floor and bow floor) I've been using "peel ply" and "bleeder cloth" which is how it should always be but before I didn't have any. I found some nylon cloth at Walmart, a 10 yard bolt for 5 bucks and a cheap polyester blanket that have been working great. The nylon peels right off the cured epoxy and the blanket soaks up the excess. The vacuum machine has been working great but my bagging skill is a little lacking. I haven't once had a seal good enough that the pump didn't cut on about every minute or so and the last two, the pump just ran all night long.

Tomorrow is my last day working on the ski boat. There are 2 coats of epoxy in the bilge area with white pigment giving it a nice industrial gloss white finish and and my friend has decided to hold off on carpeting the floor until after the engine installation which could be a bit of a dirty job. All that is left now is to drill and fill some mounting holes for the engine mounts, and steering cable attachment and reinstall and rebedd the hull hardware. More pics soon.

The Blob

2010-11-08T21:25:00.002-05:00

I've never worked with expanding foam before so putting in the new flotation foam in the ski-boat today was pretty fun. It took about 2 hours to pour all the foam. I've been ready for it since last week but was waiting for the delivery. During the foam pouring I also installed the new battery box. After the foam hardened (about an hour) I sawed off all the foam muffin top blobs and brought it down to the level of the floor with a Sur-Form tool which worked great but took a little while.

An added bonus today was the 60 degree temps which are a welcome change from last weeks freeze. This may be Asheville's last warm week before winter. It was SNOWING on Saturday for crying out loud. What a great break that this week in particular is going to be warm. Tomorrow I'll start laying down the 18oz roving for the new fiberglass floor.

Carbon Canoe Paddle continues

2010-11-04T21:13:00.004-04:00

A long time ago I started building a carbon fiber canoe paddle. Not from scratch but a copy of a ZRE carbon paddle. I bought some carbon fiber and some tooling resin from ebay and started with the handle. I made a mold and then a very nice part that broke the mold but came out great. Then I got distracted and put away the project for a while.

Yesterday I started it back up with the paddle blade mold. I laid up the first half of the blade mold using a technique I guess I'll call "moldless mold making". I saw this method, or at least a version of it online. Moldless vacuum bagging where some guys are making a bicycle frame and bagging the parts by suspending them in a frame with bag on either side.

I suspended the paddle in a picture frame which took a couple of tries to get right but with the plastic stretched tight when the vacuum was pulled it stayed wrinkle free and gave a nice smooth surface. The advantage of this method and why I tried so hard to make it work was that I didn't have to mess with making a mold platform or coat the paddle with mold release. After curing, you just peel all the plastic off and presto done! Sure the plastic has some thickness but who cares, I'm not worried about a tenth of a millimeter.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any peel ply or bleeder cloth so I substituted some thin white fabric which soaked up epoxy and clogged my vacuum tube. It was ok, it still worked but I had to leave the pump running and lost about 6 inches of tubing. I also experimented with warming the layup using a blow dryer which gave me an excuse to monitor the temperature with a new toy that I bought myself.

Ski Boat in Final Stages

2010-10-25T21:00:00.002-04:00

The Ski Boat rebuild is going smoothly. The expanding foam and the final round of materials (epoxy and more glass) are on their way from US Composites. Last week I finished the layups on the main stringers using the vacuum press. The starboard one went great but the port one got a little wrinkled on the top and will need to be scraped down and smoothed out. I installed the secondary stringers that section off the side bilge space for the exhaust pipes and I got the new ventilation hoses installed. The old vent hoses were flexible plastic with a spiral wire in them. The new ones are PVC gutter pipe shaped with a heat gun and glued together and sealed with 5200.

The 2 main jobs left are to pour the new expanding flotation foam into the various under floor compartments and then lay down the new floor which will be 2 layers of 18oz woven roving smoothed out with filler and a layer of 3/4 oz glass. This time next week I should be pouring foam and the floor should go in pretty quickly. I hope to have this project wrapped up by next Friday.

Vacuum Pump Project Update

2010-10-23T20:58:00.002-04:00

It's alive. The vacuum pump is fully operational and boy does it suck. Sorry I couldn't help it. I got all the parts in the mail last week and started assembling right away. I originally planned a configuration similar to this one but once the parts were here and I started playing with them I ended up with what I think is a little more user friendly setup with things facing you and the valves right up front.

It took about 4 hours to build the tanks, put the box together and fit all the pieces together and then about an hour to reseal some of the threads with more pipe tape before it would hold a steady vacuum. With the valves closed, she will suck about 22.5 inHg and only drop about an inch overnight. I kind of wish the pump was a little stronger but no issues so far. After a few layups on the ski-boat I brought it home. What is the first thing I did with it? Vacuum bag my leg of course.

A day for Flying

2010-10-20T07:48:00.009-04:00

Last Sunday I had a great opportunity to meet up with an old sailing club friend from school who was in the area and currently in training at Navigation training school in the Air Force base out of florida. He offered to take me up for for a flight at the Hendersonville Airport just 45 min. from Asheville. Naturally I said "HELL YES" and I showed up there about a half hour before he did.

The plane they use down there is the Diamond DA20. It's a small 2 seater and a new one goes for a cool $169,000. The motorcycle of the air I heard one guy at the field say. The plane was fuel'd up and ready to go for us and after doing the preflight another friend and I waited on the ground while Andrew knocked out 3 takeoffs and landings just to warm up and get back up to date with his hours before taking anyone else up. Here is a video of us taking her up. One of the coolest things about the plane is the wonderfully clear and unobstructed canopy bubble.

After my flight, they went up for another flight to do some more navigational type stuff and I wandered over to the Western North Carolina Air Museum which was sitting right next to the strip. What luck! I talked with a guy named Jim Hammond who has been working there a guide and he showed me all the neat and unique planes they had in their hangar. From experimental replicas to aerobatic iniquities to models! If your ever near Hendersonville, the WNC Air Museum is worth a stop. Plus it's free!

Here are some other shots from the day.

Another project?

2010-10-12T23:32:00.004-04:00

Well it's more of a present to me and I realized it would help with my current repair job so I decided to just go ahead and build my own vacuum press system. It's pretty simple and I am following some simple and detailed plans from JoeWoodworker.com for the layout. I'll post some pictures when I get a little farther along (I'm still collecting the parts). I got some of the important bits from VeneerSupplies.com and I am waiting on a pump that I bought off ebay. Here is the basic layout.

I had thought about just going with a cheap-o direct pump to bag bang on bang off design but with just a little more care you get some really nice features. This design incorporates some relatively inexpensive parts to accomplish automatic vacuum regulation using an adjustable vacuum sensor and relieves the strain on the pump at startup with a sub-reservoir and a "mac-valve" (basically solenoid valve) after startup to suck air from the main reservoir and vacuum bag. Although Joe Woodworker's "vacuum press" is aimed at woodworkers for laminating veneers and such, I'll be using it mainly for bagged composite projects. I'm interested in trying my hand at a technique called resin infusion. Oh and did I mention, I've ALWAYS wanted one of these.

New battery box

2010-10-08T09:05:00.005-04:00

I spent most of the day (last thursday) building the new battery box for the bow. The new box is made of fiberglass molded over a plastic battery box I found in the garage which was previously used as a liner for the original battery box. I laid it up on a flat surface to give it a flange which will be glued under the floor panel to give the battery cover a lip to sit on so the panel sits flush with the floor.

New Stringers for an old boat

2010-10-06T09:32:00.007-04:00

Two short days of work and the new main and secondary stringers are cut to shape and fitted in the hull. Also cut out are the plywood floor panel that supports the drivers seat and the bilge bulkhead. Today, I finally got that ski pole out with a lot of cursing and just a little help from a sledge hammer and a pry bar. I buttered up the hull for the stringers and got them bedded in some thickened epoxy but ran out of cabosil so i'll have to wait to do the filleting.

Floor panel with bilge bulkhead visible underneath

New stringers and floor panel dry fitted

Main stringer with relief for engine mount and limber hole

So what are you doing?

2010-09-30T17:02:00.008-04:00

I have been getting asked this a lot lately by friends and family. I am currently living in beautiful Asheville, NC with my wonderful girlfriend Taylor and doing what else... working on a boat. No, not my boat this time but a friends boat for hire. I'm rebuilding the innards of a 78' Correct Craft ski boat. This isn't a how to since there are plenty of those out there. Just some pictures and comments of progress to give me something else to do. If all goes to plan, I will be moving out to Vandemere, NC in early November to... you guessed it, work on boats with boat designer Graham Brynes of B and B yacht designs. Until then I'm getting my fill of fiberglass.

Here are a couple of shots of the inside of the boat after a couple of days work. The engine and fuel tank were removed for a rebuild before I got started. This is after the fiberglass floor was cut away and much of the original insulation foam was removed. There was a lot of water retained in the old foam and the main stringers had suffered pretty severe water damage over their life. Ski boats (and many fiberglass boats with wood structures) built around this time all seem to suffer water damage or rot due to water intrusion through screw holes or poor factory fiberglass work. Many rotten spots were the result of single screw holes that penetrated the thick fiberglass.

This picture is after about 5 easy days of work and a lot of grinding and sanding of the old fiberglass structure surrounding the original stringers. The leftover "walls" of glass were just sanded and ramped to accept the new stringers which will also make locating where they should go very easy. The pole in the middle is the ski pole which has been stubborn to remove thus far. The other floor bumps in the bottom left are the water intake and the prop shaft tube.

Today I got a bunch of epoxy, wood and fiberglass so tomorrow I will begin shaping the replacement stringers that will be glassed in soon enough. I'll also be pouring in new polyethylene expanding foam and laying down a new fiberglass floor before this project is over. I'm told that the engine is getting the "full treatment" so when this boat is all done, she should be ready for another 32 years of water-skiing.

Home sweet home

2010-08-20T05:25:00.007-04:00

We're back. With our Australian adventure over it's quite a shock being back at home. Being in Chapel Hill at my house is pretty surreal.

I last left you in Brisbane with a flat tire so here are the highlights. We fixed the flat with the spare which was also nearly bald but it made it to Sydney. We got the hell out of Dodge (Brisbane) that afternoon with plans to either just drive through the night to Sydney or find somewhere to camp. Around 1am we pulled off at a rest stop that our ozcamp source claimed offered free "camping." We didn't see any signs opposed so we thew down the tent and got some rest. It was our last night in the tent. In the morning we packed up and finally got around to something we had been planning for a while. The burying of our "time machine" which is really just a time capsule that we made with junk from the boat and our respective piles of shit from moving off the boat. Pamphlets, score cards, maps, change, bottle caps, and tons of other odds and ends are now 6 feet under in the middle of nowhere in a plastic container for us to go dig up in 30 years. Will took down the GPS coordinates with his i-phone. Good luck little time machine.

We made it to Sydney around 11am WOOHOO we made it. We thanked the car and told it that it was free to break down, fall apart, or seize up now that it has performed it's duty. We found our hostel and got checked in and even managed to find parking for an hour or so. The hostel was nice but the first order of business was to get rid of our car. Don't get me wrong, I can't say enough about how great she was but with 1 day left in Australia I was more than ready to wash my hands of the old clunker.

The saga of THE CAR with all the licensing, rego, and ownership baloney is quite a story in itself so i'll keep it to the short version.... That evening we sold the car to a guy named Steve from Sydney for his little brother Adam to learn stick on.We did our absolute best not to seem desperate to sell, but he pretty much stole it from us. We got $325.00 AUD for the car all told. Considering that we put in 700 for the car, 20 for oil, and about 275 in gas all said and done we made out pretty damn well i'd say especially since we freed ourselves of the car the day we arrived leaving us all of tomorrow to explore the city. Thanks car.

Tuesday. Our last day in Australia. So what do two sailors do when they only have 1 day in Sydney, Australia you might ask? Go to the Maritime Museum of course!

The Australian National Maritime Museum is so far the best I have ever been to. My favorite exhibit would have to be the HMB Endeavor. This flawless replica of Captain Jame Cook's famous ship was parked center stage on the warf. I tried to soak it in as much as possible. We also got to talk to one of the full time crew members who is getting ready for the upcoming circumnavigation of Australia on the famous ship.

We were also just in time to see Plastiki tied up at the museum. This catamaran made entirely of plastic bottles and recycled plastic (except for the masts) was on display after having just ended its 130 day crossing of the pacific via Hawaii around the same time as us.

With our day coming to a close, we hopped on the harbor ferry and got a ride out to see the opera house. I was quite impressed by the speed and efficiency of the Sydney harbor ferries which are all catamarans. Our last stop was in honor of the sailors who came before us. A trip out to "the Rocks" to the first pub to be given a license to sell alcohol in Sydney in 1828 and the ONLY pub of the original few to attain this license that is still in business, Fortune of War. Quite a bit of sailing history in there.

That night we made the most of our last hours in Australia by heading out with some others from the hostel to "Pirate Night" at a local pub with free drinks for those who dressed like pirates and free champagne for girls or guys who dressed like girls. We chose pirates, ARGHHH.

The following morning we successfully made it (with our bags, passports and wallets) onto the airport shuttle to the Sydney airport. Shortly thereafter, I began a 36 hour blurr of airport terminals, cramped seats, airplane blankets, and bags of pretzels which included missing my connection flight in LA and having to wait around in a jet lagged haze for 8 hours to catch the next one. At that point, any flight was a red-eye. But I made it mostly unscathed and with all my belongings to RDU airport Thursday morning to be greeted by my parents.

What a ride.

Sydney or Bust...

2010-08-14T05:33:00.018-04:00

We have made it to the Gold Coast but with just three days left including today were going to start booking it down to Sydney so we are sure to see the city a little. This morning I lightened the load a little also by selling my scuba tanks and scuba gear that I had been lugging around to a guy here. Also, for a little excitement, this morning we noticed we have a flat tire which we have to change out before leaving. Yesterday we thought we heard a little bump bump bump in our ride and this morning revealed that the back tire was totally bald and wore right through leaking out completely overnight. The adventure continues. For brevity's sake, here are some of the highlights of the last six days....

On Monday, realizing at 2pm that there was a red dress hash run on the Sunshine coast that started at 6:15. We ran to the salvation army, bought some red dresses and drove 4 hours straight there to participate. We were fortunate to meet Dave there 'Skunk' who graciously offered to put us up for the night at his apartment AND in the morning gave us a grand tour of Moloolaba beach and pretty much the entire sunshine coast. Afterwards, he helped us break into the car to retrieve the car keys that were left on the passenger seat. oops. We had a great time enjoying the company of the Noosa and Sunshine Coast hash groups and raising money for a local cancer hospital to boot! The photo at left is courtesy of the Noosa hash group website.

Tuesday, afternoon we picked up some fish and chips form a fresh fish market on the water in Maloolaba (delicious) and later stopped into an info booth where we found a pamphlet with 2 free camping spots we weren't aware of. Did I mention it was raining. Yes, our stay with Dave coincided wonderfully with the first rain we have had while camping. But Tuesday night we were on our own and heading out of town we stopped to check out the free camping rest stop. We arrived in drizzle and found a picnic table shelter which our tent just perfectly fit under. Around midnight i awoke to hear someone blowing up an air mattress and they set up right beside our tent and we were happy to share the shelter.

In the morning we met Murray, a local Brisbanian who has been travelling recently out of his car (like us) and is planning a trip to the US and asked us many questions about hiking trails such as the Appalachian trail and places out west generally revealing how badly we know the geography of our own country. Hope to work on that when i get back some time. He gave us some great tips on what to see in Brisbane as well as some places to camp. He told us about the Ekka, a huge state fair that was going on this week, and recommended we drive out to Mt. Glorious.

Wednesday we had a day at the Australia Zoo. Founded by Steve Irwin's dad in 1972, the zoo was celebrating its 40th year and Steve Irwin and the Irwin family is a big deal in the zoo to put it lightly. Posters of Steve, Bindi, Terry and even a bronze statue of the family adorn the park. We really enjoyed the Koalas, the Tiger show, feeding the elephants, petting Kangaroos, and watching a huge crocodile get fed by a very scared looking "trainer" in a giant fenced in ring called the Crocoseum. After the zoo we picked up some chow in Beerwah, Steve Irwin's home town, before returning to the same free camp spot and another night in the dry shelter with Murray.

In the morning, Murray suggested that we climb Mt. Tibrogargan and offered to be our guide so to speak as he has climbed it dozens of times. We got there early and climbed to the top which looks daunting on the way up but in the end wasn't all that bad despite a few bouldering sessions and rock faces along the way. The view of the Glass House Mountains (named by none other than Captain Cook) from the top was well worth it.

After the climb we parted ways but not before we tasted some Vegemite that Murray had in his car. We had been wanting to try it but didn't want to to spring for a whole jar. We drove down into Brisbane and found ourselves getting chewed up by one way streets, traffic light, and bustling city centers. Finally we pulled into a parking spot and took some deep breaths. We payed for an hour and walked around the botanical gardens (really more of a large park) and decided to try and make the Brisbane Thirsty Hash run that evening at 6pm. For 17 dollars we got to run with the hash (about 5k on the road) and enjoy some good company around a campfire in the hosts backyard as well as all the lamb curry and rice we could eat. They even sent us home with 3 trays of it.

At the hash we met Waga Rod, (real name Rod). This guy was 65 years old, from Australia, and in September him and his wife are travelling to the US so that he can participate in the Double Decathalon (thats 20 track and field events in 2 days) at the 2010 Ultra Muli Events World Championship in Lynchburg, Virgina. Needless to say this guy was in shape and blew right past us on the hash run (before beer, in case you were wondering). After the run he got word that our plan that evening was to drive out toward Mt. Glorious and camp "somewhere". "THATS BULLSHIT!" Rod exclaimed. "Your coming home with me!", "Your in my country, you'll do what I say!". To which we replied, "yes SIR".

We stayed up Rod and his wife talking about our travels and Will was an endless source of information for them being a DC local. Their US tour will include, Washington DC, Lynchburg, VA (of course), New York, Niagara Falls, and Vegas. Will gave them the low down on the cheap air fare into DC and what to do in the city. We are so greatfull for their hospitality and wish Rod all the best in Virginia.

Friday Morning we drove up to Mt. Glorious and discovered not too surprisingly that that it is indeed appropriately named. Beautiful views, winding mountain roads and thick forest resembled a drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina except that they are only 20 minutes drive away from Brisbane City Center!

We went back into the heart of Brisbane and found a cheap hostel with free parking and a free shuttle to the train station. We got tickets for the Ekka and spent the rest of the day wandering around the maze of rides, food stands, cattle, sheep, and various judging events. The Ekka's is all about "bringing the bush to the city" and cattle, sheep, and horses are a large part of the event. Our favorites included the Wood chop competition, Monster Truck, Precision driving demonstration, dirt bike jumping in the arena, and the fireworks display. Also of note... a corndog in Australia is called a dagwood dog and tastes about the same...delicious! and cotton candy is called Fairy Floss. Whatever.

On Saturday, we checked out of the Hostel but were able to leave our car there and went to check out the Queensland Museum (which is FREE). The coolest exhibit, i had while camping. But Tuesdayloor almost hidden amongst other museumy things still boxed up waiting to be put on display. It's called the 'Investigator Tree' this tree (now just a trunk) is on display because of what is carved into it. Namely the words 'INVESTIGATOR' and 'BEAGLE 1841'. This Investigator was an Australian survey ship which, in 1801, traveled along the coast of Australia under the command of Matthew Flinders. He carved the ships name into this very trunk! But thats not all. The Beagle of course is the famous ship which carried Charles Darwin across the Pacific and to the Galapagos where his famed work on evolution has it's beginnings. In 1841 however, the Beagle had already done this and Captain Fitzroy was off governing New Zealand or something. Whickam and Stokes were in command for the survey mission of Australia on the Beagle for it's third trip out and they added their vessel's name to the great tree. Also on the tree were found..."a large number of other names, including some dating from A.C. Gregory's North Australian Expedition in 1856, and some from the Burke and Wills Search Expedition under William Landsborough in 1861". It is debatable if the carvings seen today are the original ones. Likely, they have been re-carved to preserve but it's still freaking cool nonetheless as far as I'm concerned. You can read more about it here: The Investigator Tree.

After the Museum we got our internet fix a the Brisbane Library before heading back to the hostel and getting out of dodge. We found lodging in a hostel on the Gold Coast at Surfers Paradise but were not staying here long as we still have about 900km to cover to get to Sydney. Time to go change a tire.

The Promised Land...for Campers

2010-08-08T22:05:00.007-04:00

Aug. 8^th Sunday. We were on the road by 9am and filled up the tank in the morning. Our milage has been about 17.4 kilometers/Liter which works out to right around 40mph. Not too shabby. We detoured about 55k to Agnes Waters and the Town of 1770 situated on Round Hill just East of Miriam Vale.

The Town of 1770 is the historical site of Captain Cooks second landing in Australia and his first ever landing in Queensland. Bustard Bay, so named because Cook shot and ate a Bustard Bird there and claimed it the best meal he had had since leaving England, is a maze of sand bars with a large tidal range. We found a concrete and stone monument to Cook on Round Hill with a plaque. My parents gave me a book before leaving for the Pacific called “Blue Lattitudes,"by Tony Horwitz in which the author, a self proclaimed, Cook aficionado travels to many of the places that Cook made landfall across the pacific including in Australia and fills his chapters with personal accounts as well as interesting journal excerpts from Cooks personal journal while painting a picture of what a bad ass Cook really was. It was very interesting following the book as we sailed across stopping in many of the same islands (Tahiti, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, and now Australia) and being in many of the same places where Cook made landfall for the first time, sometimes as the first European ever to visit! Very mind blowing.

A sign indicating beach access drew us to the water and after checking out the surf (there wasn't much) Will was keen on getting out the recently aquired boogy board and taking it for a spin. The water was pretty cold and I wasn’t much interested in donning the wetsuit for some small fry waves but Will was gung ho. We’re looking forward to some bigger waves on the Sunshine Coast in a few days however.

It was a bumpy road to Bundaberg and entering the town the first thing we saw was none other than an AVIATION MUSEUM! What are the odds. The museum, called the “Hinkler Hall of Aviation”, is dedicated to Bert Hinkler who grew up in Bundaberg and is famous in Australia for his solo nonstop flights back in the early days of aviation. The museum is actually a state of the art facility just opened in 2008 with all manner of flight simulators, interactive touch screens and theatres. That’s what the nice lady at the counter told us at least. It was 25 bucks a person and they were closing in a half hour so we asked about campsites in the area instead. Oh well.

We were told about a great free campsite called “Sharon Gorge” just outside of Bundaberg on the way to Gin Gin. We were surprised when she said it was free with bathrooms and water. Maybe we’re missing something here. Hmmm

On the way out of town we got our pictures with Bundaberg’s Giant Barrel and Bundaberg Rum Bottle at the Bundaberg Rum Distillery (too late in the day for a rum tour). We filled up on gas and found FREE WIFI! at a shell station which kept us until dark checking email and downloading more maps. We planned to return in the morning to update the blog. Traveling in a “Land Boat” does not solve the internet problem it seems. Wifi is still something we have to hunt out and we never know where our next “fix” will come from.

We made it to Shannon Nature park and low and behold a wonderful sign greeted us “Free 24 hour Camping”…”Overnight Stays ONLY” we had found the promised land!!! Were there other places like this we wondered?

Another cold night followed…BUT…. Having only two fleece blankets and a pillow to my name for sleeping, this time I went all out. Fleece pants, jeans, long sleeve fleece shirt, t-shirt, fleece jacket, socks and shoes ON. Fleece hat check. I had wetsuit booties with me but they were a little damp. But I did have my foulie pants and jacket. They were thick and WARM and I slept in them all night. I wrapped my feet in a blanket and used the other over top of me. Success, no cold feet and a warm night. Australia seems to have almost no atmosphere since as soon as the sun goes down the temperature plummets and in the morning at soon as it comes up it’s back to a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops.

In the morning we rolled over to upload posts (like this one) and made a major leap in camping technology with the discovery of a website called OZcamp that has a downloadable GPS coordinate file of all the free campsites in Australia!!! We are now equipped with over 300 free campsites within our grasp. No more sketchy nights at highway pull offs for us we hope.

Crab Sangas?

2010-08-08T21:59:00.003-04:00

Aug. 7^th Saturday. If your wondering why we haven’t been killed yet, well you’re not alone, we wonder the same thing on an almost hourly basis. Australia is so far the wildest and awesomest place I’ve been in my travels and what a great way to end my trip before coming home. The odds are certainly against us. The worlds top 10 deadly snakes, poisonous spiders, salt water crocs, driving on the wrong side of the road, highway roundabouts, kangaroo strikes, and nothing but our tiny car to get us across hundreds of miles of scorched grassland and dried out floodways.

Our current hypothesis is that it is our combined experience and skills that have given us an above average “survivability rating” here in Australia’s unforgiving outback. Will is one of the most easily distracted and forgetful people I have ever met. However, with his I-phone (when he isn’t looking for it) he is nearly invincible in most normal places and combined with his friendly nature, he has been successful in communicating with the locals who have been very helpful and sociable. With my outdoor skills and mechanical know how I have been successful in keeping our old car running (knock on wood) and keeping Will on the right, that is…correct side of the road. Having been cooped up in a tiny boat for days on end with nothing to see but water we have had no trouble adapting to living out of our “Land Boat” for a couple of weeks. Driving down the road in Australia with new towns popping up in front of us every couple of hours is still a great novelty.

We passed through Mackay and continued along a coastal road to "The Caves" and a sign on the side of the road advertising Crab Sangas. Well, we had to figure out what that was and check out the caves if possible so we stopped. While Will went to unlock the crabby mystery I stood in awe at the worlds largest crab pot...until proven otherwise. It turns out that a Crab Sanga (pronounced Zanga, with an Aussy accent) is a crab sandwich with about a full kilo of fresh crab meat with just enough bread to keep it from falling apart. Delicious. While the pictures of the Capricorn Caves looked interesting, we decided we saw enough of them in the excellent cave history section and got back on the road headed for Rockhampton.

The town of Rockhampton or "Rocky" as it is called had tons to do. Luckily we stopped at an information office. There was an electric tram museum, a free zoo and botanical gardens, various historical sites, shopping malls, a huge swap meet going on at the fairgrounds, and OH YEAH the Tropic of Capricorn! We headed for the swap meet first. I thought we might find a cheap car stereo (which we were lacking) and Will was looking for possibly a flashlight. At the gate we learned that it was 4 dollars a person and I was ready to say forget it. We decided to flip a coin. Heads we go in. Heads it was. In we went. It was a good experience and we left with a FREE radio and...a boogy board. Yes thats right we have a boogy board now. Must be fate.

Afterward, we hit up the free zoo and managed to arrive in time to watch a trainer feed two chimpanzees (aged 38 and 40) a bowl of yogurt, which they ate with their spoons, and a juice box (which they call poppers here) which they drank WITH THE STRAW! very impressive. We saw kangaroos, an Emu, Dingos, Lorakeets, Alligators and Koalas. We even got to pet a Koala. Over the Bruce Highway they have installed what they call Fauna Bridges over the road that connect sections of forest specifically designed for tree dwelling animals to be able to cross the road without coming down from the trees! Now that's cool. There are rumors of large snakes hiding in the rope bridges waiting for an easy meal but we suspect cars do a lot more damage.

On our way out of town we stopped at the monument indicating the location of the intersection of the Tropic of Capricorn for a photo. Back on the road, we saw a sign for camping and pulled off at what looked like a regular gas station. To our surprise however, there was an RV camping area behind the building with toilets and shower facilities to boot. We went inside and got a key to the showers and paid 12 dollars for a place to set up the tent for the night. Is this the answer to the camping problem, seems like a pretty good deal...the saga continues. We cooked up some pasta for dinner and got some sleep.

Sign Sign, Everywhere a Sign…

2010-08-08T21:55:00.001-04:00

One thing we can’t help but notice is the incredible Australian road signage. While Australians might have some of the most wild outback around, they certainly don’t beat around the bush when it comes to driver safety at least where signs are concerned. Signs like…”No seatbelt, No Chance”…”Pull over if sleepy”…”Tired Drivers Die”...”Pull over Mate, your eyes are shot”…and…”Driver Fatigue Crash Zone, next 15 kilometers” line the monotonous highway though dry grasslands and creek beds. Rest stops are designed for just that. We figured that any official who didn’t like us camping at a rest stop couldn’t argue with us too much if we told them we had stopped to sleep because we were too tired to drive.

Australians also seem to love to put up signs indicating warnings or things that you can’t do in an area. Warning, Crocodiles live in these waters. Caution, Cassowaries utilize this land. Keep out of water, Marine stingers present. One sign we saw warned about box jellyfish and gave simple instructions on what to do with a victim of a sting and reassuring you that most victims recover and that you should not stop resuscitation after calling for medical help. Well that’s reassuring!

Miles to go before I sleep…

2010-08-08T21:52:00.000-04:00

Aug. 6^th Friday. After filling up we detoured out to Mission Beach. This was recommended to us as one of the best beaches so naturally we decided to have a look. It is also one of the best places to spot a wild Cassowary as the land behind it is a protected sanctuary for the large indigenous flightless bird. We have yet to spot one.

We got there and both agreed that it was indeed a very very nice beach and also that we weren’t really interested in swimming or sunbathing so we moved on. We also realized that we have seen some of the nicest beaches the world has to offer by now and perhaps we will maybe pass up the next one. From beach to mountain town all in spitting distance is pretty much how the next few hundreds miles went. We traveled down the Bruce Highway though floodway roads that are regularly underwater in the rainy season. There are even meter sticks on the side of the road to indicate to drivers how deep the water is over the road! Those snorkels sticking out of peoples hoods aren’t just for show. Realizing that our tiny car is really only useful in these parts for certain months out of the year kind of helps put into perspective how gnarly Australia is. And this is a major highway!

Our next stop was Tully. The town of Tully is a small one situated on a slanting hill (good thing) and adjacent to a large sugar cane factory. Train tracks and small trains for transporting the cane dominate the landscape and we’ve probably driven over at least a hundred rail road crossings. Most of them with signs, watch for trains. Tully is special because it is one of the wettest towns in all of Australia with an average annual rainfall of something like 5 meters. A large fiberglass Gumboot (rubber boot) with a spiral staircase and lookout platform inside was erected outside of town. The tourist trap stands at a whopping 7 meters high which is the height of the highest recorded annual rainfall. On the inside of the boot are photographs of various parts of town under 1, 2, or 3 meters or so of water. Lucky for us, it is August and our stay in Tully was a dry one.

Ingham came into view and we stopped at the Tyto Wetlands information center. A very helpful woman helped us in our search for a nearby national park where we might camp for the night. It was almost noon and the site was quite a ways away. We stood in the wonderfully decorated building with informative exhibits on the flora and fauna of the wetlands all around us and rows and rows of brochures and pamphlets, maps and flyers for all the different activities, nature trails, hiking routes, waterfalls, beaches, mountain climbs, and animal sanctuaries that we could visit. Overloaded with possibilities for how to spend the rest of our day, we had to make a tough decision. In the end we decided to press on toward Townsville and pass up the 55 kilometer detour out West to some waterfall. Some waterfall was in fact Wallaman Falls, the highest waterfall in the southern hemisphere and the 3^rd highest in the word at 305meters, according to its excellent brochure. But the last 18k indicated that a four wheel drive vehicle was recommended. What that really means is that if you want to get there, you had better have 4 wheel drive and not a refrigerator with 4 inches of ground clearance. I told Will that I hope to never have to pass on the 3^rd highest, largest, longest, oldest or any other adjective whatever ever again. I marked Wallaman falls down on the list for my next trip to Australia.

We blasted through Townsville stopping only to admire the sailboats moored in the river and kept on going. One last detour as the sun started going down was to the top of a large hill with a steep drive but an amazing view from the top of farm land as far as the eye could see. 30 miles or more of farm plots with mountains in the far far distance and a view of the pacific to the east. A compass plate at the summit indicated the great circle bearings and distances for various other major world cities or ports.

We finally stopped to use a payphone after we were near where we thought the national park campground was only to find that we were off by about 60 km due to the poor detail on our road map and since we were both pretty tired, we just pulled off at the next “rest stop” to camp. Of course as luck would have it, the one we came across had a large sign. “No camping…No Overnight stays…No Tents…Penalties Apply”. Odd we though considering that signs on the road we had seen tell you to “pull over if sleepy”, and “take a rest and refresh”. Figuring that we were pretty well in the middle of nowhere still 20 k from the next town we pitched our tent anyway, in the dark, way in the back behind some trees. We set the alarm for 5:30am so we could be packed up before first light and went to bed. A cold cold night followed. Our coldest since leaving Cairns in fact but we suffered through the cold and highway noise and managed another free campsite. At least we tried.

Rise and Shine, it’s Move on or a Fine…

2010-08-08T21:23:00.004-04:00

This was the front page headline in the Cairns Post newspaper which greeted us in a small gas station outside of Mission Beach. The article addressed increasing concern for illegal camping in Cairns and noted that it is also a problem in Townsville and Mackay. Ironically the volunteer town council members who have been patrolling the areas frequented by illegal backpacker/campers call themselves the “DAWN PARTOL”. If you don’t know why that is ironic, turn the page and read back into this blog to catch up! They seek out illegally parked campervans and tents and request that sleeping campers move on and inform them that they are breaking the law. While they don’t have the authority to move people on, they seem to help deter repeat offenders according to the article. Also mentioned, police officers are powerless to challenge illegal camping on certain types of land noting that most people are pulled up by the side of the road or in a public car park.

It’s a complicated situation since Australia’s east coast beach towns are currently hurting with low tourist numbers. They don’t want to drive people away but at the same time they don’t want anyone breaking the law. While technically illegal camping can be punished with a fine up to 500 dollars or even vehicle confiscation, Cairn’s council thinks that handing out warnings and notices are the best plan of attack given the large number of offenders. In July they gave out 600 warnings (like the one we got outside of Mossman) mostly to illegal beach campers and 3500 notices have been given out this year alone. Yes there are RV and caravan “camping” parks but many times they are full up. Anyway, college aged German, French, and even American backpackers/campers would more likely eat road-kill than pay 25-30 bucks a night on such lodging.

Public opinion is divided, some say that due to the tourist slump, backpacking visitors travelling on the cheap should be allowed to camp in public as long as they are in a safe place and are not an eyesore with cloths lines hanging up and such. Others see it as an untapped source of revenue and suggest a nominal fee for sleeping in a parking lot in a campervan in the heart of Cairns and other cities. Seems to me that a little planning by the cities and some friendly looking, “cheap tent camping for backpackers” sign would be a big hit and help draw visitors in to see some of the local tourist attractions. It takes some work to find the tent camping sites and phone in a reservation but we are at least doing our best to obey the law and camp in designated areas.

Enter the Great Greenway...

2010-08-08T20:27:00.002-04:00

Aug 5^th, Thursday. We got a late start today from Cairns after a rough night out at the pub with our friend Alan Witt who just flew in to join up with Eye of the World. As the saying goes, a sailor would sooner part with his life than with his grog, and despite being jetlagged a whole day and a half Alan was still up for all you can drink happy hour.

While recovering from Cairns nightlife Will downloaded some useful maps onto his I-phone which has proven to be an invaluable tool for adventuring. It serves as a GPS, internet device, calculator, dictionary, atlas, compass, the list goes on. It’s kind of like the electronic version of a Swiss army knife. As we left Cairns, finally headed north, we slowly made our way away from the rainforest, the wet tropics region, and into miles and miles of sugar cane fields and low lying floodways.

We passed through Gordonvale and Babinda, an RV “friendly” town which they boast on a large sign, and then on to Innisfail. We picked up some fresh foods and cheap sausages for dinner there as well as some fuel. It was getting late so we took a side road to Etty Bay that advertized camping. We found an RV park full up (this seems to be a common trend) beside a great swimming bay with jellyfish nets for the peak season. While it looked like a nice place, we weren’t going to be able to sleep there. We moved on up the road about 5k and found a “rest stop.” Although close to the road, it had some trees and grass next to a creek and a bridge and although it was pretty noisy with trucks driving overhead there was not a single no camping sign to be found. We cooked dinner on the provided pick nick tables and had an uneventful albeit noisy rest for the night in the tent beside the car. Another free campsite in the books and well on our way down the “Great Greenway”, from Cairns to Townsville.

Daintree Rainforest and Beyond

2010-08-04T21:37:00.001-04:00

Aug. 3rd. We were back on the road by 8am and headed into the Daintree Rainforest. It was around this time that we started to realize what a ridiculously small car we were travelling in. Almost every other car on the road here is a large land cruiser 4wd vehicle with a snorkel for traversing rivers, 2 spare tires, 4 spare jugs of fuel, a heavy duty car jack, a winch, “roo bar” on the bumper for deflecting the various road crossing marsupials, a shovel, and various other useful emergency equipment tied to the roof. We on the other hand have to be very very careful when driving over the 4 inch high speed humps on the paved road. Despite our off road deficiencies, we did manage to drive as far north from Cairns as is possible in a 2wd vehicle. Right up to where the paved road ends and 100km of dirt road, which is impassible during the rainy season, leading to Cooktown begins.

We booked our campsite over the phone. It was the last one available which we hope is a sign of good luck to come. Around 11am we pulled into the Discovery Center and stepped into (literally) the Daintree rainforest. The Discovery center is celebrating its 21^st year of teaching people about the Australian rainforest. It features a “rainforest skywalk” which takes you through the forest about 30 ft off the ground and then up a tower to the very tops of the trees.

After exploring, we made it to the campground with time to spare for cooking up dinner before it got dark. The National Park campground is as basic as they come but at least we didn’t have to worry about someone telling us NO CAMPING.

On the Road, Headed North?

2010-08-04T21:20:00.003-04:00

We decided to go up North to check out the rain forest before heading south on our way to Sydney. After stopping at the grocery for some food we left Cairns headed north with no real plan other than that we were going to camp somewhere for the night and preferably not pay anything. We filled up at a gas station (passing by a BP) and checked the oil (she needed some) and coolant and topped off the tire pressure. We were surprised to see that the air compressor at the gas station was not only FREE but filled your tires automatically up to whatever pressure you punch into the LCD screen on the front of the machine. Very cool. It took a little while to figure out highway roundabouts and fortunately for us, keep left, signs are plastered everywhere. We stopped at a campground RV Park but at 13 dollars per person per night we decided to move along. We made it to Mossman around 7pm and stopped to look for the flashlight we had bought since it was dark but we had lost it. A guy working at a coin laundry place looked at our car and said, "Couldn't have found a smaller one could you?" to which I replied, "we really tried, but no". I asked him about a real cheap campground in the area and he asked if I had read the local paper lately.

Apparently the stereotypical young car campers are the bane of Australia's east coast small towns and communities hold meetings where citizens complain about them. He told us however about a rest stop area with toilets and picnic tables about a 1 km down the road over a bridge that he figured we could just throw up our tent in. He had a very serious look on his face when he warned us not to go near the river due to crocodiles. When we got there, there were about 4 other camper vans (Volkswagen type) already parked and a sign indicating no tents allowed. We decided that it was a good bed and it was already dark so if we got up early enough we shouldn't have a problem. While cooking dinner (sausages and onions with garlic bread and pasta and chicken for tomorrow's drive) a police car drove through the park and said a friendly "hello" to us and didn't stop. We took this to be a good sign but wondered if they were just checking for tents. In any case, we had an uneventful sleep until around 5am when a garbage truck rumbled through about 6 feet...sorry, i mean about 2 meters, away from the tent and woke us up wondering where the swat team was to haul us away.

We were up by 6:30 and put away the tent post haste just in time for a town council "patrol" van to drive through and speak to all the campers in the park. "Did you sleep here last night?", he asked, "Yes" I replied. "But we didn't have a tent, we saw the sign" I said with a perfectly straight face. He handed me a piece of paper detailing the rules of the the park which was basically NO CAMPING and took down our license plate, my name and license number. He wasn't authorized to give tickets and I probably could have refused to show my license but I figured that just humoring him for whatever he wanted save for money would help out the next guys he comes across and we're never going to be here again. He was very friendly and offered me a list of RV parks that we could stay at. After he spoke to the other "campers" (who were not using tents, sleeping in their vans) I asked him about cheaper camping like "tent camping" that was free and he recommended a national park on Noah's beach which we ended up staying in that night.

Many young car/van backpackers/campers we have met have been met with similar warnings about camping. They fill up the parking lots but aren't technically "allowed" to sleep in their cars and must use window shades to avoid giving probable cause that someone is sleeping in the vehicle. It seems that cheap tent camping is hard to come by and must be booked in advance over the phone. Other differences are that fires seem to be generally disallowed in all parks and amenities are very basic with just a toilet and no shower house in the "tent camping" campgrounds.

It's not the SIZE that matters...it's how you USE IT

2010-08-04T21:19:00.002-04:00

Aug. 1st. We made an offer of 700 and there she was. Our nice, old, brand new car. We figured that we would at least: See more of Australia this way and somehow, we rationalized that this would be cheaper than staying in hostels and buying a plane ticket to Sydney. At least we agreed it would be more of an adventure. Trying not to jinx ourselves we found each other wondering "what's the worst that could happen". Since the acquisition of a car we have felt a great sense of freedom to go do whatever it is we want to do on no particular schedule and in no rush. As long as we make it to Sydney before our plane takes off everything will by groovy. As they say here... No Worries!

Our new car is a 1985 Honda CityPro2. Its about as long as a refrigerator and just big enough for the two of us to sit. It's a purely practical transportation machine, as cheap as they come. She has a bad CV joint that makes a loud popping clicking noise whenever we make a hard turn but we figure, most of our driving will be straight ahead to Sydney so NO WORRIES! However, we knock on wood quite often.

We've named our beloved vehicle Babe (after the pig in the movie) because every time we make it over a hill we found ourselves praising the car for not breaking. Then Will said, "That'll do car"...That'll do Babe...Babe it is. For 700 bucks, if the doors fall off when we get there (knock on wood) it will still all be worth it.

Terra Firma

2010-08-04T21:02:00.004-04:00

I Herby revive this blog.

My last post was from Virgina before heading on a journey that took me south and across the very large pacific ocean. Yes the plan was to go all the way around but shit happens. I'm in Australia, I bought a very small car with my friend Will, and we're headed down to Sydney from Cairns to catch a flight back to the US. But until then, we hope to experience some of this wild country. So far we're doing pretty good...knock on wood.

This is a fish we saw on the dock when we arrived. Even if I didn't know there were man eating crocodiles EVERYWHERE here this alone might keep me out of the water.

Bon Voyage

2009-10-21T08:42:00.006-04:00

To the five people who still look here to see if there is anything new. I am hereby putting this blog into extended hibernation and instead would like to direct anyone to the Eye Of The World Website on which there will be forthcoming interesting updates and much more regular and exiting posts. I am going forth into the world to explore, trying to keep the the world from shrinking too much.

All play and no work

2009-05-29T08:59:00.016-04:00

I expect posts on this blog to come more infrequently (I know they already do) with the summer approaching and EYE gaining momentum so I'll just recap and announce.

Firstly, I graduated. Finally. It took long enough but just in time for life changing events. and new things. Everyone asks me what I'm going to do now and I love seeing their faces when I say, "Oh well actually i'm going sailing around the world". I still don't think I fully grasp what that is but people sure seem impressed. Currently upon returning the plan is to continue studying all things boating specifically wooden boats. I would like a degree in naval architecture eventually but mostly just want to work on and sail boats. I know I already have one trip around the world on my plate but I also would like to sail around the world in a boat that I built. I think that is just something I need to do.

There is already a ton of post Tybee blab out there so I won't add mine in depth but I will say that this years Tybee 500 was a great one and with more boats than I've ever seen at the race. Trey and I gave our best showing ever in the race and were really happy with the results. No major breakdowns or injuries on the entire team velocity team (all 7 boats of it) so what more can you ask for. Thanks to Wizard and CrazyRussian who greatfully lent their epirbs to the team velocity cause.

Just days after Tybee it was back to work on the William T. Piquette. Our 40 foot Rhodes Reliant sailboat. Adam and I drove up to work on the boat last Wed. and did just that through most of memorial day. It was a very sucessful session and the boat is getting closer and closer to float day.Be sure to see the Eye of the World website for the very latest news and and details from last week.

We are adding features to the website every day and beginning to really structure the educational program. Eye will be participating in many upcoming events in the next few months which will be announced on the website so come out and hang out with eye crew. Also, don't forget to donate if you can. $25 bucks gets you a really nice T-shirt!

So what about now? I'm getting ready to head off to Virginia for the summer. I'll be working at the Bayport boy scout reservation with the CHASE (Chesapeake Bay High Adventure Sailing Experience) program up there teaching boy scouts how to sail larger boats (30-35' range) for 7 weeks. Fellow EYE crewmemeber Adam Domanski worked for this program for a couple of years and he tipped me off to it. When thats over, it's off to Hawaii for a couple of weeks to see family and then back to VA to really get eye of the world out the door.

Hot links this week

2009-05-09T16:16:00.010-04:00

Countdown to the Tybee 500. First leg starts Monday. We have an incredible 23 race boats signed up for this years Tybee 500 a record number. I thought I would help out those that cannot be there in person. Get the most out of your vicarious online adventure by following the race this week on the following sites.

Tybee500.com - Official race rules and notices will be posted here as well as periodic updates about the race.

Sailing Anarchy.com - Another must read with info about race results and cool articles.

Twitter.com/tybee500 - Check for the latest tweats.

velocitysailing.com - Race updates as they pertain to team velocity will be posted here. Check out the team site for skipper and crew bios and the latest from velocity sailing.

topofusion.com/tracker-tybee.php - topo fusion has agreed to provide real time race tracking via personal SPOT mesengers. Those boats that have SPOT messengers will show up on the tracker page during the race. In addition, you can follow TVS1 (my boat) by going HERE (SPOT share page), but you won't see other boats.

Team Seacats.com - You can't forget to read up on the Team Sea Cats blog. They will surely have some of the most up to date info out there about all the teams. A must read.

Catsailor.com - Just drop in on "general discussion" and find the appropriate Tybee thread that is sure to have some coverage.

More team blogs...

Team Pirates of the Chesapeake - team blog.

Team Adrenaline- team blog.

Team Chums - team blog.

And of course, don't forget to check out the NORSA blog and the EYE of the World Blog regularly!!!

Eye of the World Launches Website

2009-04-27T15:12:00.004-04:00

I would like to announce the launching of the new EYEOTW website where you will find a plethora of information about the educational program, where were headed, what we need and how you can help. Please send comments and suggestions to "alan.stewart (at) eyeotw.org".

In other news:

School is winding down. The senior design project that has been consuming my life for the last year is finally winding down. Click here to see a video of our senior design aircraft launching and flying. Search youtube for "ncsu optikos" for more vids.

Last weekend Taylor, Adam and spent the weekend at the Shakori hills Bluegrass festival in Chatham county, NC. Check the NORSA blog for the writeup.

Shamrock Half Marathon

2009-03-24T20:03:00.011-04:00

This weekend marked another NORSA event attended by members Anna, Bethan, Julie, Taylor, Adam and I. The 2009 Shamrock marathon and half marathon was held this last sunday. Great weather and great friends mad this years trip another sucess.

Monday we visited the Mariners Museum in Newport News, VA home of the USS Monitor Center and the ACTUAL turret recovered from the Monitor Ironclad. It was very impressive.

The Tybee 500 is fast approaching. Stay tuned for updates on the Team Velocity website and on Sailing Anarchy.

Where are they now?

2009-03-07T13:34:00.004-05:00

The old Team RAF Wa'apas made an apperance today as they needed to be reloacted from where they have been stored for the last year or so. So where are they now? still in Raleigh, now living at Matt's house near campus. The hulls are sitting at Chris's house but word has it that they need to move soon too.

Time has taken it's toll on the parts since their debut and last apperance on the water at the 2007 Everglades Challenge where they carried Team RAF to a 3rd place finish in their class.

Yes, the 07 EC was the last time the boats were assembled. Yes we have talked about putting them back together but it never materializes. Yes they are for sale but to be honest the hulls need some serious patching from delaminatin. Anyone out there want a pair of project boats???

The housepaint has held up very well, the amas are almost as if they were glassed yesterday. Still very light and stiff. The crossbeams are unchanged and the sails have some mild mildewing that could be taken out with some bleach.

Yes, time has taken it's toll on the watertribe boats of Team RAF but thats not the point. These boats were built with the energy of a team with the will to suceed and they were designed for one purpose and one purpose only. To finish the EC....and so they did. Time may have taken it's toll on these boats but time has little effect on the will and pasison of the adventurers spirit. Even as you read this, watertibers infused with the adventurers spirit have gathered once again to challenge their boats, the weather and themselves in the Everglades Challenge.

Follow along on watertribe.com or on the spot tracker page of Sandybottom. (Go mom!)

GO DO IT!!

Frostbite camping in Linville Gorge

2009-01-22T21:34:00.005-05:00

Last weekend 9 intrepid souls embarked on another great adventure to Linville Gorge in western NC. A camping trip to be sure but so much more. With temperatures below freezing during a majority of the trip it was also a test of ones love for the outdoors. We survived so I guess we pass.

We drove west early Saturday morning stopping in Greensboro to pick up Adam and Cheng on the way to Linville Gorge (south entrance). In all, Dan, Mary, Matt, Chris, Will, Cheng, Adam, Taylor and I were among the select few who aggreed to freeze their own butts off in the mountains with a high chance of snow!

We entered on old N 105 and drove up the West ridge to the entrance of Rock Jock Wilderness where we began a 45 min treck to the edge of the ridge where we happened upon a campsite that we decided to call home. From there we pitched tents (well some of us) and left for a day hike south along the ridge. We came across an awesome frozen overhang with ice cicles all over the place. After some ice cicle sword fighting we we returned to the campsite for some dinner. Since it was below freezing we promptly snuggled into our warm sleeping bags and managed to stay toasty warm all night.

In the morning, we had a great breakfast of pancakes. Dan and Mary made sausage and biscuits while Matt, Chris and Will managed to pour what non frozen portion of their dozen eggs they had into a plastic bag with cheese and sausage for some big bag omlettes. After a short hike out we continued north along the ridge to linville falls where we hiked in to see the frozen falls and some of the lookouts.

Stopping at IHOP on the way home made for some great reflection of our trip and we were all in very good spirits on the drive home. We made it back Sunday late afternoon. Thanks to Dan, Matt and Adam for their parts in making the trip happen.

LOOKOUT! .... sailing trip

2009-01-06T20:44:00.005-05:00

Many changes since my last post of adventure but sailing, fun having and exiting adventure with friends remains as a theme. The weekend before last my lovely girlfriend and I grabbed the Core sound 20 Dawn Patrol and headed for the coast for a weekend of sailing and adventure around the shores of Lookout lighthouse.

We arrived friday afternoon to a dying breeze but unseasonably warm weather and rowed out of Taylor Creek in Beaufort, NC bound for Shackleford banks to find a campsite for the night. We arrived after dark after being picked up by an evening wind. We set up camp as it began to drizzle and roasted some brauts for dinner over a driftwood fire. In the morning we were trapped until about 9am due to a rain storm that swept over us from the south but it soon passed and we made our way south east past Harkers island through Back Sound and toward Barden Inlet.

We arrived at Lookout Lighthouse after the wind built to steady 15knots but the current was with us and it was an easy sail in shallow waters for the Core Sound 20. We exlpored the lightouse which was closed for renovations and ate lunch at the lightkeepers museum which was also closed for the winter. We also walked over to the ocean side of Lookout Bight and enjoyed a perfectly clear 65 degree day of sunshine. We shoved off to explore further into the bay and stopped to check out some shell covered beach before crossing to the far end of the bay to find a camp site.

Here is the photographic trip report taken with the trusty Optio W20.

We had the whole beach to ourselves and explored all around the peninsula which was covered in flat packed sand and sea grass. Very desolate and beautiful. Macaroni and cheese for dinner and a HUGE campsite all to ourselves was awesome and without a single cloud in the sky it was a perfect night for stargazing. I woke up around 2am to get a shot of the boat beached in the middle of low tide. But in the morning it was bobbing right next to the beach not 20 feet from the dunes. We made pancakes and hot chocolate for breakfast and packed everything away ready for another day of great sailing and exploration.

Our clear night didn't come cheap however and the morning also greeted us with a cooler wind shift from the North and gray clouds. We had the boat all packed up just as the rain hit and we watied for a break to shove off back through the inlet.

The rain POURED as we battled up the inlet in steady 18knots but with the incoming tide we were fully reefed and having great fun but eventually the cold and wet soaked us through and with no sign of letting up at all that day or even afternoon we decided to call it a day and headed back to Beaufort to warm up. After we packed up and warmed up we had fun cruising the waterfront looking at boats and we spent an hour or two in the Maratime Museum in Beaufort. We decided to head home after the museum and to a nice warm bed having explored for the better part of 3 days.

Iron Furnace Canoe Expedition

2008-09-17T13:15:00.004-04:00

Last Sat. we took a break from school work to go canoeing. Thanks to Dan for supplying the canoes and organizing the trip. We paddle/floated down 5.8 miles of the deep river in NC and stopped along the way to visit the Endor Iron Furnace, a civil war era relic that was used to produce cannonball for the confederate army. Here is the trip video, enjoy.

More Ironman Pictures

2008-09-09T16:54:00.000-04:00

Enjoy!

You are an Ironman

2008-09-03T17:09:00.008-04:00

We did it. Team Norsa members Adam Domanski and Alan Stewart...You are Ironmen. I am finally able to post due to some computer problems. Here goes.

We left for Louisville around 1pm on Thursday and arrived to the friendly greeting of David Wicks also known as PaddleMaker on watertirbe and a multiple time EC finisher. He graciously offered his basement to 5 crazy college studnets. Thanks for everything David. Our party consisted of Adam and myself, my girlfriend Taylor, fellow EOTW crew member Anna Blount and Julie who flew out to Louisville on Sat. Both Adam's and my parents and sister also made it out to the race to cheer us on.

Thursday:
Before we left Raleigh we created the first official "NORSA Mobile". It was a great success and Team Norsa rode in style all weekend.

Master painter Taylor applies tape to the NORSA Mobile

Go TEAM NORSA

Friday:
We spent friday checking in at the Galt House Hotel signing our lives away and receiving our race bags and information packets. We couldn't help but notice that there was not nearly as much swag as we thought there would be for the athletes but we took advantage of what was there and Taylor and Anna took full advantage of the large magic markers and made some beautiful signs to cheer us on. Afterward we walked the streets of downtown and spent some time at the world-fest just a few blocks down with live music and beer. Later we walked down to the swim finish and took a look at the transition area before heading back to the hotel to attend one of the pre-race briefings which was very informative but also somewhat intimidating. There was definatety no turning back.

A side note: while driving around on friday and saturday we enjoyed watching the serious looking racers running or biking around obviously getting in that one last ride or whatever. We especially enjoyed yelling out the window..."SAVE IT FOR SUNDAY!!"

Later Friday night we readied our official Team Norsa Jerseys and also managed to get in a night paddle on the creek just behind Davids house. Anna, Taylor and Adam piled into the multiple EC finishing Pygmy triple kayak that David built and David and I paddled single kayaks. We went about 3 miles total down the river navigating around logs and trees and spiders and had a great time. I'll bet we were the only Ironman competitors that went paddling that night.

OOOooo free sign making!

Horaay for world-fests

T-E-A-M N-O-R-S-A

Tadaaaa

Saturday:
We slept in and then drove over the transition area in the great lawn to drop off our bikes at the mandatory bike drop off and gear bag check in. We were not able to get to our gear bags after this so we had to be ready the day before. After dropping off our bikes and gear we went back to the galt house to pick up a few more signs for Julie and ourselves and then it was off to the airport to pick Julie up.

With a few hours to kill we drove the 12 mile run loop through downtown and then North around LaGrange around the bike out and back and along the LaGrange loop just so we knew what we were in for. We came to the somewhat useless conclusion that this was going to be hard.

Later we finally met up with my parents and sister and Adam's parents at Carrabas and had a great pre-race meal and got to bed around 10ish.

Sunday:
Race Day!
Up at 4:30am. Adam and I redied our final special food bags and donned our swimsuits. We piled in the Norsa Mobile and headed to the Transitions area to pump up the tires and turn in our special needs bags. My parents where there watching which was awesome. We walked to the swim start (about 15 min away), went to the bathroom and waited in line for the elietes to start. Then the groupers. And there we were shuffling toward the end of the dock. There was definately no turning back now. Ironman Louisville is the only Ironman so far to use time tirals starting for the swim as oposed to a mass start. This made the swim infinately less crowded and even enjoyable. A side note is that the finish times don't account for your actual start time so you have to subtract the offset from the final time.

Getting our heads in the game. Waiting in line for the time trials start.

The swim went by very fast. I was out of the water just ahead of Adam but he was out of T1 before me and I never even saw him until around mile 20 of the bike when I led him for about 15 min. I didn't see him again until the first our and back of the run. I felt good throughout the bike except for a little twinge in my knee that went away after a few miles and didn't bother me again.
I kept reminding myself to focus on nutrition and downed goos and powerbars like it was my job. I met my goal bike time of around 7 hours. averaging about 16mph. Adam was about 20 min ahead at T2.

Coming into T2.

The run was shit hard. First was over the bridge in to Indiana and back. I was glad to have a heart rate monitor on as it warned me on several occasions to back the *%$# off in the first 3 or 4 miles with a loud beep beep beep. I listened. It was very hot. about 93 degrees and the best thing in the world was ice cold sponges squeezed all over me. I put sponges under my hat and stuffed ice cubes in my armpits at every aid station for the first 5 miles until I felt ok.

Adam begins the run...walk...run

Alan begins the run...walk....run.

We both ran/walked the marathon. I walked through every aid station and sometimes then some. But I never walked competely from one to the next. I saw adam on the first out and back and again on the second out and back. I felt the best on the marathon in the last 5 miles when I knew it was almost over and I KNEW I was going to make it. Having a massive fan club there cheering us on was easily the best part of the whole race.

Adam Domanski...You are an Ironman

Alan Stewart...You are an Ironman

Goals:
Finish...check
Finish without injury...check
Finish somwhere around 14 hours...close enough...check

Stats:
Alan's Stats
Adam's Stats

Post Race:
Having everyone there at the finish line was amazing. Knowing that you didn't let them down and everyone cheering you one and yelling for you was incredible. After I got out of the finish zone I felt a little weird and said "i think I'll feel better if I go throw up now" and then I did. Into a trash can. Yeah it was hard core. They took me to the medical tent where I proceeded to feel ok and then not so good again and finally was given an IV and took an hour long nap. When I woke up I felt 100 times better and ended up staying with the rents that night in the hotel while Adam, Julie, Taylor and Anna went back to David's place. Monday was a day of driving and recounitng tales on the course. And tuesday we proudly wore our finishers t-shirts for all to see.

Meee-Owwww

2008-08-20T13:06:00.003-04:00

Here she is. Hope it makes you as happy as it makes us.

More EYE progress on the Rhodes Reliant

2008-08-18T08:58:00.006-04:00

A week of hard work on the boat by the EYE crew has left everyone satisfied that much had been accomplished. In addition to getting the V-berth and main cabin freshly painted the aft cabin, engine compartment and aft storage lockers are all de-greased, scraped and ready for some epoxy paint. With Anna back from China, she was able to hang out with Adam and Ian and I all week and it was the first time that all 4 of us were able to work on the boat at one time. We decided not to hold back when it came to the paint colors and while we left some of the nicer hardwood and brightwork in the cabin unpainted, much of the veneer we decided to brighten up. In the end the V berth became yellow and green and the main cabin a cheery orange and blue with a yellow accent wall! Adam and I put the first coats of color on on friday and after a few minutes once we had a few walls done we just stopped and started laughing for a long time. We decided that that was the reaction that we were shooting for so i think our paint scheme was a success. Photos of the new paint job are on the way. Here are some pics from the week.

In other news, Adam and I managed to get a long ride and a long run in this week in between boat work and also went for a swim at a local pool. We are both still going strong and are very exited. 13 days left.

Weekend of Racing Rafting and Fun

2008-08-03T20:21:00.009-04:00

Veteran NORSA members Adam Domanski and Alan Stewart along with Brian Stynes and his girlfriend Julie (now also a NORSA member) returned Sunday evening from an awesome evening of racing, paddling, camping and hiking in the beautiful NC mountains.

Friday evening the crew left Chapel hill after picking up Brian and Julie and headed west to Canton, NC. Arriving late we pitched our tents in the back of the parking lot of the race venue for the 2008 Lake Logan Triathlon (Olympic distance) that Adam and myself were competing in the next morning. We awoke very early to music playing and parking cars slowly creeping toward our makeshift campsite. By the time the cars filled the lot, Adam and I were headed to the check-in after scarfing down a few honey buns. The race start was at 7:00am and we were all ready to go and waiting by the lake with time to spare.

The race went without a hitch for both Adam and myself which was a relief since this was our last planned tri before Ironman Louisville. I saw Adam at T1 about 1 min behind me and then he was right behind me on the bike in the beginning which caused me to pedal faster. On the run I saw him again right after the turnaround at the 3 mile mark which caused me to run faster. We finished almost exactly 1 min apart and both feeling really strong. I finished in 2:39:01 and Adam in 2:40:09. Full results here. Everyone said that Lake Logan was a great venue and we definately agree.

We didn't hang around long after the race and had planned to drive further west on sun and run the Nantahala river on sunday but we were feeling really good so we decided to just go for it and were on the river by 2pm on Saturday. Adam had his ww kayak and Brian and Julie and I rented duckies. We took our time down the river stopping and playing wherever possible.

Saturday night we camped on a dirt road near the put in and in the morning left with plans to check out Mt. Mitchell state park on the way home. On the way we ran into a road block on the blue ridge parkway so we stopped at a picnic area and hiked up a trail called craggy pinnacle to a small meadow summit. Lots of butterflies and blueberries kept us pretty busy.

Another successful weekend in the outdoors. Tomorrow begins the last week of summer camp for me and countdown to Ironman Louisville is T-miunus 28 days.

Ramping up

2008-07-29T00:07:00.002-04:00

Back in full swing now after having my wisdom teeth taken out just days ago. Yeah it sucked. I still have some holes in the back of my mouth but that can't keep me from training. Running yesterday and biking to work today and all felt good. Just a few weeks to go.

This weekend is the Lake Logan Olympic Triathlon in Canton, NC. Adam and I are both signed up for this one. This will be out last "shakedown" tri before Ironman.

Excitement...yes
Anticipation...yes
healthy respect for the human condition....definitely
fear...NEVER!

Lazy Weekend

2008-07-19T10:12:00.003-04:00

This weekend is a lazy one for me since I got sick on friday and missed work. I'm home and probably going sailing on Saturday with the fam. Last weekend, Adam and I were back to the grind in VA. See the EOTW site (in IE) for more details but we managed to wrangle the old engine out ourselves and save a couple hundred bucks on travel lift fees.

Friday night we also found an unopened blackberry pie while dumpster diving as well as some bagels and rolls that someone had thrown out. We then stumbled across one of those mobile beer trailers in the parking lot that was being used for some club function during the day. There were even cups. Needless to say, a pie fight ensued, we filled up on questionable bread that passed the smell test and we continued to enjoy free beer courtesy of crown pointe marina for the rest of the weekend.

In all seriousness, we got a lot of work done and are very exited about getting the boat back in shape. The next big work week on the boat is scheduled for Aug. 9-17. Feel free to come help out!!

Catching my breath

2008-07-08T20:51:00.005-04:00

So, lets catch up. There are 8 weeks to go till Louisville. Since my last update plenty has happened so I'll try to give the highlights.

Adam and I took a weekend trip up to Frisland later in June and met up with Graham who agreed to survey the boat with us and inspect the damage done to the boat when we were hit by a motor yacht on the trip up the coast. This has since been resolved and owner of the other boat has settled with us. Here are pics from that weekend. We are headed back up this coming weekend for more fun work including replacing a bulkhead in the bilge and more scraping and cleaning prep-work for painting and also engine removal.

The weekend before last Trey and I headed up to Kerr lake for the annual Governors Cup Regatta with the Carolina Sailing Club. I talked my dad into taking the CS20 up to the regatta and he and Ken Potts sailed together on Saturday (the first day of racing) and had a lot of fun. Trey and I sailed the I-20 in open multi with one other I-20 (a friend from raleigh and Trey's roommate from Australia, Brad). Here are pics from both sides.
Kens Photos are here

This weekend Trey and Jen and I were up in New Jersey for the annual Statue of Liberty Regatta. We were defending champions from last year but the wind did not cooperate this time and when it was clear that no one would make it back until well after dark and we saw people starting to pull out and head home we did the same. It went like this....
Trey: how fast are we going
Alan: 6.5 konts
Trey: whats our VMG?
Alan: 0.7 knots
Trey: this will take forever!
Alan: yeah and thats 0.7 knots backwards by the way.
Trey: oh
Needless to say there was no wind and a ripping current under the Verrazano narrows. Not to mention barges, ferrys, dead things and giant logs floating the water all of which we didn't really want to be around when the sun went down. Still a great party though and we sailed out of sandy hook to watch a great fireworks show on Fri. night.

Adam and I are still on the path to the gold for Louisville. I ride to my summer camp job almost every day and we have been recently involved more regularly in the local hashing group the Sir Walter Raleigh's Hash House Harriers which also turned us on to a local open water swim group that swims every wed. on Jordan lake. Many of the regular hashers are also tri-athletes and competitive runners in the triangle. So we have started attending their swims regularly and also did another OWS on Sunday after a day of sailing on the CS20 with my dad. Now don't waste your breath, we know Hashing is not usually considered to be "Ironman Training", but.....well frankly we disagree and find it to be excellent training so to each his own. ON-ON

Also! if you are not following Mike's progress then you must check out his blog clockwork O. He and two others are currently on an epic bike ride across the country. Last update has them in Wild Horses, CO. Mike's girlfriend Alice has been updating his blog with their progress and is donig an AWESOME job.

I will try to be better about updating the blog this month. To the 8 people still reading, please bother me with emails and messages to remind me to post.

Summer begins

2008-06-13T15:19:00.003-04:00

I signed up to be a counselor at Camp Ranoca, a city affiliated summer day camp, just as school ended and have been herded through the various training sessions required by the city for the last 3 weeks. Monday kicks off the start of the 8 week day camp that is based in Umstead and Durant Nature Parks in Raleigh. Camp was an obvious choice for a summer job since I needed to stay in Raleigh to continue Ironman training (11wks to go) and it beats lifeguarding or working indoors. Plus I can ride my bike to work (about 17 miles round trip). I worked at a summer day camp in Chapel Hill for years after going there as a camper myself and was even the director one year so I know the game. No doubt in my mind that working with kids is appropriate Ironman training in itself.

Wednesday, Adam and I made a second trip in 2 weeks to the Bonsal train station just south of Jordan Lake and a good 55-65 mile (depending on if you get lost the first time) ride for our "Long Rides" for the week. We are averaging about 17 mph with stops which I think is pretty indicative of what our actual race pace will be. Running is going steady with no knee problems to report. Wishing I had a stronger base but what can you do except use what you got. I have definately improved since the shamrock 1/2 marathon. Swimming is going swimmingly. Tues. was another long swim (~2miles) and a recovery swim yesterday after the long ride. Overall feeling good. A little sore today and SLEEPING A LOT lately all of which I hope are signs of getting faster and stronger. My goals thus far with 11 weeks to go are to finish injury free and, if I pace myself successfully, maybe even run/jog the whole marathon.

Frisland is out of the water as of last week and Adam and I are still on for a trip up to Crown Point Marina next friday to begin work. Ian has been making friends with other sailors at the marina who are also on the hard and all have been admiring our boat. A special celebrity appearance on Sunday is also planned as Graham Brynes of B and B yachts has agreed to come up and survey the boat with us as well as help us a little with the in's and out's of cruising and all that other stuff that only a true salty dog knows and only a guy as nice as Graham would tell us newbies. We are looking forward to spending time with him on the boat. Thats all for now. Off to the gym.

Kerr Lake Try....

2008-06-04T08:25:00.003-04:00

Last weekend I successfully completed my first triathlon, an Olympic distance, at Kerr lake. It was a small one with just over 300 participants in all. I came in 113 out of 188 men overall and 7th out of 9 in my age group with a total time of 2:47:56. Here are the male age group results.

My breakdown was as follows and the averages for my age group.
Swim: 30:37 (avg time- 28:20)
T1: 3:04
Bike: 1:13:46 (avg time- 1:10)
Run: 1:00:31 (avg time- 55:30)

As you can see, I was just slightly below average in all cases but I am getting faster every day. I averaged just over 18mph on the bike and felt strong on the swim. I had the second slowest T1 in my age group so thats something to work on but I'm not really racing anyone but myself and for Ironman, it will be worth the extra time to get comfortable. I also passed a lot of bonkers in the last mile and a half of the run when I felt really strong having held back in the beginning not knowing my limits completely which paid off I think.

Training continues for the Louisville Ironman in Aug. Just 12 weeks left!!!!

What now you ask

2008-05-30T22:21:00.005-04:00

To pick up where the story left off, Adam and I successfully sailed Frisland up the Alligator river leaving Bellhaven at O-gawd-hundred and picked up Alan Witt and Andrew just north of the Alligator River Bridge (which is on channel 13 not 9 by the way) late Saturday afternoon. Then after crossing the Albermarle Saturday night we continued our way up and arrived in Coinjock Sunday before noon. Continuing into the Pungo river area we motor sailed up the windy river and navigated the numerous bridges and even went through the Great Bridge Lock that dropped us down a somewhat disappointing 12inches.

On the home stretch to Hampton we got an up close and personal look at the VA waterfront industry before sailing past Portsmouth and Norfolk and the Theodore Roosevelt Norfolk Naval Station. After crossing Hampton Roads we pulled into a slip right next to the Hampton Marina Hotel, settled her in and hit the local bar for some drinks. We also met up with Adam's girflfriend Julie here who would accompany us on the final stretch to Crown Point.

Alan and Andrew departed here and we really enjoyed having them on board to help us with the journey. Adam, Julie and I shoved off around 6am and with Julie still sleeping, we hoisted sail over the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. We bore off North with a south wind and Julie awoke to be handed the wheel while Adam and I set the spinnaker which we happily flew with the favored wind. I conked out around this point in the quarter berth and woke to Adam's voice on the walkie talkie next to me telling me to fire up old faithful so we could pinch it up past a channel marker that we over stood. I asked where we were and like magic Crown Point was dead ahead and we pulled in within minutes. What a nap. Upon arriving, we began the task of unloading EVERYTHING from the boat in preparation for the hauling. After all was removed she had lost a full 6 or 7 inches on her draft. It took two heaping truckloads to transport it all to Ian's garage.

Tuesday was spent at Ian's Dad's place on the York river doing some wake boarding and wed. morning I sorted all the stuff in the garage cataloging stuff we are keeping and other stuff for sale. Adam and I made it back to Raleigh late Wed night.

In case I have not mentioned yet, Frisland is the boat that Adam and Ian recently purchased and that will be home for Adam, Ian, Anna and I on our 3 year circumnavigation that begins in November of 2009. The project is called EYE (Expedition in Youth Education) and was developed by Adam and his friends while at William and Mary. Time changes things and the original crew of 8 or 9 has been paired down to just 4 but the goals are the same. To circumnavigate and connect with schools in the US in a pen pal type relationship hopefully utilizing technology to allow us to produce monthly documentaries of our travels as well as update blogs and send emails.

A month of sailing

2008-05-23T00:15:00.003-04:00

Well, its been a while since I have done much more than sail up the east coast. This month I have sailed from Key Largo, FL to Tybee island, GA then I hopped aboard Frisland in Beaufort, SC with Adam and Ian who left from Fort Lauderdale the weekend prior.

Tomorrow I am headed back out to Belhaven where we left the boat on Tuesday and will be completing the move to Crown Point Marina in Virgina. Where we will haul the boat for the summer. Pictures can be found on the NORSA blog. I'll be sure to fill in all the details upon my return.

Tybee Carnage

2008-05-12T22:29:00.002-04:00

Alan called in today to check on the status of Frisland, but he also had some Tybee 500 updates.

So after Day 1 of the 2008 Tybee 500 Team Velocity was sitting in 3rd place. After Day 2 they had fallen back in the standings, but still within an hour of the leader. The major catastrophe for the day occurred when Captain Trey fell off the boat and broke the rudder linkage, so Alan had to grab the rudders, one in each hand, and go recover Trey from the chop. And to top it all off this was caught on video from a helicopter!

I'll keep an eye out for the video and put it up here...it sounds like a blockbuster.

Rolex Video

2008-05-03T15:48:00.004-04:00

Training for Ironman continues. Tybee approaches. Exams are almost over. The summer is on its way. Parents are in Cedar Key this weekend for the Boat meet with the CS20 and my mom will finally get to try out HER boat.

In other news, my awesome crew Hudson made this sweet video with footage from the Rolex Regatta. Take a look.

Training

2008-04-21T10:54:00.003-04:00

Training is in full swing for the to-be Ironmaner's for the upcoming Louisville Ironman in August. Last weekend we did a 116 miler to Virgilina. This weekend, Mike and I drove over to Chapel Hill to ride with Sandybottom and her friend Kim Ring and we did a nice 43mile ride around Jordan lake averaging a cool 15mph. Yesterday I got in a mile at the pool before a thunderstorm rolled over Raleigh. With 20 weeks left to go, it is training "prime time".

In other news, good luck to NORSA member Julie Brockman who is running in the Boston Marathon RIGHT NOW and her support crew, namely Adam Domanski.

Welcome to Virgilina

2008-04-14T18:28:00.004-04:00

Team NORSA rides again. Adam has the report on the Team NORSA Blog. Also check out Tim's Pics.

"On Sunday, April 13th, NORSA cyclists Alan Stewart, Mike Rhodes, Tim Josey, and Adam Domanski successfully completed the epic Raleigh to Virgilina, VA road ride - a 116 mile trip from central North Carolina, north to the Virginia border town of Virgilina, and back.

NORSA had attempted the trip back in December but was hampered by 40 degree temperatures and cold rain. The cyclists made it only halfway to Virgilina and turned back at the town of Stem, NC. Virgilina remained in their sights however; and April 13th proved to be the day when the weather and everyone's schedules cooperated.", and Adam said it best,

"The only disappointment from the trip was for Alan and Adam, who experienced a painful revelation of exactly how far the Louisville Ironman will be."

Here are some GREAT pictures.

The Tybee Approaches

2008-04-10T15:31:00.005-04:00

The Tybee 500 is nearly upon Trey and I once again. We have liquidated used parts from Trey's Garage in hopes of scraping together some extra cash and have been calling in all of our sponsors for help with the hotels, gas and boat expenses this year. We have some great sponsors this year including Dry Inc. that will be donating dry-shits, T-shirts and team collared shirts. Very nice. McLube has given us some hot new product to try out on the hull. WilderGFX is back with us again this year as is Atlantic Boat and Supply and FRE Robline. Also with us is Murrays who also helped my Dad and I with some hardware on Dawn Patrol for the EC. Even with all that it is still a great challenge to keep funding in the green and we are busting our butts. Anyone near the eastern shore of florida or SC should not hesitate to come out to the finish or Start of one of the legs. Here are some shots from the Tybee last year. Can't wait.

International Rolex Regatta 2008

2008-04-01T11:03:00.007-04:00

Back from the International Rolex Regatta in St. Thomas and back to the grind. Trey and I flew down to the virgin islands to participate in this cool race for the second time. This time, Trey raced with another sailor friend of ours John Casey an experienced cat sailor and multiple year winner of the Tybee 500 in past years. They raced on a 22 foot Supercat catamaran with a modified "tall rig". I raced with our sponsors son Hudson on a Hobie 16. Here we are on the second day of racing.

Friday was very rough and very windy. Seas 5-7 feet and winds gusting to the high 20s. Hudson and I made to the start of the first race, a 13 mile distance race, but about 15 min. in a gust pitch-poled us and we went straight into turtle (completely upside down) where we promptly lost a rudder pin to the deep. With one rudder, we righted the boat and headed in by necessity. It was a good call and many other beachcats had also headed in that day.

Trey and JC on the suffered worse luck. They were cut off by a cruising trimaran just after the start and with F18s above and below them at the downwind start, pitch-poled badly. They tore their jib and lost their mast rotator. Nonetheless they completed the first race but retired from the second unable to sail to windward effectively without the jib that had to be taken down. With an 18 boat fleet of beachcats. We were both taken out of contention on the first day. Oh well.

Here Trey and JC after getting their Jib repaired and finally getting somewhere on the last day of racing.

On Saturday, I got in 2 races with rock star crew, Hudson before we flipped in a downwind mark rounding and had trouble righting the boat with water in our mast. We retired after a long struggle to get back upright. Trey and JC blew out a second jib this day on the first race and went in for repairs but did not come back out.

Sunday, Hudson was recovering from some burned legs from trapeezing all day and I crewed for another friend of ours, Mark Chong on his I-20. We did alright but mostly just had fun. Trey and JC had more problems when their wire Jib halyard blew up on them on the last upwind leg. Sigh.

We took Sunday evening off and went down to a small public beach bay for some food and swimming. I had a snorkel and goggles with me so I went exploring. I saw Trey an JC entering the water and right as I was yelling to warn them about the HUGE sea urchins I had seen there....you guessed it. JC ended up with 19 urchins spines in his heel. OUCH. We couldn't hardly believe the bad luck we had had. But by now we could only just laugh at it. Except for JC who was in pain and not laughing that much.

It was hard to feel beaten too long though. We had beautiful weather and the water is crystal clear. Overall we all had a great time even though the race did not exactly go as planned.

Thanks to Eric Tillet and Alan Friedman from the BUZZ radio station for the great time again and making it all possible. Thanks to everyone who helped us while we were down there.

I'm still working on my write up for the EC but it IS coming along. Right now my focus is school, with sponsorship for the upcoming Tybee on the side.

Spring Fever 2008

2008-03-24T17:52:00.002-04:00

Back from Spring Fever 2008, Team NC State had a respectable showing this year bringing 4 boats to the line. Trey and I made out with 3rd place this year. There was a 3 point spread for 1st 2nd and 3rd in the I-20 class this year so it was very close racing. Once again Spring Fever proved to be one of the best regattas of the season and I think also the largest catamaran regatta in the south east. Here are some pics but there are more on the way from the on-the-water photographer.

Team Velocity is headed to St. Thomas this weekend for our second International Rolex Regatta. Trey is sailing with past Tybee 500 and Altercup champion John Casey on an bigger go fast catamaran while I will be living the good life sailing a hobie 16 with our sponsors son. Should be a fun time.

Shamrock Marathon/Half Spectacular

2008-03-17T10:20:00.014-04:00

I am working on a trip report for the EC (unlike last year) with pictures like my mom is doing so look for that in the near future. But in the meantime...

Team NORSA just returned from the annual Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach, VA. NORSA members Adam Domanski, Alan Stewart and Bethan Haaga participated in the event and Julie Brockman, Adam's girlfriend who wasn't able to register in time was official team cheerleader, nurse, driver and all around helpful person. Adam and Bethan both completed the Full Marathon in 3:58:04 and 4:08:46 respectively and I finished the half marathon in 2:14:59. For not training near as much as I should have I finished mostly injury free, able to walk (the next day too) and feeling great despite being in the back of the pack for my age, who's counting.

On Friday after classes Adam and I drove up to Richmond to meet up with Julie at her place and spend the night. Julie cooked up some Portobello mushroom, grilled chicken dinner amazingness and we went out to a bar with Andrew, another of Adams college friends before getting a good nights sleep. On the way up, Adam and I spent a lot of time talking about "our circumnavigation" and Saturday morning we were doing some casual research on budgets for circumnavigations and general big boat cruising. Warning, digression ahead.

Adam and 7 or 8 friends of his planned a 3 year circumnavigation a year or so ago scheduled for departure on November 2nd of 2009. The whole endeavor is based around a project backed by the Mariner's museum in Newport News, VA and is called "EYE of the world... an expedition in youth education". The basic idea is that this group would sail around hitting about 84 cities around the world in just over 3 years while in communication with schools in the US who could track their progress, send them e-mails, and during their journey, learn about other countries economy, history, religion, and even help map out the sailors route that they take. They came up with the idea and since then some of the original members have had life changes (job, family) that make the trip... less feasible. In short, Adam and his good friend Ian Harris are the only ones currently 100% a go on the project informally searching for a 3rd or 4th member with experience and commitment. Adam had told me about the project in the past but only recently was it more of a reality that I might be able to participate. Needless to say, I am... shall we say DOWN. I will graduate in May of 2009 and then... do it! At least that is my current plan. I am getting up to speed on the project and will be helping to secure funding through sponsorship and Adam may have found us a blue water 37 footer that has the potential to be donated to the cause. We shall see. Anyway, back to the weekend.

Saturday around noon, the three of us drove to Newport News to meet up with Ian who we would be staying with that night. Ian is in the military and soon to be out of the service and works as a chaplain's assistant on base. We drove into VA beach and dropped Ian off for a couple of hours on base and went to pick up our event packets as the VA beach convention center. There we found Bethan, another of Adam's school friends from the William and Mary days and we got our packets and explored the various novel products that race sponsors had in the following expo at the center. Back at Ian's we ordered pizzas and rocked out with some Rock Band.

The Half marathon start was at 7am followed by the full at 8. We woke up at 4:30 and were walking to the line around 6:30. We took shelter in a 7-11 next to the start with about 100 other runners. It was blowing about 10mph steady and in the low 50s but it didn't rain on us thankfully. During the run, I ran into a bunch of friends who had also come up from state for the race and I ran with them for about half the distance. After finishing, I met back up with them and we hung out in the finishers tent with hot soup, bananas, water, a live band and lots of beer. We all watched Adam and Bethan finish and not soon after, Ian and Alan (a different Alan) and his wife? (also college buddies of Adams) came down to hang out with us in the tent. Ian and them were waiting for Adam around mile 21 to..."cheer him on" which actually meant having a food fight with him with a lot of relish. yes relish. When he crossed the finish line we thought he had vomed on himself and thought, what a weenie until he reached down, grabbed some off his shirt and ate it. EEEWWW. No it's ok guys, its just relish. Apparently they wanted him to "relish" in his accomplishments of the day.

Although exhausted, we were surprisingly upbeat. Adam flew a kite that he had brought and the band was great so much dancing was done as well. I think I will be known as "wet suit dancing guy" next year at the race. After a while we decided that it was time to go boogie boarding in the ocean and I donned the rest of the wet suit that I had brought, Adam put on Julie's shorty and my balaclava and Ian had a wet suit as well. Ian took one for the team and bought us a boogie board thanks Ian. We sprinted into the water and were there for about 30 seconds. I got an almost instant cold headache like I had just downed an entire frozen slushy. We thought it must have been in the low 40s. I looked it up and found all reports say it was 53 but I'm not convinced. We did manage to get in a couple of good waves though. The surf was pretty big. Our 5 minute swim was plenty and returned to the warmth of the tent and packed up to hit the road but not before Adam and Ian had a good healthy beer fight mostly soaking each other. I think we were the either the clowns or the highlight of the after race party. Anyway, I think we had the most fun.

We retired to a seafood restaurant for a huge crab leg buffet before cleaning up back at Ian's, saying our goodbyes and getting a move on. We dropped Julie off (she drove back to Richmond) and made it to Raleigh around midnight fully sore and walking like old cripples. Another great trip for the books.

The good stuff

2008-03-11T10:21:00.004-04:00

I have been asked to redirect all of my moms usual readers back to her blog. Shows over so to say.

Back in Raleigh now and thinking hard about the year to come. Chances are that I will have to sit out EC 09 due to my senior design project. And then what? Sailing sabbatical? Naval Architecture masters degree? Which to do first is really the bigger issue. I have found that, just like last year, I am slapped in the face with wanderlust especially where sailing is concerned and it makes it all the more difficult to focus on studying. I am not all removed from sailing however, in the coming weeks, Trey and I will be heading down to St. Thomas for the International Rolex regatta so I will no doubt "get my fix". But even so, stuck at school, you can only get so much of a fix from forums, and the internet especially after you've had the good stuff.

Finished!

2008-03-08T16:06:00.003-05:00

SandyBottom called in just a few minutes ago to happily say that she was in Key Largo and happy to be done. She slept just out from Flamingo (CP3) on Joe Kemp Key, while the rest of the Kruger crew paddled on further. They ended up sleeping in their wonderful Kruger sea canoes. SB caught up to them in the morning for the last push to the finish.

Congrats to everyone in this years Everglades Challenge!

I Think They Can, I Know They Will.

2008-03-08T11:49:00.005-05:00

SOS just called to say that SandyBottom and friends were in Jimmy Channel as of 11:30 today. The winds are fresh and in a favorable direction. The whole crowd should be in Largo before sundown!

Back to Civilization

2008-03-07T13:19:00.004-05:00

Well I just got a call from DWSB saying that he had gotten a call from SB in Flamingo. It sounds like it's been a really rough time of it all, Sb said that it's the worst she's ever been physically in an EC (she is about to get her 5th sharks tooth necklace).

After leaving CP2 Wenesday morning at 9:30 SB and RiverJohn made their way to the Harney River campsite by 3:30AM the next morning. Shortly thereafter Trader & TroutHeart showed up to camp. SB & RJ got about 3 hours of sleep that night and then continued paddling on to CP3. They pulled up for the night at the South Joe River Chickee at 12:30 AM early Friday Morning. They got a well deserved full nights sleep there and made their last push for CP3 at 9:30 this morning (Friday). They made it in to CP3 at 11:50 AM.

Sb said that the winds and tides seemed to be against them all the time so the paddling was relentless. They plan to rest for the remainder of the day, wait out potentially dangerous weather, and then make it to Key Largo early tomorrow. SB and RJ were reunited with Boo, dabiscuit, and ManitouCruiser at CP3 and they are all going to finish together. The winds are supposed to favorable tomorrow, and RiverJohn doesn't have a sail rig. MC agreed to catamaran up and help RJ make the Florida Bay corssing with his Balogh sail rig. They all hope to be in Sunset Cove by mid afternoon at the latest.

SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT

 THIS AFTERNOON
 SOUTHEAST TO SOUTH WINDS NEAR 20 KNOTS.
 BAY WATERS CHOPPY TO ROUGH. ISOLATED SHOWERS.

 TONIGHT
 SOUTH WINDS NEAR 20 KNOTS...SHIFTING WEST LATE.
 BAY WATERS CHOPPY TO ROUGH. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.

 SATURDAY
 SOUTHWEST TO WEST WINDS NEAR 20 KNOTS EARLY...SHIFTING TO
 NORTHWEST AND INCREASING TO 20 TO 25 KNOTS AND GUSTY. BAY WATERS ROUGH.
 SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS IN THE MORNING...THEN SCATTERED
 SHOWERS IN THE AFTERNOON.

 SATURDAY NIGHT
 NORTHWEST TO NORTH WINDS NEAR 20 KNOTS AND GUSTY.
 BAY WATERS ROUGH.


The 2008 Everglades Challenge is wrapping up in good fashion.

Wilderness...Waterway

2008-03-07T02:26:00.002-05:00

Still no direct news from SandyBottom, but I did speak with SOS & DWSB this evening (Thursday) and learned that she and RiverJohn went to the Rangers station in Everglades City so that they could get the permits to go through the Wilderness Waterway (WW). I hope to post more about the waterway in the morning, but for now I'll just say that it brings a special reward to all WaterTribers who complete it in the EC.

I expect the SB will get into CP3 tomorrow seeing as KneadingWater also took the WW and got to CP this evening. He has been running ahead of SB.

Sleepy time!

Where is SandyBottom?

2008-03-06T00:47:00.003-05:00

I haven't heard anything from SandyBottom or any of her expected traveling party. They are all probably in the modern-world dead zone. It also sounds like storms might be rolling through. Eeek! Anyway let's hope for the best for all of the challengers.

We have video

2008-03-05T14:47:00.002-05:00

Checking the You Tube links and found on of SOS & DWSB sailing along. I don't know what is said because the computer I'm using doesn't have speakers, but live action is hard to beat. Enjoy.

Which Way Windy Wild Weather?

2008-03-05T00:27:00.003-05:00

Right now the wind is shifting for the better of all challengers, but it won't last for long. The winds are continuing the shift from South to West and in the next 24 hours it's going to make it all the way up to North. But it looks like they will miss the brake pedal and keep on swinging back to the South; it think I hear a collective grrrrrrrrrr from the WaterTribers. I expet that everyone will put in a good push as soon as they can so that they don't get stuck like so many of them did today. If they don't make it in time now they can still fight the bad winds, and hope to make it to the finish line in time with a last minute shift to the West and North on Saturday/Sunday.

Here is the forecast for the southern Gulf Coast...

TONIGHT

 SOUTHWEST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS BECOMING WEST 5 TO
10 KNOTS AFTER MIDNIGHT. SEAS 2 TO 3 FEET. BAY AND INLAND WATERS A
MODERATE CHOP. CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND SLIGHT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS.

 WEDNESDAY
WEST WINDS 5 TO 10 KNOTS. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. BAY AND
INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND
THUNDERSTORMS.

 WEDNESDAY NIGHT
NORTHWEST WINDS 5 TO 10 KNOTS. SEAS 2 FEET OR
LESS. WEST SWELL 2 FEET. BAY AND INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT
CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

 THURSDAY
NORTH WINDS 5 TO 10 KNOTS. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. BAY AND
INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

 THURSDAY NIGHT
SOUTHEAST WINDS 5 TO 10 KNOTS BECOMING 10 TO
15 KNOTS AFTER MIDNIGHT. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. BAY AND INLAND WATERS
A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

 FRIDAY
SOUTH WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS BECOMING 15 TO 20 KNOTS IN THE
AFTERNOON. SEAS 2 TO 3 FEET. BAY AND INLAND WATERS A MODERATE CHOP.
CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND SLIGHT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS.

 FRIDAY NIGHT
SOUTH WINDS 5 TO 10 KNOTS BECOMING SOUTHWEST 10 TO
15 KNOTS AFTER MIDNIGHT. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. BAY AND INLAND WATERS
A MODERATE CHOP. CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.

 SATURDAY
SOUTHWEST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS BECOMING NORTHWEST 15 TO
20 KNOTS IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. BAY AND INLAND
WATERS A MODERATE CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

 SATURDAY NIGHT
NORTH WINDS 15 TO 20 KNOTS BECOMING 10 TO 15 KNOTS
AFTER MIDNIGHT. SEAS 2 TO 3 FEET. BAY AND INLAND WATERS A MODERATE
CHOP.

 SUNDAY
NORTHEAST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS BECOMING 5 TO 10 KNOTS IN
THE AFTERNOON. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. BAY AND INLAND WATERS A LIGHT
CHOP.

Here is the forecast for the Florida Keys...

OVERNIGHT

 VARIABLE WINDS LESS THAN 10 KNOTS. BAY WATERS SMOOTH TO
A LIGHT CHOP. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS.

 WEDNESDAY
VARIABLE WINDS NEAR 10 KNOTS. BAY WATERS A LIGHT CHOP.
SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS.

 WEDNESDAY NIGHT
VARIABLE WINDS NEAR 10 KNOTS...BECOMING
SOUTHEAST. BAY WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED
THUNDERSTORMS.

 THURSDAY
SOUTHEAST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. BAY WATERS A LIGHT TO
MODERATE CHOP. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS.

 THURSDAY NIGHT
SOUTHEAST TO SOUTH WINDS NEAR 15 KNOTS. BAY WATERS
A MODERATE CHOP. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS.

 FRIDAY
MAINLY SOUTH WINDS NEAR 15 KNOTS. BAY WATERS A MODERATE
CHOP. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS.

 SATURDAY
WINDS BECOMING NORTHWEST AND INCREASING TO 15 TO 20
KNOTS. BAY WATERS BECOMING CHOPPY. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED
THUNDERSTORMS.

 SUNDAY
NORTH TO NORTHEAST WINDS 15 TO 20 KNOTS. BAY WATERS CHOPPY
TO ROUGH. ISOLATED SHOWERS.

A quick but exciting post!

2008-03-04T21:19:00.003-05:00

First news is that SandyBottom has made it to CP2 and is resting now. She is with RiverJohn now, but they expect to meet up with Manitou, Boo and dabiscuit in the wee hours and then head off from there to make a nonstop trip to Flamingo. Lets see how that plan pans out.

And!!! Team Dawn Patrol is now resting happily in the luxuries of the Sunset Cover Inn on Key Largo. They finished up at 19:40. They are pleased by their crossing of Florida Bay, and even came with in about an hour of catching Jarhead.

Way to go Dawn Patrol!

"Crazy!"

2008-03-04T16:44:00.005-05:00

That's what SOS said in reference to the Twisty Mile Channel. They are now 11 miles from the finish line. It looks like they took Route #2 in reference to my last update. It sounded like they were under sail and having an exciting time getting through the Jimmy Channel as I talked to DWSB. I could also hear SOS yelling, "DRAGGING! DRAGGING! DRAGGING!" and the wind in the background.

Still no direct word from SB.

Dawn Patrol is in Flamingo!

2008-03-04T12:00:00.004-05:00

CP3 is in the books for Team Dawn Patrol. DWSB called in from a mysterious phone number to up date us all.

He said that they had sailed until midnight-ish and then dropped anchor for the short night. They fixed up a hot meal and got about 4 hours of rest from the relentless winds. The tide is coming in now which will help them in the treacherous Florida Bay; high tide is supposed to be at 14:00 today. The winds are still out of the ESE and should be shifting towards the West some in the next 24 hours. They aren't sure where Jarhead is, but they would love to catch up to them to make it a photo finish.

Only 30 miles left, but still half the race to go!

Good luck on conquering Florida Bay. Here are the top 3 routes to get through Florida Bay. Both #'s 1 & 2 require navigation through channels that maybe 40 yards wide and that are marked with only wooden fence posts with small reflectors on them...you know the kind of stuff you can pick up a the local hardware store. To make things even worse these markers are not too frequent along the channel, so at night you have to take a light and shine it all around looking for the markers. Once you find the edge of a channel (you are a wizard if you never have this happen) you are stuck in some very unfriendly mud that will suck you in if you hop out to push on your boat. The best bet in this situation is the rock free of the mud flat while giving up your hard earned headway. And one more thing to top it all off, you have been sailing/paddling in 15-20 kts. for days on end and you are sleep deprived. Once again good luck!

In other news...

I'm not sure what to make of a recent dabiscit post, but it sounds like they are setting up camp again!? If it is true maybe SandyBottom and RiverJohn are going to paddle on. We'll see how that turns out.

Also in other EC2008 news some more videos have been loaded to the internets. You can check them out here and here. There is one from Lugnut & Root, a couple from Chief, and a couple from the start. Enjoy!

Dawn Patrol in full sail

2008-03-04T00:41:00.005-05:00

I was looking through the B&B Messing About forum and found some nice shots of Dawn Patrol just after launching from the start line. There are also some pictures of Southern Skimmer, RidgeRunner's CS20, and Frontal Lobotomy (the crazy looking trimaran of Randy Smyth).

Here are the pictures of Dawn Patrol...

It's night nights for SandyBottom

2008-03-03T18:31:00.005-05:00

I was just surfing the WT forum and saw that the dabiscuit had a entry log up saying that the whole gang was setting up camp for the early night.

I'll fill in more details later when I hear it from SB...

SB called just after 19:00 EST to update me. She was eating some macaroni and tuna that MC cooked up for the whole gang. What a champ! After the grub all of them were going to get some shut eye and then get up at midnight, or 1:00 and continue on to CP2 as much as possible. They are camping on the beach about 4 miles north of Marco Island. She was definitely in good spirits.

In other news Roo & Tinker (currently 2nd place) have been in the same spot in Florida Bay for the last 4 hours or so, and Jarhead & Waterscribe (currently 3rd place) are resting and drying out at CP3. So who know if Dawn Patrol play the cards right they have a chance at winning this thing. If you ask me I say once they hit CP3 they should head south and come up the ICW much like this years winning team of Lumpy and Bumpy did; however, it all depends on the winds so they'll have to make the call when the time comes.

It sounds like right now that the days of Easterly winds have drained Florida bay of most of its water, so the already shallow (and narrow) channels are even lower, which makes so bad sailing conditions.

That's it for now.

Day 3 Checkins

2008-03-03T14:24:00.003-05:00

More news from the waterfront!

Team Dawn Patrol called in it looks like just after they cleared the 10,000 Islands. They are currently making good towards CP3 and they are hoping to catch Jarhead & Waterscribe; they are sailing a Sea Pearl. Currently Dawn Patrol is in 4th place, Roo & Tinker are about a third of the way through Florida Bay, and Jarhead is somewhere between Dawn Patrol and CP3. It'll be interesting to see who takes what route in Florida Bay.

Anyway SOS said that they pulled up to Indian Key around midnight and the tides were not favorable so the anchored and caught several hours of sleep. They got under way at about 03:45 this morning and spent a while battling the tide still. Once it turned they had no problem getting in to Chokoloskee Bay. They hit CP2 at 09:36 today. On their way out they were fighting the tide that was till coming in, but now they are outside and sailing towards Cape Sable. The waters are fairly calm, but they have one reef in the main sail and are fighting the unfavorable winds.

I'm not sure at what time, but they talked to RidgeRunner & GreyBeard at Indian key and they were getting ready for more rest.

SandyBottom called in a couple hours later from a beach near Naples. She was beached with ManitouCruiser, Boo & dabiscuit so that they could take down the sail rigs. If you are paddling with a sail rig, it is much easier to make head way if everything is down; just the mast alone add a great deal of resistance and in a challenge like this you need to save every ounce of energy you can. RiverJohn wasn't too far behind either.

Her plan was to paddle in the group until sundown or there abouts and then rest up some more (they have been going since 3 this morning). And again they will make an "O" dark 30 departure. The night time seems to bring better weather for the paddlers. I think this group will stick together for the remainder of the challenge given the weather conditions, and that ain't bad at all.

I expect to hear from SB when they find a place to camp. As for Team Dawn Patrol I don't expect to hear anything for a good while, maybe CP3. Let's hope they can catch Jarhead. I'm glad Jarhead is having a good time this year, last year he had to drop out at CP1 because of a torn sail.

Here's the weather for the area between CP2 and CP3...

THIS AFTERNOON
EAST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS.
BAY AND INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. CHANCE OF SHOWERS THROUGH THE
DAY. SLIGHT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS IN THE AFTERNOON.

 TONIGHT
SOUTHEAST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. BAY
AND INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

 TUESDAY
SOUTH WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. SEAS 2 TO 3 FEET. BAY AND
INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS THROUGH THE
DAY. SLIGHT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS IN THE AFTERNOON.

 TUESDAY NIGHT
SOUTHWEST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS BECOMING WEST 5 TO
10 KNOTS AFTER MIDNIGHT. SEAS 2 TO 3 FEET. BAY AND INLAND WATERS A
MODERATE CHOP. CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND SLIGHT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS.

 WEDNESDAY
WEST WINDS 5 TO 10 KNOTS. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. BAY AND
INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND
THUNDERSTORMS.

It's going to be a rough finish for the paddlers.

Where are they now?...

2008-03-03T10:34:00.003-05:00

It's been over 24 hours since I last heard directly from Dawn Patrol, but no worries on this end. There was a sighting by RidgeRunner of the two heading in Indian Key Pass around 22:00 last night and this is the part of the race where cell phone reception is very sparse.

Also no direct word form SB, but some of her paddling group have reported in saying that they left as planned very early this morning and are making good to the finish.

I'll keep you up to date as soon as I know.

Some images from the start

2008-03-03T00:17:00.006-05:00

The picture is from the starting sunrise.

Here is a quick video (click on the text) from the start line showing some of the sailing vessels including the Class 4 winning Tornado catamaran, and Frontal Lobotomy's trimaran. Frontal Lobotomy had to drop out near Napels, FL due to equipment failure.

After Archangel dropped out he was able to uplad a video from his first day on the outside seen here.

I bet SOS & DWSB have some great video and stills, but those will have to wait until after the race is over.

Through the grapevine

2008-03-02T22:56:00.003-05:00

I was just checking the WaterTribe website and saw a post from RidgeRunner saying that they had seen SOS & DWSB going in Indian Key Pass at 22:00 EST. Needless to say they are behind where they had hoped to be by this time...I think that's the case for most of the racers. This is the time when the land crews get anxious because cell phone reception is crummy at best.

If you haven't seen/heard we already have a Class 4 winner. Lumpy and Bumpy finished the entire 300+ miles in under 36 hours! Simply awesome.

Latest on SandyBottom

2008-03-02T17:49:00.007-05:00

BREAKING NEWS
SB called in at 18:25 EST to say that RiverJohn showed up and offered a big hug for her worries. Shortly after that Boo & dabiscuit, and ManitouCruiser showed up offering even more support. Needless to say her worries have been calmed. The whole gang has probably eaten by now and is going to rest up for several hours. The hope is that the weather will be calmer in the wee hours of tomorrow where they will shove off for CP2. Lets hope it works out for them.

Original post...

She just called in after a day of battling the winds on the east side of Pine Island. She was hoping to avoid the wind some by staying more protected, but it didn't seem to help. When she called in she was on Picnic Island taking a breather and trying to figure out how to get back near the Fort Myers coast to seek more shelter.

She would sail, but she revealed that she had a little incident when coming in Venice Inlet yesterday. She said she wasn't looking where she was going and her aka (crossbeam) collided with a pole. She didn't think much of it at the time, but after the winds picked up today she has started thinking about it more. The winds sound brutal even through the phone, so good luck to her.

She called again a few minutes later to see where Boo, dabiscuit, and ManitouCruiser were, but there hasn't been any word on them since this morning.

Update 3 for Team Stewart

2008-03-02T09:06:00.008-05:00

Yet again SandyBottom and Dawn Patrol checked in within 10 minutes of each other.

SB was calling in from her Kruger Dreamcatcher saying that she, ThereAndBackAgain, and KneadingWater had all slept on the same island, and that they were departing for the day. She hopes to make it down to Marco Island by this evening seeing as the weather is building and storms are expected. After she called in for her CP1 report she called again briefly at 2:45 saying that she had pulled up on shore for the night.

Team Dawn Patrol called in from just south of Sanibel Island. After their last report SOS continued sailing on for 4 hours while DWSB counted dolphins jumping over the boat. Then they traded spots and DWSB sailed on under the Sanibel Island bridge right as the sun was rising. I bet that was a sight he will never forget. DWSB is going to get some more sleep as they make their way down to Check Point 2. I've drawn up a couple overhead images to give everyone an idea of the planned route.

Dawn Patrol is going to shoot for Caxambas Pass by 14:45 this afternoon while on their way to CP2. It should take them several hours to get from Caxambas to CP2, if not longer. Once they get to Indian Key Pass they will have to worry about the tide, the water depth, heavier boat traffic, a narrow channel, and the possibility of headwinds. If they hit Easterly winds with Indian Key Pass they will have a hard battle to fight.

The dashed line is the ideal planned route for Dawn Patrol.

...it's not looking like an easy entry to CP2. Drop the masts and break out the oars!

Rain showers are in the near future!

 THIS AFTERNOON
EAST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS.
BAY AND INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS THROUGH
THE DAY.

 TONIGHT
EAST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. BAY AND
INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

 MONDAY
EAST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. BAY AND
INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND SLIGHT CHANCE OF
THUNDERSTORMS.

 MONDAY NIGHT
SOUTHEAST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS.
BAY AND INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

Dawn Patrol AND SandyBottom Update 2!

2008-03-02T00:03:00.004-05:00

This just in Dawn Patrol is near the head of the pack...as far as I can tell. SOS just rang with some pleasing news. They stayed outside until Gasparilla Pass where the wind was blowing them along at 11 knots! What a ride that must be! This evening the winds have picked back up to a steady 10 gusting to 15 kts., and it looks to remain that way for the next 24 hrs. if not more.

Checking the logbook viewer on the WaterTribe website, it looks like Roo & Tinker opted for the outside route instead of going for the calmer waters of Pine Island Sound. Dawn Patrol is going to stay in side in the calm waters. I expect the wisdom of DWSB tells him that he should get some sleep now while SOS sails on through the night, then I expect them to trade places. One thing is for sure, they aren't holding back. They stopped off at CP1 for just enough time to sign the log and get out of dodge (sounds like some EC07 experience to me). Now comes the long leg to CP2. There's nothing to hide behind once they hit Sanibel Island ans the winds are looking strong for Sunday and Sunday night. Lets all see how it goes!

Well as luck would have it SandyBottom called while I was writing this up and she just hit CP1. Way to go super team Stewart! She says that she's going to get out of dodge too and find a nice place to camp a couple miles down the coast. She spent most of the day alone 'motor' sailing, but that things were going well. Some of you may say "'motor' sailing!?, I though motors weren't allowed!" Well never fear motor sailing here simply means SandyBottom was maximizing her speed by paddling with her Balogh rig deployed.

Fair winds and calm seas to all WaterTribers! See you on the flip side.

SandyBottom on the water report #1

2008-03-01T20:40:00.005-05:00

SandyBottom just called and sounded in good spirits. She is currently in Lemon Bay headed south for check point #1 where she hopes to get in around 11 PM EST. After a noisy night at CP1 last year she has decided to paddle off aways after checking in to get some sleep.

She said that things started to get a little iffy just north of Venice inlet so she decided to head to the ICW after being on the outside. Winds had picked up and she didn't reef in time so her inflatable amas (outriggers) started to get pushed under water. Smart move!

Still no more news from team Dawn Patrol. But after checking the WaterTribe website I saw that FrontalLobotomy ( a world class skipper) was first to CP1 at 3:30 local time...WOW!

Here is the forecast for the Charlotte Harbor area (just south of CP1)...

 TONIGHT
NORTHEAST WINDS AROUND 15 KNOTS. SEAS 2 TO 3 FEET. BAY AND
INLAND WATERS A MODERATE CHOP.

 SUNDAY
EAST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. SEAS 2 TO 4 FEET. BAY AND
INLAND WATERS A MODERATE CHOP.

 SUNDAY NIGHT
EAST WINDS 15 TO 20 KNOTS. SEAS 2 TO 4 FEET. BAY
AND INLAND WATERS CHOPPY.


Looks like the sailors have some great winds to play with.  From my experience last
year Pine Island Sound (just south of Charlotte Harbor was one of the most pleasant
areas.  Pine Island Sound is a nice wide body of water with barrier islands protecting
it from the Gulf.  It is the last section of the Everglades Challenge course before 
everyone is forced to go on the outside down to CP2 in the everglades.

That's all for now, I'm anxiously awaiting word for Dawn Patrol.

Dawn Patrol Update 1

2008-03-01T13:14:00.003-05:00

SOS called from the Gulf of Mexico a while back to say that things were going well and that the winds were dead. The weather bouys say that winds are at or below 5 kts. so it's slow going for the sailors right now. DWSB was rowing away after giving their sculling ore a try. The boat was handling well when they did have winds. I'm sure that things will pick up here in a little bit.

SOS said that SandyBottom had just passed them with her Balogh rig and paddling. She too decided to take the outside route. Other fellow WaterTribers were out there too including GreyBeard & RidgeRunner, Boo & dabiscuit, and ManitouCruiser. GreyBeard & RidgeRunner are sailing in the same CS20 hull design that SOS & DWSB are in, but without a cabin. SOS said they were about 1000 yards back when he called in. It'll be interesting to see how that sub-race goes.

Let's Commence

2008-03-01T07:20:00.004-05:00

Wind forecast graphic for Noon on Saturday.

Well both SB and team Dawn Patrol (SOS & DWSB) should have launched by now (barring any problems getting off the beach). Dawn Patrol obviously has the greater challenge there with an estimated +500 empty weight, then plus gear equals very heavy! To launch they are using 3 industrial strength, 1 foot diameter, approximately 4 feet long, inflatable tubes. Each tube is capable of supporting 600kg (that’s 1300 lbs. each)! 1300 lbs. multiplied by 3 should equal no problem getting Dawn Patrol in the water. And the best part is that they compact very well into a hatch with the simple opening of the valve.

I haven’t heard anything from the competitors, and still nothing from the WaterTribe website.

The Tampa Bay crossing is critical. First you have to deal with the high boat density, then a shoal just off the beach. After you get by the shoal you’re out in the open water…where the big cargo ships loom. Oh yeah and if the winds are up you have to deal with major surf! I’d say the biggest decision that you have to make is whether or not to stay inside and cruise in the calmer winds of the Intracostal Waterway (ICW), or to race on the outside where conditions can be brutal. Given the conditions this year I have a feeling most, if not all, of the sailors opted for the outside.

I’ll be sure to let post as soon as I hear word from the water.

Pre Start Update

2008-02-29T23:22:00.005-05:00

SandyBottom called at about 9:20 (21:20) this evening just to check that her speed dial worked...that it did! She said that she was ready to go, and that SOS & DWSB we putting the last touches on their packing list. All sounded in good spirits. I'm sure they were anxious to get some good sleep for the early start and to make up for the restless days ahead.

Safe passage to all of our fellow WaterTribers.

Here are a couple overhead views of the start area. The great expanse South of the start line is the mouth of Tampa Bay. Last year Tampa Bay was a riot...I think this year will be a little more tame.

A major decision has to be made by all racers from the get go, that is go outside for speed, or stay inside for safety. I'll talk a little more about this tomorrow.

Geared and rearing to go!

2008-02-29T20:15:00.007-05:00

T-minus 10 hours and counting. From the looks of things SOS and DWSB are set for a great start tomorrow. Here's the latest feed I've gotten...

Dawn Patrol rigged and ready just above the high water mark on Mullet Key.

Right now the forecast favors the sailors with 5-10 knot winds swinging back and forth between NE and NW, and the seas are looking like 2-3 feet. These conditions will be ideal for SOS and DWSB as they are new to their craft (Dawn Patrol). I'm sure they will get to take great advantage of the red and white striped staysail.

If any of you don't know SOS and DWSB are competing in this years Everglades Challenge in a B&B Yacht Designs Core Sound 20. This craft has proven itself in previous years, and even has 3 entries this year (or variations there of). SOS, SB, and DWSB chose to turn the stock CS20 plans into a weekend cruiser by building a cockpit on the bow end. It's really a nice design and Dawn Patrol has a set of expert builders for her construction (SOS, DWSB, and SB). I'm sure she'll see plenty of time in Jordan lake and many weekends in the vast sounds of the North Carolina coast.

That's all for now, I'll be back on for live coverage of the start (7 AM EST) of the 2008 Everglades Challenge. No news from SandyBottom thus far, but it looks to be another great year for racing. To see how everyone in this year's Everglades Challenge be sure to checkout the WaterTribe website where actual location updates are posted. This year there is a nifty new Google Map feature that shows where your favorite challenger was last located, and the locations of anybody else around them.

Welcome aboard!

2008-02-27T23:30:00.004-05:00

Hello fellow regular readers and armchair WaterTribers.

I just want to get a post in here and welcome all to the global home of SandyBottom, SOS, and DancesWithSandyBottom for the next week. My name is Kotzebue and I will be your tour guide for the next week (officially starting Saturday). As you might have guessed SandyBottom, SOS, and DancesWithSandyBottom will be the captains for our harrowing adventure.

I'm kind of new at this tour guide thing. DancesWithSandyBottom and I have switch places from last year and I have a great deal to live up to. He is a world class adventure tour guide, I am a novice everything. I'll try my best to live up to previous years tour guiding, but I also have a second job so we'll see how it goes.

Some of you out there (I doubt many) are new to this site, but have been rerouted from SandyBottom's tour page; I hope you enjoy your stay with the Sailing Adventures of SOS and Friends.

That's all for now. I'll keep you up to date as the sights, sounds, and words stream in to Everglades Challenge Adventures 2008 HQ. I'd love to see some amazing hit counts so tell all you adventurous friends and family.

PS: Comment away!

A long night

2008-02-27T06:45:00.002-05:00

It was a long...long...night. All thats left is rigging, and a few more cleats here and there.

It was there the whole time!?!?!

2008-02-26T10:01:00.006-05:00

Lots of work has been done since the move on Saturday. (I accidentally posted the last post on my mom's blog by the way) so here is some of the story.

Saturday we had hoped to have the new trailer ready for the move but alas it was no where to be found. The manager of the store that we ordered the trailer from said that it was in route but apparently, no one was able to get in touch with the driver of the delivery so even the manufacturer didn't know where our trailer was. So we borrowed a loner trailer for the weekend in hopes that the new one would arrive on Tues. (the place is closed on Mondays, go figure). The loner was a monster of trailer with tandem axles and brakes but it worked. So we get a call yesterday from the store and they say that they screwed up a little bit and the delivery driver had dropped off our new trailer early Friday morning in the back lot of the store (apparently where they rarely go) and no one knew that it had been delivered. The driver then went to the hospital to be with his wife who delivered twins which explains why he was unavailable. So they had it the whole time!!! Today, Dad is driving back to the place with our boat and their trailer where they will be hoisting our boat onto the new trailer. (should be some good pics to come).

Saturday, after the move I just kept on trucking and started installing hardware. We decided not to cut any corners with this and have been drilling out every hole for the hardware bigger and filling with epoxy before re drilling and installing. Meanwhile, Dad completed the long and monotonous task of installing the two sail tracks on the masts with all 200+ rivets. Sunday we dropped in the mizzen mast and clamped the main in to the tabernacle. WOWEEE it's a sailboat. We stepped back in awe. Then got back to work drilling the hole for the tabernacle pivot pin (In the rain) and the base pin. Then we tested out the tabernacle pivot. PERFECT. it just cleared the mizzen with about an inch to spare. Back up and bolted in, we raised the sails!!! Now it really looked like a boat. We did this so that we could determine how much of the masts we needed to cut off the ends (we left them long when we glued the sections together) No sprits yet though. We took everything down and Dad epoxied in the main mast tabernacle blocks into the main mast and riveted on the leftover sail track to both masts evenly while I worked on installing more hardware.

Monday, I got home around 5:00pm and started drilling holes for more hardware. We pulled the boat out again and tried out the new lower cut masts and raised the sails again. I also raised up the mizzen staysail to check the tack attachment placement and halyard block placement on the mizzen. All perfect, just need to rivet the block to the top of the mast and install the tack eyelets. We also raised up the sprits and set and marked the angle and marked where we needed to cut the sprits shorter to the right length and drilled out holes to be epoxy filled for the sprit hardware. Then back into the garage (where it is warmer but not much) to finish the rest of the hardware bedding. I drilled holes for the oarlocks, cleats (main and mizzen), fairleads (main and mizzen), centerboard hardware, bow U-bolt, Transom ladder, Anderson Bailer and also we glued in the base bolt for the tabernacle by bedding a lock nut into the front side of the tabernacle.

Today (Tuesday) I will go back home and install all the hardware while dad finishes the hatches. He has been working on the hinges and the fit of his beautiful fiberglass molded drain gutters on the hatches and it sure has paid off, the hatches are beautiful. The boat will be on the new trailer and there should be nothing stopping us from rigging the boat to completion today aside from cutting lines to their final length. And then ITS DONE....well almost.

There were some things that we have not started yet. We still need to make a mast gallows for trailering (probably just a temp one from pine) and also a plate to cover the cabin foot well (probably also temporary). We also need to make a seat board that is removable that will be used when rowing that just rests on the seat tops in the cockpit. We decided to leave off the gunwale strip for the EC because it would just be too much work. We will make and install it after the race and be careful not to bang up the edges next week. We are also planning to cut out an emergency rudder (probably just bare plywood cut to the right profile) juuuuuust in case. A broken rudder would make us pretty dead in the water. In the glades, a broken rudder would be an interesting problem to solve without a pre-planned spare. We will also have some spare fir stick stock on board (probably 2x2) and a sprit splint (aluminum tube that the two broken ends of a sprit could fit in) in case of sprit failure.

While Dad and I have been working on sails, rigging, and hatches, Mom has not been left out and has been spending ALL of her time either packing and preparing GPS's OR working on the cabin door that she is sewing for us from heavy cloth. It will be beautiful. She has been ignoring her boat for fear that we will not get done if she does not help and she is probably right. We will need to work on her boat as well as ours when we arrive in Tampa. Also, Mom was able to move my flight up to Thursday at 12:45pm which will put me in Tampa around 2:30pm. So I will be arriving a full day earlier which will be great because Dad and I will have some daylight to finish rigging the boat and hit the grocery for food supplies.

My friend Trey (skipper with me for Velocity Sailing) has been a great help in getting some of the hardware and misc supplies here and there. He has a large inventory of used parts that he uses to fix up used boats. I also borrowed a secret weapon from him that Dad and I will use during those long black MOONLESS nights in the glades. Lets just say, it will illuminate the situation.