The Jackson Long Project Home

Departure Delayed!

2008-10-19T02:09:00.000-07:00

Well, we are still here. Departure has been officially delayed for some amount of time- I am thinking about 18 hours. The target was to leave at 3AM- so, one hour from when I write this, but around 8:30 our asses were really dragging and there was a lot left to do. We probably would have finished in time, but I didn’t want us to leave as zombies.

Motor seems to be running fine now. New alternator seems to work and fits nicely. Could not find an air filter replacement so cleaned the old one… So, engine in good shape. Battery banks upgraded and new batteries installed. That last one took about 5 times as long to do as I had estimated.

Water storage is addressed. The 25 gallon tank I thought I had turned out to be a fiberglass hold with a copper tube in it. This is NOT standard protocol and it was disgusting. Dirt, stuff growing, it was horrible… So I just filled the space with water jugs (and a sail) rather than try to clean it or install a bladder. This took a bunch of time too.

Surf board is mounted. Spare spinnaker poles are tied on. Cockpit table is tied on too. Jigsaw table is not broken down yet- not sure if we are done with it yet.
The autopilot is installed and functional.

Man, I could just go on and on so I will stop myself.

Socially speaking today was pretty rewarding. Steve and Arlene, Winston and Carol, Tony, Joe, and Ian all came by to visit and say good bye. Everyone offered various flavors of help too. It was pretty touching. Steve and Arlene gave me a bottle of champagne, some ice cream, and a card. Carol gave me a hug.

Both of my sisters came to visit too. Pam was really cute and did some work. Alana brought her fiancé Derek who I like quite a bit and so that was nice too. Eric also came. He was originally scheduled to help all day but due to a family issue he was only available for part of the afternoon. It was actually pretty cool though- since a good work flow was already in place I was able to give him a bunch of grunt work jobs without feeling guilty. He charged them like a fiend. And when he left I gave him a “guy hug” and the fucker kissed me! That god it was on the cheek or I would have had to kick him in the nuts. Bastard! I bet he is thinking about it right now too.

Ken and Becky were there to help for the long haul. They are both champions. The three of us are quite the team. Becky polishes, organizes, and makes things nice. Ken attacks detailed and long jobs that I want to avoid. I get to facilitate and work on some of the critical system jobs. I would delegate those too but if any of them fail I want to make sure there is nobody to blame but myself.

Anyway, I am a zombie so I am off to bed. There is a chance you won’t hear from me for 6 weeks or so. If tomorrow goes poorly I might not post again, then, if we don’t get a chance to get online in San Diego my next chance will be on Cabo.
Wish me luck!

The One About All the Crap I Bought

2008-10-17T01:17:00.000-07:00

Beset on all sides by unopened packages of things I feel a vague sense of ill ease. One of the things I wanted to accomplish in all this was to achieve a less commercialized state. I *love* buying stuff. I am a consumer whore. So there was this implied goal of detoxing myself and living a simpler, less materially driven, life. Of course, to do that I needed all new stuff.

I spent today almost finalizing my piles of new stuff. Starting at a little after 7AM I dropped Becky off at work so I could steal her car for the day. Then I hit Jamba and brought one back to her (a bribe). Then I did the post office in Campbell (sewing machine), the specialty canvas supply store in Hayward (special thread for awnings and such), Panda Express in Hayward (chow mien and black pepper chicken), Svendson’s Boat Yard in Alameda (Engel 45 refridgerator), Brad’s Marine Crap in Pinole (two anchors and a chart book), KKMI in Richmond (thermostat, zincs, and two spools of really light rope), West Marine in Oakland (nothing, I thought I was at the Alameda store which has additional services), West Marine in Alameda (spinnaker pole repair kit, ground tackle, another hand bilge pump, and returned an air filter), then gas, and back to get Becky. After I took her home I crashed for an hour or so then we had dinner and I split to see my sister and do Sports Authority for more fishing stuff and Wal-Mart for Scotch Guard and sewing supplies.

Meanwhile the boat is literally littered with alliterations. Wait, no, not alliterations. Littered with unopened stuff that I think I need. There are snorkels and fins, fishing gear, fans, miscellaneous electronics, tarps, ropes, booze, and food and bedding, and buckets… The list goes on and on and on.

As overwhelming and out of sync with my goals as that may seem I take some comfort in comparing myself to other “cruisers”. Most people that I talk to have the stuff I’ve listed times ten at least. It is crazy how much crap people bring with them. I am probably rationalizing and fooling myself but I took the minimum list of things I thought I needed for comfort and activities and worked from that list. Most people buy everything they think they will need for things they might do.

Anyway, I need to grab some sleep. I will get at least one more post out before I head South.

Even More Errands

2008-10-15T23:17:00.001-07:00

I was wrong about my departure time. 3PM Saturday gives me the best tide situation for leaving the Bay but it also puts me in the afternoon wind under the San Mateo Bridge. This area is a fucking madhouse by 4PM and it would NOT be the way to start the trip. If, by some act of god, the boat is ready by 1PM we could try it hoping to be out of the DEATH ZONE before the wind picks up- but I think it is more likely that we will leave at about 3AM. The second tide isn’t as good but the water will be calm.

Today I commissioned a custom alternator to be built and hope to pick it up in the morning. I didn’t realize you could do this.

US Postal tried to deliver something today but nobody was here. UPS also tried to deliver something. The US Post item can be picked up at the post office- the UPS one they will try again tomorrow. One is a sewing machine- the other is 600feet of rope. Not sure which is which. I hope the sewing machine is US Post because I am buying special marine thread tomorrow and if I had the machine with me it would be good.

Tons of running around today but didn’t resolve much- just got some things closer to done. Tomorrow is my big run around day. A few tasks for Friday morning… Then all Friday night and Saturday trying to get the boat in order and ready for the trip.

I guess I can do a bit more detail… Let’s see. My friend Eric agreed to sell my car after I leave if this guy doesn’t buy it on Friday. I did the alternator thing- man I hope that works out. Then I stole Becky’s car and went to the marina. I sold the outboard and a couple other marine related goodies. +515 to my budget. Go team! By this point in the morning I was starting to move pretty slow. I am still recovering from my sick and had done a load from the parking lot to the boat, mounted the motor, demo’d it, unmounted it, done a load out to the car, and another load to the boat. I decided since I was too tired to do real work I would get some lunch and do two nagging errands. I had a “salad burrito”, returned the alternator I bought at Pep Boys, and did what could be my last hardware store trip. Ken met me back at the boat and we got a bunch of stuff marked off the list. Then we did even more errands together. Another hour or so of boat tasks then dinner with Shanda and Becky. Then Ken and I took two more full loads of stuff to the boat, cleaned it up, took a load out to the cars, and parted ways for the night.

Okay, must sleep now.

T-minus 60 hours

2008-10-15T01:32:00.001-07:00

Deadlines close around me like wolves. Stress, fatigue, and the coming winter destroyed my immune system leaving me deep in throws of the season’s first flu. As always there is a shortage of money and time. After a year of consideration, planning, and preparation I am 60 hours for Go Time. As I write this I am without a clue as to how I am going to pull this off.

If I was able to string all of the driving I will do before I leave into one continues trip it would be around 6 or 7 hours. There is no way the logistics are going to support that. So it will likely be closer to 12 hours.

I am pretty good in a crunch and have done more triple digit work weeks than I can easily remember, but I am sick as a dog and it is difficult to keep the pace up for long. I’d be misleading you if I didn’t add that sometimes it is difficult to keep my momentum when faced with the overwhelming list of tasks in front of me. So, I am looking at a minimum of 24 hours of sleep between now and then the launch.

I still have at least a trip to Wal-Mart, Costco, Home Depot, West Marine, Some Other Marine Store, a sporting goods store, and a grocery store. Assuming the driving is covered above we are still looking at 4 hours of shopping.

The boat is a mess. There is stuff in my car, Ken’s car, Becky’s car, my mother’s garage, my sister’s house, my dock box, my neighbor’s dock box, and at least three other dock box’s of unoccupied slips near my boat. Ignoring travel time there is at least 4 hours of loading and shuffling to do.

I’ve got at least one person coming to see (and hopefully buy) my outboard motor, stove, and car. If they sell that will take time to transact and if they don’t I will need to add “move crap to friend’s house for sale in my absence” to a list. Let’s add 3 hours.

Before I leave the alternator and thermostat need to be put back on the motor. The temp gauge needs to be re-wired. The fresh water strainer needs to be cleaned out. The air filter needs to be cleaned. And, god willing, the zincs will be replaced too. If I am very lucky all the parts will be right, nothing will go wrong, and this will be an hour and a half of work. Since this is reality we are talking about I would consider this a 4 hour job.

I promised my mother we would have coffee. Two close friends will be hurt if I don’t make time for a meal. I think some of the other boats at the marina want to have a get together. 4 hours minimum.

Where does that leave us? 55 hours? Something absurd. I didn’t even count the time I spend in the bathroom or on the internet!

Guest Post - First Mate Ken

2008-10-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

First mate or dumbest friend?

Hello, I am Ken. I am definitely the first/current first mate of the sailing vessel Lady Eliza. I wonʼt be the last Iʼm sure (I hope?), but I will certainly be the best she will ever have.

So who am I? Iʼve been Jackʼs friend for years. Iʼve stood by him, and he by me, through tough times and good times. We have worked together on more than one occasion, in vastly different roles and times. We have had many adventures, some more misguided than others, but always survived and had a great time. Outside of my connection to Jack, I am a software professional in Silicon Valley, and I have a vast amount of sailing experience. Ok, that might be an exaggeration, because I hadnʼt sailed at all prior to Jack buying his boat.

So letʼs say Iʼm a novice, but I am a fast learner and quick on my feet. I am an Eagle Scout, a rock climber, snowboarder, poker player, dancer, father of 4, and a divorcee. I generally can handle anything thrown at me and come out the other side clean and happy. Iʼve never taken a significant duration vacation before in my professional life, and as such, I had a large chunk of available time to devote to this current effort. And Iʼve tried to be helpful, but Jack is the primary force of nature in this effort. For me it is a temporary vacation, for him it is the beginning of a lifestyle, a huge life changing event, a paradigm shift and a new beginning.

So what drove me to make this decision? I have to say it didnʼt take long for me to decide. It was like I just knew what the answer was going to be, although it was not instantaneous. I did deliberate a bit, and think about what it really meant. It is a dangerous journey, with much peril and lots of opportunity to screw up. On the flip side, it is a test of my metal, and a needed escape from my typical reality. I weighed all that and decided to jump in with both feet and blindfolded. I hadnʼt even sailed ONE time prior to making that choice, so it will either prove to be the ultimate leap of faith, or my last bad choice ever. ;)

The one about the pee cup

2008-10-09T02:07:00.000-07:00

Managing the clutter on the boat is a labor and strategy intensive task. The trouble is that there is just enough room to fit everything inside in ONE configuration. That particular configuration is such that you cannot use ANYTHING. Let’s call it “Storage Mode”. Anything you want to do requires that you unload EVERYTHING and then put everything but what you need back into temporary storage. So, let’s say I want to use the computer and note pads… I move everything around- clear the table- setup the laptop and whatever reference stuff I want- put everything else away. Lets call this “Office Mode”. Now I want to do a project of some kind. Everything comes out, everything but the project stuff (including office stuff) goes away- “Project Mode”. Rinse and repeat.

I am not a man with the kind of discipline to do this regularly. So I wind up in this horrible clutter state because I can’t be bothered to restow everything with each mode change. By living this way I make EVERYTHING harder ALL of the time. It’s a real bitch. After having help out for a day to do projects the place is trashed and even leaving the boat is hard.

The other day I had Ken and Becky out to help. We worked for several hours and when it was time to leave I wanted to make sure we carted out as much crap as possible to help minimize my daily “too much shit on the boat” pain. Becky had her purse and her dog so couldn’t carry much- I gave her a pizza box. Ken had only a duffle bag so I gave him a whole trash bag. I had a backpack, a pile of clothes, and had to lock up the hatch- which requires sliding multiple oak boards into slots and manipulating a combination lock.

So I handed Ken the bag and he hopped off the boat. “Careful!” I called, “Keep the bag upright- there might be liquid in that cup still and you don’t want any on your hands.”

“Uh, what was in it?”

“Pee.”

“Duuude! I don’t want to carry your pee cup! Aaarrrrgh!”

“Stop complaining- at least I didn’t give you the box.”

Dark Days Indeed

2008-10-07T23:47:00.001-07:00

Some really cool productive stuff has happened in the past week. It was one of those bursts of quality activity that prevents me from writing because I am too busy doing. I was eager for a break to chronicle the events but something else happened that will, for now, take precedence. Perhaps at the end of this post I can throw down another bullet list of tasks resolved…
I had, starting a little over a week ago, what I can only describe as an attack of depression. The past few months haven’t been all sunshine and laughter but taken as a whole the quality of life/emotion/health/fun is so high relative to the Before Time that I certainly can not complain. A few minor cuts on bruises can be ignored… What has been going on this past few days cannot.
I am not sure if I said this in another post but to save us all the cross referencing bear with me while I potentially repeat myself:
Everyone responds to events differently. Something very stressful for person A might not be stressful at all for person B and could be only slightly stressful for person C. The gradients are infinite. Furthermore, everyone has different capacity for handling stress. When considering someone’s emotional state we do not need to concern ourselves with the magnitude of the events in their life, only with the relative capacity and load placed on that person.
With that said, plenty of people in the world have had it far worse than me. Leading up to the start of The Jackson Long Project I reached *my* threshold. I was on the verge of cracking. That experience is similar to anyone else on the verge of cracking- regardless of circumstances. Anyway, I stayed near that edge for a long time trying to fight the good fight and do the right thing and never surrender yadda yadda yadda. Maybe I did crack a little because I find that even now, months after taking a sharp left turn into better circumstances, I suffer from waves of pain and suffering. Sort of a post traumatic stress syndrome but without the helicopters.
So, over the past few months I’ve weathered some of these. Minor, nothing that held for more than a day or so… Then, a few days ago, without much warning, I found myself with barely the will to live. Perhaps even an strong, but fortunately passive, desire to not live. I was lucky that I had such a clear set of tasks lined up for me- it allowed me to just plod along placing one foot in front of the other until the darkness started to fade.
It was terribly unpleasant. I would start to fixate on some random failure or shortcoming then cycle through all of its permutations and consequences and their permutations and consequences. A branching spiraling cycle of self loathing that would leave me struggling for breath. The experience is completely irrational- no logic applies to any of it.
I’ve felt mostly pretty good for about 24 hours now and I am hoping it is over.

Mostly straight

2008-10-03T05:02:00.001-07:00

Yes. I lied. There were no pictures. And apparently I posted some in kitchen after a previous post. I was tired when I wrote the last one- that is my excuse. Of course it is 4:30 in the morning right now so… you might not be in much better shape.

I rocked out a few tasks in the past couple of days and I thought I would compare the time/money to my estimates from earlier in the week. Check it:

Stop. (collaborate and listen) I added the items below then went to see what my estimates were and some weren’t even there. This is the kind of trouble I am in! Okay, continue…

Outboard bracket install complete: 20 minutes, 2 dollars vs. not listed
Swim ladder bracket install complete(ish): 1 hour, 4 dollars (needed more bolts, brackets don’t work so need big washers) vs. quarter day and free
Compass install complete(ish): 1 hour vs. not listed
DMV and Banking complete: quarter day and 63 dollars vs. quarter day and free (I had not included DMV but the spirit of this was administrative crap)
Bimini top purchases made: 1 hour and 56 dollars so far vs. 100 to 300 and half a day (I think I will come in about right on this one)

I just wrote then deleted a whole paragraph of poorly articulated techno babble. Let me try again.

The swim ladder and outboard motor brackets are both attached to the back of the boat (the transom). In both cases the brackets will hold a lot of weight in a direction the transom wasn’t specifically designed to handle so steps are taken to spread that weight around. Specifically, instead of just screwing into the material of the transom several holes are drilled and long bolts go through the brackets, through the transom, then through big plates. Now when the bracket is “pulled away” from the transom the weight is spread across the big plate rather than the threads of a couple screws.

The trouble is that when you drill a hole, unless you use a press, odds are the hole is not-quite-straight. If you drill two holes they are not-quite-parallel. If you drill eight (outboard bracket takes 8) the odds are that no two are quite parallel. The transom itself has curve to it so it is not the end of the world if these holes are slightly off. Both inside and outside of the hull the bolt’s pressure is spread out- the backing plates inside and the bracket itself outside. The trouble, and it is far worse with the outboard bracket, is that the slight difference in angle gets exaggerated by the length of the bolt. The transom is ¾ of an inch thick and, on the outboard bracket, there are two inch thick plates (I have one outside the hull too). This means that I have at least 2 and ¾ inches of exaggeration which means the holes on the far inside need to be very different than the holes on the outside.

Crap 5am now. I will post pics of the outboard bracket install. (honest!)

Look over there!

2008-10-01T01:35:00.001-07:00

Monday… Wednesday… What is the difference?

You guys are due for some solid writing about the significance of all that is going on here. You aren’t going to get it for a while. I am deathly afraid of running out of money and/or time before I set sail. No amount of powerful prose will make give this tale a happy ending if I flounder and become a boat bum in the SF Bay.

So, today and yesterday were all about kicking ass and taking names. Outboard bracket is installed (missing a bolt because I fumbled it into the harbor but it is a one minute replacement), swim ladder half installed, new corded drill purchased, water temp gauge installed, thermostat removed, zincs identified, alternator belt tightened, and I did some research on the refrigeration components. There was probably some more.

I also played in a poker tournament and had a few nice social dinners so it isn’t like I was a total machine or anything.

Anyway, I can’t wrap my head around a full review of that list right now. Here are some pics instead. Oooh! Shiney! You are distracted!

Lingering pain

2008-09-28T01:44:00.000-07:00

Lingering pain.

I tore a muscle in the arch of my foot in June. I thought it was pretty minor, I hobbled a bit if I used it too much, but not that big of a deal. I continued to use it heavily… For months… Sometimes I have an easy few days and I feel it healing- then I run a flight of stairs and BAM! Hobble time. I didn’t help myself any by wearing sandals every day from June until September either. I keep telling myself I will only wear well supported trainers until it heals- and then I forget or need to get wet or… (insert excuse here) I will rest it in Mexico- promise.

I know I’ve put up a lot of lists and they are probably some of the less entertaining things I could post- but I felt an update was due and I am in desperate need of some documented thinking. So, here is some thinking out loud followed by a nice list.

It will be Sunday when I get up. My mother is finally coming out to the boat- she hasn’t seen it yet- to go for a sail. I spent all evening putting projects away so the boat would like nice and she would worry less. I think she will be more impressed by placemats and matching curtains than seaworthiness. I think she is assuming I will live and therefore wants to know I will be comfortable.

Monday, something is Monday… I can’t remember what.

Tuesday or Thursday another friend is coming for a first look at the boat. Lets pretend Tuesday since I am really trying to work out my final schedule.

Saturday is my going away thing (I should write about that too I think). I have a two day social thing sometime before I leave too. So, that gives me about 14 unscheduled days. Holy crap.

Top priority items:
Install autopilot- learn how to work it… half day (paid for if it works)
Check/replace zincs and air filter on motor… quarter day (50 bucks since I should buy spares)
Acquire new anchor rode and additional anchor… quarter day (400 bucks or so)
Double battery banks (requires removing old hot water heater)… half day (300 or so)
DMV, register dinghy- get new CF plate for boat… quarter day (100 bucks)
Massive chart printing run… quarter day (should be free- somebody let me use their office laserjet?)
Install outboard bracket… quarter day (should be free now- I’ve already dropped the money)
Install remaining mast steps… quarter day (free)
Fix various top side lights… quarter day I hope (free)
Finalize reefing for main… quarter day (25 or less)
Provisioning run… all day for gas, water, food, and stowing (1k+ and I am hoping it is “gifted” to me)

Priority items:
Buy spare alternator… quarter day (300 or so)
Get BBQ and oven working… half day (50)
Big perma-wiring party… full day (free I hope)
Rebuild toilet… half day (50 bucks?)
Install dinghy davits… half day (200 bucks but I hope less)
Buy and install primary charging system… full day (1,200+ and I might have to skip it if I don’t get it through a sponsor)
Finalize/implement bimini plan… half day (100 to 300)
Fix refrigerator situation… full day (1,000 or less I hope)
Get and stow fishing gear… half day (500 or less- I hope for sponsorship gear)
Get and stow surfing stuff… half day (500 or less- I hope for sponsorship gear)
Make sail repair kit more robust… quarter day (50)
Prepare dinghy repair kit… quarter day (50)
Prepare dinghy bag… quarter day (25)
Prepare ditch bag… quarter day (100)

Other jobs:
Swim ladder install… quarter day (free if I find my brackets)
Banking trip… quarter day
Link bank to Paypal… quarter day
Prepare sea anchor for use… quarter day (25)
Charge and stow electric dinghy pump
Water treatment kit… quarter day (50)

And of course, I still need to sell the car, the outboard, and a bunch of other stuff.

I am pretty tired and need to wrap this up. I am not sure if I hit it all- I think I might have left some stuff off. I will review this by Monday and post any changes.

Mast Steps

2008-09-21T23:52:00.001-07:00

Saturday morning my troops showed up bright and early. I’d been falling behind on getting the boat setup and so I asked for a couple friends to come and get me back on track. I’ve been at this boat setup stuff 24/7 since June and my focus is fraying. Anyway, Ken and Becky came down to do some work.

The biggest priority for the day was to get a few of the big two-man jobs off the list. The biggest and nastiest of these jobs was installing the mast steps. My mast is 37’ tall and I was able to buy 11 mast steps on clearance for about half the normal retail price. Each step requires six fasteners- I decided to use 5/16 aluminum rivets. This means we had to place each step, drill six holes, then place six rivets. That is a lot of drilling and riveting.

Normally on a mast the size of mine you might see 26 or so steps so I had to space mine farther apart. I am pretty limber and was a hard core rock climber once upon a time so I felt fairly comfortable with this at a theoretical level. I decided the best approach would be to climb up on the boom and raise a foot as high as I could, mark the spot, and place the first step there. Then repeat the process until we reached the spreaders then do it all again from the spreaders to the top of the mast.

Ken was excited to work the tools and I was only too happy to let him do the hard work. This lead to some minor problems in that Ken has different leg-lift-abilities than I do. With Ken working the tools it meant he had to do the leg lifting and we wound up with some off spacing. In the end though- there just were not enough steps. I probably need to buy at least 4 more. We worked this process until mid-afternoon even with just 11 steps.

Becky is always down for the cleaning so I set her loose on some of the scrubbing and organizing tasks. She arranged books and after I pulled the outboard and dinghy out of the water she scrubbed off the insane amount of marine growth.

With the steps up Ken and I flipped the boat around so we could put the outboard motor bracket on. The bracket is designed so that you can carry your outboard up out of the water then lower it if you want to use it. The motor weighs about 85lbs and to make the raising and lowering process easier the bracket has eight really beefy springs pushing it into the up position. The idea is that the springs and the motor’s weight sort of cancel each other out so that you can easily lift and drop the motor.

Anyway the bracket was in the up position when I bought it and to get it positioned correctly I needed it in the down position. Without the bracket mounted it was a huge pain in the ass to get it into the down position. Once we had it lowered we discovered it also had a tilt adjustment that was set wrong. To fix this we had to remove a pin, pivot the mount, and re-insert the pin. The trouble was that the pin was also keeping half the springs from flying open.

There was no way to easily manage this set of springs by hand. We mounted the bracket to a small work table I have. Then we used some rope to lash it down, used some books as spacers between the two sets of springs, and took turns laying across the actual bracket to put weight on the system. Considering that this took an hour there was very little cursing. By the time we were done it was completely dark so we cleaned up for the night.

Today was a small BBQ at my friend Tony’s house. Probably a last get-together for our crew before I take off… We had some drinks, grilled some meat, and played some games. Tony gave me a dive knife as an impromptu going-away gift. It was a great afternoon.

Tomorrow it is back to the boat prep grind.

I am throwing up some of the pictures in the galley.

Anniversary

2008-09-19T00:40:00.000-07:00

The first time I ever considered this trip in the “practical context” of using a sailboat was last September. I wish I had the exact date but since I don’t I am just celebrating the anniversary all month. Until December all I did was snoop on the net. In December and January I did some active research- posted on some forums, that kind of thing. I committed to doing this in February but didn’t start telling people until March and while I started selling a few things on eBay and Craigslist my life didn’t really change until June.

Now I didn’t weigh myself but I can tell you that my 42 inch waist pants were getting tight. I am wearing 38s right now and need a belt. I’ve put up before/after pictures. This is from June until September. No dieting, no “working out”, just going from a completely sedentary lifestyle to an active one. In fact, I eat worse now. Fast food every day- I’ve got a pile of mini candy bars on the table next to me… I am working so hard that the added burden of trying to eat right is just outside my ability to deal with. My calorie count will drop dramatically in Mexico- count on it.

I spent almost all of today in the car. I stayed in San Jose last night so I was more south than normal. I drove from San Jose to Point Reyes, where I bought a 3-burner propane stove/oven for the boat, to Livermore to have dinner with some friends, and then back to San Jose. That is between seven and eight hours of driving. The good news is I got a cool stove at a good price, met some interesting people (the ones selling the stove), and had a great meal with some great friends. Tomorrow is back to the grind.

On MySpace somebody asked about my “plan” and it is about time I addressed it. Here goes!

There is an annual event that goes from San Diego, CA to Cabo San Lucas. There are some catered meals, some parties, and it is generally acknowledged to be a good time. When I told my friend Ken about the event he decided he wanted to go- not only did he want to go but he wanted to sail to San Diego from San Francisco too. Up until this point my plan had been a little furry. Ken getting involved gave me some hard dates to work with.

My route from Redwood City (where I keep the boat) to San Diego is about 600 miles. A standard number for estimating sailing time is to use 5 nautical miles (1.15 miles). We need to be in San Diego no later than the 26th so our original plan was to leave the Bay Area on the 20th. After the trip to Capitola I am nervous about maintaining 5 knots that whole way. I am pushing Ken to agree to leave the 17th or so but as an added risk mitigation move I am going to sail the boat to Monterey and Ken will catch a ride down there. This cuts about 120 miles off the trip for him and saves a day of travel.

So, the plan… I will leave my marina about the 15th or 16th of October and sail to Monterey. Depending on Ken I will delay there until potentially the 20th and then we sprint to San Diego. The event leaves San Diego the 26th and arrives in Cabo San Lucas on November 6th. There are a couple of events and Ken is hanging out until the 8th I think… I forget. Ken flies home from Cabo.

After that the plans are furry again. The Sea of Cortez is considered by many to be some of the best cruising in the world but from the pictures I’ve seen and the reading I’ve done it seems… dry and hot. I am eager to see lush shorelines and good surf. Clear water. I will see how I feel after Ken leaves. I might hang around Cabo for a while. Whatever I do the general plan is to slowly migrate south until I get to Panama. In Panama I will decide if I go through the canal to the Caribbean or if I go to Galapagos-Marquesas-French Polynesia.

The Cavalry

2008-09-17T23:17:00.001-07:00

September 17, 11:01PM, 2008
I am about ready to give up on the to do lists. The project management alone is approaching a full time job. Well, maybe not but it feels that way. I am just ready for some actual vacation time. I wasn’t prepared for this extended period of sustained effort.

I started making sponsorship calls today. All conversations ended in a no or a probably not. Most of them managed to still be encouraging. At its core I think what I am doing really appeals to people. So while I didn’t get any love- I am not put off. One guy sort of surprised me though. He was really nice and seemed into the whole thing but was totally stand-off-ish on anything that wasn’t “come in and act like a normal customer.” Seriously, saying no to a sponsorship was fine but when he IN ALL SERIOUSNESS told me I would have to pay extra to stay and watch any work done… And then to refuse to even schedule me for actual paid work???? No, I will be bringing my business and writing elsewhere Mr. Inflatable Dinghy Shop in Fremont who’s name will not be printed!

I found a nice 3 burner stove/oven that uses propane on Craigslist today. It is more interior cook power than I need but only a hair more expensive than the “barely get the job done” units I’ve been seeing. I am going to go see it tomorrow and it is about 3 hours round trip. Generally I am “ready” to spend a day sitting down not feeling conflicted but that I had set myself up to spend a day working on the site and the social networking stuff. (which will hopefully aid in the sponsorship stuff) Alas, it is all about compromise.
I’ve got two helpers coming out to the boat Saturday to help me get a lot of these tasks done. Its going to be an awesomely productive day. Sunday a guy I’ve known since the 3rd grade is hosting a game day at his house and a lot of my old friends are going to go and play board games. I hope it is just the break I need. Then Monday my mom might come see the boat. I’d better hide the porn. 

T-minus 4 weeks

2008-09-17T05:24:00.001-07:00

The picture is what happens when things are not properly stowed...

I was working away this evening and suddenly developed the mother-of-all headaches. It was that blinding pain that renders you utterly useless and doesn’t fade with ibuprofen. Anyway I had to just roll up what I was doing and go to bed.

The schedule is looking tight. Actually, so is the budget. I knew the budget was going to be tight a long time ago but it only really hit me that I am running out of time the other night. The San Diego leg of the trip down starts around the 20th with the goal of arriving in San Diego on or before the 26th. Even now that is more than a month away. However after the Capitola trip I decided we would disembark from Monterey. This way I can go down solo and Ken is saved a day’s travel. With this in mind I gave my 30 days notice at the marina today. Four weeks almost exactly to finish:

Final stowing strategies in the cabin
Get custom dinghy davit bracket made- install davits
Make backing plat for outboard motor bracket- install bracket
Install swim ladder
Change oil
Rebuild water pump
Replace water pump hoses
Pickle engine
Route permanent wires for GPS, inverter, 12volt sockets
Buy 12 volt fans
Take dinghy in for repair (and learn how to repair it)
Check for leak in fuel system
Fix traveler
Get a propane stove for inside cooking
Get propane tanks and build a propane locker
Install and learn how to use the autopilot
Make the autopilot and GPS talk to each other
Install the compass and make sure I like it
Setup a second battery bank
Get and install a solar system
Get and install refrigeration
Get surf boards, fishing gear, and snorkel gear
Get and learn to use an asymmetrical spinnaker
Final provisioning

There is probably more. I tried to keep that to tasks that were either hard, expensive, nebulous, or that I’ve been avoiding and need to just get done (change oil for example). But lets not forget social engagements. I need to do a going away dinner thing, I have some family that hasn’t been on the boat yet, there are DMV and bank trips, I should get a costume for the costume party in San Diego… It is endless. Oh yeah, and I need to finish selling all my leftover crap.

During the day today I was pretty productive. I returned the broken gas can (I need to buy more gas cans), bought a replacement nozzle for the other broken gas can (I should have bought at least two more and don’t know why I didn’t), bought plenty of fuel and oil filters to take with me, bought oil to take with me, and went absolutely nutty in the electrical crap aisle at Wal-Mart. I went to a couple of places looking for the right materials for my propane locker and looked for bimini parts (add: finish bimini to that list up there). Then, as noted, I gave my notice at the marina.

The evening was the most ridiculous exercise in procrastination I’ve ever seen. I *need* to get these things done and I *refuse* to let myself just sit but I didn’t have any get-up-and-go left. Knowing I couldn’t do everything I decided to make a list of some high priority and yet manageable tasks. Making the list felt like such a burden that to escape it- I started doing the tasks about as fast as I could list them. “Put away laundry, uh what else? Fuck it- I will go put away the laundry”

The Trip Home...

2008-09-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

The general consensus online in regards to my motor is that the alarm is triggered by a water temperature sensor. And while this tells me that the water was getting too hot it doesn’t tell me why. That makes it hard to fix so in the interest of minimizing my logistic headaches trying to get out to the boat and back for parts and so on- I decided to try and get everything I would need to make any of the possible fixes. I was also going to sail the boat home once the fix was made so I needed a few non overheating related items. This was my shopping list:

A battery powered USB charger
A bucket
Clips
Wire
T-fitting
A water pump rebuild kit
An exhaust flapper
a temperature gauge

And when I got to the boat I had the following task list:

Clean up messes from the trip down
Check the exhaust flap
Check the temperature gauge sending unit
Check the fresh water thru-hull
Install the inverter
Check the oil
Check the impeller (requires disassembling the water pump)
Set a new course
Attach the stormsail
Bag the genoa
Charge the MP3 player
Investigate a trail line and life line
Move ice chest out back
Add some fuel
Prepare warm clothes
New storage for boat hook and lights
Leave misc. rope out

I am in the very rolly mooring field at Capitola and it is about time for my first solo sail. After porting early on the Monterey trip with Ken I decided that I would return the boat solo. This could turn out to be fool hardy but I feel generally good about my skill level. 99% of my concerns are equipment related. I know if I have a motor I will be fine but after the trip down that system is suspect.
It should be noted that when I say “very rolly mooring” what I really mean is that the boat is rocking from 25’ one way to 25’ the other. Violently. Also the entire deck is soaked and slippery. It is NASTY!

The consensus of experienced people was that the alarm was overheating not back pressure. However I think that the back pressure could cause the over heating. In any case I tried to come prepared to fix just about any heat related issue. I came up a bit short though.

I brought an exhaust flapper but the exhaust is under water. There was no access that I was ready to try. I could not identify where the water temp sensor on the motor was. I did check the intake thru-hull and it was good. I also disassembled the water pump and found it in okay shape. I could not locate the oil dipstick or the drain plug either. Oh! I should go check the manual- wait here.

*the manual is useless*

Anyway, after completing the work listed above I tried to start the motor and got no love. Both batteries- still nothing. They showed a full charge… I decided to jump the new battery into the system and that did not work either. I found my marine diesel book and it suggested that there could be water in the cylinders. Uh oh! It was shocking how cavalier the book was about it though!

The book said to hold the decompression lever and manually crank the motor to pump out the water. I did this and it started right up. Because I could not locate the dip stick or oil drain plug I pilled the filter to check for water in the oil and found none. So here is to hoping!

I cleaned up the boat, packed the genoa, hung the storm sail, installed the new compass, rigged a tiller tender, plotted a new course, transferred the new course to the GPS, charged the MP3 player, and ate some lunch.

I estimate 12 hours back to Half Moon Bay so I don’t want to leave then I will be forced to arrive in the middle of the night. I am going to chill out here until dawn or they boot me.

I forgot to charge my phone and since the inverter is installed I plugged in the phone. It lasted about 30 seconds before the inverter’s alarm went off claiming there was not enough battery juice. I figured I would run the motor for a bit and it, again, wouldn’t start.

I tried everything I could think of but had no luck. I started going through the troubleshooting choose-your-own-adventure from my marine diesel book and it indicated that the start button was going bad. I removed it from the housing so I could manipulate it better and this seemed to work. Meanwhile I noticed I had cracked at least one hose when putting the water pump back in. It was 6PM and the water taxi guys are supposed to work until 7PM. Given the few failures I had in my fixing and the new issue I called them thinking I would get a ride home, buy more supplies, and come back. The guy said they already put the dinghy away and that he couldn’t come get me,

Fuck that. This anchorage sucked. I fired up the motor and pulled the hell out of Dodge! It was 7PM.

The first couple of hours were awesome. I had decent wind, there was still light, and my spirits and energy where high. I was running the motor for just in case- I planned on running it the whole time- and so I had plenty of juice for the stereo. I was cranking tunes, making great time, and literally singing and dancing at the helm. I saw several seals and lots of sea birds.

I had a heart-to-heart chat with one of the seals about the adventure I was partaking in and asked if he would pass the word through the seal-grape-vine to look out for me. He looked wise then disappeared.

I refused to let myself have a break or any food until after my playlist had played through. This was a good two hours and I was more than ready for some cold chili straight from the can! I had just made it out of the north end of Monterey bay and turned right so I could head up the coast. The food was not nearly as good as I wanted it to be. Also, being mindful of the cold that ruined the last trip, I was very careful to add layers and avoid sweating.

Within a few minutes of dinner it was pitch black and the only thing I had to orient myself outside of the cockpit were some very faint lights on the shore. I pushed on until about 1AM before I started nodding off. It wasn’t safe to continue so I dropped the motor to idle and took a couple of 20 minute naps with serious GPS checking after each one. Then, rested, I continued on.

I did get one alarm in the middle of the night. Motor over heated and I decided that, given my new and greater understanding of the issue, that it would be best to just let the motor cool off for a while. Sitting in the bobbing boat in the utter darkness listening to the sounds of the sea was scary as heck. At one point a sea lion started honking from just a couple of feet away. At another point I heard the blow of a dolphin several times but saw nothing. Then I managed to see the zipping swish through the water of one of the dolphins making his getaway after blowing next to the boat. Eventually through the motor had cooled and I was back on my way.

I was getting close to Half Moon Bay when the sun started to come up. For a long time all I had was a bit more water visibility and a weird gray light all around. It was hours before I could make out the shore. During this time I saw a few more dolphins, tons more seals and birds, and… get this… three whales. It was freaking awesome! The first whale was an orca who I think had come to the surface for a peak around. I looked as he rolled to his side then disappeared. The other two just barely crested the water for a breath then disappeared. The second two did not look like orcas- they were a sort of dolphin gray but massive.

I finally made it to the entrance to the Half Moon Bay anchorage but didn’t want to go in and discover that the guy I was hoping to meet, my dock mate, Joe, was not there. I didn’t want to stop here but was exhausted and did not think I had enough time to get back to Bair Island in time to get to the Baja Ha Ha party which was tonight. I called Joe and while his boat was still there he was not. I decided I would press on for home. Maybe, if the timing was right, I would sail to Alameda for the party. I actually called and got permission to use the guest dock too! That would be totally hardcore and badass.

Continuing up the coast from Half Moon Bay was a long and slow process. I was actually making great time with the sails up and the motor running but the landmarks are all so big that you see them LONG before you get to them and it feels like you aren’t moving. During this time I spoke with Ken on the phone a couple of times too.

Eventually I got into the Golden Gate and the wind started to really pick up. It wasn’t quite bad enough to warrant my storm sail but I wasn’t about to go deal with changing it out. I felt very heroic returning under the Gate by myself.

Shortly after I rounded SF I was faced with the choice of heading for Alameda or home. I had other things I wanted to do that week and giving up an extra day to get home from Alameda wasn’t a pleasant thought. Also, I had concerns about the well being of the boat. Ultimately I had to go with the “get the boat and crew home safe” plan rather than the “oh I just sailed here from Capitola to attend the party” plan. I had sacrifice!

Within about 45 minutes of leaving the city the wind really started to blow. I was very glad I had the storm sail up. I wished I could easily reef the main too in fact. After the wind had been going for a while the seas started to build. They never got very big- nothing more than about5 feet- but they were fast, close together, and aggressive.

I was regularly blasting through them throwing water everywhere. Meanwhile I was getting slammed from behind and from the side. I had almost 3 hours of pure white knuckle sailing as I dodged most of the waves and got walloped by the rest. All the while I am racing along at near hull speed. At one point I was in water that the chart says is 20 feet when on the downward motion of a wave I felt and heard a solid WHAM! As the keel of the boat slammed into the mud! This scared the hell out of me and I quickly veered towards the middle of the bay hoping for more consistently deep water.

Eventually, exhausted and stressed, I made it into the channel and way from the waves. I was actually entering Redwood Creek just as the racers were leaving. I took some great pictures.

Most of the way...

2008-09-06T22:22:00.000-07:00

I woke up at 6:19 and my first mate had yet to arrive or call.

I had wanted to leave the night before but he begged an early departure Saturday so he could take a girlfriend out dancing. I reluctantly agreed and set the departure time for 5AM. I don’t know if it was a miscommunication or a ploy but my last chat with him on Friday he said “so 6AM right?” and I again said we needed to leave at 5AM. Because I worked so late getting ready I opted to sleep without the alarm- I couldn’t leave without him so I might as well get as much rest as possible. My body’s clock could tell I’d rested 2 more hours than I should have though…

Anyway I woke up and called him at 6:20 or so and he was only a couple exits away on the freeway. I decided his penance for sucking would start with bringing me coffee, a task he completed adequately well.

Ken finally arrived at a bit before 7am and asked me to come out and meet him at his car. I had a parking pass and two carts full of sails to go in his car anyway. I trundled my way up the ramp and into the parking lot with the carts, the parking pass in my mouth, and a bag of trash for the dumpster. He was waiting with coffee, and his bag. It turned out he didn’t need the parking pass because a friend was dropping him off. We loaded the car and started back for the dock with the empty carts and the coffee. We dropped off the carts and he said, “oh shit I forgot the thing!” and he had to call the friend to return “the thing”. The thing turned out to be the pure sine inverter I had asked him to pick me up while I was planning our trip. I was glad he remembered and decided to abuse him a little less.

I had the boat almost ready to go before he arrived. He used the bathroom while I started the motor, removed the shore power, and uncovered the sails. When he got back all that was left to do was remove the dock lines and back out. A task I managed with my now habitual alacrity.

We motored out into the channel without any instruments- anything to extend our power supply- and were amazed at how calm it was. We were in the middle of the lowering tide rather than the top of it but this wasn’t the end of the world it just meant a slightly longer trip up to SF. The sun had already risen but the morning dew still covered the land at the water’s edge. The bay had the sort of glassy surface that inspires well deserved poetic metaphors. Our intent had been to motor sail during the morning but it was so calm we decided the sails were doing more harm than good and lowered them.

The trip up to SF from Redwood City takes a few hours and I used that time to complete some of the chores I did not get to the night before. I rigged a new cord on the book shelf- previously I had used bungies they allowed too much movement of the books. I measured a line that was just barely long enough from hook to hook. It didn’t provide any inward pressure on the books but wouldn’t let them lean out at all.

I created a tiller extension out of a piece of PVC pipe and some line. I cut the pipe to about 3 feet long- which I knew would be too long but I figured it would be easier to shorten than lengthen- and ran the line through it. On one end I made a big knot- too big to go into the tube- and left a tiny loop just big enough for the tiller sticking out the far side of the knot. On the other end I made another big knot as close to the opening as I could make it. The goal was that the knots would be pulling at one another and keep the rope tightly in place but in reality the rope stretched and my marlinspike is still developing. Throughout the trip I mucked with the knots adding loops and whirls to keep them tight.

The last thing I did was break out the compass for final repair and installation. I spent about an hour rubbing the dome with toothpaste and a rag and was moderately satisfied with the clarity. I reassembled the frame and remounted it. It looked okay- tough to read at a glance- but the real problem was the bearing marker had twisted while the whole thing was apart. I could get North without too much trouble but had to derive bearing. I decided I would see how it went and make my final decision on the new compass later.

Around 11AM we were well into the SF area and decided to raise the sails but kept the motor going. While getting situated we accidentally knocked my stool overboard. This thing probably has a street value of about 3 dollars but I’ve had it since I was a kid. It was just starting to get nice and windy and at first I thought to let the stool go. But it was surprisingly buoyant and I couldn’t let its brave fight for survival go to waste! “Man overboard!” we yelled. Unlike our previous drills we had a decent swell and a lot of speed. It took about five tries before Ken was able to hook it and get it into the boat. We didn’t try to actually stop on it.

Once the stool was recovered we turned off all the electrical stuff, let the motor run a few more minutes, and then shut her down. We were sailing! The San Francisco Bay is about 50 miles long and 10 miles wide. The whole thing is fed wind and swell through the Golden Gate which is only one mile wide. A lot of power gets fed through that pass. The wind was, of course, coming right through that passage so we had to tack back and forth quite a bit. At first it wasn’t too bad but in short order the wind was powerful enough to make me nervous of rig failure. It did not help that we were flying a 150% genoa.

We tacked across under the extreme wind until we reached the look-out point on the Marin side of the bridge then we dropped the foresail. Under main alone the boat was much more manageable. We still made better than 5 knots. By 1PM we were approaching the Golden Gate. I made some sandwiches and we ate them as we passed under the bridge. This felt like a massive milestone to me. The wind was a bit less aggressive on the far side of the gate where it starts to open up again. We raised the fore and continued out to see.

At 2PM we saw the first dolphins! People talk about seeing dolphins while sailing all the time but I was unprepared. We didn’t even get good views but it was still amazing! There were no flips or big jumps and they never came closer than 25 yards or so but it was still great. Typically we would see two of them twice. Later we saw more. In rapid succession two would broach for air and slip back out of site. Then, a few seconds later do it again. Then they would disappear for quite a while. At one point we had three sightings very quickly each on a different side of the boat. It was like we were surrounded. We decided it was best to prepare ourselves for the inevitable ambush.

At 2:30 I decided to hang off the side and dip my leg in the water.
We had seen several cargo ships already but at about 3PM we saw the mother of them all coming. The deck was at least 100 feet above the water and from there it extended god-knows-how-high with stacked cargo containers. All of the big boats push big bow wakes but this guy was shoving enough water to surf on. It was crazy how the water bent upwards probably 10 feet before starting to break and turn into whitewater as it hit the actual bow. Huge surf was projected out each side of the bow and the waves continued to curl and break for a great distance out the sides. Previous tankers we had turned into the wakes and taken them head on. The last one another sailboat took sideways nad it appeared to be a pretty smooth ride so I decided to try it. We let the waves hit us from the side. They were probably 8 to 12 feet. When we were in the trough between the first and second the wave was well over our heads. The boat rocked pretty violently back and forth but I had stowed things very diligently and we only lost a couple loose items I had decided to leave on the table. We spent a moment congratulating ourselves on surviving when I heard a weird nose from the front of the boat.

“Did you hear that?” “Hear what?” “I know I heard something- oh shit!”
The anchor at the bow of the boat had fallen off. The lateral force of the wave rocking us must have knocked the clip side loose then a moment or two of gravity pulled it off its mount! The 30lb anchor was sinking rapidly dragging chain out of the locker and over the side. I didn’t know how deep the water was but I knew this had the potential to be bad! I jumped up, shimmied around the dodger, ran across the cabin, and did a shortstop knee dive onto the bow. I grabbed the chain and grunted as the weight and momentum of the anchor and chain hit my arm. Against the speed of the boat and the current there was a lot of drag but I was able to get a better grip and begin hauling it back on board. The mount did not look damaged so I remounted the anchor and added a bungie to the shaft to minimize its ability to move in the bracket.

I had brought a fishing pole and some lures. At 5PM Ken decided to try his hand. I was impressed at how utterly inept he was. You need to understand that Ken is good at just about everything. He is an Eagle Scout and has run with me for many years. He didn’t quite need me to tell him which end of the apparatus went in the water- but it was close. We did not catch anything.

At about 6:30PM we finally were far enough out of the gate to have wind that wasn’t exactly from the nose. We were able to hold a mostly southernly course for 45 minutes or so at a time before tacking northwest to get off shore.

When we first turned on the GPS it said we had 14 hours and some minutes of battery life. That was at about 4PM. At 8PM it turned off and would not come back online. I crawled down into the quarter berth so I could access the batteries and hard wired the power and ground. The GPS came back to life. This left me in a wiring mood and it was getting dark so I fiddled with my new solar lights, made sure all the running lights were working, and made sure the cabin lights worked. We marveled at the sunset and then at the sea at night.

The battery situation on the boat is still wonky. I believe both batteries are car style and I had already run them to dead more than once. I had a spare marine battery onboard but wanted to avoid using it if at all possible. To help this I decided to have a robust charging strategy. We would run the motor for thirty minutes after every hour and rather than simply idle it we would use it for power on our offshore tacks.

At 11PM, after our second cycle, I turned off the motor and it was as if the wind was connected to the same kill switch. The wind dropped to nothing and both sails deflated. I decided we would motor through the night but leave the sails up. By 11:30 I was convinced to drop the jib. Ken had gone to sleep around 11PM so I was alone at the helm when I saw the phosphorous at 1AM. Like the dolphins this was something I had heard about but was utterly unprepared for the majesty of. I will do my best to describe it here but I know I can’t convey how magical it looked. Basically the bow wake, would, partway down the boat, start to glow blue in the foam for a few seconds and then it would fade to nothing. If you could spread a thick stripe of bath bubbles across a sheet of black velvet than light it up with a blue LED you would have a cheap imitation. My awe was interrupted by a horrible buzzing alarm. Something was wrong with the motor!

I shut down the engine and Ken got out of bed. In the dark we began to review what I knew about marine diesel motors and that alarm in particular. There are three idiot lights and three gauges on my motor. For gauges I have a tachometer, fuel and an oil pressure gauge. The idiot lights are labeled oil, water, and charge. The water light was lit up. The extent of what I know about my engine and its use of water was a bit less than a paragraph of information. The engine uses “fresh” water from the ocean to cool itself. The water is let in at a thing called a “thru hull” which has a valve that can be closed. Then the water is run through the motor and spit out the back with the exhaust. If the motor isn’t starting but is being cranked a lot water is being run through the engine but there is no exhaust to push it out. This can fill the exhaust pipe with water and make it harder for the engine to start. To help, you can close the water intake valve when cranking and then open it once the motor is running. That is the extent of my knowledge.

For lack of anything better to try we did this and the alarm went off. We ran the boat for 30 minutes and it happened again. Same routine, same fix, on our way… for 30 more minutes.

I had heard a story about a guy who said, and I was barely listening, that his boat would let sea water in through the exhaust and the motor could only run for 30 minutes at a time. I wasn’t sure the rest of the details but it gave me something else to think about. We discussed how the motor would work fine all morning then have this problem at night. Ken suggested that while the weight at the stern was constant we were burning fuel from the tank towards the front of the boat. So the relative weight was greater. This was all we had to go on so we added about 4 gallons of diesel to the tank (completely topping it off) and then tied one full 5 gallon jug to a stanchion. We also used our valve trick and restarted the motor. No alarm. The motor ran fine the rest of the night.

At 10AM we were just west of Santa Cruz. It had been almost 27 hours at sea and while our stated goal was Monterey our real goal was to be outside the gate overnight. With no wind (still) and the overnight accomplished we didn’t see a point in spending 6+ more hours to hit the arbitrary goal of Monterey. We changed course for Capitola.

At 10:15 I saw a shark! Not much story to it- I just happened to be looking at the right patch of water when his fin came out, waggled a bit, then disappeared behind a wave. But it was big and far away so maybe even bigger! SCARY!

At about 10:30 there was enough wind to justify raising the for’sal. After a bit we even turned off the motor. We sited land through the morning fog at 11AM and arrived in Capitola just before 1PM.

The boat and bait shop in Capitola has a small mooring field and we secured a ball. One of the boats we passed on the way in has what it called a “sugar scoop” which is a set of steps leading up to the cockpit where my stern is a short cliff. Some seals had found this and climbed into the cockpit of this sailboat and were sunning. It was awesome. Once tied to the mooring we cleaned up the boat some, packed our things, and caught a water taxi to the dock.

We met Becky at the dock and then walked into town to find a restaurant. We decided to eat at Margaritaville and by phone directed Joselita to join us. I was amazed at how bad my land sickness was after 30 hours at sea. I almost fell twice. Ken’s phone was almost dead but he brought his charger with him so I asked the hostess if she could plug it in for us. Eventually Joselita arrived and we were seated. The food was awful and we were totally exhausted.

Given the issues with the boat I decided to go back to town with Becky so I could do some online research and then buy parts. I would then come back to the boat prepared to fix whatever had caused the alarms.

Typically I like to drive- in fact, it is fair to say that I hate being a passenger. Within about 5 minutes though it was clear I wasn’t safe to be at the wheel. I pulled over and switched places with Becky. I passed out before we made it to the freeway and woke up when we were getting off the freeway in San Jose almost an hour later.

Sea Trial...

2008-09-05T22:21:00.000-07:00

I decided it is time for an open sea trial for the boat and its crew for the first part of the trip. Ken has the weekend free of kids so we are going to sail to Monterey. It is about 125 nautical miles which should take us about 25 hours to sail if things go well. I want to leave Friday night but Ken is begging for Saturday morning. Meanwhile I have a ton to do to get ready. Here are some things I did:

• checked tiller wiggle
• removed old compass
• polished old compass dome
• broke the old compass
• threw away some spare wood I had on the boat
• “stole” the other battery from the recycle area by the dumpster so I could return it to Costco and get my $9 core charge back
• Made wind indicators
• Bought a drill extension
• Sailed w/ Ken and Rosie
• Bought a Garmin card
• Bought some tape
• Bought solar lights
• Test anchor light
• Buy inverter
• Clear quarter berth
• Buy food and drink
• Refill diesel
• Buy spare diesel
• Check oil
• Check fuel filters
• Install GPS
• Plot route
• Buy new compass
• Buy another gas can at Wal Mart
• Look at sweats and other costume stuff for Baja Ha Ha party
• Buy oil filter
• Buy wire
• Get ice for trip
• Get food and drinks for trip
• Move all spare loose stuff into v berth
• Charge phone and batteries
• check fuel sending unit
• research a stop for stuff stored under the table
• tape the sheets (use old tape!)
• charge solar lights
• fabricate an anchor light
• make the new table work
• prepare vitamin C
• prepare all information for the harbor in Monterey

Pirate? Or ninja?

2008-08-30T22:17:00.000-07:00

Ken was scheduled to have the kids this weekend and suggested we take them sailing.

I am not sure if this was so he could go sailing, because it was a fun activity, or if it was to help alleviate any fears they had about him going to Mexico with me. Maybe it was a combination of all of them. Whatever his motivation was though, I was very excited. I invited Becky to come too and as Ken was leaving his house he invited Eric. This was going to be the biggest crew I’ve ever had on the boat! You should know that Ken has four, count them, one, two, three, FOUR kids.

I’ve been struggling with lame dinghy issues for a while now. The guy was buying the second inflatable decided to back out and I support his decision. The dinghy developed some problems between our hand-shake agreement and the time when we wanted to execute the deal. I don’t want to sell a faulty product to somebody for one and for two I felt I could fix the dinghy and sell it for more than he was paying as I had given him a better deal than I should have. I was working on the dinghy when people started arriving.

First it was Becky who was very eager to help me get ready, which was great but also a slight pain since it distracted me from completing my dinghy chore. We muddled through it and right as we finished Eric showed up. Ken had stopped to groceries for lunch so Eric got there early. This worked out well since Eric hadn’t seen the boat yet. I gave him the grand tour and right as we finished Ken and Co. showed up. The day was running like clockwork.

I gave the kids a few rules and Becky helped them pick out life vests. While this was happening Ken buzzed around the boat getting us ready for take off. I finished with my rules and went to tell Ken we could prepare to cast off and found him holding the boat with the dock lines already off. I started the boat, put it in reverse, and hit the gas!

We did not move.

As it turned out Ken left the dock line by me attached. Oops. It is a lucky thing my 15 horsepower Yanmar didn’t rip the finger off the dock! So, I fixed the line and… Action! Reverse, turning, idle, neutral, forward, gas, and GO!

On our way out Ken, Eric, Becky, and the kids sat up on the foredeck and reveled in the adventure. I let the oldest kid pick “youngest to oldest” or “oldest to youngest” and she chose the former. So I had the kids, starting with the 7 year old, each take a turn steering the boat. I explained how the tiller worked and let them weave back and forth. I let the older kids all drive us in a circle. Then I made Becky and Eric take turns too. On a previous trip I had needed Becky to take the tiller and she did not feel ready. I decided that from now on all crew must have basic steering skills before we hit open water.

Once we made it out to the first channel marker I put it in neutral and Ken and I hoisted my storm sail. My thinking was that I could put it on a long lead and leave the 150 hanked on. This would accomplish several things. First, we could try the storm sail. Second, it would be easier to pack up and we would not have to remove the 150 in its sack. Third we on the tall lead people could sit on the foredeck an we could tack over them.

I sent Ken to find a rope we could convert into a lead and started pulling the sail from its bag. I found that it already had a lead of about the exact length I was planning on using! I attached this to the bow and we ran the sheets back to the winches. I attached the halyard to the top of the sail and began to hoist it. Something looked wrong… It was upside down! DO OVER!

We lowered the sail, removed it, put it on right. It turned out the long lead was attached to the top of the sail for some reason. So I got to make my rope lead anyway. The storm sail was cool but there was very little wind and so we decided to pull it off and raise the 150. Even with the 150 it was still pretty light sailing.
Ken decided we should try a man overboard drill (MOB Drill) with a real person. I pointed the boat too far into the wind so our speed was about 1.5 knots and turned the tiller over to Becky. I wanted to have my attention free so I could watch my jackass best friend jump in the bay and get eaten by a shark. Also this way I could throw him a line. Ken psyched himself up and dove off the boat!

I tossed a dockline over the side and Ken tried to swim alongside the boat. He rapidly had to go for the rope. 1.5knots is pretty fast for swimming. I asked Ken if he wanted help getting back on the boat and he refused under grounds that he wanted to try himself. He did something pretty clever. Now climbing out of the water and onto the boat is harder than, say, climbing out of a pool. In a pool the side goes straight down from the lip and you can put your feet on it. The boat curls under so there is no way to brace yourself or get any additional lift from your leg muscles. Our situation was even harder because the boat was moving and he had the drag of the water. Here is what he did:

First he hauled himself up to the boat and grabbed the side. Then he used his free hand to make a big loop in the rope and wrap the end around the cleat. This gave him a step. He had to mess with it for a while to get the technique down. Then he was able to lift himself up to grab the vertical support of the stern rail, then the rail itself. Eventually he got a knee on the side of the boat and was back inside.
Eric did not want to be outdone so he stripped down and jumped in. Eric is a BIG guy. 6’4 or so and well over 250lbs. He too got to the rope but wasn’t able to get the loop trick to work. After a few tries he was getting pretty uncomfortable so I dug out a swim ladder. Even with the ladder it took both Ken and I to get him back into the boat.

There was only one other slave to macho on board… I too went over the side. I grabbed the rope, hauled myself to the boat, improved upon the loop technique by making the loop shorter, and whipped myself back inside the boat. Granted I had the benefit of Ken’s loop technique but I still looked the best!

I am curious to anyone else who has climbed onto a sailboat from the water… Is our experience typical? Ken and I were both hardcore rock climbers when we were younger. The way we got in and Eric didn’t made me wonder if it was because he was bigger or because we have climbing backgrounds?

Anyway, we messed around sailing for a couple more hours and then headed for home. We decided to sail all the way through the channel and into the creek. We finally dropped sails just outside the marina and I went to start the motor. Nothing. It wouldn’t even crank. I had left the Perko switch set to ALL and the kids had gone down and turned on all the switches and every gadget onboard. I still don’t think we should have had trouble starting- the batteries showed 10+ volts on my meter… but there was no two-ways about it. The starter was not going to turn.

I could have tried the trick of, forgive my lack of proper names here, holding the bar thing back so there is no resistance turning the motor- but I didn’t think of it. Instead I decided to see if we could sail into the slip. I didn’t want too much power so I raised only the main and only to its first reef. I stood by the mast thinking I could drop the sail really quick before we got to my dock and hopefully coast in. My plan was… ambitious.

We made the turn into the little passage into the marina and floated to a stop. Too slow to turn the rudder to turn the boat to catch the wind… We were dead in the water. We floated gentle to the wall of the marina and I had Eric and Ken grab hold of an iron fitting that some drain pipes mount to. I was thinking we could “walk” the boat into a goofy little half slip on the first dock and then I could borrow some shore power to charge the batteries. This did not please me. I had a better plan!

While the guys held the boat I leapt onto the wall and climbed the chain link fence up top. This allowed me to run down the top of the wall to the main marina gate. I hopped the fence, ran down to my dock, jumped in my dinghy, the wonderful thing started first pull, and I buzzed around to my boat. Ken took the tiller, I gave a dock line to Eric and he put the loop around a cleat, I held the other end in my hand and started to pull the boat away from the wall.

Somehow the sailboat had gotten turned around so what I needed to do was pull the bow out into the channel, then spin it in a circle, then tow it into the marina. This was pretty tough because the dinghy wanted to zig zag back and forth. It made it hard to pull the boat in a steady direction. Just as we got good and IN THE MIDDLE another boat wanted to leave the marina. The skipper and I had some kind of mind meld though and I tugged my boat to one side and he looped around the other- it looked planned. Once I had my boat pointed the right direction I gave it a pull and got it moving. Once it had momentum Ken could also steer and pretty soon I had most of my zigging under control. I gave the sailboat some momentum, tossed Eric the dock line, and pulled away a bit. I wanted to be nearby incase I needed to pull more or jump out to defend a neighboring boat but I also wanted to be on the dock to catch my boat. Ken’s last attempt to dock the boat didn’t go perfectly…

I hovered in the dinghy until I felt things were on track, zipped into the slip next to mine, jumped out, and then caught the bow of my boat as Ken entered the slip. He was doing fine without help but at this point I wanted all the risk mitigation I could get. I had Eric hop down and get the far side. It was the smoothest docking at this marina yet!

First donation...

2008-08-29T22:16:00.000-07:00

11 Months of planning and six months of work came together in an explosive climax last night at 10:57PM. The Jackson Long Project has its first cash supporter! The email notification came like a ray of sunlight through the thick banks of fog shrouding my motivation. The push to get ready this last few months had really worn me down and after I saw this I felt reborn. It fucking rocked. 

Tired...

2008-08-09T22:15:00.000-07:00

I am so tired I can hardly stand it. I’ve been burning my writing cycles working on infrastructure stuff for thejacksonlongproject.com and as a result not doing the journaling I should. I don’t know where my time is going! I am not playing any games. I am not seeing movies or watching TV. I am seeing friends and family but its not like a ton of extended hanging out or anything. A meal here and there is all.

Here are some updates that include today’s massive push.

Added shelves to the hanging locker:
Installed stereo:
Triaged clothes again:
Tied off some fenders:
Organized tools some more:
Purchased inflatable dinghy A
Purchased inflatable dinghy B and outboard A
Test drove dinghies A and B with outboard A
Test drove neighbor’s dinghy with his outboard
Purchased outboard B
Installed dish rack
Removed hard dinghy from foredeck
Coiled old shore power cord

Dinghy Ad

2008-08-02T22:14:00.000-07:00

Columbia Unsinkable Fiberglass 7' dinghy / tender / boat with a Minn Kota electric outboard / trolling motor, working battery, wooden oars with quick release for easy storage (boat has oar locks), and a nice dock line. If you want I can throw in a life vest.

The boat has two enclosed flotation chambers that make it unsinkable. If you filled it with water it would float at the water line. It has brass oar locks and a nice bench seat in the middle. This boat won't win any beauty pageants but it is stable and will get the job done!

The motor is a Minn Kota Turbo 27lb thrust electric trolling motor. It has five forward speeds and three reverse speeds. With close to 300lbs of weight in the boat the motor pushes it along at almost 3 knots (2.7 pretty consistent and I got up to 2.9 for a while- as measured by my GPS). I've heard that at the middle speed setting you can get 5 hours use out of a battery- but I haven't tested it. The motor can be height and angle adjusted very easily.

The battery is sort of a "gimme". I don't think it is a deep cycle (which you would want) and I don't think it is a marine battery- it sloshes when it moves so I know it is a water battery though. If I were you I would use this battery until it dies then buy "the right" battery.

The oars are wooden two piece with a nice rubberized grip and the things that go in the oar locks. They assemble/disassemble very easily with a quick release button.

The boat and motor came with a sailboat I bought and I don't have a use for it. The sailboat also had many life vests- if you want I will throw one in.

This boat is perfect for a runabout / dinghy / tender here on the bay or on a lake. It would be great to give the kids something to mess with. Or if you are a fisherman and sick of casting from the bank. In the case of fishermen it might not be THE BOAT YOU REALLY WANT but it is a very cheap way to get off the bank and trolling.

Let me know if I can answer any questions.

**SOLD**

The Dinghy Adventure.

2008-08-01T22:11:00.000-07:00

I just took the dinghy out for its first spin. It was pretty exciting! I had to undo a bunch of tie downs and random knots I made to secure everything on the foredeck before I left Pittsburg. Then I had to lower the dinghy by rope off the side and into the water. The dinghy is a lot less heavy floating… Go figure.

Anyway, I got the dinghy in the water, dug the oars out of the dock box, put the battery in the dinghy, grabbed a volt meter, the GPS, a flashlight, some ice tea, and a sweatshirt. Then I mounted the motor and adjusted it until, to my untrained eye, it looked “about right”. I also added a bungee cord around the motor incase it fell off.

The motor attaches to the battery with a set of little clips- like what you would find on a jumper cable. So I clipped the little pins from the volt meter between the battery posts and the dinghy clips. This gave me a good connection and I was able to monitor the battery. I didn’t want to use the oars if I didn’t have to!
At this point I was out of excuses to not go, so I untied the dock line and floated to sea.

After a while I was out of food and water and felt it was important to preserve the ice tea. The boat was nearly six feet away and there was no going back. Every time I shifted my weight the boat rocked like the Kasbah and I knew I couldn’t sit forever or I would need to itch something and capsize.

The motor is a 27lb thrust Minn Kota electric. It has 5 forward speeds and 3 reverse. I cranked the knob to ONE and… Nothing… WAIT! No! I WAS MOVING! Veerrrryyyyy slowly.

I think this motor is designed for trolling so I guess that made sense. I clicked to TWO and we sped up a bit. I clicked to THREE and we were really going! I glanced at the GPS and it said we were moving at 1.4 knots. Holy! I had reached the end of my dock, I turned to starboard (that is the right for you lubbers) and cranked past FOUR to FIVE! The motor gave a kick like an angry donkey and we rocketed down the marina!

The wind was in my hair and I could hardly see past the tears in my eyes! This was speed in its purest liquid form. I could have towed skiers! Well, I don’t know that. I’ve never done it. But I was virtually flying! The volt meter had dropped from 12.4 to 11.9. I don’t really know what that means- not sure if it is available power (as in, how much effort it can put out) or if it was a capacity thing- like how much gas… I am prone to think the former because when I let off it would return to 12.4.

I was zooming! I had reached the end of the last dock and cranked hard to the starboard again and raced for open water. Two guys chatting on a motor sailer stopped what they were doing to watch me go by. They were probably pissed off at my wake which, I assure you, was huge.

When I exited the harbor into the channel there were some wind ripples- err, I mean STRONG CHOP that I bounced through like a maniac. To avoid tragedy I clicked back down to TWO and made a u-turn. Most of my yahoos were out by now so I took it a little easier as I passed the motor sailer. I am sure they appreciated it. As I made the port curve into the marina proper I saw that somebody from the apartments, a girl, in a towel, was walking along the promenade. I am guessing she was headed for the hot tub or the pool. The marina is maybe 150 yards long and she had about a 50 yard head start on me. Being the bachelor that I am I cranked the motor of to FIVE and was in hot pursuit!

She had a 50 yard head start but I rapidly hit my top speed and began to eat away at her lead! When she had covered half the distance to the end of the marina I had cut her lead in half! It was going to be close! I was still 25 yards behind her but gaining! 20 yards! 15 yards! 10 yards! 10 yards behind her and she was almost to the gate! I wanted warp speed but my Scottish guardian angel said, “I’m giving her all she’s got Captain!”

I had cut her lead down to only five yards when she disappeared through the gate. Tonight the hunter goes hungry.

On the back stretch the GPS said my top speed was 2.9 knots. I think if I duck down real low next time I can hit 3.

Solo sailing...

2008-07-10T22:07:00.000-07:00

I took the boat out for the first time solo today. No sailing, just motored around. Still pretty exciting though!

I was going to chicken out. I’d gone down to the boat semi randomly to drop off a couple items and pick-up the old bedding so I could wash it. I figured I would check the tides and the timing was perfect. Shoot. No excuse there.

I wasn’t going to be chickened into it though. So I puttered around the boat a bit but felt a little silly not doing anything. I decided to start the motor… okay, that was fun… why isn’t the depth sounder working? Oh yeah, there is a switch, okay, flipped that… huh, plenty of room under the boat… okay… uh… well… I don’t have a good excuse not to. Its not like I will get more ready by waiting…

So I undid the shore power, slipped all the dock lines, threw her in reverse, got part way out of the slip, cranked the tiller, and… nothing fucking happened. Shit! I was on a crash course towards the boats in the slips behind me! I threw it in forward gear and punched it!

I didn’t want to ram the boats on my side either though so I cut the throttle as soon as my reward momentum was killed. Whew. Now what? Shit the stern is floating the wrong direction…

The problem is that at a given level of thrust the boat must be going faster in reverse for the rudder to work. I am pretty sure that at greater than a knot or two without thrust it works both ways- certainly differently since it is on the “front” of the boat in reverse… But at slow speeds the thrust from the prop is greater than the boat’s speed through the water. Going forwards that water is being blown over the rudder- giving it more control than the speed of the boat would imply. In reverse the prop is sucking water from around the rudder and blowing it forwards- so the rudder doesn’t do much.

After a few “ah, so that doesn’t work either” experiments a couple of guys that had just come back from fishing came running over to help. One of them, we will call him The Leader Guy ran to the bow and grabbed it- holding it against the dock. The other one, we will call him Jackass Assistant runs around two boats so he can grab the stern.

The Leader Guy begins yelling instructions my way. Jackass Assistant begins repeating them, in reverse. Leader Guy is actually right, but Jackass Assistant is right next to me so the tendency is to listen to him. Meanwhile the owners of the two boats I am straddling- hear the ruckus and come out to see what is going on. More instructions follow. After a minute or so The Leader Guy decides I am not listening to so fuck me- and he takes off. Jackass Assistant sees his boss leaving so decides to bail too. As he lets go of the boat he gravely repeats The Leader Guys instructions- this time correctly- as if I am the idiot.

Then one of the owners says, “just back way up and turn.” So I did. Whew. It was all about getting that momentum.

Once I was pointed the right direction getting out of the harbor was a simple thing. I was pretty frayed though- it was clear I wasn’t going to “just get it right the first time”.

Once I was out of the channel and into the delta proper- this section is pretty much a river- I gave myself room to work and cut the throttle. Once I had coasted to a stop I pushed the tiller all the way to one side and threw her in reverse. My goal was to practice backing up.

This didn’t work out very well since the water was moving at a pretty good clip and there was a fair bit of wind. It took about 5 minutes to make a reverse circle. I did a few more experiments then headed back in. I was scared as heck though because now I had to park it. I was confident before the fiasco- now I was pretty nervous.
On my way through the harbor I did a few experiments with cutting the throttle to see how far I would coast. As I came down the aisle towards my slip I held my breath, cut the throttle, popped her into neutral, and froze- I was ready to spring in any direction to avert disaster. And as I sat poised she slid perfectly into the slip not even touching the sides (I’ve got about a total of 4 inches clearance. Once I was about halfway in I leapt from the side and ran to the front so I could prevent the bow from smashing into the back of the slip. Then I watched in awe as she coasted to a stop on her own accord with about 1 inch to spare.

Nobody was watching.

Triage

2008-07-05T22:06:00.000-07:00

I managed very little productivity today. I actually got up at 6AM and sorted all of the bins and managed to carve out a couple.. One to my mom’s for “deep storage” and one that I was able to just empty. The rest I triaged according to use type… Tools, clothes, bedding, kitchen, and office. The office boxes I set aside so I can go through them in detail later. I will probably take one tub of office stuff with me- at the moment I have four. A similar culling will be required for every other category.

I did take a few items out to the boat including enough bedding to setup the bed. I took a short nap and I have to say it was joyous.

That was a pretty good start but was over my noon. The rest of the day was non productive but socially rewarding.

I hope to visit a grocery store tomorrow for ice, drinks, and some food. Then I will spend a few days on the boat. My only hesitation with that plan is it won’t allow me to start my book research. I know I need a book on diesel, another on- well, not sure. I guess that is what I need to sort out.

Drama...

2008-07-03T22:05:00.000-07:00

Today was a semi bust from a productivity standpoint. Yamaha can’t do the bike until Tuesday. This leaves me mostly immobile until then. Scott and I did play with it a bit. We put the spark suppressor back on, charged the battery, and added some gas. I also bought some gloves online.

Becky came up from San Jose with Mac. It was good to see her but was also kind of a hassle. The home situation here at Scott’s is a little wonky. Woman trouble. This complicated everything.

We tried to make some group plans but they fell through. Becky and I went to Costco and got some stuff for the BBQ, visited the boat, got dinner, and saw the movie Hancock. It was okay but not great.

When we got back there was more drama. Scott told me that after tonight (since Becky is here) that I would move to the upstairs spare room. Pretty much I just feel bad for everybody involved. It makes me want to hide in a video game or a book.

Anyway, I did start computer administration projects and tomorrow I will start the triage of the stuff in the garage. Maybe go ahead and move some of it to the boat.

Biker.

2008-07-03T22:01:00.000-07:00

Moving furniture was quick and uneventful. Afterwards Scott and I had about 2.5 hours to look at bikes. There were three candidates:

1) 1980 Honda CB650
2) 1998 Kawasaki Ninja 600
3) 1992 Yamaha XT600 Dual Sport

The first bike was okay but very old. The first thing the owner said was “I am asking $1,500 but I will take 1k if you buy it today.” I think this sort of set the tone for that bike… It just wasn’t all everyone wanted it to be. On the other hand the owner had two stunningly attractive daughters (20ish?).

The second bike was very nice but was a salvage title and was very expensive at $1,999. After looking at this bike I went to Any Mountain to buy a back pack and think.

I had an old frame pack from 20 years ago and Any Mountain had a program where they give you $10 off a pack if you trade in your old one. I bought a North Face Hotshot for $79-$10+tax. It came to $74.

After that I called the owner of the Ninja and asked him to lower his price. He said he would think about it. Meanwhile I had one last bike to see.

The third bike was a dual sport. This means it is designed for off-road but is street legal. He was asking $1,200 which was much more palatable than 2k for the Ninja. After thinking for a few hours I offered him $850 and he accepted.

I drove it home and will get it tuned and legal tomorrow.

She lit up the room.

2008-07-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

Well, BJ just drove off in my car- wait- her car- leaving me w/ 5k in cash. 5k of the same cash I gave her yesterday. I think this is the first time in, jees, not sure… a long time anyway, that I have not owned a vehicle.

Scott is on his way to pick me up then I will help him move some furniture. This afternoon we will go to find me an inexpensive motorcycle so I can get around this summer.

A woman who walked into the Starbucks a bit ago had a giant smile. She was a pretty big lady but was just showering the room in joy. When she was leaving I stopped her to tell her that her smile lit up the room and made my day. She hugged me and almost cried.

It is amazing.

2008-07-01T21:59:00.000-07:00

Today was incredible!

I woke up fairly early without an alarm. With all of the long days and physical labor my body just did not believe that it was allowed to sleep. Scott, the friend I am staying with, was already awake. This was my first morning in his house so we sat down to a breakfast together. Fried eggs and toast was awesome. Vanilla Coke Zero was a big swing and a miss.

After breakfast we unloaded his truck and my car. I cannot believe how much stuff I still have! Hopefully it will look smaller in the boat.

Once the cars were empty I went to West Marine looking to replace a small shackle for the boat. I had some questions about how the strength of hardware is measured but the Asst. Manager on duty did not know for sure.

While there I used the restroom and noticed a bullitine board with boat sales and other bills. My eye was immedietly drawn to a very attractive sailboat in an ad. It was *MY* boat that the original owner forgot to take down!

Next I drove to BJ and Dean’s house. On the way I was literally surrounded by police. At one point one even shouted at me on his PA system. They did not pull me over thank god!

BJ and Dean had some family over- including several attractive young ladies. In my fat and grubby attire I failed to impress them.

BJ and I completed the sale transaction and I paid 100 dollars extra so they would keep the slip an extra month. BJ was a little put off by the wad of cash I gave her. She actually gave up counting halfway through. I felt a little guilty for stressing her out.

After I asked her if she had decided on buying my car or not she said she had and that she wanted to buy it! She expressed concern over the smog and registration so I offered to resolve those issues for her.

From BJ and Dean’s I went to the DMV where I paid the boat fees, I am now the official owner, and the back fees on the car. I walked next door to see about boat insurance but was turned away again.

The boat fee was 98 dollars and the car was 317.

Across the parking lot I had seen a Cost-U-Less Insurance office and I thought I would give the walk-in thing one more try before going back to Eastwood. They gave me the thumbs up! 214 for one year of liability. But, they did not accept cash.

My next stop was a smog station where I paid 68 to get a test and certificate. This means the car can now be registered and sold. I called BJ and we agreed to meet the next morning to formally sell the car. WOOT!

I went back to the bank to get a money order for the boat insurance. After swiping my card I was told my account was $6,500 over drawn! At first it looked like someone had fraudulently drawn a money order but it turned out to be a system error. Whew!

A new task list...

2008-06-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

At the moment I have several burning priorities. First, is to complete the sale of the boat. Second, if at all possible, is to secure the sales of my car.

$13,498 minus 8k for the boat is $5,498 but really I owe $480 to the surveyor so I am “already” down to $5,018. The boat must be registered, insured, berthed, and outfitted. I could easily spend all remaining funds on this and 5 times as much besides.

However, we will make do with a budget of 2k for this. If possible I will work part of the summer and increase this budget.

After the sale administration issue I need to tackle the various computer chores I have setup:

1) clean and prepare the laptop
2) “Move” onto the laptop
3) Clean and prepare Core
4) Clean Cracker
5) Clean old laptop
6) Check Becky’s old machine
7) Setup The Jackson Long Project

On a personal note… I need to put an end to this fat thing. Address body, hai8r, and nails, and fix that damn callous.

First day of the rest of my life...

2008-06-30T21:55:00.000-07:00

As of this moment, or perhaps a moment an hour or so ago.. I am a free man. 10 months of planning culminated in the following:

1) I am homeless
2) My loved ones are safe
3) I have no “job”
4) I have paid 1k towards a 9k sailboat
5) I have roughly a carload + one half of “stuff”
6) I have 121 one hundred dollar bills ($12,100)
7) I have 15 fifty dollar bills ($750)
8) I have 68 twenty dollar bills ($1,360)
9) I have 17 ten dollar bills ($170)
10) I have 20 five dollar bills ($100)
11) I have 16 one dollar bills ($16)
12) I just brushed my teeth for the first time in recent memory
13) My bank account has 4 dollars in it.
14) I actually have 31 dollars in my wallet and a small bin of change giving me a total of $13,496
15) I am owed a couple hundred dollars for some programming I did
16) I owe a couple of nice dinners to friends who helped me
17) I still have my car
18) My friend who helped me move and will try to turn what was left of the company into money is lost on his way home but in high spirits
19) I am rapidly getting stiff from all the moving

As of now… That is my reality!

Finito!

2008-06-23T21:54:00.000-07:00

Well, garage sale over. I am sore, dirty, and exhausted. Total income from the garage sale was a little over 1,000. I did 120 on Friday in “pre sales” to people who called and asked to come early. 638 on Saturday and 288 on Sunday.

Easy for you to say...

2008-06-21T21:53:00.000-07:00

Today was garage sale day. The prep leading up to this was murder. First I should finish the tale I began a few days ago.

I met the current owners of the boat at their compound and drove the man down to the marina where the boat is slipped. We took a nice sail/lesson on our way to deliver the boat to the hauling facility which was only about 3 miles away but we took about 2.5 hours to do it. This was about the first time I’ve been out in the sun in… like a decade… (not quite) and I got a massive sunburn. The boat was delivered without much incident.

She has a tiller and this was my first experience with that. I did not like it. It requires CONSTANT supervision. Unlike the wheel steering boats I’ve tried. I cannot imagine how I would do it solo without rigging something weird with rope. There must be devices that do this. Well, there ARE- autopilots do it- but they do a lot more. There must be a simple “hold the tiller here” device.

The boat seemed just as fast as the Ranger 33 I was on a while back. I believe the Ranger is fully maintained- like hauled out regularly and stuff. With my boat the big concern was that it hadn’t been out in 10+ years. It makes me wonder if mine has a faster design since they were comparably swift even though mine had 10 years of crud on the bottom.

We made a big triangle to give us an excuse to sail more. First a long dogleg tacking maneuver, then a long downwind run. On the downwind run we did a wing-on-wing maneuver (I am sure this has a real name) and had the jib out one side and the main out the other. Going upwind, particularly with the tiller, was a lot of work requiring constant maintenance. However, downwind has you moving at close to the speed of the wind which means the sense of wind is almost zero. Not real nice on a hot day. I think I would have preferred a less directly downwind angle to preserve that sense of breeze.

Anyway, we sailed to the yard without incident, did a side tie, dropped off the key, and the woman of the owner couple picked us up and they dropped me off at my car.
Shoot, I am probably logging now. More later. I *will* get this story out!

Sailing my boat...

2008-06-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

What a day! Everything is going so fast!

This morning I got up and kicked Luke out (he spent the night but I didn’t really kick him out) so I could check my mail and then hit the road. We settled up on the stuff he bought and I walked him to his car. I didn’t really have any mail so I was able to get moving pretty quick.

Where was I going? Why, to sail my boat! Well, not mine yet- but close. Tomorrow is the survey and haul-out and so I needed to move the boat from the owner’s slip to the yard where the survey and haul will happen.

I had to drive way out to the delta where the boat lives but my registration is expired and I really don’t want to give any money to the DMV. Viva la resistance! I had to take emergency evasive action to avoid the fuzz twice.

400

2008-06-17T21:50:00.000-07:00

I found an insurance company that didn’t turn me down flat out. They are super shady but since my goal is less to have insurance and more to satisfy the marinas- if they will process me and give me a piece of paper- I am in like Flynn!

Tomorrow I sail the boat from its current slip to the boatyard that is doing the haul-out and painting. It will stay there overnight and I go back in the early AM Wednesday for the survey itself. Totally stoked.

Today I sold the jack, jack stands, and creeper for 70 bucks. I was asking 80 so I feel pretty good about that price.

Also Luke, my partner from the software company that choked to death came over to buy some stuff he had been eyeballing. So I sold him 4 shelving units, a jigsaw, a vice, and a dremmel set. Not sure on the final price yet.

Update: 400.

Sales and insurance.

2008-06-12T21:49:00.000-07:00

I don’t know where yesterday went. I honestly thought I had written.

Today I sold my toolbox for 250 and two 3x3 whiteboards for 90. I did not go to CrossFit because I was sore and am still freaking out a little worrying about my passport and license issues. I am pretty much committed to doing the survey, haul out, and paint- but might still skip it if the money looks super tight.

One of the factors involves slip fees. My original plan was to move the boat to San Rafael, move onto it, stay for a month and finish the CrossFit thing, then move to Redwood City(ish) and stay until September. As it turns out you need boat insurance to get a slip. You need a valid license to get insurance. My license is suspended and it will cost $1,850 to get it fixed. That is a big unexpected bill. If I want to avoid it I have to a) leave the boat out in Pittsburg b) hide on it while I am there since they do not allow live boards and c) probably not stop at any marinas in the US on my way South.

I might be able to pull of visiting some marinas on the way- not sure. Worse case I anchor out I guess but my dinghy is a hoopty.

To survey, or not to survey...

2008-06-05T21:47:00.000-07:00

Oh man things are crazy and going so fast!

One of my checks came in on Saturday so I went to the bank this morning and was able to walk out with 2,500 dollars! They are holding 500 so I will go back for that as soon as it clears. And, oh this part rules, the bank girl totally hit on me. She had helped me before and we chatted it up a bit. As I walked in she came running over saying, “Jaack!” and I said, “Oh you remember me!” and she said, “Of course I do! How is your account everything okay? You should call me!” It was awesome.

Today I called a surveyor I had spoken with once before about another boat (DID YOU WRITE THAT STORY?) to see if he could do my survey as I felt we had a pretty good report. He was booked until the 19th which seemed pretty far away. He also pressured me to do a haul out by listing all the things he could not check in a disapproving tone. I wasn’t sure I wanted to wait until the 19th and we agreed to talk again in the afternoon.

He charges 16 dollars a foot- I believe this is pretty standard so for the 30 foot boat it would cost 480 dollars. He did not mention a discount if I skipped the haul out (this saving him work). This is the perfect time to do a haul out too. It allows a more thorough pre-purchase inspection which is good if there is a problem and it lets you do fresh bottom paint thus starting off your relationship with the new boat without this lingering maintenance task. However, the haul out is 10 dollars a foot and the painting will probably run about 300 dollars too. It is silly to haul it out and not paint it since half the painting cost is the haul out!

So now my survey is looking like 1,100 dollars.

I really don’t want to spend 1,100 dollars.

I spent a lot of today agonizing over this.

Bottom paint on a fiberglass boat is not a durability or anti-deterioration issue. All it does is mitigate some of the marine growth which allows you to sail faster and scrape the bottom less often. Out cruising, to extend the time between haul outs, people snorkel under and scrape the bottom under water about once a month. So while it is “standard” to do the paint- it isn’t a safety issue or anything.

Offer process...

2008-06-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

This morning I got up antsy and basically drove myself nuts until it was late enough to call them and say I was on my way. 9AM finally came and I called for directions. I was in the car within seconds and was so excited and my mind running so fast with images of this all coming together that I forgot where I was going and didn’t “come to” until I’d driven two cities out of my way.

I arrived to find a pretty interesting situation. The couple had said they managed a property with 9 units. I figured it was an apartment. No, it was a commune or an enclave or… something. Basically it was a compound with about 8 buildings. Half or so are two unit dwellings- very small and rough looking. The others were the couples house, a separate garage/shed/workshop, and something else I am not sure what…

Anyway the guy’s workshop was awesome, the woman wanted to share everything on the property with me, and eventually we got around to looking at the spare gear. There was nothing of significant resale value that would help offset the cost. But they turned out to have a dinghy and a small electric outboard. This was a big chunk of my “other stuff I need to buy” money so I decided to go for it.

I left a deposit of 1k and will have the boat surveyed next week or so!

Eureka!

2008-05-31T21:45:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a crazy day. I got up early to meet a guy coming to buy my punching bag (80 dollars) then went to a session at the gym which completely exhausted me. I raced home to meet a guy buying three of the dry erase boards (150 dollars) then rushed off to see a boat. This boat was in a marina back in the delta. All the other boats I’ve seen were in the bay so it felt really weird to be driving east into the foothills looking for a harbor.

The boat was a Coronado 30- a little sister to the Coronado 32 I had seen the day before. I’d done a bunch more research on the brand the previous night and soothed some of my quality concerns too so I had an open mind. It was tough to keep the positive attitude when I found the marina. It was a real dive and had such a strange feel compared to the marinas on the bay. Dry, dirty, dusty, and spread way out like a farm or ranch… It made me think of the dock area at a lake.

I had arrived a bit early so I wandered around and tried not to fall over from my rubbery legs. The couple selling the boat arrived and after pulling over by me to confirm I was the potential buyer they drove over to a spot near the boat. It turned out to be about halfway across the marina from where I was and I probably should have just moved the car but instead I walked over.

The boat looked great. Far nicer than anything I had looked at for a few weeks and maintained in very nice condition. I spent about an hour poking around, inspecting systems, learning some of its idiosyncrasies, and generally enjoying the sellers- they reminded me of my grandparents.

Eventually I had seen all I needed to see and I told them I wanted to make an offer but that I needed to do a little thinking and research to determine what the offer would be. The boat wouldn’t come with everything I needed and they were asking almost my whole budget. I had to calculate the cost to add everything I needed to figure out what I could pay and still outfit the boat.

I think they were so excited to have a nice young man (ha! I am 34) visit they didn’t want me to leave. It took another half hour to extract myself. Eventually, after saying, “well, I am going to head out now” about 10 times, shaking hands at least three times, I finally managed to get enough distance and momentum to break out of their hospitality tractor beam.

I came home, took a nap, did some reading about the boat on the web, puttered with my spreadsheet and the prices of the things the boat would need and then called them. I offered 7k of their 10.5k asking price and the woman told me she would talk to the man and get back to me. They took about 20 minutes and called back to say they couldn’t go less than 9k but told me they had a lot of spare sails and misc. stuff that I could maybe sell to offset the price concern. I said I would come out and look at the spare stuff.

More on boats...

2008-05-25T21:44:00.000-07:00

It is now almost midnight on Sunday. As I looked at this date and reviewed the previous post to see what I had already talked about I confused myself. I often write after midnight- I should be better about time stamping… So that last post was really Friday. So there was not a Saturday update.

Anyway, Saturday I went and looked at one more boat. Almost every boat on my shortlist sold in the last two weeks. I didn’t have the money to put out offers yet but I was still really kicking myself for missing those opportunities. I think we are entering into the hot season for boat purchases so not only were the boats I *had* been looking at gone- I was worried that new boats I found would move really fast.

I wasn’t totally in love with anything I saw Friday. I liked a lot of elements about each of them- but nothing said “buy me”. The older boat, the Cal 30, seemed the smart choice due to its extensive equipment, pedigree, and the lessons offered by the owner. But it was really in rough shape from a form perspective and I think I captured my concern best when I told a friend that I was afraid if I showed it to my mother she would cry. I really wanted to make the choice and move on something within the next week though so I scoured my various boat-for-sale sources and found a couple more candidates.

boats, Boats, BOATS!

2008-05-24T21:41:00.000-07:00

This is a continuation of the previous post but I had to do some sleeping.

The first boat was older and rougher than anything else I had serious considered to date. It seems there are some cut-off points in modern boat production theory that lead or “sweet spots” in terms of years of make. In the 60s fiberglass was pretty new, people were used to making wooden boats with sides of an inch or greater thickness, and so they weren’t sure what the optimal thickness of fiberglass were. As a result a lot of these boats are overbuilt- which is generally pretty good although some people could argue that it makes them heavy and unwieldy. The flip side is the production techniques were not very good yet. In the 70s they had things going pretty well but in the 80s fiberglass production had become more expensive and to improve profit margins boats were being made “ultra light”. Most of what I’ve looked at is from the 70s or early 80s. This boat was from 1963.

The owner was a pretty fascinating guy who clearly took a lot of pride in his ship. It was by far the most robust offering of any boat I’ve seen so far. It has basically ever gadget I’ve seriously thought I wanted/needed. Every one of them self installed and in some way custom or wonky. Lots of exposed wire bundles and a battery installed on the floor of the head really set the tone for how this boat presented itself. Of course, on the flip side, everything worked and the owner offered to stay involved after the purchase and provide 10 days of sailing lessons. I think that spoke pretty well for his confidence in his vessel.

He is asking 18k for the boat with everything or 10k for the boat with a subset of its gear. I would assume the logic is that he could make 8k parting out the remaining pieces… I don’t think he could. I think he is in a rough spot- nobody is going to buy this boat at this price. It’s got a lot of toys but it doesn’t show well and if you are ready to spend close to 20k on a boat I don’t think you are looking for something from 1963. Pending the boat I see today I might make this guy an offer. It’s going to be weird though because in order for me to take this boat I basically need the 18k option at half price.

The second boat I looked at was very clean but pretty bare bones and pretty expensive. I could probably make an offer in my price range but I doubt I could get an offer accepted that would leave me enough money to buy the remaining stuff I think I need. I doubt I will talk to this guy again- if he does call me I might offer him about 1/3 of his asking price but I cannot imagine him taking it.

The last boat I looked at really freaked me out. First, the owner is weird. He is a big bald kiwi guy with a voice like a 15 year old. He doesn’t communicate well so when we emailed he used all caps, no punctuation, ignored half my questions, and gave vague answers for the others. In person he was similar. All of this makes him seem dumb but he felt crafty in real life. I felt like he was trying to get something over on me. Normally I would walk away but several of my “top contender” boats sold and so the market is a bit barer at the moment. I could probably stall a week… but the situation could get worse just as likely as get better. It might even be more likely to get worse- as the state could be a reflection of the advancing season.

Anyway, this boat is Coronado center cockpit. Coronado is about the bottom rung of boats that are not totally dumped on all the time. Like the least popular cool kid. Also, as a center cockpit the layout is WEIRD. It is far more spacious than anything else of similar size but it is laid out very weird. Most boats have a half-ass bedroom called a v berth which is basically a bed surrounded by shelves with maybe a curtain or door for privacy. Aft (behind) the v berth is a head (toilet) and a closet and aft of that is a living room, then a kitchen/office, and some steps up to the cockpit. This boat starts with a small room basically that contains the v berth, a kitchen, and a door to a decent sized bathroom. Between the bathroom door and the kitchen is a ladder that leads to the cockpit. The cockpit is smallish but has wheel steering which I love. Behind the wheel is a ladder that leads down to another room with a second v berth and a toilet in the corner. So two people can have total privacy and room to stretch which is something nothing else in my price range offers AT ALL. It also has more deck space than other things I’ve looked at. However, there is no place to sit and have dinner with a friend other than the cockpit which is a wee small and outside. There is no office area- no desk/nav station/whatever. There is also not much raw storage. Most of the boats I’ve looked at have lots of nooks and unused places that have turned into places stuff things. This boat has a more open approach leaving fewer nooks which means all that stuff that needs to be stowed will encroach on the living areas. I fell in love with and wrote off this boat 5 times in the first half hour.

The Coronado is also in really rough shape. The ’63 I would say rough and mean “everything works but it is ugly” whereas with the Coronado it is more like “this is a good looking boat that needs some work.” Now, I like the idea of doing some work and this boat is several thousand less than the ’63 so there is money, in theory, to get it up to snuff. I am just not sure if there is enough money. And with the ’63 I feel sure I am getting a good boat with the Coronado it feels more like a dice roll.

I can’t remember if I wrote about the gym. So, I am really out of shape and it bugs the heck out of me. I was an athlete and lead a very active life before I lost my way. My concept of self is not a pathetic fat guy. So one of the things I did to prepare for this journey is approach the owner of a local gym and offer to do some marketing writing in exchange for training/access for a couple of months. I went to one work-out and it kicked my ass. Then I had the contract stuff going on and a week went by. I go in today for the first “real” day and to take fat before pics. Yay. And scary.

I also approached a local surfboard shaper about supplying my boards for writing/exposure. He is interested but is going to ask me to cover cost of the boards. Not sure how much that is.

Passport!

2008-05-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

What a few days!

First off I am suddenly talking to my dad again after about 3 years. We weren’t estranged so much as just out of touch. He is bad about calling back and after so many attempts… I just kind of give up. His wife of 30 years just left him and so I dropped him an email- shockingly- he called me. We’ve been emailing daily since. It is nice but I wish it wasn’t triggered by something so grim.

So I stalled on getting my passport rolling. A lot of this was financial- I didn’t want to drop the 60 bucks or whatever that I thought it was when things were so precarious. Then I had the money but it was hassle to get down there. Man! I need to get out of here so badly! How can it be so hard to drive 3 miles to a nice quaint downtown office that I put it off for months? Gross!

Anyway, I suddenly realized how little time I have left to make all this happen so I got up at 5am today to ride with a friend to the county of my birth and apply for an original copy of my birth certificate. I need this for the passport. It turned out awesome!

I misunderstood the process and thought that I would have to wait 10 days. When I asked the girl if I could pay for expedited service she patiently explained that was only available by mail. Then handed me the certificate! I was so stoked! Then I realized that the same office handles passports! Lots of sentences with bang at the end! I asked her if there was a place to get passport photos taken nearby- she said, “Yes, two windows down- I will help you” and I got my passport photos taken! My roll was temporarily halted when I found out you need to pay by cashier’s check so I had to leave and find a bank. I wanted the superfast three week expedite so I paid over 200 bucks when all was said and done. That is a HUGE sum for me and it felt a bit wasted because a friend of mine got his passport a couple months ago and without the expedite it only took two weeks. But given my schedule I just couldn’t risk a delay.

Anyway, with that taken care of (HUGE weight off my shoulders) I drove over the mountain to Santa Cruz to look at a boat. This was the first of three.

Was Busy...

2008-05-17T21:33:00.000-07:00

I am not off to a great start. I am certainly committed to this writing and I think the “I am doing this with little money” aspect will bear some interesting fruit but nobody CHOOSES to be poor. Well, maybe somebody does but I am not him. We had some work fall into the lap of my company as I was shutting it down and since I wasn’t planning on leaving until summer anyway- I agreed to do it. This would give me a fair bit of extra money that would be a nice security blanket. The way the contract was written we would do a small piece of work, then a larger one. The small piece wouldn’t change me to a different budget category- it was just some extra cash… but the larger piece would really boost my option set.

I’ve written so little because I was working like a dog to get that small piece done so we could do the large piece. Well, true to the lying form of the company’s in this industry- there was no larger piece of work. Classic bait and switch. So, I am a little behind on my planning but I do have a little more money than I might have otherwise.

I will try to be more regular now. Sorry.

Experiences...

2008-05-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

People go through life and have all manner of experiences. Some good, some bad, some indifferent and each individual processes those experiences different ways. On an absolute scale I am sure we could plot how some lives are superior to others. Some people get lucky and some people are dealt a large ration of pain by fate. But the absolute scale is almost irrelevant because individual people posses different levels of ability to cope. The relative value of the absolute experiences verses the individual ability to cope is what matters. I don’t mean in my writing to say, “oh poor me my life has been so hard.” Certainly a lot of folks have had it worse. Nobody put cigarettes out on me, I was never raped, I suffer from no grievous physical ailments, and most of the time I am in charge of my faculties. However, my shit ration has grown beyond my ability to cope. My choices are similar to those of a fox in a trap gnawing off his own leg for escape. I am lucky because I have some options that are more appealing than gnawing off my own leg, but the motivation is the same in both cases. Panicked and desperate flight for a situation that will be within our ability to handle.

I'm Sailing Away...

2008-05-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

I finally managed to navigate (heh, he said navigate!) the various social and logistic obstacles preventing me from going sailing. I went out on an older Ranger 33 which is the cruising big brother of the Ranger 32 I was looking at a few weeks ago. Being my first time out as a member of crew I was a little disappointed with the amount of learning I did. This boat was setup with racing in mind so there were more ropes than needed and the gentlemen who took me out wasn’t huge on annunciation so there was a lot of “just pull that one” that went on. However, it was still an acceptable primer.

I generally found it to be what I expected only slower. If I guessed we were going 3 knots, we were going 6. If I guessed the wind was going 10 knots, it was going 20. We left from a marina in Alameda that required about 45 minutes or so of travel down a narrow channel to get to the bay. Normally one would just run the motor and putter past the various tug boats and cargo ships but since I was there to learn we tacked our way upwind the whole way. This meant repeating the tacking exercise over and over every 30 to 90 seconds for almost an hour. I found that other than the occasional tightening of a line, in these light conditions, I preferred not to use the winch. Rawr!

My job on this trip was 99% composed of wrapping the rope around the winch (even if you won’t use it), pulling on the rope really fast, and then wrapping it around a cleat. For a novice this process has a couple of failure modes. The winch is very smooth and unless there is a good deal of tension on the rope it will slide around the winch even if it (the rope) is wrapped around the winch three or four times. As I said it is good to wrap the rope around the winch even if you won’t be using its mechanical advantage because it provides a greater degree of control and then you have the option. The winch only turns one direction so the first failure mode is wrapping the rope around backwards. For those of you taking notes the correct answer is clockwise with the coils climbing up the winch. I made this mistake without catching it myself only once I think.

Failure mode two is essentially the same as failure mode one but on a different piece of hardware. The cleat gets wrapped counter clockwise. The cleat mistake happened more often but has less impact. By the time you are wrapping around the cleat the action-moment is over. Also, unlike the winch, the cleat does not offer a “looks right but is wrong” state. If you wrap around the cleat wrong it simply doesn’t hold and you know right away.

I got pulled away and am in a different brain space than when I wrote this. Forgive me- I am sure I will come back to this stuff later.

Singles Night!

2008-05-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

At first glance there are more ways to get crew experience than you can shake a stick at. News groups, classified sections, clubs, and god knows what else. People get a taste of sailing, decide they like it, buy a boat, spend a few months taking their friends or single handing, their friends decide they don’t care, they decide single handing is a pain, then… they need suckers. The trouble is that the suckers go out, have a good time, and then buy their own boat- the process begins anew. Or the suckers don’t like and don’t come back. There is a delicate balance required to acquire and train long term crew. So, there is infrastructure.

I took a lot of comfort in seeing this infrastructure but when it came time to actually employ it I found it lacking. I emailed and chatted on the phone but scheduling is just hard. I’ve got commitments, the boat owners have commitments, there were broken dates, repairs, vacations, etc.. One guy I emailed with told me there was a party at a local yacht club for crew members. It was sort of a thank you/recruiting event that would be a great opportunity for me to meet other crew and boat owners. I was not able to make it. The next week he wrote me again about a thing called, something like, the Single Sailors Association. Now, given this epidemic of boat owners without crew, I figured this was a reference to sailors who lack partners for sailing. I made arrangements to attend.

I got lost in downtown Oakland on my way to the yacht club where the meeting was being held. I hate getting lost, especially if I have an appointment, so I was not in the best state of mind as I enetered the building and mounted the stairs. When I reached the second floor I saw a bar and a large crowd of handsome older folks. I say older, I mean older than me. Say 45 to 60. My intent was to sneak in and people watch but some diligent commander had stationed a sentry by the top of the stairs and I was quickly apprehended.

I had worn a hoodie and some cargo pants- pretty normal attire for me but I stood out like a sore thumb here as all the older folks were done up in evening casual. The gentleman at the door asked if he could help me. He wasn’t rude- but he clearly thought I was misplaced. When I explained who I was he became very friendly and asked me to fill out a questionnaire before I went inside. I didn’t want to join the group and I was still running in double-time from trying to get unlost so I filled in the absolute minimum information. I did make sure to put an entry on every line lest they ask me to do more work thinking I missed something on accident.

Once passed the guard I made my way to the back to find a seat. As I made my way through the crowd I noticed many of the women checking me out. Now, I am a good looking guy and not unused to some attention- but this was different. I felt like a piece of meat on display. I chalked it up to being new and them being older. Still, something was gnawing at the back of my mind. Something I was missing.
I grew increasingly uncomfortable while I sat and watched the socializing.

Something… what was it? I was positioned in the far back where I would attract the least attention. Someone announced it was time to begin and please take your seats. The speakers set up right in front of the stairs. This meant in order to leave I would have to walk directly down the middle- through the whole group and directly past the speaker to reach the stairs.

As the speaker took the microphone it finally hit me. This wasn’t an event for sailors without partners. This was an event for single people who are interested in sailing. This was for finding dates! And then it happened.

“Before we begin I would like to introduce our newest guest. Jack Long? Where are you Jack? Please stand up Jack. Okay everybody give a nice welcome to Jack. His interests are… uh… reading… uh… okay, well, welcome Jack everybody!”

Ooh! Money!

2008-04-29T21:24:00.000-07:00

The money is not yet in my grubby little paws but closing out business stuff appears to be going better than I hoped. On the one hand I am very eager to be under way and willing to sacrifice in a number of ways to make this happen. On the other hand I’ve had a chance to delay departure by about 6 weeks and, with luck, triple my travelling money. This means that I don’t need to make huge sacrifices on the boat front. I get luxuries like a refrigerator and I will have more safety/buffer money.

As I get closer to go-time I am trying to make it out to physically look at more boats too. This, coupled with the potential for a higher budget, I went to look at a boat today that was previously not on my radar. Wow. I mean, to some extent I am just excited and everything tickles me, but… Wow.

This boat is 7 feet longer than the last one I fell in love with. But has a much roomier layout. The inside is a solid 30% bigger and the cockpit is at least twice as big. It is quite a bit more money and has a lot of work needed that the other one doesn’t. But boy am I tempted.

A Better Place

2008-04-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

I think the world can be a better place and I would like to help make that happen. I didn’t write about this from the very start because I recognize I am not functioning at my best and I believe that in order to be effective any kind of higher purpose I need to have my own house in order. The Jackson Long Project is a two part program. First, clean house, second, find a way to make the world a better place.

Tattoo...

2008-04-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

In previous posts I’ve started to explore with you some of the things I need to make this trip work. There is a separate list of things I kinda-sorta need, another list for things I just want, and so forth. On one of the lower lists was “new tattoo”. I had a small tattoo I got about 17 years ago (wow that makes me feel old!) and for years I’ve considered a second one off and on. With this trip I thought it was a good time to do it. But, every penny counts and tattoos can be pretty expensive. I thought I would wait until I was deeper in the process then offer to trade a write-up for the work. It turns out that wasn’t needed as I found a guy trying to get his tattoo business up and running who was offering one free tattoo per customer. So I spent a little over 8 hours today under the needle.

It is a sort of tribal dragon with done in black with lots of use of negative space and turquoise accents. It wraps around my left forearm. I look very sailor even if I do say so myself. Well, a sailor with all the hair shaved off his left arm. And no boat.

The Ah-ha Moment...

2008-04-24T21:21:00.000-07:00

What a crazy few days of mixed productivity!

Often I am torn about what to write. I don’t want this forum to be about the past. I want to talk about the change process and the new and only talk about the past as is needed to establish context. However, forward motion is slow at the start as I extricate myself from the marshy bog of old. Also a lot of days are “the same” from the perspective of The Jackson Long Project and nobody wants to read post after post of repetitive and soul crushing monotony.

So, I am working hard at wrapping up stuff for the company. This is the biggest x-factor in my success cruising. It could literally mean the difference between hitting my minimum financial target or upwards of 3x that target. It is so hard though! I am so completely burned out and lacking focus on the tasks at hand! My brain has already set sail.

A friend of mine is a middle school teacher and I did some stuff to help her with a school play. As part of that support I went to see the production this past Saturday. To make it a special occasion I invited a close friend of mine and his four young children. It was great to see him and his kids again. The children loved the show and made me feel remembered and special. Afterwards I had dinner and drinks with the teacher and three people I am friends with through her.

The teacher had shared a very early version of the story and within seconds a very critical member of the group told me, in no uncertain terms, what a horrible idea she thought this all was. I spent about a half hour talking her through it and answering questions and her tone completely changed. It isn’t that I want approval so much as I enjoy the process of continually reexamining my plans. It is fun to watch skeptics suddenly “get it”.

Point System (part 2)

2008-04-21T21:20:00.000-07:00

I left my point system project half-complete. I wanted to do a section for onboard electronics- what do I want more? A depth finder or a radio? But I don’t have the knowledge and the folks on the board were totally unhelpful. I actually sparked a multipage debate on the value of a point system- without a single person offering suggestions for the weightings.

Friday I celebrated my birthday with some friends at a Moroccan restaurant. It was pretty great although a little sad knowing this is one of the last times I will see most of them. I had way to many cocktails, belly danced, and generally had the best time I can remember having in years. Then we stumbled to a nearby movie theater and watched the opening of 10,000BC. I had too much to drink really follow it- but the girl was pretty and there was some decent visuals… and some not very good visuals. But I was happy and that was awesome.

Saturday I went to visit a friend celebrating his birthday. When we met we both lived in cool bachelor apartments in a quiet suburb deep in the east bay. We both moved there to work for the same big company, both loved video games, cool cars, and generally just hit it off. For the first few years of our friendship our lives were in lockstep. We bought motorcycles, joined start-ups, and had more money than we knew what to do with. We actually both went broke about the same time. But I never really recovered. The visit was fascinating because it was easy to see myself in his life. At the same time I felt very separate from the people there. Many are folks I’ve known for years but they seemed like strangers. Different priorities, interests, and outlooks created an insurmountable gap.

Afterwards I drove to my mom’s house for a visit. We talked about sailboats a bit and about her boyfriend. I slept in her spare room for a couple hours then drove over the mountain to Santa Cruz and took the coastal highway home. I timed it perfect and the sun rose about 15 minutes after I got to the coast. My heart lifted when I saw the waves.

Point System (part 1)

2008-04-20T21:19:00.000-07:00

I’ve decided to create a point system by which to evaluate boats for The Jackson Long Project. For a boat to be eligible for scoring it must be in sound sailing condition, have a strong running motor, cost less than 7,500.

Every 500 dollar increment less than 7,500 = +1
Every 2 feet above 22’ = +1
Inboard = +2
Outboard = +1

Price +1 Every 500 increment under 7500
Length +1 Ever 1’ increment past 24’
inboard +2
outboard +1 (each)
dinghy +1
Propane stove or bbq +2
Alcohol stove +1

The First Boat.

2008-04-17T21:18:00.000-07:00

If you plan on reading here regularly you should get used to that phrase. I fall in love pretty easy.

This time it is with a 1974 Ranger 32.

Since we are all just getting started here I should explain that I am talking about a boat.

The basic framework of my plan is to spend from now until June liquidating my stuff, learning to sail by crewing with various day-sailing boats, and planning, planning, planning. Then to take the few things I will keep/use whatever money I've accrued and go to San Diego. Once in San Diego I would buy a boat, move aboard, and spend a few months living/surfing in San Diego while putting my new skills into daily practice. Then, once I was sure I wasn't going to... you know... drown I would head south into Mexico.

When I developed that plan I felt, for some reason, that getting into the water (as a person, not as a boat) was a critical component. Now, I am not sure why I thought that... I know how to swim, I know how to surf (out of practice though), and I just can't imagine why I thought that part would be important.

And on the flip side the idea of sailing out from under the Golden Gate into an exciting adventure is terribly romantic.

Anyway, because my plan involved making the buy purchase in San Diego I inherited the clause "cannot buy until June" because I wouldn't go to San Diego until my stuff was all sold and... well, you see how that goes.

But I spend so much time reading about boats, thinking about boats, and working through various outfitting exercises for different boats that I broke down and went to look at a local boat for sale today. I had seen it while lurking at a local harbor. Anyway, it is awesome. It is the same boat that a couple I've read about have- same year/model/size- everything.

It is substantially more boat than I've been looking at in my various test scenarios. It is 5-11 feet longer (depending on which test) and just "nicer". My budget basically involves being able to trade the value of my car for a boat- whether by sale or trade. After a ton of tests I think I am about 1k shy there. Car should fetch 5k, boat will run 6k- maybe 7k to get ready. This guy is asking 6k for the boat... I am going to see if he will take my car in trade AND pay for the slip through June. The slip is 215 a month. So he would basically be selling me the boat for a little under 4,500. I think that is within bargaining range. The big "if" will be if he is interested in doing a trade. Otherwise I just keep the car up for sale and hope.

I will keep you posted!

A Jumbled Update.

2008-04-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

This post is going to suck.

About a week ago I lost my ability to post because I had somehow triggered Google's automated spam alarm. I think it was creating all the of the permutations of the blog to create a sense of pages... thejacksonlongprojecthome, thejacksonlongprojectstore, etc... Anyway, I was unable to post during the investigation. Instead of being responsible and just writing in Word then posting everything when it was wrapped up I slacked off. Now I just want to get something up so you know what is going on and to get myself back in the groove.

In a previous post I made some noises about my starting money and my recurring money. I think the statements I made were a little misleading. Probably because I wanted to sound good to the person I was writing to. I want to come clean here.

My goal is to have 10k to start this. My thinking is 5k on boat and outfitting of boat, 5k in buffer money until I can A) have exciting stuff to write about and B) write/submit articles. These numbers are fuzzy but they are a good rough model. I am suspecting the boat is going to be a 6 to 7k thing and I am realizing I will probably need/want another 1k in "toys". By toys I mean snorkel stuff, Hawaiian sling, extra surfboard, etc...

Here is my rough list of crap to sell and hoped for prices:

5,000 - 1997 Land Rover Discovery
300 - collection of air tools and a compressor (would retail for about 600 bucks)
200 - power tools (would retail for 350)
200 - rolling tool chest
150 - gamecube and xbox with games and controllers
100 - weight bench, heavy punching bag with gloves, and some dumbells
50 - anime scrolls (10 or so)
40 - potted plants
225 - DVD series (Sopranos 1-6, Galactica 1&2, Arrested Development, Firefly, Boondocks)
50 - books (this is going to make me sad- hundreds of dollars spent and yet getting 50 is optimistic)
40 - shop vac
200 - white boards (professional, magnetic, mounting hardware, three 4x4s and a 4x8)
400 - desks (again professional quality stuff five 4', a corner, and two 8' all matching)
100 - file cabinets (sit on top rolling office file chests- the kind that go next to your desk)
50 - book shelves (office type, steel, many shelves, configurable, two of them)
50 - leather chair (new condition big comfy thing)
150 - shelves (3 sections, black wire with maple shelf accents- basically an entertainment unit)
75 - plastic tables/chairs (two 8', one 4', one round, three chairs)
400 - World of WarCraft account (already sold once for 500- they used a stolen CC)
100 - "all my other crap" I might discover I've missed some 40+ dollar types of things...

Wow! If that worked out I am looking at 8k right there!!!! I had imagined all my crap at 2kish if I was lucky! I think that was generally conservative and it is almost 3k. I think there could easily be whole categories hiddin in "all my other crap" that I could have pulled out for the itemized list... Like I just realized I've got another shelving unit in the garage that retails at 90 at Costco. That would sell for 40 no problem.

I talked about some business stuff too. This is where I was painting a prettier picture than might be my reality. Uh, I am going to be vague here a bit as I am trying not to direct too much light into my "old" life.

I've spent the last couple of years running a small company that makes software. I've done a poor job. Administratively we are a mess, we had some technical problems, and generally we just got tripped up in the various hassles of making a successful enterprise. However, we have one product almost complete that has about 100k of debt associated with it- but 200k-1m in lifetime revenue potential. That product will be (should be) done before I go. We have another thing almost done that *WILL* be done before I go- no debt and revenue potential of 10k-1m. We have about five more things that there is no way will be done before I go- but that could be finished and sold for some amount of money. I have a partner who, I believe, will want to try to ship those products. I am hoping to get a couple thousand out of my interest in these products and maybe a couple more thousand over a year or two. This is a very small amount relative to the revenue potential- but I am the guy who is supposed to bring that revenue in and I am bailing. I am not sure how aggressively my partner will pursue all this.

There was a company that owed me money and "stuff" three years ago. By "stuff" I mean various licenses and commissions. They did not come through. Some of the "stuff" is furry enough that one can only shrug and say oh-well but some of it was pretty tangible and their fault. In a preliminary conversation they acknowledged that there is some form of legitimate debt there. The original value of this stuff is in the neighborhood of 30k. If I can get 5k I will feel very good about it.

Anyway, I just wanted to clear that up because I think I sounded more "together and professional" in the previous post than I really am. It is all a big mess.

As my cost estimates become more real you might also see me adjusting up the various values of these incoming items. That is a bit of smoke and mirrors and wishful thinking. I hope I don't get myself in trouble there. I *know* I am going to find oops-I-forgot items in my cost list. Entry fees in other countries, don't have a passport yet, I want to buy the boat in San Diego and currently have no budget for getting myself and my gear down there... etc... However, there are also stones unturned regarding things I can liquidate. I've been using 10k as a number that includes whatever I get out of my company- I could get 10k out of the company... So, hopefully it will all balance out.

Anyway, while I was locked out of the blog I was mostly sick anyway. Any productivity was related to gathering data on what I could sell and for how much.

Oh! And I used a gift card I had leftover from xmas to buy 6 canvas tool bags that were on clearance. I will empty the rolling tool chest into the bags, sell the chest, and take the bags with me.

Okay, that is enough updating for now.

A Letter...

2008-04-07T21:15:00.000-07:00

The following is an excerpt from an email I sent some family last night. I've modified it a bit to protect the innocent.

Anyway, thought you might enjoy it:

A boat that will do what I need it to do, minimally outfitted for the challenge, can be had for between five and six thousand dollars. A lot depends on the specific bargains at the time of purchase. But for this amount I will have something big enough to haul what I want, that stays floating, can sail, has a working motor, has basic electronics (VHF, GPS, etc), ability to store food, ability to cook food, plenty of water storage, and a landing craft. Nothing luxurious- it will be like camping but on a boat. Selling my car will net me just about enough money to setup the boat. In addition to the car I am selling a bunch of office stuff, sporting goods, some DVD sets, my air tools and compressor, and a bunch of other misc. stuff. It is my hope that I can basically trade one infrastructure for the other. Sentimental stuff will get stored at my mom’s place.

I have a small handful of business transactions to conclude that should leave me with a couple thousand dollars cash (knock on wood) and I still hope to do some side jobs before I leave but that all depends on what I can find and how successful I can be at “getting” it. It might be slightly ambitious but I hope to have about four thousand dollars cash by the end of June. That is basically rice, fuel, repair, and bus fare home if things go bad money.

For a boat of this type, living primarily at anchor (free), not eating out, and being frugal, you can live and keep the boat in good repair for between 8 and 14 dollars a day in Mexico. Tourist areas are more expensive while other central American countries are even cheaper. Let’s assume 450 a month average though. I expect it will be more like 150 a month then several hundred every couple of months- but I am using the averages from many people’s experiences.

There is a good chance I will have some residual income from the business stuff. I hope to launch two products between now and when I leave that will both generate some amount of recurring revenue. It could be nothing or it could be a couple hundred a month. Whatever it is I am counting it as gravy. Here are my plans for supporting myself.

1) Subscription blog: Successful or not this project will make for interesting reading and some great pictures. People who would like to do this kind of thing but aren’t in a position to try will read vicariously, “experts” will watch to see me choke, and others will just like the pictures or to see where I am. Blogs are super common but charging for them is very rare and typically linked to some kind of hook. There is an example where the girl is raising a wild coyote pup in Wyoming. The blog is free but if you subscribe she sends you a high res picture of the puppy every day. I think she charges 6 dollars a month. I am not sure about my “hook” yet, I am thinking making every 3rd or 4th post private, but I would charge 10 bucks a month. I am sure I can get 20 or more people to sign up for that. Probably not 50, but certainly 20. That is almost half my cost of living right there. Note: I would need to prepare batches of postings and pics and get somebody up here to put them up every couple days or whatever- but I can get people for that. Getting internet access every couple of weeks, even in third world countries, isn’t hard.

2) Limited adventure charter service: There is an established business model with boats not much bigger (and only moderately fancier) than the one I will have that do this kind of thing. You pay for your own travel down, they meet you at the harbor, then take you out for a week or however long to fish/surf/snorkel/hike/whatever. They provide food, drinks, transportation, guide service etc. and usually charge about 200 bucks a day. Without the commercial quality boat (or knowing much about what I am doing!) I couldn’t do that but I do think I could let people share my experience for 100 a day. Heck, even in my immediate friend/family circle I think I could get a person to come once a month for a couple days for a year or more. Round trip airfare to XYZ city in Mexico is 400 or 500 bucks. 700 or 800 dollars for a four day all inclusive surf/fish/snorkel/tropical/adventure is within reach of most people I know.

3) The cruiser ecosystem: There are a few thousand people who cruise around on sailboats full-time. Probably less than 5k but enough that there is a strong community and unless you are hiding you will see people every couple of days. They often travel in loose packs following the good weather. Most of these are retired couples (if you guys sold your house you could probably do this for the rest of your lives- there are a TON of folks like this) with a handful of younger folks and another handful of rich people. 99% of them are not rich, but live “middle class” lives in paradise. What I mean is, they eat at restaurants a few times a week, do a lot of their own work but pay for a lot of it too, that sort of thing. There is a pretty healthy economy there where people trade services for services or services for money/supplies. Even if all I did was odd-jobs for cruising people I could go without starving. A lot of people have a “thing” they do that sets them apart- sewing canvas, fixing motors, etc… I was thinking of picking up a used massage table- and I have two 8x8 pop-up shade tent things- and doing massage for cruisers and tourists on the beach. All the big resorts would offer this sort of thing and all of the regular beaches/harbors are chalk full of small business carts and whatnot. I could charge less than the resorts and market to people on smaller budgets. Heck, I could charge as much as the big resorts and hire pretty girls to do the work. I am a manager at heart… (I only thought of this one the other day) Oh! Just to round this one out, if not massage there is plenty of bottom scrubbing (OF THE BOATS!) and other labor jobs to be had within the community.

4) Writing: When I wrote about OTHER STUFF my work was tremendously popular. As with sailing I was at the absolute minimum level of gear and (at the start anyway) skill. But my writing “voice” is good and I have a pretty entertaining jump-with-two-feet attitude. As I mentioned in bullet number one, the people who are on the outside root for me and the people on the inside either find it fascinating to watch somebody break conventions or eagerly watch to see my choke and prove them right. When I was doing the OTHER-OTHER STUFF when I helped WITH THAT THING the response was similar. I am already getting wired into the various online cruising communities and I can tell you without a doubt these guys are the same. Conventional wisdom and gear snobbery say that you need 50% more money and time than you have to do anything. There is a very large contingent of wannabees, another large group of folks who “are saving so they can go next year”, folks who are just getting along, and people who love to tear down ideas and tell people they can’t do whatever it is they are trying to do. And that is just for the sailing and live-aboard crowd! Similar community dynamics exist for fishing, kayaking, snorkeling, backpacking, camping, photography, travel, adventure, etc… I know from experience I can get paid to write for the web- it doesn’t pay well- but I am pretty confident I can get an article or two up (across all those niches) every month. These articles probably pay anywhere from 25 dollars to 300 dollars each.

Between electronic articles and the blog I think I can cover my basic cost of living. Through the writing I can hopefully get some free gear too which will improve my quality of living. Add anything I make through the charter service, cruiser ecosystem, residual money from business stuff (fingers crossed), and massage (insert other ideas here at will) business if I choose to do that and I think I can do pretty well. Granted “pretty well” is probably less than one thousand a month- but at the reduced cost of living it should be plenty.

My biggest areas of risk are the sale of my car/stuff and the initial purchase. There are a few gray areas I haven’t let myself look at too closely yet- I’d like to do the boat purchase in San Diego (I’ve got some good friends there) and use the San Diego to Catalina area to make sure I know what I am doing before I go south. I recently learned it is illegal to anchor overnight within sight of land in San Diego County Mon-Thurs. A slip for a month is 400-600 if you can even get one. This sort of issue could mean the difference between a solid cash cushion when I head south, no cash cushion, or even my ability to buy/outfit a boat.

The size of the cash cushion is important because for a lot of this stuff it won’t generate money until I am gone so I need that buffer. Can’t do a charter until I am out there. In fact, probably not until I am south of Baja. I’ve started work on the blog but it won’t be charge people-able at least until I buy the boat (although I am preparing content now so there is back-story available), and the number of valid article ideas before I actually make the jump is limited. This could easily be a 3 month lag. So, things are a bit precarious. Fingers and toes are crossed.

For Serious?

2008-04-03T21:11:00.000-07:00

I find myself in a strange transition state as I move from “seriously thinking of” to “actually doing”. I don’t yet have that fire that comes with absolute conviction. It is almost as if I am waiting to find out that there is some aspect that puts the whole thing outside my reach. On the other hand, I spent a good 8 hours today actively planning and working on this.

A lot of my time was spent on the website. This is a pretty key factor in my success as I hope to generate a substantial portion of my cost of living through subscriptions, donations, and the sale of prints, clothes, and whatever else.

Article sales to print and electronic magazines will hopefully make up the difference and I am actively exploring other ideas as well. I might bring a massage table, offer limited charter services, and who knows what else! Ideas are welcome btw…

Not a single email about my car yet. I took it through the free-with-gas carwash the other day but it didn’t get it clean enough to justify a new set of pictures. On my list of things to do is giving it a nice hand wash/wax/vacuum and then get it re-posted. Hopefully that will light a fire under my but to get the air compressor and pneumatic tools posted, the sports stuff posted, the DVDs, records, books, office stuff- aack! The list goes on!

I make a lousy merchant. The goal of selling this stuff is to get as much money as possible to give me as much freedom as possible in preparing for the trip. I find myself slipping into “just get rid of my crap” mode. I have almost 3 months to sell the car, it went a week without emails, it DOES need better pictures, and yet I find myself wanting to dump the price. I need to seriously work on that tendency.

It is critical that I can buy a seaworthy boat and get it outfitted with a minimum set of cruising options for around five thousand dollars. I might be able to go a little higher- but every penny spent on the boat is one less penny I have to live off until the income from writing starts to trickle in. And that is without unforeseeables such as replacing broken stuff, legal issues, whatever else.

To get a jump on that boat planning phase I’ve been posting on message boards and running various mock-outfitting exercises. It is going to be CLOSE! My last complete run-through assumed the cheapest decent starting boat I could find and I still ran over by about 500 dollars. A lot of the “experts” think you need 10k+ to do this though so I guess I am looking pretty good if my preliminary numbers are coming in less than 1k off the mark.

Specific Plans...

2008-03-31T21:09:00.000-07:00

One of the hard lessons I learned in business is that there is tremendous power and security in owning the relationship with the consumer. If you make a product and use a partner or service to reach the end user you sacrifice a lot of profit and control. You are basically working to help someone else build that relationship and if they can get a similar product for less money there is no reason for them to continue to sell your wares. On the other hand, if you own that channel, you can modify your product or even change product lines and you still have a consumer base to market to. If I am going to drop everything I own and roll the dice that I can make some money through writing I think it makes sense to try and own the channel.

I will still try to write for magazines, websites, and/or maybe do a book, but I think for the bread and butter I will put together some kind of commercial blog. Something I can develop content for, show to readers, and monetize through advertising, donations, and maybe subscriptions. This has the added benefit that when trying to sell articles or books I have a marketing platform that will help the magazine/book reach more readers. The plan, at its highest level, is to write cool stuff and take cool pictures and get people to who enjoy reading/viewing to give me money. Not a ton of money but a reasonable amount for the entertainment I provide.

So, with that in mind, my first priority on the finance front is to figure out how I can create and manage content then market it to readers.

A High Level Plan...

2008-03-20T21:08:00.000-07:00

I didn't have much to work with. A car, some computer stuff, office furniture, DVDs, and a decent collection of tools pretty much covered my personal asset list. My car was worth about the same as a very entry-level sailboat and I could probably sell or trade the other stuff for a kayak, snorkel gear, a spare board or two, and whatever other odds and ends I might want. Liquidating whatever was left in the company might net me a couple thousand dollars. The plan was pretty thin but had just enough substance to give my imagination something to sink its teeth in.

At this point it wasn't a real plan. It was a fantasy. I could retreat to it from time to time for a moment's respite. Meanwhile, my situation was only getting worse. It seemed that now that I could see this other life the challenging of fixing mine became more intimidating and the reward less interesting. I started to catch my idle fantasizing evolving into tentative planning.

I started to believe I could put together what I needed to get started but I couldn't figure a way to make it sustainable. On one hand I had some skills that were, theoretically, viable from anywhere in the world- all I needed was a computer and Internet access. On the other hand, I wasn't being successful parlaying those skills into a living now.

I had posted a few questions to a sailing message board hoping to get a better grip on how people managed this kind of life. Some sarcastic guy replied about how easy it would be for me- all I had to do was write some novels about my experience. He was teasing me but it sparked several ideas.

First, I'd been paid as a writer before and people generally like my stories. Second, the cost of living was so much less that I didn't need to turn my skills into a six-figure salary. Somehow when considering what my options for income from a sailing life were I neglected to normalize for the cost of living South of the Border. Certainly between writing and whatever else I could drum up I could make a few hundred dollars a month?

I made some tentative assumptions:

1) That I could acquire and outfit an appropriate boat for roughly the value of my car and home furnishings. (Maybe five to ten thousand dollars?)
2) That I could make enough money abroad to keep rice in a pot and the boat floating. How much was this? I used the figure 500 dollars a month.
3) That I would have the commitment and clarity of purpose to follow through.

All that was left was to test the assumptions and roll the dice.

In the beginning...

2008-03-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

Most of my adult life has been lead on the outside. More often than not I was without a driver’s license, insurance, or a bank account. My income was high at times, low at others, and nonexistent for months at a stretch. In some ways I appeared very successful as I accomplished things my peers thought impossible. In other ways I struggled, and failed, at some of life’s most basic tasks. Even as a child there were signs that, for better or worse, I marched to a different drummer.

I did a pretty good job of faking it until my middle twenties but overextended myself during the dot-com boom. When the bubble burst I was in such a deep mess that I never really recovered. Frustrated, I continued to fight the good fight for years. What I didn’t realize until later was that I was fighting someone else’s war. Consider the following passage from Walden by Henry David Thoreau:

Most men… are so occupied with the factitious cares and the superfluously course labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that.

About a year ago I realized I was incredibly unhappy. As I increasingly focused on the pure economic aspects of recovering from the dot-com collapse, I continually moved away from the things that brought me satisfaction- the very things on which my sense of self rested. More and more I found myself wishing for a different life. By the holiday season, four months ago, thoughts of escape were all that sustained me.

I began to seriously consider dramatic life changes. What, I thought, if I was not encumbered by home-and-business-and-car-and-so-forth, would I do with my life? Nothing in my life had ever brought me such a deep sense of peace and satisfaction as surfing and I had not ridden a wave in almost ten years. I knew, in a deep and spiritual way, that I had to find my way back to the sea.

But how? Even without embracing personally satisfying activities I was barely making my way in the world. I might be able to score a solid 9-to-5 office job that would keep a roof up and pay for car to drive me over the mountain to the water, but that was akin to just barely treading water. I didn’t want to just survive. I wanted to feel that there was a world of possibility and hope. I wanted to be free. There had to be a way.

I did not believe the answer was to be had in the United States. I considered driving to Mexico. I could live in my car and travel through Baja surfing. I knew this would be pretty cheap but I wasn’t sure how to finance it. And even if I could finance it- many of the breaks are boat only access and hiring boats costs money. This plan didn’t seem feasible but I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Many of the breaks were boat only... Boat only… What if I lived on a boat? Suddenly I had a plan.