Showing posts with label Part. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Part. Show all posts
Thursday, 20 April 2017
Canoe Pole Project Part 1
I've convinced myself to attempt another canoe-related project with basic carving tools. Lately, I've been fascinated by the poling videos on the NorthWest Woodsman site. Footage of him pushing his way up remote, shallow creeks made me want to pursue this part of the canoeing experience even more. After purchasing a cheapo ex-library copy of the classic books, Pole, Paddle, & Portage by Bill Riviere, I was convinced that I should at least try making a spruce pole.
Andy Hutyera's post on the Wooden Canoe Forums discusses plans for a canoe pole in detail, although these seem to focus on power tool usage, table saws, routers...not my cup of tea. More info the following PDF files...
• Making a Canoe Pole
• Poling A Canoe
A few online sources, including this descriptive one, make mention of using a prefab curtain rod from Home Depot, the aptly named "Home Depole". Others write about finding the perfect dead standing spruce tree with the perfect dimensions to chop down and finish with a crooked knife. My option found the middle ground...I ended up using one of the extra 12 ft long, 2x10 boards purchased to make the bark canoe building bed. It has been cluttering the garage floor for some time but I wanted to save it for something.
As luck would have it, there were no knots in the relatively straight grained portion 2 inches from the squared original edge. A chalkline was marked 1.5" from this edge, but later, I ended up marking out the future pole using a combination square for more accuracy. I also marked out other areas where poles could emerge, but all of these had some knotty flaw somewhere along the length. In the end, the wood was easily (but not evenly) split to reveal the rudimentary birth of canoe pole
Original board; Split out piece
Not as elegant as ripping an even piece with a circular saw, but with my growing aversion to power tools, this was the most appropriate manner to liberate the pole from the board. It was worked down with an axe, loading up chips in the communal fire pit and then further cleaned with the crooked knife.
"Semi-Old Fashioned" way of making a pole
The project gave me the first opportunity to try out the recently made Orien Blade crooked knife. The blade's offset and "crooked" blade angle took some getting used to. The blade was very sharp but tended to pull out the wood in scoops (a flaw in my technique for sure). In the end, I ended up using my flatter, home-made blade crooked knife to work down the edges. The pole is still a work in progress and will need to wait until my next trip up north to finalize.
Silent tools for the job
UPDATE: Pole has been completed - part 2 has been posted here
Wednesday, 19 April 2017
Puerto Rico Part Dos Ponce
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| Ponce Yacht & Fishing Club |
Ponce: We pull in to the Ponce marina for a week. We need to get a few packages, do taxes, do some provisioning and take the cat to the vet. The Captain would like to top batteries, wash the boat, flush & top the water tanks, and do some chores. Besides, their weekly rate is $4.50/ft or $23/day. Can't beat that.
Stats: Total time 3:41, avg speed 4.7 kts, total mileage 17.2 miles. 2-engine motor. Total mileage to date: 2682 nm. Straight line distance from Annapolis: 1360 nm
I had been chatting with the crew of sv Orion about meeting-up while they were at the same marina for some maintenance. When she saw our FB "check in" at the marina, she and her husband found our boat (in their old slip), tracked me back to the laundry, then went back to retrieve The Captain and whisked him off to Walgreens to get the passport photo he needed. Her husband even swapped shirts with The Captain when they told him he couldn't wear stripes. LOL. We finally get to sit down, have some drinks and food, and pick their brains about our route to Culebra, their home port. It's wonderful when your "virtual friends" become real people!
The bicycles are deployed the next morning and we head toward the mall. (After living on a boat for a year, visiting the mall is our idea of a vacation. Fun to visit. Don't want to stay). A 2 mile ride became 4 as we attempt to take the back roads. We hit Sports Authority, PF Changs, Office Max and the grocery store.
Kelly Nicole arrives and anchors out. They dinghy in for drinks and we head to the Malecon at the La Guancha for dinner. There isn't much for the vegetarians and celiac to eat here. It is mostly bar food that is fried or pastry and stuffed with meat. There isn't just one band but four! The crowd at each varies from young to old, dancing or clapping and singing along. They love their music.
San Juan: We haven't stopped to enjoy Puerto Rico like we should. The strong trade winds have kept us moving when possible. The Easter holiday kept us away from the more crowded town anchorages. It's also a bigger island than we realized and we have a lot of ground to cover on the way to the Virgin Islands. However, our side trip to San Juan turned out to be just the ticket. The Captain needed to renew his passport and the First Mate needed to renew her GOES. We were dreading this errand and it started off with the rental car company saying we'd have to take a cab over instead of them picking us up. Then the cab was late. Then the iPhone map tried to send us the wrong direction ("I'm pretty sure San Juan is north of here...")
While driving to San Juan, I don't fully appreciate the mountain views because I'm making phone calls. I do glance up at one point and realize I should be taking pictures. I can't explain it, but I like San Juan. It is a great blend of two cultures. You have your choice between Taco Maker and Subway. More people are willing to speak English here and my Spanglish is in full force without even thinking about it. One cashier at a restaurant even apologizes for greeting me in Spanish. "I was going to try!" "Go ahead." "Diet Coke, por favor." She laughs. We've expanded from ordering food to asking questions, as long as the answer is si, no, or pointing--then we're lost again! They speak faster here than in Luperon.
Everything goes like clockwork. The Captain gets into the downtown passport office early, we have brunch across the street, then off to see if I can get into my appointment at the airport early (after an hour wait, I got in an hour early), then West Marine, back to pick up the Captain's passport, late lunch and back towards Ponce. Perfect--until we almost run out of gas. Damned if we can find a gas station between San Juan and Ponce. "Use your iPhone to find me a gas station." "Are you kidding? This thing doesn't know where Ponce is?!" (We found one. It was a close call.) The day went so well, that The Captain swings by Starbucks on the way back so the First Mate can buy more tea, Sears for a new battery charger, then a quick stop at Pueblo grocery to start reprovisioning (Gluten-free crackers. Phew! Another close call).
The next morning, we run a few more errands before returning the rental car and we get truly lost. None of the map apps work in Ponce. You type in WalMart, you end up at Ikea. You type in Home Depot, you end up at WalMart. You type in McDonalds--well, there's a McDonald's on every corner so that didn't count. Weird.
McDonalds. At least the menu looks familiar but without the familiar meals number's that The Captain is used to. I got this. "Double cheeseburger no pan, McPapas y Cafe fria, no azucar." She didn't understand. She didn't speak English. Someone stepped in to translate. Apparently, I lost her with no bread & no sugar. I didn't get an ice coffee but a frappe with caramel instead. It was yummy.
A few chores:
Look who got more new chain & rode! The Captain added 70 ft of new chain to the 60 ft of chain we purchased in Annapolis (taking off the old section). He also added 100 ft of 5/8 nylon rode. Why? Once we're past the mooring balls in the Virgin Islands, the anchorages are going to start getting deeper, like 20-30 ft! So a 5:1 scope would be 30 x 5 = 150 ft, but we prefer 7:1 so that's 210 ft! That's the kind of math that we usually avoid on Odin. We're a catamaran! Drive it up on the beach ;-) OK, we say that, but we've never done it--yet.
One of the orders that gets screwed up is parts for our main Yamaha engines (rectifier NOT in stock so they were holding the whole order. Boo!). The Captain replaces the starboard stator in hopes of fixing our charging issues. "Not a job for amateurs."
We rent a car for a second day to take the cat to the vet for shots. We drive around for an hour before we finally find it, partly because they moved and neglected to mention it. Friendly locals have us follow them to the wrong vet. We try to call but we are the first appointment of the day. The staff doesn't speak English and the English-speaking Vet is from out of town so she doesn't know where we are. On the way out, they give us written directions to pick up Princess Amelia's prescription. We still got lost... Did I mention the crazy drivers? They swerve out of their lane a lot and pass you on the left AND right when you didn’t go through an intersection fast enough. Four way stops are a test in who is bolder/in more of a hurry. Next time we'll take a cab.
The Captain catches a cold (aka the The Masters is on) so we stay a few extra days aka "waiting for the forecast trade winds to abate."
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| Beautiful sunrises and sunsets all week |
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| Tight fit and no dock hands. Some days we look like we know what we're doing. |
The bicycles are deployed the next morning and we head toward the mall. (After living on a boat for a year, visiting the mall is our idea of a vacation. Fun to visit. Don't want to stay). A 2 mile ride became 4 as we attempt to take the back roads. We hit Sports Authority, PF Changs, Office Max and the grocery store.
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| Bicycles are out! |
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| PF Changs. YUM! |
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| Crank up some J Lo's "Let's Get Loud" and you're where we're at. We can hear the music at the boat. |
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| Not a lot for vegetarians or celiacs |
San Juan: We haven't stopped to enjoy Puerto Rico like we should. The strong trade winds have kept us moving when possible. The Easter holiday kept us away from the more crowded town anchorages. It's also a bigger island than we realized and we have a lot of ground to cover on the way to the Virgin Islands. However, our side trip to San Juan turned out to be just the ticket. The Captain needed to renew his passport and the First Mate needed to renew her GOES. We were dreading this errand and it started off with the rental car company saying we'd have to take a cab over instead of them picking us up. Then the cab was late. Then the iPhone map tried to send us the wrong direction ("I'm pretty sure San Juan is north of here...")
While driving to San Juan, I don't fully appreciate the mountain views because I'm making phone calls. I do glance up at one point and realize I should be taking pictures. I can't explain it, but I like San Juan. It is a great blend of two cultures. You have your choice between Taco Maker and Subway. More people are willing to speak English here and my Spanglish is in full force without even thinking about it. One cashier at a restaurant even apologizes for greeting me in Spanish. "I was going to try!" "Go ahead." "Diet Coke, por favor." She laughs. We've expanded from ordering food to asking questions, as long as the answer is si, no, or pointing--then we're lost again! They speak faster here than in Luperon.
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| A little pilgrimage to the mother ship. Purchase exceeded rewards coupons :-0 |
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| Starbucks. Stocked up on tea and replaced my broken mug. What a treat. |
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| McDonald's. We can do this! |
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| New chain & rope rode |
A few chores:
Look who got more new chain & rode! The Captain added 70 ft of new chain to the 60 ft of chain we purchased in Annapolis (taking off the old section). He also added 100 ft of 5/8 nylon rode. Why? Once we're past the mooring balls in the Virgin Islands, the anchorages are going to start getting deeper, like 20-30 ft! So a 5:1 scope would be 30 x 5 = 150 ft, but we prefer 7:1 so that's 210 ft! That's the kind of math that we usually avoid on Odin. We're a catamaran! Drive it up on the beach ;-) OK, we say that, but we've never done it--yet.
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| Changing the starboard stator |
One of the orders that gets screwed up is parts for our main Yamaha engines (rectifier NOT in stock so they were holding the whole order. Boo!). The Captain replaces the starboard stator in hopes of fixing our charging issues. "Not a job for amateurs."
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| Written directions don't help in Ponce |
The Captain catches a cold (aka the The Masters is on) so we stay a few extra days aka "waiting for the forecast trade winds to abate."
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| The cats of Ponce Yacht & Fishing Club. |
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| They've been fixed and a woman comes to feed them |
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| Whoops. That's not a cat. This pic was for The Captain. "Aren't you going to take a picture of THAT?!" |
Tuesday, 18 April 2017
Archive Sailboat crash accident part 1
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Sunday, 16 April 2017
Poplar Diamond Passamaquoddy Part 3
While up north for the recent holiday weekend, I managed to get in some paddle carving time to finalize the nearly complete c. 1849 Passamaquoddy replica begun back in January. Here's a shot by the lakeside on a bright, brisk day using the picnic table "workbench". The communal beach all groomed and loungers all set for the upcoming tourist season.
Carving by the lake
After wetting the grain and sanding it down, I brought the paddle back home to the city. Yellow Poplar certainly makes for a lightweight paddle - my official quality control tester had a easy time lifting it with one hand and running around the place with it.
Rigorous Quality Testing
The major item I struggled with in this design was balancing the paddle...in the end it just ended up being too blade heavy. Kind of obvious I guess given the large shape and the relatively small handle. My feeling is that perhaps the original paddle documented by Adney would've been balanced, but only because the paddle was illustrated as being much longer than my replica (71.5" vs. my 58" version).
Adney's sketch - Diamond Bladed Passamaquoddy in middle
Had I digitally reduced the paddle to scale to fit my preferred paddle length, the blade size would've been unusually small. Still, in the future when replicating longer paddle designs to a my own functional paddle length, this will need to be considered if a throat-balanced paddle is the final goal.
In any event, it's ready for the decoration stage and I've decided to keep this one much more simple than the recent Northwoods paddle where I went overboard.
MAY 24, 2011 Update: Paddle finally completed...go to Part 4
Monday, 27 March 2017
Part Two Two Days to see Florence – a definition of totally inadequate
June 11-12, 2013
Day Two: After a huge first day in Florence, our second day actually started earlier than we planned as a very early morning text message from our daughter Yasmin informed us that our fifth grandchild had just arrived back in Australia. Harry James Chrzescijanski was born 2.11PM Eastern Australian time at 8lb 5oz and within an hour of his birth we were introduced to our newest grandson via Skype. It certainly wasn’t anything like being there for Nanny and Poppy cuddles but it was still fantastic to be able to see the new bub and share an hour or so via computer screen with Yasmin, her husband, Rob, and a very impressed big sister to Harry, two year old Lyla. Rob’s father’s name was Harry, so he was particularly moved regarding Yasmin and Rob’s choice of name.
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| Proud parents Rob and Yasmin with Harry and his big sister Lyla |
Of course by the time we got over all the excitement our Gallery booking had come and gone so we grabbed some breakfast and by late morning were headed for the next must do on our list instead. Founded in 1294, the Basilica of Santa Groce is one of the finest Gothic churches in Italy. It also rivals the Duomo in size. We expected to breeze through it in half an hour or so but we were soon to find out we seriously underestimated how much there was to see. It is impossible to list the masterpieces which are housed within Santa Groce’s walls. It is also the burial place of such luminaries as Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and Rossini along with many other important historical identities from Florence and other parts of Italy. Each tomb along the main walls of the Basilica features magnificent Funerary Monuments created by the outstanding sculptors of the day. Despite not actually being buried in the church, equally impressive monuments are included for Leonardo Di Vinci, the writer Dante, inventor Marconi and a number of others. No doubt the city fathers felt these famous Italians should also be spending their eternal rest here in Florence.
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| Michelangelo lays within this marble funerary monument. He actually made it clear he wished to buried in Rome and even sculptured his own memorial but the Medeci family would have none of that and spirited his remains back Florence and commissioned this monument instead. |
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| The remains of Galileo in Santa Groce |
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| Dante’s funerary monument is extremely impressive. The city fathers didn’t let a little detail like him being buried elsewhere stop then from installing this magnificent empty tomb in his honour. |
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| From the floor to the incredible timber ceilings everything about Basilica Santa Groce is impressive |
Sante Groce also has a number of alcove like chapels that were sponsored by the wealthiest and most influential Florentine families who spent large fortunes commissioning incredible frescos, sculptures and other artworks to decorate their chapel in an effort to outdo all the others. All in God’s glory of course. Nothing to do with ego at all. The end result though is incredible and has to be seen to be believed. Then there is the sacristy where the clergy dress for mass surrounded by more priceless art and ornate decoration. Oh and there’s the cloisters with more of the same, and the storerooms which are now a museum. These were once packed with all sorts of art treasures that fell from favour for whatever reason and were stored away while there place inside the church was taken by some new masterpiece.
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| Just one of the magnificently decorated chapels within Santa Groce |
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| The sacristy of Santa Groce |
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| Florence’s Basilica Santa Groce was an unexpected highlight of our visit. |
While the exterior of the Santa Maria del Fioreor Duomo (Cathedral of Florence) is truly breathtaking the interior is fairly plain and fifteen minutes is plenty enough time to spend inside. Sante Groce Basilica on the other hand is a place you need to allow yourself plenty of time to do it any justice at all. We spent three hours there and thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it, particularly with the aid of the self guided audio tour that provided the history of not only the church but also over eighty points of interest within.
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| Santa Groce suffered incredible damage from huge floods in 1966 and a massive international restoration effort took many years to bring many affected artworks back to life |
By the time we’d wandered a few streets unsuccessfully looking for a reputedly very impressive library building designed by Michelangelo with an amazing set of steps, given up and made a café stop for a bite to eat it was near Four PM. As we’d missed our 9.15am reserved entry into the Galleria degli Ufizi, we gambled that maybe the line up may have thinned at little by late afternoon so made our way to the impressive building that houses the collection to join the back of the cue. Despite the lateness of the hour it still took fifty minutes before we made it through the doors, metal detector and cloakroom to check in our backpack and with Rob’s camera.
The Uffizi building was originally designed as administrative offices in the 1500s but the all powerful Medici family gradually used more and more of it to store and display their ever growing collection of artworks. The last Medici heiress negotiated for it to become one of the first modern museums. Opened to the public in 1765 the Uffizi is one of the oldest and most famous art museums in the world with works dating back almost 1,000 years.
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| The Galleria degli Ufizi building itself is well worth a look let alone what it contains |
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| All Ufizi images were obtained from the web |
Once more we made use of one of Rick Steve's free audio tours which explained the history and features of the most important paintings and sculptures spread through almost 50 rooms in the magnificent building. These included Botticelli’s Primavera and Birth of Venus, da Vinci’s The Annunciation and Adoration of the Magi, Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo, Raphael’s Madona of the Goldfinch, Titian’s Venus of Urbino , Carravaggio’s Bachus and Sacrifice of Isaac and a couple of Rembrandt’s self portraits to name just a handful of the most famous. Because the museum closes at 6.30pm and we didn’t begin to make our way through until Five our visit was a little rushed but it was still an incredible experience to see the works of so many masters in one place. It was extremely impressive to say the least. Under normal circumstances you could easily spend hours wandering the halls and different rooms of this incredible building.
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| Michelangelo's Doni Tando |
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| Leonado da Vinci’s The Annunciation |
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| Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus |
We made the most of the two hours or so of daylight remaining and ambled around a number of the streets of the old areas of Florence simply finding what was to be found and enjoying no longer having a plan or schedule. After a quiet dinner two exhausted sailors flopped into bed trying to work out what made us ever think we could ‘do’ Florence in two days.
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| It wasn't all museums and churchs in Florence. Karen found these amazing boots for the Harley when we go home in a second hand store |
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| Another dinner on the streets of Florence |
If you only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway! We hope you enjoy reading the previous posts to catch up on our story.
Sunday, 5 March 2017
Models in the Madrid Naval Museum Part III
This final series of photos from a recent visit to the Museo Naval de Madrid looks at models from the Pacific region other than China and the Philippines, which we covered in the two previous installments. (Also included here are a couple of full-size canoes, not from the Pacific.) As before, the captions are rough translations of the Spanish exhibit cards, followed by my own comments (if any) in parentheses. Click any photo to enlarge.
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| This photo and the next two: Parao (19th C.), Mayalan warship |
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| (Interesting slanted shields fore and aft to protect the gunners and helmsmen. I wonder if they were sheet iron.) |
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Parao (19th C.), Malayan merchant vessel. (The term "parao," which also applies to both the previous and the following models, evidently doesn't describe a particular hull type or the usage of the vessel.) |
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| Parao (19th C.), Moluccan warship model made from cloves |
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Piragua (19th C.), Pacific Ocean; fishing and passenger carriage on rivers and bays |
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Tambil (19th C.), Singaporean pleasure boat |
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Piragua with outrigger (19th C.), Hawaiian fishing canoe. ("Piragua" is another ambiguous term, apparently referring to boats with narrow, canoe-like hulls that may nevertheless be very different from one another.) |
(unknown. I failed to record the exhibit card. Chinese sampan?)
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Canoe from the forest of Betancu, Rio Sinu Province of Colombia (1862): 15M LOA, 1.13M beam. Presented to Queen Isabel II of Spain. (A 49' 2" dugout -- that requires some big tree!) |
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| (Unknown. I could not find an exhibit card for this large dugout canoe. Note the difference between the bow of this canoe and the previous one.) |
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| (Same canoe as previous photo.) |
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