Kaimusailing

I awoke early, but not in the middle of the night, maybe a quarter to six. Well, if I wanted to break the cycle of stay up too late stay in bed too late in the morning, this was the morning to get up and at it. I made breakfast and began working. The portlight bezels that had been slowly forming a bit at a time now needed some sanding and fairing.
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I used the angle grinder with flap wheel to smooth the faces of the bezels and carefully clean up the rounded corners. The inside corners were also rounded, now, and I had to find a way to clean them up. I found my old roll of stick on sanding tape, about 3 inches wide and put a carriage bolt through the center with large fender washers holding the roll of sandpaper in place. I put the end of the bolt into the Makita drill and used it to sand the inside corners. The sandpaper was fine, maybe 150, so it took a long time to get them done, in fact the roll of sandpaper began collapsing, so I had to find another way. I wrapped the stick on sandpaper tape to a small piece of large diameter plumbing pipe and started hand sanding the inside corners, but that was a futile effort. I gave up and looked for a cylindrical rasp bit that fit in the drill. Surprisingly I found it and began grinding away. There are 4 bezels, 4 corners, 16 inside corners to smooth out. I worked a long time at it and finally finished.
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It was now around noontime and although I usually have a late breakfast and my lunch is more like an early dinner, today I would have a ham and cheese sandwich with tomato and mayo and a small glass of pinot noir. I had brought a large plastic container into the galley and put it on the dinette table. I began emptying a cabinet next to the dinette and the counter below the cabinet into the container. My idea was to clean that area up and then just stow things back in the cabinet and onto the counter that belonged there. The stuff I had removed included the remains of an electric motor, some hardware, tools, and plastic dishes that I would never use.
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It was now heating up in the galley and I took the trash bag out to the dumpster to dispose of it and go for a bike ride around the boatyard. I took a break on the communal porch when Roughrider Lynn showed up along with Radio Bill. We discussed a number of topics for quite a while. We broke up when Lynn got back to her sanding the boat bottom job. I realized it looked like rain and began organizing my stuff so that the rain wouldn’t damage anything. The bezels needed a coat of epoxy to seal the wood, so I put on a coat and left them to cure.
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I had pasta with meatballs for dinner, so I now brought that down to the condemned communal kitchen along with the large skillet, a jar of great tomato sauce from Parma, Italy, the remnants of a box of pinot noir from Black Box, bowls, utensils, and brought Eloisa’s round table to set up on the communal porch. I texted Eloisa and Robert that pasta was warming up on the porch. I sat with a glass of wine. Blue, the black American cocker spaniel, showed up, wanting to play.
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Eloisa came by and Big Dave came over. The discussion turned to legal matters. The question was why would a lawyer confront a defendant with questions about their involvement in the Jan. 6th insurrection when they could just pull out a cell phone and ask, “Is this you?”, playing back footage that is widely available on the internet. David said a lot of times attorneys are asking questions that seem inane, but their real goal is to get you to blurt out something.
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Dave was waiting for his big pickup truck to arrive, he had a detail shop clean it up and buff out. It looked like a new truck. He drove off to return the delivery driver and also get his own dinner.
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Eloisa and I were enjoying the pinot noir and having some of the leftover meatballs and pasta. Blue got a generous helping, hand fed to him. Robert showed up and announced his latest work inside his trimaran. Eloisa brought out to him a bowl with a couple of meatballs and pasta. He said he would eat it later and left. I had a second bowl of just the pasta and a couple more glasses of pinot.
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I was checking Webb’s track down the coast and he was in the vicinity of Brunswick. After looking at the beginning of the Dick Cavett show on a retro TV channel I fell asleep before 9:30. I awoke at 11:45, sore and achy. I thought it was from wrestling with the young black lab Lady who pulls so hard on the leash. I fell asleep and woke up an hour or so later. My shoulder was very sore. I had trouble falling asleep and awoke around 8 AM. I checked Webb’s progress and he was entering the St. Marys Entrance to Cumberland Sound. I made my usual breakfast and looked around, was he up to the boatyard yet? No, but Rocky lifted out a boat, power washed it, put it in a cradle, while another boat came up the North River. Radio Bill had his AIS receiver going and told me the name of the boat, not Webb’s Gannet. Later I did see a boat coming up the river, far away, a small boat, making slow progress. That must be Webb. The tide was ebbing and he would hit an adverse current that would only grow stronger.
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I biked around, spoke with yard personnel, some who hadn’t heard of Webb Chiles. One of them googled and said wow he’s 80 years old. I biked around some more. I had some work to do, but I took a break now and then to see the little boat make some progress, then stop, just short of the meandering turn that opens into the stretch of water in front of the boatyard. He must be changing batteries I said or anchoring to hold fast against the ebb tide.
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Radio Bill later said Webb was anchored and I said yes I know, Bill said he was anchored right in front of the boatyard, and I saw he was. Webb and I were emailing each other, but I had sent him my phone number. He said it was OK to call him, but I didn’t have his number. I sent him my number again and he called. I said maybe he did send me his number a while ago, but maybe I was impaired. We had a nice short talk and I knew he wanted to talk about his recent sail. I said I had to finish up a little job and go to the beach with a lovely lady.
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I went with Eloisa and Blue down RT 17 to Fernandina Beach and settled down at our favorite place, the Sand Bar. It was windy and the surf was crashing. There were no beach umbrellas out on the tables, so we sat in the sun. I was able to purchase a bottle of pinot noir and have a burger, fish and chips for Eloisa. We talked for a while and I knew our relationship was solid, but not going to get us going too far, she didn’t want to go around on a boat, she wanted maybe to drive in an RV, didn’t want a house, thank god, but I felt bad. Give up the boats? I could walk away from the boats. I will have to someday. We went to the ice cream shop that we liked very much and had a puppy cup for Blue and coffee/chocolate for the humans.
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We returned to the boatyard but thought we saw Big Dave’s truck at Pirate’s Point, the gas station restaurant. Radio Bill was getting ready to head out there and asked if we wanted to go. Of course not, we just returned from the beach, food, and wine, not to mention the ice cream. I went on board Kaimu and found an almost empty box of pinot noir and poured a small, less than half, glass. Eloisa texted me, want to go? Yes. We met at the Breezeway and I texted Big Dave, we are on our way.
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When we got there Radio Bill was into a pitcher of beer and Big Dave was not there. We joined Bill and I had a glass of his beer and Eloisa had a champagne with a splash of cranberry. The no-see-ums made their presence known. Eloisa got spray for Bill to use, but I was OK, they didn’t came after me until Bill and Eloisa sprayed, then I was the only target. Even Blue got sprayed. It was OK for a while, then I was swatting, rubbing my arms, getting bombarded by the little bugs. We were done with Bill’s dinner and all got in Eloisa’s vamper with Blue and Bill’s folding bike.
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Webb texted me about what he should do after overnighting in the river. I found Rocky running a large earthmoving machine, noisy, and he didn’t want to stop it so we could talk, but we did and he said, yes, there are 3 boats ahead of him, tell him to tie up to the floating dock. I relayed the info.
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The next morning Webb had found land, not unusual in the shallows near the docks, I relayed messages back and forth. Normally I would not even be awake this early, but this was a special occasion. Rocky, chief crane operator, had already hauled out two boats and a third was on its way. Webb would be #4. Alas, it takes time to put away the boats after they haul out. They travel through the yard very slowly. Webb was slated to be the first boat out the next morning. He opted to anchor in deeper water, a good idea. The weather was pleasant, just a matter of standing by for a day.
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Eloisa and Blue and I went to the mexican restaurant and both got our new favorite, Nachos Lebre. It’s more food than I can eat at one sitting with lots of guacamole, jalapenos, carnitas, and a zillion other tasty tidbits. Eloisa and Blue finished off the other plate. I took a to-go plate back to the boatyard.
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I cleaned another small section of the galley. I realized I had to be very careful now where to put things. Can’t have that archeological dig site.
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The communication between Webb and the boatyard was a fiasco, but I was the middleman, relaying messages. I was in touch with Webb via internet and in touch with Rocky, if he was in the boatyard. I began to realize that there was a certain kind of playing it by ear with the boatyard. A small crew. The work they were doing was amazing. On the day Webb came out they first moved a Benetau 49, a long boat, not on a cradle, but on jackstands. A cradle has six or eight jackstands built in, so you plop the boat in the cradle and adjust the jackstands, The cradle mover can take the boat and cradle anywhere, but slowly. Getting a cradle takes time also, the cradle mover moves like a snail, but it can pick up tens of tons. The main problem is that the soil has to hold up under tons of pressure. The solution is a mixture of gravel, clay, sand, and whatever else the secret formula has, graded and rolled with great pressure. The result is like tarmac, dense soil that can support heavy loads. The travel lift also exerts great pressure on the surface.
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After moving the Beneteau they picked up a cat-ketch that had a malfunctioning engine, but was now going into wet storage to save money. It would be hand warped around the dock to its resting space. At the same time a black sloop that had lost its prop was warped into the travel lift well and lifted out. Webb texted if the tide turned he was out of here. The tide kept coming in due to strong East winds, so it was prolonged. The lost prop boat was pressure washed and then put into a cradle. The cradle mover took off with the boat and returned with an empty cradle. Rocky brought the travel lift out over its well and Webb came motoring in slowly, lining up his approach. When he got close enough I said, “Approach the dock at the speed you wish to hit it”. He laughed. They carefully picked up his little boat. He got off and a few of us had a talk with him. Eloisa came down with Blue and Radio Bill was sharing sailing secrets with Webb. I couldn’t stand around for long due to my sore hip, so I went for a short bike ride. We decided to have a zen time down at Trotter’s Pond. No dogs allowed. We break the rule constantly, but he is not a dog, he is a baby gorilla.
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I played an album of jazzy music that I liked while Eloisa hit a tennis ball with the racket and sent it off down the shore of the Pond. Blue tore off and caught the ball on its second bounce. He returned but didn’t let her get the ball back. He let me. He wanted me to hit the ball, so I did. He came back and once again allowed me to get the ball, but I gave it to her and he had an angry dog look on his face. She hit it. We kept playing like this, sometimes he would bring the ball to her and sometimes he would sit there panting, guarding the ball between his paws. Then he would play after a short rest.
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We invited Webb to a meal at the gas station restaurant. He, Eloisa, Blue, Radio Bill, and Bill’s friend Chris commenced a meal, most of the orders were for shrimp and grits, I had the southwest burger and wine. Later Eloisa said, “He seems like an ordinary regular guy until he starts talking about some of his adventures.” It was our pleasure to be regaled with exploits.
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The next day I had leftover mexican for breakfast and put a second coat of white on the bezels. Eloisa and I went shopping for pizza ingredients. I decided to use the Parma, Italy pasta sauce on pizzas for the first time. Publix doesn’t carry Galbani whole milk mozzarella. When we mentioned this they ordered a bunch of part skim, not the same. I tried some Poly-O whole milk but I kind of remember it was not as good as the whole milk Galbani, but now it will be compared with the skim milk Galbani. The tricolored sweet peppers were there and a medium box of sliced mushrooms. I got a smoked beef sausage and a new bag of King Arthur flour.
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We stopped at the boatyard to put perishables in the fridge. We thought for a minute and said let’s go to the pond.
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The pond, Trotter’s Pond, has an interesting history. It is the story of a local artist who thought the pond, which was a dump site, could be transformed into a nice place, quiet, perfect to have your zen moments. He had the local public works department cart off truck loads of old tires and other trash. An aerator was installed to keep the water full of oxygen, and then the pond was stocked with bass, catfish, and grass carp. Grass carp is an invasive Asian species, but they are often introduced into bodies of water because they are bottom feeders and tend to clean up the water.
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Trotter, who only died recently, liked to come to his pond and his favorite moment was when a child would catch a fish. He liked to hear their glee.
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The pond has a certain calming aura and playing with the dog, watching the clouds overhead, the trees swaying in the breeze, gets us down into the zen zone. We don’t want to leave, but we haven’t had lunch, so we head down into town to the Grill. It’s in the French Quarter building, also called Southern River Walk. We sat in the outside bar and I had the pinot noir and contemplated some soup. The soup of the day was Clam Chowder, which in this place is very good, or Baja Chicken Enchilata Soup, and I took the bait. I turned away from a soup I knew would be great to a shot in the dark soup, I mentioned this to Eloisa.
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The soup came and it looked like a pile of stewed beans. I tasted it, very salty, I asked her for some of her water drink and spilled some into the soup. Hmm. Better. The wait staff returned, after a while, to find out I needed another pinot noir and a cup of hot water, like you use to make tea. She returned with both and was not shocked when I poured the hot water into the soup to make it into soup. Much better. Still too salty but not bad. I ate it and also bookmarked a recipe that might make a duplicate.
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Eloisa knows everything I don’t know and I’m not sure I cover much other ground. She detailed how to make the enchilada sauce, cuban style. She would use the remnants of a rotisseried chicken to make the stock and provide the protein. She would not use cream or yogurt in it.
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Maybe we will make this someday. When we got back to the boatyard we planned on a bike ride later and I left to sit on the communal pandemic porch. Radio Bill was there and we talked about our great dinner the night before. We biked down to the travel lift and Webb was in the slings. Bill and I joined him in the cockpit of his little boat. I mentally grabbed winch handles, sought hand holds while getting knocked down, while listening to Webb describing just those same maneuvers. Bill stayed on while I pushed off, had to bring Blue back to his Momma.
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The next day was Pizza Night and Webb said he would be leaving on the ebb tide and wouldn’t stay. Heck, I wanted him to try some of my pizza. When I went to the pilothouse early in the morning I could see he was no longer in the slings of the travel lift. There he was heading down the North River to the St. Marys River, then out to sea and Hilton Head.
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We had a spell of hot weather, but I kept up the work hockey style. The hockey players skate very hard for a few minutes, then get rotated to the bench and rejuvenate. I work for a while and when I start feeling the effects of heat I take a 15 minute break. Sometimes it means I don’t get much done, but today I was also making pizza dough, so I had some built in rest times. I was replacing the portlight bezels. The old ones were glued to the cabin sides with E6000, a urethane flexible adhesive and had to be sliced with a putty knife and hammer. The old bezel was clamped to the new one and screw holes were drilled exactly where they were on the old one. Then the new bezel was screwed onto the cabin side. I only got 3 mounted and it was hot work.
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The heat made the yeast go crazy and I had to knock down the dough every 15 minutes. Eloisa had taken Blue to the NO DOGS ALLOWED pond and had a nice day in the cooling breezes. When she returned it was time for me to prep the toppings. I had two mozzarellas, Galbani Part Skim, and Poly-O Whole Milk. Neither was as good as my prefered Galbani Whole Milk, but after tasting them decided I would use both of them. I Julienned 3 sweet peppers, red, orange, and yellow. A 12 oz. Package of hickory smoked sausage was sliced and Blue got the end pieces. I was surprised when he ate samples of the sweet peppers.
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I had a liter of pinot noir and had a glass. I started the oven and texted “The oven is lit and so is the chef.” I also texted “Pizza Night 5:30.” I checked the mail room for a package, a headlight that you wear on your forehead, it works great, rechargeable and lasts all day or all night. Thank you Tom for your suggestion.
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I ran into the fellow who had disrupted us several times before, but boatyarders had said he’s not that bad a fellow, so I invited him to Pizza Night. As we gathered it was me, Eloisa, Blue, Radio Bill, Helicopter Dave, Roughrider Lynn, and the disruptive fellow. He started up an obnoxious conversation right from the get go. Eloisa said she had to make a pit stop and left, never to return. Radio Bill sat with a stoic expression on his face. I whispered, she could leave, but I can’t. Now I was glad Webb had left early and missed this Pizza Night.
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Disruptive fellow asked if he could light a cigarette using the pizza oven and I said no. I meant it was physically impossible because the oven was cooling down from 1000 degrees, plus even if you could get to the flame deep inside there was no way to light a cigarette without lighting yourself on fire. He grabbed a rock and tried to lift the top off the oven while I was asking him what he was doing. The top of the oven crashed to the ground and I really started yelling at him. What a big mistake inviting him. Never again.
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The pies were great, the dough came out perfect. I bake the pies Connecticut style with some charred spots. I ended up with a couple of slices for the next day. The next day I finished the last bezel. Eloisa was cleaning the Breezeway apartment and I showered and put on a loud Hawaiian shirt and we went to the Grille, Southern River Walk, or French Quarter. We could dine in an outdoor area with Blue. The specials chalkboard had spaghetti and meatballs as the special and I love spaghetti and meatballs, yummy. I ordered it and pinot noir, Eloisa hesitated and then ordered a Caesar salad with grilled chicken on the side. After a while the food came out, a meatball parm sub with fries and a nice looking salad, definitely not Caesar. The waitstaff explained the spaghetti and meatballs were the lunch special and there was no more of that left. He couldn’t explain why the kitchen made the salad they did. Finally we agreed to eat what came out and he said he would comp the meals to us. The food was actually quite good. The bill came to $14.
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I look in shock that I haven’t posted on the blog in over a week. Mostly we did a little work in the heat and then went somewhere for wine and dinner. We had another peel and eat shrimp cocktail with local Mayport jumbo shrimp from Winn-Dixie at $10.99/lb.
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I finished a small deck box cover that goes over the rope locker. While searching for my multimeter I found a new analog meter and then I remembered putting it on my shopping list, then buying it, then forgetting about it. Now it’s time to do some electrical work.
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The image is of the peel and eat jumbo shrimp cocktail.