Enjoying just sitting at the wheel Michael here.
With Winter efforts to reassemble the aft quarter of our little vessel coming to fruition, and with the progressively warm evenings of Spring filling the air, the gallant crew of the S/V Moontide has paused, if only for a brief glance, to review the work done to restore helm and the complex navigation structures of Moontide.
Cleats, hawsers, hatches, seating, electronics, steerage, and an outboard crane have all been built back into the cavity that had once been the back of the boat.
Gabrielle has graced each structure with her attention: Bronze shines, varnished woods gleam, and all new fiberglass radiates with the glow of fresh paint and attention. It is a joy to behold.
That said, back to work!
April showers may bring flowers, but it also marked the reappearance of our long-hibernating masts.
With Winter efforts to reassemble the aft quarter of our little vessel coming to fruition, and with the progressively warm evenings of Spring filling the air, the gallant crew of the S/V Moontide has paused, if only for a brief glance, to review the work done to restore helm and the complex navigation structures of Moontide.
Cleats, hawsers, hatches, seating, electronics, steerage, and an outboard crane have all been built back into the cavity that had once been the back of the boat.
Gabrielle has graced each structure with her attention: Bronze shines, varnished woods gleam, and all new fiberglass radiates with the glow of fresh paint and attention. It is a joy to behold.
That said, back to work!
April showers may bring flowers, but it also marked the reappearance of our long-hibernating masts.
Gabrielle, examining her 13 coats of Bristol. On the last rainy Sunday of April, with a little help from our friends, (and maybe some pointers from Archimedes) we inveigled the masts from storage into the open to begin the prep work for stepping them.
Stepping a mast is simple -- take a 48 foot length (about 800 pounds) of wood and steel, stand it on end, and tell it to stay put!
Since Moontide and both the main and mizzen masts have never worked together, all new rigging is needed to get them to fit as a unit. This involves...dah, dah, dahhhhh! Mathematics!
It's one of those situations where our very lives may, in fact, depend on Math.
Father Bede, my high school math teacher, would be pleased.
I can see him now, chalk fingerprints, dusting his black scapular, pacing back and forth across the front of the classroom after I had made a fool of myself trying to solve a problem:
"Hah! " He would say, "Apple Pan Dowding," as he liked to call me, "Have you ever heard of... Bomba the Jungle Boy?" He would turn to face the class and smile. "He was a character in old serial movies... he would always run through the jungle and... fall into these obvious... obvious traps." And then he would chuckle. "You, you, Apple Pan, have fallen into just such a trap."
I hated math.
Fortunately, applied math (think: life depends on it) seems to make more sense to me than all the abstract classroom math I ever did, despite Fr. Bede's best efforts.
And taking Brian Toss' rigging class last Fall didn't hurt, either!
Stepping a mast is simple -- take a 48 foot length (about 800 pounds) of wood and steel, stand it on end, and tell it to stay put!
Since Moontide and both the main and mizzen masts have never worked together, all new rigging is needed to get them to fit as a unit. This involves...dah, dah, dahhhhh! Mathematics!
It's one of those situations where our very lives may, in fact, depend on Math.
Father Bede, my high school math teacher, would be pleased.
I can see him now, chalk fingerprints, dusting his black scapular, pacing back and forth across the front of the classroom after I had made a fool of myself trying to solve a problem:
"Hah! " He would say, "Apple Pan Dowding," as he liked to call me, "Have you ever heard of... Bomba the Jungle Boy?" He would turn to face the class and smile. "He was a character in old serial movies... he would always run through the jungle and... fall into these obvious... obvious traps." And then he would chuckle. "You, you, Apple Pan, have fallen into just such a trap."
I hated math.
Fortunately, applied math (think: life depends on it) seems to make more sense to me than all the abstract classroom math I ever did, despite Fr. Bede's best efforts.
And taking Brian Toss' rigging class last Fall didn't hurt, either!
Glue... good! Still, we have no death wish, so the first part of May, Ian Weedman, a professional rigger, came and reviewed our rigging, our plans, (and my math) and gave us the benefit of his knowledge and experience as we began the task of putting these masts back together.
Now it is a matter of gluing and screwing (in a nice way, I mean) and spending money, lots of money, to get the hardware we need to be able to safely stand these beauties up for sailing. We shall see what our wallets and our backs can bear!
And we'll keep you posted how things progress in June!
Fair winds,
M&G
Now it is a matter of gluing and screwing (in a nice way, I mean) and spending money, lots of money, to get the hardware we need to be able to safely stand these beauties up for sailing. We shall see what our wallets and our backs can bear!
And we'll keep you posted how things progress in June!
Fair winds,
M&G
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