The Adventures of Capt'n Jim!

 OK, Im just dumping photos, and I'm going to try to caption them the best of that I can. My Cal 35 has(had) a draft of 6 ft. That is normally considered to be almost too deep to navigate the ICW and the Bahamas.  It's limiting access to marinas, and more protected anchorages.  Against the counsel of experts, the opinion of the interwebs, convention and wisdom, I cut 18 inches (a foot and a half) off the bottom of my boat. Glassed the huge hole in the bottom of the keel. Popped the lead out of the cut off section.  I estimate this to be between a third and half of the total lead ballast, 5000 lbs.  I will get an exact weight. I have been cutting that sucker up into pieces I can move.  sort of. This is going to be reworked into ballast bulb halves and bolted to the sides and glassed in. I have an idea... stay tuned. Careful to keep the sawzall tailing contained. We have lots of canvas work to do. ...and Lithium batteries to install.

Nothing special this weekend.  Held up the new Bimini top to get an idea of size and Hight for the install.  Started replacing the rotting old fence. (I put it up 14 years ago.)  Got 6 sections in, 16 more to go.   

 This happened on March 15.  Et tu Frosty?  And then it melted by the next day... I really need to start working on this boat, but it needs to be dry and warm to really do the things that need doing. It's been a few days and my Dinghy is still hard, so I'm going to call that a win.  The new valve covers are holding, and no leaks found in the air chambers.  There was a leak in the hull to air chamber joint that I had plugged and replugged over time and distance using 5200 and flex-seal.  I gently tugged at the tapes holding the hull on.  Dried glue dust and bright sunlight induced a sneeze and being the polite sort, I invoked a deity.  Now I must have mumbled because the Universe misheard what I said, the bottom dropped off the dinghy and a portal opened where there had previously been none.  Said portal lead to a parallel dimension virtually identical to our own.  As of this posting, no visitors from the other side have come through, but...

 So, its been a few weeks and it's been way too cold to work on Via Mente.  A little snow, a little melting, a little blow and then a punishment in the form of heavy wet miserable crap.  But then this weekend was nice, and I got some stuff done.    Snow on the boat from last weekends storm...  This weekend was warm enough to clear the decks, and warm enough for Butyl to flow and seal..  Eventually I will get all the deck fittings re-installed and leak free.  This is a frame mount for the dodger. The block is polyethylene, the same stuff I am replacing all the on deck teak with. Along that same line of projects, Bought a Dodger kit and Sail Pack Cover kit from Sailrite. Those things are $pendy, gonna be PB&J round here for a bit. Also, I was able to dig out the dinghy, still holds air.  I bought new covers for the air valves because the old ones went missing.  Thanks to Chase Leavitt in Ellsworth for helping me find replacements....

After the recent installation of the bevel adapter for the new furnace flue.  I had to reinstall the plastic grab rails.  Unfortunately, one of the mounting holes was now covered by the bevel adapter, so I had to split the grabrail into two pieces, and reshape it.  I think it came out OK... I am bedding everything with Butyl Rubber, and the recent sleet storm tested it with no leaks found.  while working on Via Mente in my front yard, it is so cold, and the times it is warm enough to do anything outside are few and far between.... I spend a lot of time reminiscing.... Here was a fun day. November of 2016 Sailing back from Marco Island to St James City.

 It was cold here in Maine this last weekend.  Temps down to negative 16 around the house, and windchills into the minus 50s.  The water pipe feeding the house froze in the middle of the night, woke Saturday at 3am to no water.  I dug out the ice from in front of the access. and started running my space heater under the house.   when there was enough light to work, I moved to the other side of the house to get closer to the problem area.  once I thawed out the plumbing, the water meter started spraying out everywhere.  It had cracked from ice.  I crawled thru the rapidly growing puddle and shut off the valve.  My coverall was frozen stiff by the time I got back inside the house... I'm sure there were dozens if not hundreds of similar stories all over the region, BUT, no lie.... On a Saturday morning, Maine Water in Bucksport was there to replace my meter in less than an hour after my call.  Hot Showers for Everyone! ...But back to t...

December of 2014 Judy and I taking the shortcut thru Florida... But for one little obstacle.  53 Ft mast and a 49 Ft bridge.