Kaimusailing

s/v Kaimu Wharram Catamaran

Vessel Name: Kaimu
Vessel Make/Model: Wharram Custom
Hailing Port: Norwalk, CT
Crew: Andy and the Kaimu Crew
About: Sailors in the Baltimore, Annapolis, DC area.
15 August 2021 | Somers Cove, Crisfield, MD
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Recent Blog Posts
01 March 2024 | St. Marys, GA

D4 Dinghy Alternative Seats

The rain event was more wind than rain, strong winds with gusts up to 44 mph. We drove into town to see what the harbor was like. There was a small sailboat that had dragged anchor and was sitting close to shore. The tide was out. We left and played with Bleu at Notter’s Pond.

23 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA

D4 Inside Seams

Day two of the dinghy build started out with me finishing wiring the hull bottoms together on the centerline of the bottom panels. This was much easier than the wiring of the chine edges of the bottom panels and the side panels.

15 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA

D4 Dinghy Day One

A Wharram Pahi 26 had been anchored in the river nearby the boatyard and was hauled out with the travel lift. I went around to look at it and talked to the owner couple. I was surprised that it had been built in Martinique in 1988. The boat is more than 30 years old.

11 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA

D4 Redux

The inflatable (deflatable) dinghy I had bought was deteriorating. It had bottom seams separating. It is a West Marine branded dinghy made out of PVC. HH66 is the adhesive to reattach the seams. A friend had a similar problem and bought the same adhesive. I was waiting to hear from him how it worked [...]

06 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA

The Clincher

We decided to go to Amelia Island for the day, probably to the beach. Our plan to cycle around on the Raleigh 20’s seemed like a bad idea, Bleu can’t keep up with a bicycle for very long and when he quits he quits. So we would walk, where?, Fort Clinch State Park. She has a forever pass for Florida [...]

26 January 2024 | St. Marys, GA

Zen and Bike Maintenance

Eloisa rolled into the boatyard after a long drive down from the mountains. It was getting cold and isolated up there. I had a nasty toothache and we went to Southern River Walk. Bleu, her black American cocker was showing a bit of plumpness. I had had a sandwich and some wine already, so I didn’t [...]

D4 Dinghy Alternative Seats

01 March 2024 | St. Marys, GA
Cap'n Chef Andy | cold front rain wind
The rain event was more wind than rain, strong winds with gusts up to 44 mph. We drove into town to see what the harbor was like. There was a small sailboat that had dragged anchor and was sitting close to shore. The tide was out. We left and played with Bleu at Notter’s Pond.
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Back at the boatyard I had to refasten a tarp. The wind was really howling.
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Supplies were coming in for the dinghy project, epoxy, 1708 glass cloth, plastic syringes to measure epoxy, mini paint rollers, and a dozen multitool blades. Some of the items came from TEMU and cost a fraction of the prices at the local stores.
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I glassed most of the exterior of the dinghy with 1708 and found it difficult to lay flat. Cutting darts in the cloth helped. The scissors soon became dull. I had to babysit the epoxy as it began to cure. I got most of it to stick and stay stuck.
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The next part of the project was the seats. I was straying off the building plans now, I was making seats with similar shape to the Eastport Pram by Chesapeake Light Craft. Also I cut a curve into the top of the bow transom and a compound curve into the top of the stern transom. The Eastport Pram has beams under the seats to stiffen them. Also there is a daggerboard case that is part of the middle seat.
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Next I laminated 1708 to the transoms inside and out. I found some scrap lumber from some long ago project. I made 1X3 seat crossbeams and two 1” wide cleats for the centerboard case. The cleats are spacers to hold the two sides of the centerboard case 1” apart. The centerboard case attaches to the middle seat seat beam and the seat is fastened atop.
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The bow seat is actually a bow deck if you are building the dinghy rigged for sailing. It took a long time to shape it, compound angles all around. I contemplated putting a crown in the little deck but kept it flat.
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The edges of the seats are curved. I used the angle grinder with a flap disc to round off the edge and smooth out the curves. I dry fitted the seats and beams and was ready to glue it all up when I remembered there are small wooden blocks underneath the ends of the seats and across the stern transom to support the rear seat. A cold front was approaching so I had a yardbird help me flip the dinghy upside down on the sawhorses. The bottom is glassed already so rain will not hurt it.
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All the tools had to be put away under cover. While I was scurrying around doing that, the boatyard came and took away the gray Westsail 32 (nickname Wet Snail) to be put into the Travel Lift slings for launching. Now there was a big space between me and Komputer Ken, a space big enough for a certain catamaran, CATNAPPER, waiting for haul out.
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Eloisa arrived just as I was about to call her and invite her to have dinner at the China Wok. She had never eaten there before. It has great food but the ambiance is of a take out place with just a couple booth tables. I had Hot and Spicy Shrimp and Hot and Sour Soup. Eloisa had Egg Foo Young and the soup with some spring rolls. We then left and had some wine and tea at Southern River Walk.
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The night was chilly and rain was imminent. We will have a rain day and then get back on the dinghy project over the weekend. The image is of the dinghy with seats dry fitted in place.

D4 Inside Seams

23 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA
Cap'n Chef Andy | Cold Front on its Way
Day two of the dinghy build started out with me finishing wiring the hull bottoms together on the centerline of the bottom panels. This was much easier than the wiring of the chine edges of the bottom panels and the side panels.
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Next I cut out a temporary form that was a bulkhead in the original plans, a bulkhead that formed the support for the rear edge of the middle seat. This was cut from scrap ¼” ply. Next the bow and stern transoms were cut out of ½” ply.
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When I tried to force the bulkhead form into place in the middle of the boat it wouldn’t fit. I tried to wire it in place, tried banging on it, prying it with a pry bar, it just wouldn’t go. I quit and went shopping with Komputer Ken and Doc, of Doc’s Chop Shop.
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Doc and Ken had cats that needed to see the vet. They dropped me off at Walmart to shop for epoxy tools. I needed individual small jars for the hardener and resin, plus marinade syringes I use to measure the epoxy. It turned out that they no longer carried the syringes. After finishing my shopping I had a Subway sub for a very late lunch. The dynamic duo and their cats did not return for a couple hours. The afternoon was shot.
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Back at the boatyard I ripped the bulkhead form out of the dinghy hull and remeasured it. It was cut correctly. Perhaps the CAD design had not taken into account the thickness of the planking.
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The next day I looked at the bulkhead form and saw it was exactly ½” too wide. I trimmed ¼” off each side where it contacted the hull sides. Now it should fit, but the sides and bottoms wouldn’t bend enough for the keel centerline to form the correct angle. I tried a pry bar, wedges, nothing would bend the hull into shape. The final thing that worked was setting up a Spanish windlass and clamps at the very rear of the bottom panels and forced them into a vee. This vee also veed the bottoms under the bulkhead form. I was able to wire the form to the hull sides.
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Next I worked on the stern transom. I had left the hull sides and bottoms untrimmed because I remembered there being a discrepancy when I built this same design back in 2018. I could see the markings on the starboard hull bottom and starboard hull side. The marks were ½” different in the length of the panels. I duplicated the marks onto the port side panels. First the starboard hull side was wired to the transom at the top and the transom was forced down and wired to the top of the port hull side. The rest of the fastening will have to came later.
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The bow transom was impossible to force into position. The angle of the bottoms at the bow transom was close to 90 degrees. I could not put a Spanish windlass there and install the bow transom at the same time. It took a long time and many wires, longer than what was used on the hull bottom chine seam, but the edges were forced into position. Wires broke, were replaced, a little here, a little there, eventually it all came together. The bottom panels had a twist at the bow where the vee angle increased and that was difficult to force into the ¼” plywood. The earlier build in 2018 used 5mm Revolution ply which was more pliable and easy to work with, but unfortunately not water resistant, resulting and a beautiful dinghy that lasted only 2 years.
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The stern needed more attention, the transom was attached at the top corners, but the lower edges were not. Once again the stiffness of the plywood required more wires, longer, and after a while the stern was attached all around.
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The next step would be applying epoxy fillets to the inside corners of the hull along both chines, the centerline keel, and the vertical corners at both transoms. This would have to wait, rain is forecast for the weekend, so the project will sit under wraps till Monday.
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TEMU, the Chinese merchants that I have been using for a while now, are sending me an optical thermometer and a nice brass hose nozzle. I have been shopping for plastic barbecue marinade syringes which I use to accurately measure epoxy before mixing. They are calibrated in half ounce increments. For use with epoxy the tips have to be enlarged, drilled out a bit, sorry, no pun intended. Walmart used to carry them $.88 each, no longer. Not available. I searched. TEMU has them so I ordered. Like 4 for 3 bucks. They also have the small paint rollers which come with a small roller frame for about 3 bucks. I needed to buy more, ten dollar minimum, so I ordered a set of 12 multitool blades, expensive at twelve and a half bucks. Check the prices at Harbor Freight. The twelve blade assortment will come in handy. That’s like a buck a blade. Check the prices at Harbor Freight.
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The multitool is extremely useful. When I have to replace a section of plywood I have already chopped into it to see where it has gone bad. I continue chopping until all the bad plywood is gone. I tape measure the area and come up with a simple shape that will fix it, then cut that shape out of new plywood of the correct thickness. It can be a rectangle or any other simple shape. I place the shape on top of the repair area and run the multitool around the edge. Then I gouge out what’s inside the cut and glue the new piece of plywood in place. Done. Simple, not much measuring.
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The young couple with the Wharram Pahi 26 were put in the boatyard right across from the Pandemic Porch. I walked over and conversed with them. I conversed, they went about their business, but I found out they purchased the small catamaran in Marinique and sailed it here, not directly, a big adventure on a small boat. They may not even have a motor on board.
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I use a Chinese half liter tin cup for my coffee, it lets it cool down faster, and for my evening wine, kill two birds with one stone. One morning I noticed, before making coffee, that the no-see-um’s were going crazy at the tin cup. They were obviously after the leftover wine in the cup. I realized then that I had been drinking coffee with a substantial tincture of no-see-um every day.
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In Crisfield we put our cell phones over our glasses of wine to prevent the swarming insects from polluting. Now I am doing the same. The gnats come into a closed boat drawn by some faint wine aroma. But my wine aroma is probably not faint. My wine process results in no leftover wine, but plenty of leftover wine aroma. This draws the gnats. They are drawn to my boat and to the boatyard. What about the town?
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Maybe if I stopped drinking wine and pressure washed most of my boat, the gnats would lose interest and stop pestering me, the boatyard, and the town. But I know I won’t get any credit for that. Let them suffer, I will keep drinking wine.
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The weekend forecast was rain, rain, rain. Everything was put away out of it. I went back and read again my work on the D4 in 2018. There is a time lapse video link there of me putting the gunwales on, laminating them. I was in touch with Eloisa again and sent her the link. Her phone service, wherever she is now, is intermittent. Probably in the mountains, keys, or nearby Fort Clinch.
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The rain is light but steady. Too wet to work outside. The boatyard is quiet. Now and then there is a sound of a power tool somewhere. Eloisa gave me a compliment on a sample of writing I sent her. It was a fluke.
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Work resumed on the D4 dinghy. I made the usual 50/50 colloidal silica/glass microspheres mix with epoxy resin and when it was at the consistency of peanut butter began applying it to the inside seams of the dinghy. At first I tried putting the mixture into a zip lok bag, cut off a corner, and use it like a cake decorator. This resulted in too much of the mixture remaining in the bag. I then used a large tongue depressor to put the mix into the seams. The end of the depressor had a radius of about ¾”, so the fillet in the seam would have a smooth curve for later when it gets fiberglassed. The fiberglass has a minimum radius it can conform to.
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The inner seams of the bow and stern transoms were not filleted as well as short segments of the long seams amidships where the bulkhead form was keeping the hull sides at the correct angle. I didn’t want to glue the form to the hull.
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The next day I did the remainder of the inside seams. The dinghy was strong enough to turn it over. I also changed sawhorses to lower the dinghy to work on its exterior. I made the mixture again and worked it into the exterior seams. I then used a flexible piece of plastic to smooth the seams, worked like a charm.
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Rain was forecast so everything was put away out of the wet. The next job would be glassing the exterior of the dinghy with 1708 biaxial cloth. The image is of the D4 dinghy just before flipping it to work on the outside seams.




D4 Dinghy Day One

15 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA
Cap'n Chef Andy | Chilly AM, Warm PM
A Wharram Pahi 26 had been anchored in the river nearby the boatyard and was hauled out with the travel lift. I went around to look at it and talked to the owner couple. I was surprised that it had been built in Martinique in 1988. The boat is more than 30 years old.
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I planned to watch the Super Bowl on my TV aboard Kaimu, but Geoff and Karen invited me to watch it with them and have some shrimp gumbo dinner. I biked to their house, the longest ride I’ve taken since Crisfield. The gumbo was perfection, the shrimp came right from the docks in Fernandina, as fresh as you can get. The game started out as a defensive slug fest that began to morph into a continual display of offensive genius by both teams. In the end Patrick Mahomes threw a touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman in overtime to win the game. Mecole was on the NY Jets to start the season, now he will get a Super Bowl ring.
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I biked back to the boatyard very late. The road is not well lit and I took care not to run into anything. After a long phone call to Hawaii I got to sleep well after midnight. The next day I was slowly going about my business and hoping to watch my daughter’s wedding via the link she sent me by Skype. Alas, the video was not kept long enough and after a late breakfast I realized I had missed it. Later it was reposted and I watched and shared it with family in Hawaii and Pennsylvania.
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The next day we planned on going to Yulee to buy plywood. After looking at online home improvement stores I decided to try the local Lowes store. I was looking for BCX or ACX, basic plywood, not marine, although ¾” marine plywood was available, I was looking for ¼” and 3/8”. I had trouble finding the plywood and the checkout said someone would come and help me. It ended up I found the pile of ¼” and grabbed a couple sheets. The plywood looked acceptable to build a dinghy. Nearby was some nice ½” ply which I grabbed. I liked the looks of it and it would suffice to replace the 3/8” called for in the plans for the bow and stern transoms and the seats. When I checked out I received a 10% discount because I am a military veteran.
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Komputer Ken who was transporting me and the plywood received a Chinese lunch at China Wok. I could not finish my lunch special, shrimp in garlic sauce, and saved it for later. We brought the plywood to the boatyard and stacked it on sturdy sawhorses. I gathered tools for scribing cut lines on the plywood and began trying to decipher the D4 plans, which are a .pdf file from long ago. There are some dimensions that are difficult to read.
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I worked my way over the top sheet of plywood and all went well. Took a while to plot the points to make the cut lines. After plotting and drawing the outline for one hull side I squatted down and tried to determine if the lines were smooth and fair. They looked good. I went on and plotted the lines for ½ of the bottom. The dimensions on the plans were not straightforward and the result on the plywood wasn’t fair. I quit for the day and pondered what the effects of the unfairness would be. The unfairness was in the forward chine edge of the hull bottom. It looked like just making it fair to the eye would do.
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I had the remainder of the chinese shrimp and couldn’t finish the leftovers.
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I redrew the chine edge and ignored the one point that wasn’t fair. I dug out my makita circular saw and began cutting the plywood dinghy parts. The plywood panels were fastened together face to face with the bad sides in and the good sides out. The first two cuts were following the chine edge of one hull side and the chine edge of one hull bottom half. This left just a small strip between the hull side and hull bottom to be cut. The forward edges at the bow were cut off but the stern edges were left uncut. I remember there being a discrepancy at the stern when I built the previous dinghy in 2018. The stern ends will be trimmed after the hull is wired together.
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I made a jig to drill the holes for the wire that is used in “stitch and glue” construction. The holes are about ¼” from the edge of the plywood and 4” apart from each other. The jig rests against the edge of the plywood and it has a small sheet rock screw that can fit into a drill hole in the plywood and it has a drill hole 4” away from the screw. The procedure is to drill the first hole, then use the jig to drill all the rest of the holes in that edge of the plywood.
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The seam between the pair of bottom panels must have the holes perfectly lined up when the panels are paired together. The same is true for the hull bottom chine edge and the hull side chine edge. I chose to start the chine holes at the front of the panels where the bow transom would be attached. All these panels are in pairs, left and right, and all have been fastened together face to face so that drilling puts holes in both exactly identical.
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The panels are unfastened and the job of wiring them together begins. I started with one hull bottom panel and its adjacent hull side panel putting a short piece of solid copper wire about 3” long through the first hole near the stern of the panels. I reasoned that the panels narrow toward the bow, so leaving the bow at the end of the wiring would be easier to manage than going the other way.
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This job took about 2 hours just to wire two panels together. It was extremely difficult to do it alone. The panels want to collapse flat and when that happens the wires get pulled apart. There is a lot of leverage in the panels to undo the wiring. It took time to hook up weights, clamps, and ropes to hole the panels in place as well as the difficulty in getting the wire in through the holes and twisting it. Sounds simple to do but is not easy to do.
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Geoff the chemist came by and said he couldn’t see how the panels would fit together. I didn’t want to spend another 2 hours to wire two more panels together so I changed my technique. I started the second pair of panels at the same point but then went to the middle of the panels and wired one hole there, then went to the bow of the panels and used a long piece of the same wire to bring the bow end of the panels together. To keep the panels from collapsing I jammed the wire stripper tool which had rubber handles and a sharp tip between the panels to force them into an angle where the chine edges were aligned together. This wiring session took about 45 minutes and didn’t need any clamps, etc.
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Finally I placed both pairs of panels together at the centerline seam of the bottom and wired the hole at the stern end, a hole in the middle, and finally the hole at the bow. Then I put spacers to warp the hull sides and bottom panels into shape. I could see that the chines and keel were fair. There was about ½” discrepancy at the stern where the transom would be mounted, but that will be trimmed after fitting the transom.
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The next step is to cut out the bow transom and the stern transom. A pram has two transoms. The bow will be lined up and fastened to the front edges of the bottoms and the sides. The stern transom will be fastened to the rear edges of the bottoms and the sides and they will be trimmed to fit the transom.
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The original design had 4 bulkheads that supported seat edges and also define the angle of the bottom and side panels, so I will have to make at least one fake bulkhead to hold the hull into shape while fiberglassing the seams. My plan is to fiberglass tape the interior seams, then flip the hull over and fair and glass the whole bottom. When that sets up the hull is in its final shape. The interior is glassed, then seat stringers, centerboard case, mast step, seats, and gunwales are attached. I hope to accomplish all that in about a week. Finishing will take about another week.
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The image is of the progress of day one, bottom panels and side panels wired together.

D4 Redux

11 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA
Cap'n Chef Andy | Beginning of Spring
The inflatable (deflatable) dinghy I had bought was deteriorating. It had bottom seams separating. It is a West Marine branded dinghy made out of PVC. HH66 is the adhesive to reattach the seams. A friend had a similar problem and bought the same adhesive. I was waiting to hear from him how it worked out.
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I saw a chined hard dinghy in the boatyard that reminded me of the D4 dinghy that I had built using Chinese plywood that eventually fell apart. I abused it and maybe could have preserved it better. Geoff the chemist sent me a highlighted spec sheet on the “Revolution” plywood. Basically it said not waterproof although it is designated for underlayment in tiled bathrooms.
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It took a long time to build that boat and I thought it would be easier and quicker to not build it with enclosed foam under the seats. I thought I would have made seat stringers inboard along both hull sides and just fasten the seats to them. The original had bulkheads supporting the seats. I supposed some strengthening cross strips, maybe 1X2 would be enough to strengthen the seats. Alternatively I could build it with just one central seat that uses a centerboard case to help support it.
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Komputer Ken had a little project of pumping rainwater out of a boat on the other side of the boatyard and I went to help him. We brought a length of garden hose to set up a siphon. The water was above the floor boards and had a slick of diesel on it. The siphon didn’t work, perhaps there was an air leak in the hose somewhere. We used cordless tool batteries and a bilge pump with hose attached. We were able to bring the level of the water below the floorboards before the batteries died. I was the volunteer who waded around in that mess with my pants jammed up above my knees. My legs were covered with bilge oil and crap. I biked to the communal shower like that and washed that stuff off. No good deed goes unpunished.
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My friend who repaired his inflatable with HH66 adhesive said he was afraid to take it out on the water. He had the same problem as we do, the bottom was separating from the flotation tubes. If the bottom comes off you are in a giant odd shaped inner tube.
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Venus de Milo Restaurant which has gone under was known for its soups and chowders. I noticed their clam chowder recipe used equal parts of onion and celery, so I made a batch. I started by rendering a half pound of bacon, minced, then adding about 4 cups of celery and 4 cups of onion. I added the juice from 3 cans of baby clams, 3 bay leaves, two tbsp of better than bouillon, chicken base. When the veggies were tender I added a quart of half and half and when that came just to a boil I added 8oz of clam juice with two tbsp of corn starch. Mix and when it thickens add the clams and turn off the heat. Dust with fresh black pepper. There are no potatoes and no water.
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Chesapeake Light Craft has a nice pram dinghy design that I will borrow the shape of the seats from. The D4 dinghy has plain straight edged seats that are simple and look so. The CLC Eastport pram has nice curved edges. That little change makes the dinghy look more like a piece of fine furniture.
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I went back in the blog to look at the dinghy construction, Spring of 2018. It looked like 21 days instead of 20 hours. Of course I was doing other things. If I can make one in two weeks, that would be a big plus. The blogpost starts at: https://www.sailblogs.com/admin/blog_manager/post_edit.php?xjMsgID=440809.
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The image is copied from clcboats.com, Eastport Pram, a dinghy kit with precut parts.

The Clincher

06 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA
Cap'n Chef Andy | cold front rain wind
We decided to go to Amelia Island for the day, probably to the beach. Our plan to cycle around on the Raleigh 20’s seemed like a bad idea, Bleu can’t keep up with a bicycle for very long and when he quits he quits. So we would walk, where?, Fort Clinch State Park. She has a forever pass for Florida state parks, so in we went. We drove around and ended up at the fort. We started hiking and went down to the beach. We could see the whole of St Marys Entrance, the inlet to Cumberland Sound.
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I oriented Eloisa as to where the ship channel markers where and we watched a sailboat battle the wind and current, both of which were strong, headed for the Fernandina Beach anchorage. We hiked around and I said we are going in the wrong direction. Maybe we could get back by following the beach path. She wanted to keep going the way we were going and I could tell we would be on a long trek.
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We came to another section of beach near a campground and we followed the beach to a sign that said there was a trail to the parking area where we were parked. We hiked the trail. Fort Clinch has some hills and sand dunes populated by trees and brush. A deer ran across the path in front of us. Bleu was exhausted enough to pretend to not notice the deer.
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We made it to the parking areas near the fort and were happy to land in the car. I mentioned the ice cream shop on Sadler Road. We could be there in less than an hour. And we were.
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I said Cherry Mocha out loud. Perhaps the ice cream shop would have that flavor. It did not. I got a bowl of mocha chocolate and strawberry ice cream, a scoop of each. Yum.
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We bought tickets for the Cumberland Island ferry to make a day trip and hike around on that island. Basically it’s a 4 hour visit and it worked out to about $30/person/hour. The ferry leaves in the morning two times, we chose the later 11:45 departure. It’s about 45 minutes to the docks at Cumberland Island.
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We hiked across the island to the ocean side beach. We saw an armadillo and at the end a horse calmly trotted through the ferry dock area just before we left the island. I took a lot of photos. I remarked it’s just like Fort Clinch but more expensive to get there.
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On our return we stopped at Southern River Walk. We are meeting more and more local people. Happy Hour ends at 6, so we made sure we cashed out in time. More friends arrived and we started a new tab. A band called Whiskey Heart set up their equipment and began playing. We stayed to listen. Very good.
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The next day I expected to be sore from all that hiking. Let’s go to the beach. We poked around at Fort Clinch. It had become windy and chilly. I took photos of St. Marys Entrance, the inlet from the ocean. A formation of support craft were gathering, I presume to escort a submarine into Cumberland Sound to the submarine base.
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Once again we returned to Southern River Walk and had the special soup of the day, Sweet Pepper Gouda Bisque. This time we left before the band started playing.
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The next day was chilly and rainy. A good day to stay inside and read and write. I had the last of the frozen cream of chicken florentine soup. Time to make another batch of soup. I binge watched Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Jerry Seinfeld hosting a comedian in an exotic car, talking and getting coffee. Some of the episodes are so so, but some are very good, especially when he has someone like Robert Klein onboard.
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Eloisa camped in Fort Clinch for a couple days. It was time to do laundry, shop, and recoup from the nasty weather.
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The image is a photo of the cirrus clouds overhead at Fort Clinch State Park.

Zen and Bike Maintenance

26 January 2024 | St. Marys, GA
Cap'n Chef Andy | mild
Eloisa rolled into the boatyard after a long drive down from the mountains. It was getting cold and isolated up there. I had a nasty toothache and we went to Southern River Walk. Bleu, her black American cocker was showing a bit of plumpness. I had had a sandwich and some wine already, so I didn’t order any food or wine, just coffee. Geoff and Karen arrived and invited us over for dinner and wine.
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I remarked that my tooth was killing me and then all the friendly advice came. Karen had a new dentist here in town, close by, so I googled the dentistry, found their website, and bookmarked it. After dinner I felt much better and continued watching football aboard Kaimu in the boatyard.
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The next morning I was horrified to see my face had puffed out, almost closing my left eye. This is getting serious. I looked up the dentist’s website to see how early they were open, 8, it was 8:10, I called and they listened to my story and asked if I could be there at 9.
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Eloisa brought me there in a pouring rain. I left with a prescription for antibiotics, and to give the pharmacy time to fill the prescription, asked if we could visit the post office. I had a package from TEMU and forwarded mail from St. Brendan’s Isle. I picked up the prescription. Everything was going like clockwork.
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I hadn’t had breakfast, nor had Eloisa, but she had stopped in a place called the Magic Market in St. Marys to get coffee and said it was a most charming place. I went along with her back there and we got two big quarts of homemade chili, 5 bucks a pop, and a fried chicken strip dinner, and two tomatoes, for a total of 18 dollars.
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We couldn’t eat in the park or the pavillion near the water, the wind was driving the heavy rain nearly horizontal. We stayed in the car and chowed down. I had a pile of stuff on my lap, including documents and TEMU stuff. Bleu jumped in my lap on top of everything. He was the one eating the chicken dinner. Spoiled puppy.
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We returned to the boatyard where I went into the woodshop, dry, not too cold, and began to play with some of my new TEMU toys. One was a bore scope for $5.99, free shipping. Another was a new brown suede phone case that actually fit the S23+. The bore scope plugs into the phone’s USB port and after loading the correct app I could get a picture from it. Also I had 3 water toys, like a plunger that can suck up and spray water, those will help out with the narrow spaces in the bilge to remove water.
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The Amelia Island Restaurant Week commenced and on the list is a restaurant named 1928 Cuban Bistro. They offered a $15 lunch including a Cuban sandwich and some other things with Spanish names. I wouldn’t order, just asked if service dogs are allowed, such as this one, Bleu, looks like a baby gorilla, not menacing though. They said yes. When Eloisa got to the order counter things began to happen. She knew what to get and we went and sat waiting for the food to arrive.
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The Cuban sandwich was beyond my abilities to describe. I ate half. She ordered too much food. I had a half of a sort of beef pastry and another with ham and cheese. The coffee was like espresso but in a glass, like half a cup, maybe like 3 shots of espresso. She was very happy and said the food was good, I said this place has been here all the years we have been here. We kept going to the beach, not here.
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We went to the beach. I really liked it. It’s January. There were people disrobing and swimming. Must be Northerners. I had a wine. Eloisa and Bleu played with the tennis ball and he was licking the sand and getting it in his mouth. Perfect day.
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We arranged to get the TV in the dining room of Southern River Walk to show the ABC NFL playoff game, which I could not get with my antenna. We ran errands and headed to Southern River Walk. I said if they have their clam chowder as special soup of the day I will get it, if not I will have their chicken parmesan. Either one would be great. When we walked in the chalkboard of specials included the clam chowder and also chicken parmesan over penne.
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It was happy hour, wine at half price. I ordered a cup of the soup and the chicken parm without the penne pasta. Bleu was allowed in the restaurant as a service dog. He was wearing his red service vest with the doctor’s authorization letter in a clear plastic pocket.
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So far Bleu has been allowed into every restaurant except Pirate’s Point, and they might be the one that needs the business the most.
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So it had been a beautiful day, but the temperatures were about to plummet and the next day was raw. I was not feeling well and stayed shut in with the little propane heater trying to keep up with the cold. The next day was abut 10 degrees warmer and we went to downtown St. Marys after having a mexican lunch, once again inside with Bleu, and hiked around the docks. I took photos. We migrated over to Southern River Walk and had some happy hour wine. Geoff and Karen came in and we sat together. We were invited for dinner. I was not hungry at all. I was up for more wine. Geoff made his signature gumbo and rice. I politely tasted it.
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We were now heading into a week of very mild weather, nothing below 60 day or night.
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I had been trying to remember the name of the sail designer who invented the RAF sail and suddenly his name popped into my aged brain. When I searched for him I found he had a new website and on it his idea to create a fleet of garbage gathering ships to clean up the oceans of the world. I forwarded the site URL to Komputer Ken who is working on a similar project. The website is barryspanier.com.
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A new restaurant opened in St. Marys and it is Cuban so we had to go there. It was pleasant. Eloisa said it was OK, I would say if they are in business in 6 months I would be surprised.
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The microwave oven died. When we tested it the lights came on, but we couldn’t enter any function, the lights said 00:00. When I discard defeated devices I put them on the “Free Pile”. Someone will take them away and save me the trouble. There was a replacement microwave at Habitat for Humanity in town. We went there and the first thing I noticed was a Schwinn bicycle with no price tag at the front of the store. We had them test the microwave and I asked how much for the bike? 64.99.
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The bike looked to be in great condition but the tires were shot. You just need to get new tubes, replacement tires come with the bike. Sign me up. When we got to the boatyard and I could look at the bike I thought I had made a great deal. But this same bike, a Schwinn Prelude, was sold by Walmart for about 265, so not a really high end bike.
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Komputer Ken had two folding bikes, Raleigh Twenty’s, that someone gave him. In an act of good nature I pumped up the tires and found one of the bikes wouldn’t take air in the rear tire. Eloisa grabbed the other, adjusted the seat, and sped off. We had a bike ride through the Land’s End neighborhood. When we got back I said let’s go to Walmart and get tubes for these bikes.
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I also got a case of water and a couple bottles of Barefoot Pinot Noir, the magnums, at about ten bucks a pop, some new ham, cheese, and a bag of apples. When we got back she asked if we were going to work on the bikes. No, we were going to the pond to watch the geese and ducks, and Bleu can chase his tennis ball.
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There was a duck significantly different from the other ducks and geese. It was much smaller and when Eloisa said there is a small red duck out there I couldn’t see it. It is a diving duck and it spends most of its time underwater. It might be a Blunderhead, I may have that wrong.
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The Raleigh bike with the flat rear was my first victim. You can’t take the rear wheel off because it is a blasted English 3-speed, and the shift control cable goes right into the end of the axle, I loosened the nuts and got it part way out. I spent a lot of time looking for tools and trying to separate the shift cable, but we did the job without totally removing the wheel. When I got it together I pumped it up and took it for a ride. Doesn’t fit, but rides well.
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Eloisa wanted my attention and began a conversation about giving Bleu a haircut. Well, go do it. I had to deal with two more bike tires. The new tires were Bonswagger or something like that. The old tubes were probably good. I pumped them up after taking them out and they held air. I pumped the front up to 80 lbs. but the rear only went to 50. There was something leaking air. The bike was OK to ride. It felt twitchy like a high speed racing bike. The dirt surface in the boatyard was actually dangerous with this bike. I had to work on the front derailleur to allow high gear.
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I had to clean off from the bike work and took a shower. When I returned Eloisa had driven off with Bleu. Probably to the pond. We had some time to kill on a beautiful afternoon. I called her and she picked me up to sit at the pond. I walked around and got a picture of the elusive bird, the little diving duck, and then I felt hungry. Let’s go get lunch, at 4PM.
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Geoff called and the connection was garbled. He said he fixed the MG, not his, I asked is it at your house? He said no I’m at your boat. We were just two clicks away and there he was in the MG near the woodshop. I could tell he was proud of his work, the car was not even running when he volunteered to help its owner. Now here he was, it starts and runs. Looks pretty bad though. Needs detailing and a paint job. We were rude and sped off to eat.
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There was space at the bar at Southern River Walk and I got to converse with Kivajo, a local artist. We had water for Bleu and ordered food and wine for me and chai for Eloisa. They fawned over the dog. We kept two chairs in case Geoff and Karen came. At about a quarter after I said I guess they ain’t coming, and then they rolled in. We had conversation in two channels, one was the dog channel between Karen and Eloisa, and the other was the MG channel with Geoff.
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The image is of Notter’s Pond where Bleu likes to play.
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