EXCITING, SCARY, INTRIGUING, BIG, STRESSFUL, ANCIENT, UNUSUAL, AMAZING EVENT SCHEDULED!

My box of chocolates has been full of surprises!

Each day has brought news or events both wonderful and frustrating.

Wonderful achievements with Ben and Ben combined with setbacks with Cassi’s engine and bottom. A beautiful visit from Layla and astonishing personal news that we will be travelling to Texas! A new concept is considered about the format of my stories and thus the book. More new pledges and transfers have come through and with another push the long awaited “moment” is possible. Send it if ya got it as what is next for Cassi is big! As always thanks to those who have sent their pledges on. It is WORKING! 

THE SHORT VERSION

CASSIOPEIA

EXCITING, SCARY, INTRIGUING, BIG, STRESSFUL, ANCIENT, UNUSUAL, AMAZING EVENT SCHEDULED!

It seems illusive, that moment when it will feel as though the good ship is back in order and the battles are not urgent. It is close I know it. I set this project up knowing full well it would not be an instant recovery. I considered a six month attempt but then realism came into my view and thus I knew a year was required.

Now a big step is to happen this weekend, a Careening.

ME

I am lucky that I am going to get to attend my Dad’s 80^th Birthday with Layla! A trip to Texas is scheduled for August. It has been nine years for both of us. Family, old friends, TexMex restaurants, live music, sailing on the lake where it all started. Book marketing. Yeah for US!

BOOK

As I try to tell all I want to, and say all I want to, and portray all I want to, I am slowly coming up with the way it can all fit together. Adventure, philosophy, insights questions, solutions, ideas. Bumbling about is creating direction on its own, showing me the way. It is so rich and juicy and provocative and I am still not sure of its final form.

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THE LONG VERSION

A CAREENING !!!!!!!

Or those of you who don’t know what that is, I am going to wait until just after this full moon high tide at the crack of dawn and purposely drive Cassiopeia right up onto the beach. Then as the tide goes out I am going to pull on her mast to force her to lay over on her side. Then I am going to furiously work on her bottom as it exposes itself. Hopefully when the tide comes back in I will have patched some spots and rolled on some antifouling paint.

The urgency of all the projects has been due to the amount the bilge pump has been running. The batteries needed to be rewired and some replaced to keep that pump running. The engine needed to run to charge those batteries for that pump but that also meant the alternator had to work to charge those batteries for that pump. Meanwhile the batteries are being lugged back and forth to town on the scooter for hot charging along with running the borrowed generator all night to keep that pump running. 

So the starter finally started the engine and but the alternator blew so I bought a new alternator and rebuilt all the mounts and it was working but then the water pump failed and so I used a big press and pushed new bearings in it and seals and today I am to install it and hopefully that will be all for the engine.

The dive tanks have been going back and forth a lot as well since I have also been diving urgently to use underwater epoxy to stop the leaks to ease the pressure on the the pump and the batteries. It seems each time I fix one a new one appears! The last few dives and handful’s of epoxy have not slowed this one illusive and rather significant leak. Today more bubbles will be blown I hope to find it this time! I have actually been pulling out old seams and driving in new cotton underwater!!!

At night I listen to the pump automatically coming on too much and it, well I have to admit, it stresses me out.

The end is near.

This week is to be big as I must get the engine totally running and get the anchors unstuck after months of being tugged into the mud, gather all of the materials for the careening, and put together a crew for the event.

I have never done this so It is undoubtedly to be full of surprises!

This could be it though. The moment I have been waiting for. Leaks fixed, paint on her bottom, engine running, batteries good, tunes playing, sails on, dining on deck again!

Just a thought,

You know that gate latch that does not quite line up anymore? Sometimes you even have to put down the groceries to fiddle with it and get it open. It’s been that way for months, annoying you daily. Then a mate comes and stays and you come home with the groceries and reach for the latch and with the slightest touch it springs open like magic.  It took him fifteen minutes to tighten the screws and line it up.

Every day sometimes twice, three times, you have been fighting that latch. There never seemed time to fix it. We are funny creatures and we get used to things. We allow daily annoyances because we have grown accustomed to them, at least some of us do that. I do that, I admit it. It is absolutely fabulous when some one eliminates a daily annoyance for you.

Ben and Ben brought a prop for the dingy. I am a motor head and hearing that poor engine whine with the old bent and chipped prop made me wince every time I drove home for months. Now the dingy jumps onto a plane and purrs along. Now every trip is a joy.

Thanks for fixing my latch guys!

THE BOOK

One of the major stories has been struggling as it has so much to say. Thus it has made me think of separating some of it’s parts to allow the flow. There is a lot of looking at how things are here and there, differences, positives, negatives, that I want to include. It can get in the way of the adventures so I am experimenting.

The “philosophy” parts about dreams, values, fear, war, love, learning, comfort zones, etc. are important to me.  Trying to express how a life outside the square shapes a mans thoughts on those subjects comes through in the stories but the full discussion about conclusions is more challenging.

Not to make my trip home to see my dad seem self serving but some time in the states will clarify some of the above mentioned differences. Presenting and talking to live Americans will bring some more modern insights into my perceptions since it has been nine years since I was immersed in that vibe.

I am also quite certain it will be a successful addition to the marketing program for the project and the book. I suspect some fabulous interest and surprises in the funding and publishing arenas will be presented by the many friends I will be seeing.

SNIPPET

I have actually been writing for a number of years and I am to include some of the old work I believe, including some mildly poetic moments. The new stuff is bumbling along, but I am also reworking some of the old ones. This weeks snippet is a newer version of an old piece.

Magic

            She tortured, she teased, she protected.  It seemed I could never know her. I was forced to trust her utterly, with my life, my dream, it seemed my very soul. She was everything.  I had given it all up for her.  She lifted me from the plane of the mundane and placed me on the unsteady and threatening surface of a sea of challenge.  I was awakened as from a dream, to an experience of awareness and endeavour that could only be the early stages of a slow bonding love, not just for her, but for the new adventure of life.

            It was a magic time whose bag of tricks is yet to be emptied.  The events of today and most likely tomorrow are viewed as impossible by the minds eye I left behind.  With her, I am forced to revel in the circumstance of each passing moment, and she opens my heart to the fullness of what we have shared.  Our intimacy is such that others note us as one. Indeed it is a true observation.  She controls me while allowing me the vain pretension that I am the master.  We battle for survival together.

            We have shared many great gifts.  Purpose, pride, passion.  Fear, stamina, courage.  Our experience is a poem of joy and struggle and peace.  Our bond is thick to the touch.  It oozes from her timbers and glows in my eyes.  Those who meet us notice. They leave with a new awareness into the many facets of the bonds so loosely labelled love.  A man and a ship, a love like no other.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Thanks again to all of you who are making this happen. These next few weeks are to be very exciting as some major hurdles are overcome!

YEAH FOR US !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Focus, determination, results. Quantum leap

Focus, determination, results. Quantum leap. Yes, Yeah For US!!! The engine is running. Crew is here, tunes are playing aboard and the Cassiopeia side of my project is in a triumphant moment!

So this report is late but I was not to allow a machine to stymy me any longer.

Project

Yeah I received a few more transfers to keep the books in the black and indeed a few more pledges as well! Thanks for the transfers and I stil have no easier way than the direct bank transfer or Western union options. If you need me to send the info again please email me. We now have 64 who have committed to helping fund the recovery of Cassiopeia and are shareholders in what is going to be a very different book. I am still working to complete the revamp of the presentation and initiate the new marketing program for the overall project. The past period however has been focused on Cassiopeia with major gains the result.

Cassiopeia

Yeah the engine is running! Tenacity, perseverance, persistence, and the sheer refusal to believe that I could not fix it, along with the fact that I simply had to, all combined to bring back to life the worlds best diesel engine. There are things that your friends say and sometimes you have heard them say it too many times, but since they are your friend you just listen and smile. I say “It is a machine. Man makes machines. I am a man. I can make this machine work.” About the fifth time I had the starter out in pieces and Mitch heard me say that again I recognized his polite smile.

But it goes!!!!!!! Aaarrrgh no machine gonna beat me!

A few more tanks of air and more tubes of underwater epoxy and the leaks are slowing.

Ben and Ben arrived today. Electrician and friend keen to help me fix her. Yeah, this is going to be a quantum leap. They are here for two weeks and I expect we will have her underway before they leave! Today we revived a few power tools and installed the stereo they brought. Tunes wahhhooo makes her feel alive again!

I am thinking her bottom could be a two phased event with a careening soon and then a full on haul out later in the year.

Book

Inspired by winning the only writing competition I have ever entered, when I received a notice of another in my inbox where I could win 1000 pounds. (British booty, sweet) I blasted out a piece of “Flash fiction”. It has to be under 250 words. How to create lots of images with few words. It is a great exercise and hopefully It will be good enough to make the six pound entry fee a worthy risk.

I had some input as I described some of the chapters and stories, and how they lead to other stories,

that I should be thinking about more than one book. Too many stories, imagine!

I have gone back over some of the work I have already done as it is good to let a piece “rest” and then look at it again. It does get better with each pass.

Someone suggested I have a coffe table version with lots of pictures.......uuummmm

OK snippet...........................

Every book has parts when it trundels along. There simply cant be torpedoes in every scene.

So here is a spot when a little fill seemed appropriate. The paragraphs just before had action and inuendo and foresahdowing and lust...............

We stayed flirting and oggeling for a couple more rounds but some more cutomers arrived and we were deprived of her undivided attention. Marianne and Todd and I toasted to our sucessful arrival and remenisced about aspects of the trip like the mosquitos from Arkansas, some of whom were still trapped in the van. We had opened the sliding door to to a swarm of the largest mosquitos I have ever seen and everything is bigger in Texas, or so they say. I have seen really big ones in Houston. But these were monster mosquitos, genetically empowered somehow, and they were coming at us from a scene out of the famous Burt Reynolds movie Deliverance about canoeing down an Arkansas river.

The guy who pumped the gas had on oversized blue jean coveralls showing his hairy shoulders and his hands were the size of bear paws. His eyes did not quite look at the same place and despite being over six feet tall he walked with a hunched over sort of beaten little kid shuffle. And there was a skinny old guy, like in the movie, wearing a straw hat sitting in a rocking chair chewing on the end of a long piece of grass and silently watching us as though he was remembering every detail and had lots of secrets. In a too tight, stained undershirt, the potbellied, grease covered mechanic had stepped out of the garage and was grinning at Marianne, fully displaying that he had no top teeth. She jumped back in the Van slamming the slidng door only to realise there were probably a thousand mosquitos inside.

Todd and I bought some orange juice to mix with the tequilla, paid for the gas and both accpted a fervent hand shake from bear paws before getting in the van to be attacked mercilessly by the bloodsucking hoarde that had invaded our otherwise cozy home on wheels. We hit the highway fast and rolled down all the windows to blow them out and even opened the sliding door. Clever creatures insects. When they felt the wind they all flew under the bunk and behind the curtains and hid from the possibility of being blasted outside. We suffered with them for thousands of miles.

America is a wonderfully diverse place and cetain regions have reputations. Like attracts like I suppose. Hillbillys like hillbillys so Arkansas filled up with them. Things on television and in the movies are often not far from real. Road trips like the one we had just done give you a quick overview of the cultural melting pot that is the USA......................................

Still rough and could well get the editors knife but it was a severly cultural few moments for us!

Thanks again for those of you who managed transfers and two goals have been stated for Ben and Ben”s stay. We are to get her underway and have a party before they leave. Quantum leaps in store.

YEAH FOR US !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Added the Sad Page to the blog

I posted the only photos I have showing what she was like when I returned and listed some of the ruin on a new page called the SAD PAGE!
Not that I am sad. I am great as everything is moving forward and the cops are actually looking!
YEAH FOR US is still alive and well................

What she looks like when she has all her lipstick on!

Trying more photos !T

oopps Layla rememmbers this spill      

More photos of work.......

Some of the other times Cassi has needed a bit of work !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the week that flew by

Ahoy there everybody,

Wooohhoo still!!! Moving forward ups and downs. It is sunny again!

Time is a funny thing. Sometimes a week disappears! Progress yes, frustration yes, busy yes, and yes fun, even some golf and harmonica playing! Booty needed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cassiopeia,

Still can not get starter working! I can now take it out and put it back in an record time with my eyes closed. Today I scooter to South Santo where there is rumored to be a bunch of dead Ford tractors and try to bargain for parts. Having more underwater epoxy flown in. Got new battery and sun is out so powered up a bit. Massive clean up day. Maybe next weekend will be the first party!

Book,

Worked on the chapter about ghost and the bus waiting around the corner. Revel in today as tomorrow is only imagination! It includes a few of the hard times and recoveries. Life in paradise has not been all roses. This is not the first time she has been brought back! Check the snippet for a few lines from the Blow Up story. Wonderfull lessons about faith and determination and help and spirits.

Project,

Two more pledges this week, trying to ramp it up again and reach the goal.

Booty getting low! Working on new transfer method Any transfers appreciated!

Trying week of attempting to build a project website and incorporate a pay pal type transfer along with new presentation for wooden boat magazine forum.

I am excited about what the new project presentation can provide and am confident the goal will be reached. It is good how close Cassi is to “working” again. The crew are arriving on the 25^th and that will be the quantum leap I am sure.

OK this weeks snippet,

This is to be a good chapter with ghost stories and trials. There is one story

that will make you cry.............

I heard a “phoof” and I had time to think, “Oh damn, the pilot light!” Then there was a BOOM from an explosion that shook the hillsides. That split second was the beginning of a time that I know call “Bonus Days”. That means all of the days that I have been alive since. By all rights, I should be dead.

I almost moved into the next dimension for the simple act of trying to kill the roaches on the boat. In an attempt to rid myself of the crawly scourge I nearly eliminated myself ! …...................

The path to real destruction of the little bastards, was to actually spray Baygon point blank into every crack and crevice in the whole boat. Then we would go to the beach for the afternoon.

We would play in the clean sunshine while the enemy choked and died in their new poisonous environment. It worked. Upon our return to the boat there were hundreds of war victims strewn about the cabin sole in twitching death throws. No Geneva contract here, death to all prisoners. In the end, they got me back for this merciless slaughter.......................................

Cassiopeia is a stout wooden boat with two inch by four inch laid decking, and a cabin sole of five quarter planks laid on two by four sole beams. The explosion erupted from the bilge and turned the cabin sole planks into splintered twelve inch chunks that were driven like wooden shrapnel into the hard pine on the inside of the deck and hull. That is, what remained of the deck. Huge holes were blown in the foredeck and the aft deck, cracking deck beams as the fasteners were ripped away. Her heavy wooden hatches with stainless piano hinges were torn from their two by four frames and flew through the air above mast height. The four foot by four foot beast of a main hatch traveled up until it collided with the fore boom, shattering into pieces.

There were canned goods blown into the water through the six foot long hole in the deck above the galley. Every door in the boat had disintegrated, jagged remains hanging on twisted hinges. Despite not having sprayed in the aft section, the gaping hole in the aft deck allowed pillows and bedding to escape into the air. The bunks and cabinetry of the main room were turned into unidentifiable piles of rubble. The laminated two by twelve planks of the setee table had smashed against the deck beams above and broken across the grain into jagged pieces. The cabinet next to the oven was built from a sheet of ¾ inch plywood. That three foot high piece of plywood was broken in a line at the edge of the oven. Ever tried to break a ¾ inch sheet of plywood?

The more I surveyed the damage later, the more I thought about Bonus Days. I really should be dead.................................................

I owned a house which was haunted by my best friend who was killed on his 21^st birthday when I was in university. I had lots of roomates and we became accustomed to him rummaging around. We would hear him downstairs while..........

Lights would go off and on and doors would open and close and windows would mysteriously be open and other silly stuff would.............

I am forced to believe in ghost after..........................

Maybe he was there the day I blew up. There is little other explanation for being unscathed and..............

Eliot was the first to come aboard and he braved the fumes and debris to come below. Eliot still believes I am a ghost. He always has this funny look in his eye when he talks to me. He slowly looked around in stunned silence at the smoldering wreckage. Then he ask, “Where were you?”. When I pointed to the spot he got a little pale and looked at me in that funny way that he has ever since. He turned and walked away and would not talk to me for weeks. He is scared of ghost...................................................

There was a recovery, but things changed...................................................

…...........................................................................................................................................................

Maybe this will be the chapter with spirits and drugs and the desert as well. The other side explored!

Thanks for all the support

This is a wonderfull time and project and despite some moments it is taking me on an exciting journey.

Hug to all H