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Day 874 Mars Still Calling |
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Monday, 14 September 2009 |
Day 874 - September 13, 2009
Wind W, 5 to 10 knots, Course E, Speed 1.5 knots, Position 10*01n by 20*44w
Mars Still Calling
I do hope we can send humans to Mars in my lifetime. The first president Bush called for it over 20 years ago. I had the article in my proposal for years until it got to be old news. It seems between all the countries in the world we have the know-how, but I am not sure beyond the space enthusiasts, the public is really interested.
It will take a lot more than space agencies to send humans past the moon. The public must make it happen and feel they are a part of it. People must look beyond themselves and want to evolve. Evolution is exploration beyond the known in any way possible: Either we evolve or we decline.
For me it is not so much landing humans on Mars as getting more people to quest for a larger reality; to tune into what our genes, the universe and God wants us to do. That is my larger hope for this voyage, but in turn it will influence the psychology of those who voyage to Mars. They will have to grow out of a beautiful fruit that is ready the world over.
There must be many who are ripe and ready to go. Then we will come to an understanding of what it takes. I just approached a prominent Mars psychologist. He saw our website and said, "That's cool! I hope you are coping with your isolation." Of course I am happy to get acknowledgement, but he must not have really read the website. He would have seen that I view this solitude as an opportunity that is a rare gift for me to savor, appreciate and share.
The astronauts who are going to sit in a cramped space capsule for 1000 days must feel the same way. How can we know they like isolation and confinement and can thrive under the possibility of iminent death unless they are the crème of the crop of many who have actually lived that way? What sort of life and death tests can be set up?
We must come to terms with death and have no fear and know that is our eventual lot in life. Unless there are astronaut trainees who know more by experience than intellectual psychologists, we won't be fully prepared. Mars is still calling, but I think we have a long way to go educating the public and preparing humans for this mission.
I continue to float in space. |
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Day 872 Broken Boat Parts as Icons |
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Friday, 11 September 2009 |
Day 872 - September 11, 2009
Wind N 10 knots, Course SW, Speed 2.2 knots, Position 10*42n by 20*54w
Broken Boat Parts as Icons
In the middle of the night the main gaffjaws came tumbling down. The mainsail spilled its wind, the schooner rolled, the main boom swung and banged and woke me up. When accidents happen in the dark, it always takes a little while to figure them out. I move carefully because things swinging around out of place can be dangerous. I went right to the mainsheet and pulled the boom in tight so it would not bang again. I lowered the jib and the staysail so we could turn into the wind and stop. I figured out the three quarter-inch thick eyebolt that holds the top of the block and tackle that pulls the throat of the gaff up had broken.
The gaff was now vertical to the mast. I had to keep the gaff jaws from going straight down and jamming when I lowered the peak. I tied the masttop working halyard to the jaws and ran it through a deck pulley bad the winch and cranked up the front of the gaff. Then I was able to lower the peak and get the sail down.
In the morning I carried the halyard blocks, my back pack of tools tied with strings, the spare eyebolt and the bossun's chair to the top of the mast. With my one-hand sledge hammer I pounded the broken eyebolt out of the hole and saved it as my new icon. I mounted the new eyebolt, hooked the top of the block and tackle on, put the bottom pulley hook through a ring in my safety harness and opened the four part tackle with my weight as I went down.
That is a very brief description of one of the toughest jobs I have done yet. I held the hefty hunk of broken steel eyebolt up to the heavens and praised it for carrying me this far and making me stronger. What choice do I have other than give all these broken parts respect as objects of uncritical devotion? I used the best of my knowledge and skills as I tried as hard as I could at the risk of my life for them. It was like removing a bad tooth from a flying dragon. I was grateful to be the one for the honor.
I will save this "tooth' as an empowered broken emblem, a symbol of the imperfect broken voyage that broke records and entrenched belief systems. These objects; broken steel, pulleys and sails have soul in them and deserve to live on as cultural teachers and holy art icons. |
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Day 870 A Myriad of Details |
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Wednesday, 09 September 2009 |
[EDITOR'S NOTE: image pending]
Day 870 - September 9, 2009
Wind SW, 10 knots, Course N, Speed 1.2. Position 10*45n by 20*29w
A Myriad of Details
I managed to do some artwork over the last few weeks and it was a great joy for me. I have always loved doing art and now I love it more than ever. The work of keeping a low budget homemade schooner at sea always sailing for longer than any boat does mount up on me. Painting is restful healing and spiritually uplifting and I will do my best to keep it as part of my routine, but now again, I have many important jobs that are calling me.
I have to spend time figuring out how to get the winch going again. I have to restitch several areas on the foresail, sew chaffing gear over problem spots on the halyards and turn its sheet end for end in hopes of making it last longer. The new padding on the gaffjaws has held up well and I will regrease it before I rehoist the sail. I will need to drop the mainsail soon before some new spots tear open. Luckily I feel comfortable enough with our position to be able to do some "sacred sideslipping" again.
As I take care of the big projects, I always move around and make peripheral inspections. I made a bilge check and it has been staying dry, but I found the hose slipped off the electric bilge pump. The hose clamps had broken. The bilge pump is secured on a plastic pole, so it is easy to pull out and inspect, clean and repair. Both of the bilge alarms are also on poles and easy to inspect. The bottom of the bilge is clean.
I put the last of the biocide in the diesel tanks and we still have more than half of our capacity. I am in the process of shifting through food and doing inventory and feel very confident. I do little carpentry jobs to keep the interior comfy.
Yesterday was another glorious nature day. From early in the morning a busy giant flock of white fairy terns wearing black caps and grey shawls stayed with the schooner feeding on something that a school of tuna was scaring to the surface. We sailed west into the sun as the spray and birds flew and dove and the fish jumped and flashed.
I just found the problem with the electric winch: the breaker corroded. I bypassed it temporarily clamping two big lugs with a vice grips. Now the winch works, but there are more problems to overcome... |
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Day 868 Big Flying Fish, Full Sail |
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Tuesday, 08 September 2009 |
Day 868 - September 7, 2009
Wind SW 10 to 20 knots, course NW, Speed 3 to 5 knots. Position 10*36n by 19*20w
Big Flying Fish, Full Sail
A beautiful morning and I make my deck rounds and prepare to lay out the new salt fish to dry in the sun. There were several nice flying fish and I thought they would make a nice lunch. Then I spotted a fish on deck that was so big I did not think it was a flying fish. It was a flying fish and the biggest one I have ever seen. He was very thick and I measured him at 15 inches long. The big flying fish have four wings...
We have had predominantly SW winds and I decided it was time to get further out to sea. Without the mainsail and a jib out front we can't go against the wind. I checked the electric winch only a few days before and it worked, so I was surprised when it didn't. I tried a new switch. I dismantled the wires and by passed the switch and still no luck. I inspected the wires down to where they disappear into a protected area under the winch. I checked the winch breaker and the fuse.
I realized I would have to dig a lot deeper and it would take me a long time, so I decided to raise the main sail by hand for the first time. As I said before, I have the mainsail set up with less pulleys. That makes it harder to pull up, but more importantly, I can get the sail down quickly without pulling on down hauls and this is reassuring in a blow. That is often when a sail tears, snapping in a heavy wind while I am trying to get it down and smother it. We have a big heavy gaff and sails.
To make it harder, all the bearings in my pulleys are worn out, so the pulleys don't turn as easily. I have a few spares left and I am saving them for the most important breakdowns. Setting the mainsail even with the powerwinch is not easy in a wind and rolling sea. Needless to say, I was huffing, puffing, flushed and resting before I was through, but the sail set well.
Then I set the jib by hand, got the schooner on a good NW course, coiled all my lines and cleaned my flying fish. It feels good sailing full sail. Lift off... to where?
Today I lowered the foresail for a variety of repairs and adjustments. Uh oh... some seams are going on the mainsail. I will have to keep a very close eye on her and drop her soon. |
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Saturday, 05 September 2009 |
Day 866 - September 5, 2009
Wind SW 18 knots, Course WNW, Speed 5.2 knots, Position 9*29n by 17*57w
The Biggest Mahi
The last fish I caught was a tuna a few months ago. I only catch what I need. I eat fish every day. After I salt and dry a big fish it lasts a long time. When I decided it was time for more food I threw my line in again and on the first try I caught a mahi. I pulled him up to the schooner and into the air and he got away! After a few more throws I pulled a big tuna into the air and he got away. After that they would not bite the lure. I tried the next morning and they still would not go for it. After a few days I gave up, but I knew a fresh pack would show up.
We had two days in a row of stormy, rainy, shifty, windy weather. We took it as it came and the current and the wind moved us all around. The next day broke sunny and it looked like a different world. I saw the neon blue and yellow mahi surfing to the schooner in a transparent wavetop and figured that a new school had arrived. I put on my light cotton gloves with the thin red rubber on the palms. They are the best for gripping any kind of line. I went into my position on the downwind side of the schooner and lowered the highest lifeline and put it out of the way. Then I laid the lure out on deck ahead of me and paid out 50 feet of line making sure I was not standing on it. Just in front of the main shrouds is the best and only position I throw from and land fish.
Wherever they are around the schooner they see and hear the lure. I don't have to throw it off the bow if they are swimming ahead of us. The mahi swim so fast, I have seen them swim faster than a flying fish flies, then jump up and catch the flying fish in the air. While I am pulling in my lure, I have seen them swim up to it, eye it and reject it. So when I throw the lure out I concentrate only on the line and pull it in as fast as I can.
This I did and on my first throw I knew I had a big one on the line. When I tried to pull him over the lifeline he was too big and heavy and fighting too hard, so I shifted my grip and pulled him over the much lower rail of the boat. I was huffing and puffing out of breath, but I still thanked him American Indian style. This was the biggest fish I caught yet and I sure hope I don't hook a bigger one. |
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