I awoke this morning in the early predawn, 4:30am, sky turning back-to-deep-indigo, magical time of the day, full of energy. I took the day off from work to meet with the rigger, Jeff Morgan and then Charlie Marques at Mystic Stainless.
I was to meet Jeff at the mast in Spicer’s Marina at 9:00. I arrived about an hour early and went straight to Gypsy like a lover too long away. We didn’t have nearly enough time together. I removed the hydraulic back stay adjuster for refurbishment and the boom vang so that Jeff can alter that. Jeff arrived and we reviewed the plans for the inner forestay fitting that I had drawn up and discussed the details of the instillation. We had a good skull session, solidifying the final details of the new standing rigging and then I was off to Mystic Stainless to drop off the prints for fabrication of the new brackets.
Before I went to the stainless shop I stopped at Spicer’s marine store to see is the varnish and engine parts I had ordered had come in – not yet.
When I got to the stainless shop Charlie was busy with another customer but broke off long enough to check out my plans and have a small piece of 3/8’ aluminum plate cut for me to us as a shim for Gypsy’s rudder quadrant stop. It was amazing to see his hydraulic shear cut that 3/8” plate stock like it was taffy.
I love roaming around the waterfront and checking out all the boats, especially the ones with strong personalities.
I noticed some interesting expressions of boat security today.
I stopped off at SV “Rights of Man” to visit John and Marcia. They’ve been working on their home built boat for years and plan on setting off this May for Europe. They have this cool vision of taking their boat up the River Seine and docking in Paris, how cool is that! Marcia gave me a recipe for homemade yogurt to give to Susan and we talked of future plans.
Jack’s eyes burned deeply when we talked of ocean passages and Marcia glowed. It was hard to leave them with one more thing after another cropping up as I tried exit to let them get back to work (they have much to do yet) and me to get back on task (I’ve got much to do too).
Next I stopped off at Jim Funk’s loft to check in with him on the dodger and show him the solar panels that go atop our bimini. He’s going to beef up the bimini structure to take the additional 90lbs of load in addition to making the new canvas cover. His loft must be one of the coolest workspaces around.
I had arrived at Jim place around noon but didn’t get out of there until 4:45. We started talking about cruising and life in general. We are so in tune, he feels like another brother to me. I’m sure that we’ll be sailing different oceans together. Jim shared his dream of cursing himself and the associated challenges; 2 kids to put thru college, wife’s career ambitions and the economy. He told me that Dodson’s Marina (one of my old marinas) had laid off 9 craftsman and his own business has been reduced by half. Jim then pulled out charts of the Atlantic Ocean that stretched from North America to way down past the Equator and all the way across to Europe and northern Africa. The juices really began to flow and his eyes too began to burn. These are tough times, these are charged times and exciting times for people of action.
I had hoped to stop at Ace Sailmakers to see if the new drogue cones had come in yet and then over to Defender Marine for some plumbing parts but it was too late by the time I got out of Jim’s place. I know I can and will catch up with Ace on the phone, but it’s so much better in person. I’ve always loved sail lofts and never pass up a chance to visit one.
It was a wonderful day but as I made the long drive home I couldn’t help feeling like I didn’t accomplish enough in light of all that yet needs to be done. I fingered the small 2”x4” piece of aluminum plate (the only tangible accomplishment of the day) to assure myself that at least something real was accomplished today.
