ShantyboatLiving.com

Adventuring On The Adventure – Part Two

Bryan Lowe — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:02:58 +0000

Written by Guest Author Kathy Warnes of http://maritimemoments.wordpress.com/ and http://discoverfunhistory.webs.com/ Click Here for Part One Part Two: The Flotilla Reaches Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee River After the flotilla had been on the river for a few hours on Sunday, March 12, 1780, people heard cocks crowing. They passed an Indian town where they were fired upon, but received no injuries. They came in sight of the Muscle Shoals about ten o'clock and stopped on the northern shore at the upper end of the shoals in order to search for the signs that Captain James Robertson was to have left for them there. Captain Robertson had set out from the Holston early in the fall of 1779 to travel by the way of Kentucky to the Big Salt Lick on the Cumberland River. Then he and his company were to come across from the Big Salt Lick to the upper end of the shoals and leave signs to indicate that they had been there. The signs would show the Donelson flotilla that it was practical to complete the journey by land. After much searching, Colonel Donelson and his party could find no signs from Robertson that he had been there. They concluded that it would not be wise to attempt the rest of the trip overland and decided to continue down the river. After trimming their boats as best they could, they ran through the shoals before night. People who had never before seen the shoals were terrified by their appearance. The water roared with a deafening thunder that could be heard some distance away. The current ran in every possible direction and it heaped driftwood on the points of the island so that it resembled ship wrecks. The company's boats frequently dragged on the bottom and seemed to be in constant danger of hitting it. Colonel Donelson described how the battle with the shoals ended. "But, by the hand of Providence, we are now preserved from this danger also. I know now the length of this wonderful shoal: it has been represented to me to be twenty-five or thirty miles; if so, we must have descended very rapidly as indeed we did, for we passed it in about three hours. Came to and camped on the northern shore, not far below the shoals, for the night." The Adventure Reaches the Ohio River From Wednesday, March 15, to Monday, March 20 the flotilla made good time and arrived at the mouth of the Tennessee near its lower point, immediately on the bank of the Ohio. Colonel Donelson reported, "Our situation here is truly disagreeable. The river is very high, and the current rapid, our boats not constructed for the purposes of steering a rapid stream, our provisions exhausted, the crew almost worn down by hunger and fatigue, and know not what distance we have to go or what time it will take to our place of destination." Several boats did not attempt to climb the rapid current, but started instead to descend for the Mississippi and Natchez. Others headed for the Illinois, including Donelson's soninlaw and daughter, but Colonel Donelson remained determined to continue his course for the Cumberland. Suffering much from hunger and fatigue, the voyagers spent the next three days camped on the south bank of the Ohio. The Adventure Reaches the Cumberland River Then on Friday, March 24, about three o'clock, they came to the mouth of a river that Colonel Donelson thought might be the Cumberland. Some of the travelers did not think it could be the Cumberland, because it was so much smaller than anyone had expected, but Colonel Donelson had never heard of any river running between the Cumberland and the Tennessee. The river seemed to flow with a gentle current and Donelson and the others pushed up some distance and camped for the night. The next day they were encouraged because the river grew wider and the current very gentle. Everyone became convinced that the river was the Cumberland. Colonel Donelson got much use out of a small, square sail that he fixed up on the day they left the mouth of the river. To prevent any ill effects from sudden gusts of wind, he stationed a man at each of the lower corners of the sheet with directions to give way whenever necessary. On March 26, 1789, the party obtained some buffalo meat which they considered poor but palatable. The next day they killed a swan, which they thought delicious, and on Tuesday the 28^th, they again killed some buffalo. On Wednesday the 29^th of March they continued to navigate the river and gathered some herbs on the bottoms of the Cumberland. Some of the company called these herbs “Shawnee Salad,” but they were probably dandelion greens. The next day, Thursday, March 30, they continued their voyage and killed more buffalo. After floating some distance on Friday, March 31, the company met Colonel Richard Henderson who was running the line between Virginia and North Carolina. Colonel Henderson gave the party all of the information it desired and informed everyone that he had purchased a quantity of corn in Kentucky to be shipped at the Falls of the Ohio for the use of the Cumberland settlement. The flotilla did not have any bread and had been surviving on the buffalo that the men had killed. Since everyone was bone tired, they made slow progress. At night they camped near the mouth of a little river, and below that, a handsome bottom of rich land. Here some of the men found a pair of hand millstones set up for grinding, but they appeared not to have been used for a long time. The flotilla continued to travel uneventfully until April 12, 1780, when it came to the mouth of a little river running on the north side. Moses Renfroe and his company called the river the "Red River," and decided to settle on its banks. They took leave of the flotilla. The rest of the company continued up the Cumberland and on Monday, April 24 they arrived at their journey's end at the Big Salt Lick. They found Captain Robertson and his company, and Colonel Donelson exalted in reuniting them with their families and friends who had been entrusted to their care. Colonel Donelson concluded his Journal by saying, "Though our prospects at present are dreary we have found a few log cabins which have been built on a cedar bluff above the Lick by Capt. Robertson and his company." Stalwart Rachel Jackson stepped ashore to begin her life at Nashville on the Tennessee frontier. References John Donelson. "Journal of a Voyage Intended By God's Permission, In The Good Boat Adventure, From Fort Patrick Henry, On Holston River, To The French Salt Spring on Cumberland River, Kept By John Donelson." Caldwell, Mary French. General Jackson’s Lady. Nashville: Privately Printed by the ladies Hermitage Association, 1936. Caldwell,Mary French. Tennessee: The Dangerous Example (Nashville: Aurora Publishers, Inc., 1974), 12 Minnigerode, Meade, “Rachel Jackson: An Informal Biography,” Saturday Evening Post (May 1925): 26-30.

Quote: Do Not Resist. Women Build Boats

Bryan Lowe — Fri, 18 May 2012 05:37:47 +0000

The desire to build a boat is one of those that cannot be resisted. It begins as a little cloud on a serene horizon. It ends by covering the whole sky, so that you can think of nothing else. You must build to regain your freedom.

-Arthur Ransome, 1923

Two Boat Building Sites Done by Women:

Wishingbee - A Welsford Scamp

Building Luna - logically enough it's about building Luna... a liveaboard sailboat.

Floating Cottages (Jul, 1956)

Bryan Lowe — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:40:26 +0000

From Modern Mechanix http://blog.modernmechanix.com/floating-cottages/

Adventuring On The Adventure

Bryan Lowe — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:01:36 +0000

Written by Guest Author Kathy Warnes of http://maritimemoments.wordpress.com/ and http://discoverfunhistory.webs.com/ Part One: "Rachel, thirteen years old, often held the helm while her father used his rifle. She was the comeliest, most daring, most popular girl on the boat. " (“Andrew Jackson and His Beloved Rachel, “ John Trotwood Moore, Saturday Evening Post.)

In the winter of 1779-1780, thirteen-year-old Rachel Jackson and her family made a 2,000 mile voyage from down the Holston River down the Tennessee, the Ohio, and the Cumberland Rivers until they reached the Great Salt Lick near Fort Nashboro in Tennessee. They voyaged on their flatboat Adventure along with a flotilla of other boats in a voyage that was as daring as any that Colonel John Donelson’s sea captain father had ever made across the Atlantic Ocean. The voyagers included the Donelson family – Rachel, her mother and father and eleven brothers and sisters- and the Cartwrights, the Peytons, the Blackmores, and the Harrisons. The heavy flatboats carrying entire families, household goods, and livestock required deep water and the party had to wait until Christmas until conditions on the river were favorable to leave. Finally on December 22, 1779, John Donelson described the casting off of the Adventure in his journal.“Took our departure from the fort and fell down the river to the mouth of Reedy Creek, where we were stopped by the fall of water and most excessive hard frost.” The Adventure Reaches the French Broad River The men at the sweeps labored to keep their crafts in midstream, because midstream was out of range of enemies and rocks. If a boat strayed too close to the tree lined banks, arrows fired by unseen coppery hands could take a deadly toll of the people on the boats. On Christmas Eve, sleet bombarded the boats and the fireplace in The Adventure's cabin hissed and spluttered like drops of water on a hot iron skillet. Some people wanted to sing Christmas carols, but since one of the Robertson children was ill and the storm continued to buffet them, the men decided to moor the boats close to shore and spent the night in the cabin. Once a small party of Indians attacked the fleet, but it was turned back without any casualties to the voyagers. The months after Christmas tested the courage of the entire party to the limits. Provisions ran low and game seemed to have disappeared. Donelson's Journal says that the party arrived at the mouth of Cloud's Creek on Sunday evening, the 20th of February, 1780, and lay by for a week. When the party left, it had added some other vessels and "on the same day struck the Poor Valley shoal, together with Mr. Boyd and Mr. Rounsilfer, “on which shoal we lay that afternoon and succeeding night in much distress." The next day, the water rose and the boat got off the shoal, but not until the leaders had landed thirty people to lighten the boat. The men attempted to land on an island, received some damage to their boats, and lost many articles. Finally, they camped on the south shore and were joined by other vessels heading down the river. Rain fell for half the day of March 2, 1780, as the flotilla passed the mouth of the French Broad River. About twelve o'clock, the current drove Mr. Henry's boat on the point of an island and overturned it. The cargo was damaged and the crew's lives endangered, so the whole fleet put on shore and went to the assistance of the swamped boat. With much difficulty, the rescuers raised the sunken boat and bailed it out so it could again hold cargo. Reuben Harrison Goes Hunting and Gets Lost The same afternoon, another disaster struck. Reuben Harrison went out hunting and although many guns were fired "to fetch him in," he did not return. The next morning the voyagers searched for Reuben. They fired a fourpounder and sent out people to search the woods for him. Throughout that day and night, they fired many guns and tramped many weary miles to find him. They were not successful, and his parents and fellow travelers grieved. Finally, on Saturday, March 4, they continued their trip, leaving "Old Mr. Harrison with some other vessels to make further search for his lost son.” At about 10:00 o'clock in the morning, the searchers found Reuben far down the river, and Ben Belew took him on board his boat. Three o'clock on the same day marked another milestone, when the boats passed the mouth of the Tennessee River and the voyagers camped on the south shore, about ten miles below its mouth. Although fog blanketed the flotilla on Monday, March 6, 1780, it got underway before sunrise. As the morning wore on the fog thickened and many vessels in the fleet were "much bogged." Colonel Donelson waited for them, gathered the scattered boats together, and camped on the north shore of the Clinch River. The day before, the people of the Clinch River Company had joined them, so there were many people to gather. In camp that night, Captain Hutching's Negro man died, "being much frosted in his feet and legs." Encounter on the Clinch River The seventh and eighth of March provided more encounters with the Indians. The river ran widely, the weather turned windy, and the water raced so high that many of the smaller boats were in danger of capsizing. The flotilla came to an abandoned Chickamauga town and lay by to camp for the night. Here, the wife of Ephraim Peyton, who had gone overland with Captain Robertson, delivered a child. On Wednesday, March 8, the flotilla went by an inhabited Indian village on the south side of the Clinch River. The Indians invited them to come ashore, calling them brothers and showing signs of friendship. John Caffrey and John Donelson, Jr., took a canoe which was being towed behind The Adventure and started crossing over to the Indians. The rest of the fleet landed on the opposite shore. After John Caffrey and John Donelson, Jr., had rowed some distance, a halfbreed calling himself Archy Coody, and several others, jumped in a canoe and paddled to meet them. Coody advised them to return to their boat and they did, with Coody and several other Indians in canoes following. The members of the flotilla distributed presents to the Indians and relations appeared to be friendly. Suddenly, Colonel Donelson observed a number of Indians on the other side who were armed and painted with red and black. They launched their canoes. Coody made signs to his Indian companions and ordered them to leave the boat, and they did so. Remaining with Colonel Donelson, Coody and another Indian told him to move off immediately. The flotilla had gone only a little way when the lookouts spotted many armed and painted Indians paddling down the river as if to intercept the voyagers. Coody and his companion traveled with them for some miles, but finally told them that they had passed all of the Indian towns. Assuring Donelson and his companions that they were out of danger, Coody and the Indian left. The flotilla continued its journey down the river, but had not gone far before another town appeared on the south side of the river, nearly opposite a small island. Again, the Indians invited the voyagers ashore, calling them brothers. They saw the boats standing off for the opposite channels and said that "their side of the river was better for boats to pass." Then the situation turned tragic. Donelson described it. "And here we must regret the death of young Mr. Payne, on board Captain Blackmore's boat, who was mortally wounded 'by reason of the boat running too near the northern shore, opposite the town where some of the enemy lay concealed." Small Pox Strikes the Flotilla An even more tragic misfortune happened to a man named Stuart and his family and friends, about twenty people altogether. The Stuart party had caught smallpox, and he and the rest of his flotilla agreed that he should keep a distance in the rear so the disease would not spread. Every night the voyagers would blow a horn for Stuart and his party to let them know that they were camping. After the flotilla passed the Indian town, the Indians saw that Stuart's party was isolated and helpless, cut off from the rest of the flotilla, and intercepted it. They killed or took prisoners of the whole crew "to the great grief of the whole company, uncertain how soon they might share the same fate: their cries were distinctly heard by those boats in the rear." The people who were not killed outright were marched away into captivity and not one of the twenty-eight escaped. Later, the voyagers learned that the Indians had caught smallpox from their victims and had died by the hundreds. Rachel Steers The Adventure Rachel often held the sweeps of The Adventure while her father defended it with his rifle. He drilled her endlessly in shooting, loading, reloading, and taking care of her gun. When he ordered the party to trap game to spare powder and bullets, Rachel learned to set snares for rabbits and dig a pit to cover with brush to trap deer. Rachel helped the women on the voyage too. They all said that she had a way with babies and called upon her to take care of a niece or nephew when she was not helping her father. She would often sing to the children, play games with them, or rock them to sleep while their mothers snatched a quick nap for themselves. After the Stuart party had been attacked and killed, the rest of the voyagers watched the Indians marching down the river in large numbers keeping pace with the boats until the Cumberland Mountains blotted them from sight. Next, the flotilla arrived at the place called the Whirl or Suck, where the Cumberland Mountains, jutting on both sides, compressed the river to less than half its width. Coody had described this place to Colonel Donelson, calling it the "boiling pot." As the boats passed through the upper part of these narrows, the expedition was nearly ruined. John Cotton was moving down river in a large canoe, and had attached it to Robert Cartwright's boat, where he and his family had gone for safety. The canoe suddenly overturned and dumped the cargo into the river. Seeing Cartwright's distress, the voyagers stopped and tried to help him recover his property. Men had landed on the northern shore at a level spot and were climbing up onto land when Indians appeared immediately over them on the opposite cliffs and fired down on them. Everyone rushed back into the boats and moved off. The Indians lined the bluffs and continued to fire on the boats below, wounding four people slightly. The boat belonging to a man named Jennings disappeared. The flotilla safely passed through the Whirl and into the wider reaches of the river and a placid and gentle current. The entire company was safe, except for the family of Jonathan Jennings whose boat ran onto a large rock projecting out from the northern shore and partly immersed in the water. The voyage continued throughout the day and the following night. At four o'clock in the morning of Friday, March 10, the sleeping company heard cries of "Help poor Jennings," far to the rear. He had spotted their fires and followed them despite his poor condition. As soon as the Indians had discovered his grounded boat, they had converged on him and his party and peppered them with bullets. Jennings ordered his wife, his nearly grown son, a young man accompanying them, and his two Negroes to throw all his goods into the river to lighten their boat so they could get it off the rocks. In the meantime, he returned their fire, since he was a good soldier and an excellent marksman. His son, the young man, and the Negro man, all jumped out of the boat to escape the withering sheet of fire. It looked to Jennings like they had jumped too soon. Before they bailed out of the boat, Mrs. Jennings and the Negro woman had succeeded in unloading it. Mrs. Jennings got out of the boat and shoved it off, but her own courage nearly undermined her. The boat started to float so suddenly after being loosened from the rocks that Mrs. Jennings was nearly thrown into the water. The boat had been pierced in many places by bullets. Mrs. Peyton, who had given birth the night before, was with them and helped them escape. Her baby was killed in the hurry and confusion of the battle and she, herself, was wet and cold. Colonel Donelson reports that "their clothes were very much cut with bullets, especially Mrs. Jennings!" The next day, a Saturday, the party got underway again. The family of Mrs. Jennings had been distributed in other boats and they managed to cover several miles. The day turned out to be quiet, and everybody got a much needed rest from the Indians. Coming in part two: Read Now " The water roared with a deafening thunder that could be heard some distance away. The current ran in every possible direction and it heaped driftwood on the points of the island so that it resembled ship wrecks. The company’s boats frequently dragged on the bottom and seemed to be in constant danger of hitting it."

Take a Look at the Pre Departure Boating Checklist

Bryan Lowe — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:05:33 +0000

Boating is one of the most enjoyable outdoor activities known to man. The vast open water, the wind in the hair, the thrill of cruising on the blue water is a better option than paying some hundred dollars to a therapist for an hour long session. No matter how tired or exhausted you are, one spin on the boat and you can bid your fatigue and restlessness a happy goodbye. And in order to enjoy a good time on the water, you need to be careful on the water. It is our duty as responsible boaties to abide by the safety rules. Before you embark on a trip, there are certain checklists that you have got to keep in mind. Personal Floatation devices:

There must be one life jacket or life vest for each of the passengers on board and at least two extra.
If the boat happens to be more than 16 feet long, there has to be an additional throwable device is required to be on board.
The passengers must be briefed about how to use and operate he PFDs.

Sound Devices:

There must be a whistle attached to all PFDs.
You have to have a horn that is capable of producing a four second blast audible ½ a mile on board.
Have a spare can of air or a n alternate device if you are using portable air horn.

Distress Signals:

Flares, day signals must be kept in a dry but accessible location so that it can be reached out to when required in emergency situations.
Always carry the distress signals- you never know when you might need them.
The crew and the passengers must be briefed about the location and safety rules and also how to use these distress signals.

Lights and electronics:

Before leaving the shore make sure all the navigation lights are working fine and carry a flashlight and a few spare batteries.
Check if the GPS, Depth finder, hand held radio, EBIRB, Instrument Lights are working fine before you take the boat out.

Fire Extinguishers:

There must be one fire extinguisher on board and kept in an accessible place.
Also make sure the mounts are secure and functional.

Fuel and Oil:

Top of the fuel tanks.
Have enough fuel to safely making it back to the shore.
Before you leave for the trip, check the engine and coolant levels.

Bilges:

The bilges should be dry and not running excessively.
In order to prevent overboard discharge clean up any spilled oil or waste.
Keep a bucket- a manual de watering device.

Docking and anchoring tips:

In order to be on the safe side, carry two or three extra dock lines and two fenders.
It is a good idea to have at least one anchor set up and bent-on to your anchor line.

Weather forecast:

Before going out for a boating trip, always check the weather forecast.
In case there is a sudden drop in temperature and darkening clouds, postpone your trip and stay home.
Keep a check on the radio on the boat for latest weather conditions.

Fishing tackles:

There are times when we also have a fishing trip in mind while we are on the boat. Make sure you are only carrying the tackles you need for the day and the rest has been kept back at home.
If there are kids on the boat, make sure you keep a watch- the hooks are sharp and they might get hurt if not careful.

There is nothing wrong in being safe. You want to enjoy the thrill of riding the turquoise blue water, may be enjoy a beautiful sunset with your loved one. And most likely you want to enjoy it over and over again. Being safe on the water is a way to ensure that.

Pico Boating: Reader Comments

Bryan Lowe — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:49:06 +0000

Mac McJunkin on May 13, 2012 at 3:17 pm I came up on an analogy the other day, in the book “The First 20 Minutes” you may enjoy. The Sea-Squirt is not one of nature’s more charismatic creatures, but it’s life story is instructive to modern humans. Tubular,opaque and squelchy, it resembles a worm-fish from Mars.But the Sea Squirt is in reality more closely related to humans than other fish.It”s a member of the chordate family, just as we were a long time ago, in another evolutionary form. When scientist sequenced the entire genome of the Sea-Squirt a few years ago, they found long sections of DNA identical to our own. At birth, infant Sea-Squirt larvae have a brain, not much of one; it consist of a few hundred brain cells and some nerve endings. But it does allow the squirt to think in a rudimentary fashion.Young squirts need to find a home. They can’t just float aimlessly for the rest of their lives. So directed by these few neurons they begin swimming.The movement seems to strengthen the brain and the nervous system connections.The squirt may even add a few dozen brain cells while wandering. But then it finds a underwater rock, a ship hull, or perhaps a lazing walrus and attaches itself. Adult squirts are sissile; they pass they rest of their lives clamped to a single surface, waving with the tides but otherwise never moving from that spot. So their brains die. The neuron and nervous connections shrivel and are absorbed into the squirt’s soggy tissues. There is a strong connection between activity and brain function in animals,”according to Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, PHD, a professor of physiological science at the University of California, Los Angeles. When squirts stop moving it has no further use for a brain.” Also in the movie “Running the Sahara” the runners came across a tribe of nomads, that were constantly moving with their possessions. They considered a house a coffin. Men don’t set still or your dead meat. Roselt Croeser on May 15, 2012 at 12:03 am I love it. If we live life, use our brains, fall in love, sail in very small boats we always risk something going wrong and maybe learning something from it. If you are happy to spend your days as a vegetable in front of a television then go ahead. Otherwise we have to do something. There is no more complete way to take responsibility for yourself than to build your own small boat and sail it on the ocean.

Pico Boating: Slow Progress

Bryan Lowe — Sun, 13 May 2012 05:26:09 +0000

"No you can't always get what you want." - Rolling Stones The daily requirements of life can be such a time suck, at least from the perspective of someone wanting to build a boat. I spent a couple of hours this morning working on my boat project, the Selway Fisher Micro 10, and got some of the doubling done on Frame A, the first frame after the transom, the one nearest my feet as I lounge about in the cabin. Douglas fir stock from the local Lowe's Hardware and Lumber that was then filleted in with System 3 EX Fillet. It took several hours for it to harden fully, and by then it was getting dark, so I'll need to be sure it hardens fully tomorrow morning. (it did) I've been trying to work VERY carefully and neatly, which isn't really my natural state of mind. It's feeling great, though, to see things turn out so neatly, especially when compared to my first boats. I put tape down to act as an edge for a neat line when doing fillets. Here's an example from a model rocket project I found online.

I'lLater: Here's a couple of pictures.

Whenever I use EZ Fillet I use any leftover material to fill cracks or voids or surface imperfections. Hence the splotches.

But getting back to the "wisdom" of the Stones... before I knew it, my wife was wanting some help with cleaning up the back yard, as we were having some guests over for a barbecue. Then, as I am usually the cook in the house, I did a grocery trip and prepped the dinner. Between work, late meetings, and family commitments, it's hard to find the time to keep the project going.

By the way... at dinner when the subject of my boat build came up my wife said, "he's building his coffin". Sigh. She's not a fan of this build.

I also built a strongback, patched a leak in the other boat I am building (I've got it bad, don't I?), and added some of the doublers to the center keel. I'll get some pictures in here or in a later post. By the way, James wrote me to say: "Hello Bryan, I’m happy to see someone is building a Micro 10. This is a design I’ve been interested in for some time. Here is some documentation of a Micro 8, you may have seen it already. http://www.nauticaltrek.com/12357-la-continuation-d-une-obsession So, do you think this design can “dig in” and sail to wind? I once contacted Paul Fisher and asked him if the design could be extended to say, 16 feet. He replied it would be no problem. Good luck with the build, cheering you on here." Any thoughts from anyone?

Pico Boating: Costs

Bryan Lowe — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:55:41 +0000

With every related purchase I make, I'll add it to the running total. I figure, without sails, trailer, or fancy internal doo-dads, I'll be spending about $2600. Before the build I estimated a cost of about $4700, if I went expensive on the plywood. I was rounding up. $2600 or so. Hmm. For a short term vacation liveaboard, totally enclosed, that doesn't seem too bad, though it isn't quite shantyboat for it's size. You are going to spend that for an Optimist Dinghy hull purchased new, though, so it is shantyboat in comparison! I'd estimated 4 sheets 12mm x $125 a sheet = $500 I ended up using 12mm plywood that cost $32 a sheet.. $128 total... but I'll increase the cost of epoxy to make up for it. So far: 4 sheets of about 14mm plywood: $32 each = $128 Various epoxys: $84 Template supplies: $16

Pico Boating: Templates to Frames

Bryan Lowe — Mon, 07 May 2012 01:01:12 +0000

Honestly, I'm not much of one to do work around the house. I find it unsatisfying and boring. For me there's only modest joy in repairing a leaking sink, other than to think I saved a few hundred dollars by doing it myself. But I do it because it is the right thing to do. It's my part of the contract in marriage. ;-) So, I spent the morning repairing the lattice on the fence, shopping for groceries, replacing the trap in the sink in the kitchen, and mowing the front yard. The afternoon was mine. Within a couple of hours I'd arranged the frame templates on the sheets of plywood in such as a way as to minimize waste. After tracing, I cut out all three frames and both the bow and stern transoms. The bow transom: And this is the next frame back, Frame A. It will have access hatches to the space between A and the transom. Next is Frame B, which will have most of the center of it cut out for the "living space" inside. In order to fit the frame onto a sheet of plywood with splicing I left the cabin section off. I dont think I'll need it, but if I do for the build I'll just screw a panel on the extend what's there. Frame C will be at my back as I sit in the cabin. I'll need to butt splice the bottom of the frame on, since the frame is too big for a sheet of plywood. And finally, the Aft Transom. I couldn't resist layout out of a few of the pieces.. center beam, and the two transoms. I'll slant the upper cabin house sides in later. I just cut them vertically for now. The plans call for a 5% slant, but I didn't have the tools to do that down at the cabin in Manzanita. I've completed a couple of boats.. my Escargot and a 3 Meter Sailboat. I've had a couple of incomplete boats as well. And while the boats I completed, especially the Escargot, saw an amazing amount of use, I've never been totally happy with the quality of my work. I'll cut myself a great deal of slack, as my son had a large number of challenges, especially medically, that took a great deal of time and emotional energy. I also had a work situation that was very challenging. Boat building was fit into the spaces in-between those demands. I've always marveled at the amazingly clean boat building skills of a few projects I've seen online. I'm very pragmatic, read that to mean rather more interested in getting things done than in being able to see my reflection in the absolute perfection of my bilge boards. But I'm going to do all I can to enjoy the build process, to see the task as the build itself instead of getting it all done as soon as I can. I'll try. For now.

Funky Floating Homes

Bryan Lowe — Sun, 06 May 2012 06:20:40 +0000

From Vision Magazine. The Floating Homes of Sausalito by David O’ Neal Living on a houseboat is cool--cool like Andy Garcia, the Toyota Prius hybrid, mango ice-cream, and Independent voters. I moved to Sausalito recently from the East Coast and I intend to stay here. Nature around the Bay Area is startlingly diverse and beautiful. And I live on a floating home to boot. I treasure the people who live in the “floating homes” (houseboats which have no means of locomotion) of Sausalito. The men here don’t wear ties, and the women don’t sport skirts or high-heeled shoes. And I like the houseboats and the surrounding environment for the same reasons their owners do: it is quiet and peaceful. It is a place to chill out and to heal from whatever ails you real or imaginary) It is a safe-haven, a refuge and a place to repair oneself from the stresses of modern life. My parrot also likes it here. Her wings are not clipped, and occasionally she escapes into joyous flight and perches on nearby rooftops. It’s a fairly safe environment for her because there is nowhere else for her to fly except other houseboats. We are good friends, my parrot and I, yet she regards me with aloof disdain when I summon her back home. Other winged creatures make this area their home as well. Between November and March, herring surge through the Golden Gate of San Francisco Bay and make their way into the shallows of Richardson Bay. They spawn near the floating homes. At such times, thousands of birds of different species fly together in formation, skimming a few inches above the water. Then they land and roil the bay in a frenzy of feasting. The Bay Area is on the pacific flyway so there are also gaggles of migrating geese, loons,American Coots, Red-Breasted Mergansers, grebes, Belted Kingfishers, and others. Near my houseboat, a raft of fifty floating logs forms a bird habitat on which mostly gulls and cormorants rest. Because they don’t have waterproofing oil, cormorants can dive deeply without being held up by excessive buoyancy. After swimming and diving for some time, the cormorants rest on the logs and spread their waterlogged wings to dry so they can dive again without sinking. All these birds are an integral part of the seascape; I watch them for hours with curiosity and amusement. When the black and white birds form a chorus line, extending their wings and vocalizing en mass, the choreography resembles a Broadway musical. Read more at the website.