Torture Works

The essential problem with our current debate about torture is that not nearly enough Americans have been tortured.

Consider John McCain, the only Senator who has actually been tortured and who is adamantly and fiercely opposed to any kind of torture policy. Perhaps a lack of empathy in most Americans allows them to consider torture acceptable; however, compassion and a belief in basic human rights should demand rejecting torture in all its forms. Still, lacking empathy, a bit of experience would go a long way to convince Americans that torture is wrong. I recall that I possess that experience.

I have been tortured, surely not as severe as in a CIA black site, and my tormentors were not interested in information, only punishment and “behavior modification.”

It happened when I was arrested for essentially protesting police brutality in Ignacio, Colorado. Instead, the Ignacio police brutes turned on me. They almost shot me and then proceeded to beat me silly (I later counted 43 separate cuts and contusions), which was really not so bad, but then they threw me in the La Plata County Jail.

What not to do

I got to the jail in the evening and was a less than cooperative prisoner. To punish me (and perhaps “teach a lesson”), two of the guards put me into this specially reinforced canvas jacket with leather wrist and ankle straps and chains, then they tightened the straps and chains, forcing my arms behind me to fasten to my ankles (the straps were so tight that it took almost ten years to restore full feeling in my hands). The jailors, a fat one and a young blond one, placed me on a bench in the cell and the fat one said, “Don’t move from that bench or you won’t be able to get back up.” They then left me alone.



Richard Kuklinkski, cyanide killer

Fifteen minutes later, the two barged into my cell and one of them held some kind of spray can. I said, “What’s that?” The blond one replied, “It’s cyanide. We’re gonna kill you.” They then sprayed the cyanide liberally around the room and rushed out before it could kill them, too. Of course, I leapt (clumsily) from the bench and put my nose to the crack under the door to breathe clean air. After a few minutes, I heard them laughing and noticed that the spray was something like Lysol.

I managed to get back on my bench and proceeded to endure the pain of a “stress position.” All night long my hands, feet, ankles, and wrists ached with such intensity that I could only breathe. My Zen training must have paid off, as I managed to breathe through each wave of pain. Pain followed pain. Pain was my world, there was no other.

Finally, about eight in the morning, the lights came on  and the jail doctor entered the cell. He took one look at me and ordered the jailors to untie me. The relief was bliss! Then, at ten that morning, the nice judge mandated me to hospital, and my ordeal was over.

Afterwards, I was ever so polite to policemen and jailors, you bet, yes sir, no sir, three bags full, sir, no, I don’t want anymore, sir! So, torture works, folks, absolutamente. However, I must confess that I was not really cured of my inner unruliness, contempt for cruel and incompetent police, and detest of injustice. I just learned to be a bit more circumspect.

Election whoopdee doo!

Gwen Graham Victory Speech

Well, this has been a pretty demoralizing election. At least, Gwen Graham, a vaguely liberal democrat won in Florida's District 2, my district, so I don't have to read the obnoxious ravings of Tea Party Steve Southerland, or argue with his policies on his Facebook page.

I thought she would lose because the substance of her policy seemed to be attacking Steve Southerland (not hard to do). So, the Second District showed some sense in spite of Graham's pusillanimity.

What I find impossible to understand is why these Democrats cannot find the heart to actually stand for something beneficial to ordinary people. I believe that if they actually espoused the genuinely progressive and radical policies that might help us overcome global warming, the security state, the militarists, the corporatists, the racists, the fascists, the woman-haters, the drug-haters, the children-haters, the democracy-haters, the science-haters, the patriarchs, they might surprise themselves and win an election. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders won this way.

I know that that the conservative elites are so invested in their wealth and opportunity and status, that they cannot think clearly and see any kind of progressive policies as threats. not gifts. For centuries, they have dominated women and feared homosexuality, oppressed black people and poor whites, and exploited the environment, and they are unwilling to give all that up, even though their very lifestyle is a threat to their survival. But, what is puzzling is why anyone shy of upper-middle class status goes along with them.

Howard Zinn reported that the early colonial elites invented racism to keep runaway slaves, Indians, and poor whites isolated from each other due to their fear of a coordinated uprising against them, and I believe this kind of mind-poison is still being slung about. Either that, or that the racism developed over centuries has become 'institutionalized' and endemic in a large part of the population. Just as insidious is the belief some men hold of their right to dominate women, and they do not want to end their privilege. Arms manufacturers (and their employees) thrive off war, business thrives off exploitation, financiers thrive off interest. There are lots of reasons to preserve the status quo, even for the exploited, especially for the average man who oppresses his wife and daughters (why any woman would support Republicans is solid proof of the Stockholm Syndrome, but one writ large).

When I was a naïve young Zen student marching across the United States protesting the Vietnam War, I believed I had discovered 'Zen Politics'. A New York Roshi informed me that my 'discovery' was a delusion, and after almost fifty years, I see what he means. Voltaire's Candide ended up pleasantly tending his garden, perhaps waiting for the crazies to die off.

Even in Voltaire's time, change was coursing, and we are now involved in perhaps the most extensive change of the entire span of mankind's existence. Conservatives by their nature, oppose change, but in this case they are monkeys howling against the hurricane. Good sense is not enough, it seems, so like Shakyamuni's horses, we have to be beat to death before following the Way. Good luck!

Golden Ball

the Golden Ball ketch under sail showing the starboard leeboard

My new employer, the Apalachicola Maritime Museum, is restoring an L. Francis Herreshoff design wooden boat, a shallow-draft, leeboard ketch designed for West Florida waters, named the Golden Ball. I have been working on a newsletter article celebrating the boat and chronicling the restoration process and progress. A Golden Ball fan stopped in Apalach for supplies and a look at the work in progress. I interviewed him about experience living aboard and sailing boats of this type.

During our talk, his wife, complained about all that welfare money going to drug addicts, how recipients should be drug-tested and denied benefits if positive. I was a bit astounded that a freewheeling, open sky, sailboat person could hold that view (I favor legalization and treatment and an absolute and complete end to the War On Drugs). We went on talking and my new friend turned out to be a War on Iraq and Vietnam War supporter. He actually said that if we had not overthrown Saddam Hussein in 2003 the Middle East would be in a terrible mess today (I wondered if he had skipped reading the news due to long time at sea and just had not noticed ISIS, the civil war in Syria, the disintegration of Libya, the militarization of Egypt. I also wondered if he had not noticed the cozy capitalism now practiced by the Vietnamese). He stated that the Vietnam War was only fought to stop Communism, as if Communism were a deadly virus. I objected, and we argued, then I apologized for my statements explaining that I mistakenly thought he was a working man, and a man of the people, not one of the rich elites that communism might harm. No, he said he had no money, but that he believed in Liberty and Choice, and he feared that some communist government would force him to do things he just did not want to do (maybe like work). He said he knew some Cubans who had told him how terrible their lives were before they fled Cuba for America. I replied that when a country is under constant, vicious attack from a powerful, terrorist neighbor, this kind of 'choice' must be abandoned in order to protect the nation from its enemies. He did not seem to understand my point, nor my thesis that communism in Vietnam was a homegrown response to French Colonialism, not a product of an international conspiracy where "the communists came to Vietnam from Russia (or China, he was not sure)." He also believed that Muslims in general were guilty of attacking 'the homeland', and that 9-11 was not just a criminal conspiracy (while the Timothy McVeigh Oklahoma City bombing was). At this point in our talk, he actually threw up his hands and he walked out of the museum, so I guess I lost my friend! It is painful, sometimes, to be right.

I am confounded how these right-wing memes, so false and vile, are so prevalent in the culture and so impossible to dissuade. Neither logic nor facts work to bring forth right thinking in these kinds of peoples. On the other hand, some of our veterans might have committed or at least observed atrocities during their wars, and their sanity depends on a world view that maintains whatever the US does is always right, i.e. "My country, right or wrong." Very sad.

Sunset Cruise

iPod photo, sun setting over Saint Vincent Island

On my new job, I sometimes work as the mate on our cruise boat tours. My duty is to assist the captain and the guests and provide informative comment on the trip. Last night, I got to go on our "Sunset Cruise", a trip out on Apalachicola Bay where we can view a proper sunset, and as was the case October 8, a full moon rise. Nice.

Our little boat community quickly developed a rapport, and it was great to be able to speak frankly with people. One couple was from Kentucky, another from Georgia. We actually were able to politely talk politics and, wonder of wonders, we were in complete agreement. 

Sun almost gone!

Now, the Georgia couple were partaking of a bottle of white wine, which smelled very sweet, and I was offered some. However, as a Coast Guard approved cruise ship mate, I had to decline. They, however, got pleasantly tipsy. At one point, the nice lady lamented the fact that her hill-billy kinsmen voted Republican in spite of their economic and class interests. Naturally, I agreed that wonder was in order and proposed that perhaps wedge issues were to blame, i.e. abortion, gay marriage, whatever Karl Rove dreams up.

Today, I discovered a better answer. The Maritime Museum paid for all us mates and captains to attend a class given at the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve (now in Eastpoint), and the lecturer spoke of the current threats to Apalachicola Bay system: development, water diversion, pollution, and over-fishing. All but the last occur upriver, and all involve one primary theme, PROGRESS.

So, I think that all those people who vote against their class interests have deluded themselves with the chimera of progress. They believe in it, and they believe the Republican Party stands for it, even though most Democrats are also deluded by progress, although they may not believe in it with the fervor of the true church. Furthermore, they all confuse progress with money and all those other flashy symbols of the Way, i.e. a MacDonald's hamburger franchise setting on reclaimed wetland. They want to go along with that program, no matter that they will end up more poor and more desperate because of their allegiance to The Big Dream, thus dooming the rest of us.

Me, I am happy to do without progress. Oh, by the way, the patriarchy has a sole-proprietorship on Progress. No woman would be so idiotic!

Memes, Slings, and a New Job

Whoopie Sling on the left, eye sling on the right

 I have been making 'Whoopie Slings' and 'Tree Eyes' out of a fantastic new rope called Amsteel Blue, made out of Dyneema (both registered trademarks), rope that is stronger than steel and lighter than water.
Campers use whoopie slings for hanging their hammocks and arborists use both slings and eyes for hoisting their trees. Of course, the size (and strength) of the rope varies with the application. I started using 7/64" Amsteel I bought on eBay for use around the boat. This rope is very thin and light, perfect for hammock-hanging whoopie slings because it weighs almost nothing. The idea is to fasten slings on either end of the hammock to trees, then adjust the slings to fit. Once weight (or tension) is applied, the sling will not move because one end of the rope passes inside a section of the rope like a Chinese puzzle, forming a loop. Due to the nature of the braid, when tension is applied, the loop becomes rigid, but without tension, the loop is easily adjustable.
I learned to use a piece of thin wire to pull one end of the rope inside of itself, forming a fixed loop on one end and an adjustable loop on the other. The first whoopie sling took me about two hours, and the tenth took less than half an hour. I made them and sold them on eBay until I was out of the 7/64" material.
Then, I wanted to replace the lower lifelines on Sunrise. The old ones were made of 1/4" nylon 3-strand rope, which was degraded in many places from chafing. I bought some cheap 5/32" Amsteel on eBay for the lifelines, but then I was asked for a whoopie sling out of the 5/32" rope and the customer was willing to pay extra, so I was back in the sling business. In order to not be overwhelmed, I kept raising the price until I reached $16, but I ran out of material. I still needed rope for the lifelines, but when I went to buy more, I found that the previous eBay prices were exceptionally low, and I ended up buying some 3/16" Amsteel (much better for lifelines) for 75 cents a foot, more than three times the previous price! I did sell one 3/16" whoopie sling for a higher price, but that was to an arborist. On the other hand, the new lifelines are exceptional!
In retrospect, 1/8" Amsteel might be the best choice for whoopie slings. It is still fairly inexpensive (36 cents/foot), very strong (almost one ton safe working load), and easy to work with (12 strand braid and sized so my splicing tools fit), but it weighs slightly more than 7/64". I have sold several so far.

I can leave my cottage industry behind, though, because on Monday, 8/11, I go to work for the Apalachicola Maritime Museum! It is a part-time, minimum wage job, funded by a Department of Labor program for us older people, but I will still end up with enough extra cash to be able to live and maintain my boat-maintenance habit--I need a new anchor. On the job, I will be a mate on the museum tour boats, man the front desk to greet people (like a Wallmart greeter), book tours, write for the newsletter, and help curate the museum.

That leaves memes. I have noticed that the US media, including Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, has settled on the narrative that the massive influx of Central American children at the border is the result of Obama's limited amnesty for the Dreamers, children who came to America with their parents at a young age. Thus, immigrant children can also expect amnesty. Unscrupulous 'coyotes' have sold this fantasy to parents in order to make money. The conclusion of this narrative is that the cause of the migration is greed on the part of the coyotes and delusion on the part of the parents. All Obama has to do to end the problem is to inform Central America that no such amnesty is available.

Of course, there is probably a grain of truth in this idea. Coyotes will make money. The 2008 Anti-Trafficking Law does provide some protection of child migrants. Perhaps the Dreamers policy did get wrongly interpreted. Nevertheless, there is ample evidence that conditions in Central America are driving the children to flee their homeland. See Running For Their Lives--The Child Migrant Crisis. Ignoring root the causes of immigration problems allows the administration and legislators to apply band-aid, symptomatic solutions that are both cruel and inhumane. True solutions, of course, such as ending CAFTA and NAFTA, the War On Drugs, and support for right-wing kleptocracies in Mexico and Central America are out of the question.

Next to consider is the Ukraine. It has been well documented that the US State Department and NGOs such as the NED were instrumental in causing the coup that literally chased Former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych out of office to exile in Russia. It is also known that many of the people forming the new Kiev government are extreme nationalists with a decided Russian-hating, neo-nazi, fascist bent. Kiev lost Crimea and fomented civil war in Eastern Ukraine precisely because of its dedication to the EU bankers with their austerity programs and US militarists with their NATO, new Cold War, program. Putin's rejection of this government is entirely rational in terms of both protecting the Russian state and supporting ethnic Russians who want nothing to do with Kiev. Yet, Putin is reviled in the US press (and maybe the European), as the warmonger fomenting violence in Eastern Ukraine and he has been both blamed and punished for all the ills in the Ukraine (even the Daily Show adopts this meme). Putin is certainly not so wonderful a leader, but all this mess in Ukraine is the direct result of US and EU meddling, not Russian.

There are many more instances of American propaganda, memes that distort our understanding of the world, too many to easily recount. There are many people like my neighbor, Al, who constantly proclaim that the US has done more 'good' in the world than any other country in history. I am sure that the people in Iran appreciate the goodness of the CIA when it unseated Mossadegh and installed the Shah in 1953. Then there was the goodness of the Jimmy Carter policy to support the mujaheddin in Afghanistan that so threatened the Afghan government that they appealed to the Soviet Union to send troops for support. Not to leave a good stone unturned, the CIA continued to support the mujaheddin with (good) arms to fight the (bad) Russians, a bit that leads directly to Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, and the goodness of 9/11. Although the litany of American policy blunders is much to long to list completely, the upshot is that none of these efforts ever, ever, has a good result and most cause humanitarian disasters. The list continues today with Obama's good policies of drone assassinations and public spying, which only broadens Al Franken's condemnation of Stupid White Men to include any brand of stupid American. I should really point out to neighbor Al, who hates Obama, that white men do not have a monopoly on stupidity.

Visitations

Sunrise, a 31' Southern Cross cutter built in 1976

I got a visit! Well, actually more than one. First, some lovely young students from Auburn on a Christian mission in Apalachicola came to see me--I don't know if they came for my soul or for my wisdom, but I liked them. Then, Sylvia, the wife of my great friend Martin Lamarque came with Sara Smith and her daughter Sara Elena. I got to show them the sights of Apalachicola, which really is a sleepy fishing village with an overlay of tourists (just like Mexico). Lots of fun! I got a good photo of the boat from the deck of Up The Creek Raw Bar.

My son Adam and his partner, Dana, came to visit several weeks ago and we took the boat out on the river. Almost to the railroad bridge, we anchored for a swim. At the bow with the anchor let out, I told Adam to juice the engine in reverse, thus 'setting' the anchor. When we went to leave, I wanted to motor up to the anchor instead of winching all the way. The engine ran, the transmission spun, but the propeller did not! Evidently, going into reverse was the last turn for the nut holding transmission and propeller shaft together--it spun off and we were dead in the water. So, we had to sail home, which was really lots of fun.

I bought a new nut for $8, then I had to buy a special, low-clearance socket for it in order to put the boat back into working order. Getting all these parts took weeks, but finally I put it all together. I finished just before Sara, Sylvia, and Sara came to visit, but they did not want to take a little cruise. At any rate, I am ready for hurricane season!

The notions on my mind these days are the madness in Ukraine and the cruelty in Gaza. It seems that everyone wants to blame President Putin of Russia for both the civil war and the downing of the Malaysian airplane. It is clear to me that our State Department, with the aid of European financiers, helped engineer the coup that eventually instigated the separation of the Crimea and the intended separation of the ethnic-Russian Eastern Ukraine. Those people did not want anything to do with the Kiev government, and considering rhetoric at the time, anti-Russian language edicts, anti-Russian hate speech, who can blame them? One of the secret elements of the pact that created the Kiev government (or kleptocracy) was a clause allowing the Ukraine to join NATO. So, it is no wonder that Putin would seek to protect his seaport and his borders. What else would these geniuses expect? So, World War III might be just around the corner, a boon to American neocons and arms dealers, well, at least until we all blow up in a nuclear holocaust!
As for Gaza, the chutzpah of the Israelis is remarkable. They are practicing genocide on a small scale, but they practice it all the time, year after year. They claim self-defense, but that is pretty hollow. Somehow, they excuse their own evil by referencing the Holocaust, which makes no sense to me. I believe the true aim and strategy of Israel's Likud government is to drive all the Palestinians away or kill them all, whichever comes first. And, I find this reprehensible and unacceptable. The fact that our government gives them so much support disgusts me.

Tomorrow evening, Gwen Graham, the Democratic candidate seeking to unseat U.S. Representative Steve Southerland is appearing at a town hall meeting (literally in the town hall). I plan to attend and ask some gad-fly questions. These Democrats for the most part are too timid to tell the truth, although I believe that with some truth they could win.

 

And, I am out of projects... It is time to build my dinghy!

With daily summer rains (and the Sunrise's AC system providing reasonable comfort), I have turned to inside work except for repairing almost constant bicycle flat tires).

The most interesting has been making and selling "Whoopie Slings" on eBay.

7/64" (& larger) Whoopie Slings

I sold several of the yellow slings made out of 7/64" Amsteel Blue (TM). Then, I decided to replace the boat's intermediate lifelines and found a great deal on eBay for 5/32" gray Amsteel Blue ('Blue' refers to a process of adding a UV-resistant colorant to regular Amsteel), which is twice as strong as the smaller, yellow size. By the way, Amsteel, made out of Dyneema by Samson Rope Company, is stronger than equivalently sized steel and lighter than water.

5/32" Whoopie Sling

I started making Whoopie Slings out of the gray rope, and sales came one right after another. I literally finished a sling, put away my tools, and found another order on the computer!
I increased my price to not be so busy, but still got orders until I finally found the not-so-sweet spot of $16/pair where nothing sold. Still, I ended up using most of my rope for slings and had to buy another batch of Amsteel Blue for the lifelines. That is when I found out that the $.23/foot I had paid for the 5/32" was not reproducible. Even 1/8" Amsteel Blue was $35/foot, which meant that a pair of 1/8" Whoopie Slings would cost me $8.40 in materials, allowing me to make about $8/hour at the $16 price, which was not selling (I bought 3/16" Amsteel Blue for the lines at $.75/foot--expensive rope, but a better installation--after all, they are "life lines"). Well, I had to end my eBay auctions when I went up to Tallahassee to help Lisa and Sara get Lisa's house ready for moving in and supporting a new baby.
I relisted the gray slings when I got back, but so far, there have been some lookers, but no sales. I am thinking I might have to add an Amsteel soft shackle to sweeten the sale and maybe charge twenty bucks for the package. It would make a nice cottage industry if I could get the material at a good price.

The most satisfying recent work has been refinishing the cabin floor. I spilled a few drops of paint on it from my cabin paint job, and when I rubbed them out, the rubbing lightened the floor. Plus, there was accumulated discoloration and scratches; finally, I wanted to put some non-skid patches under the ladder to keep it from slipping and figured they would stick better on bare wood (they don't). So, I borrowed Andrew's powerful Milwaukee orbital sander, bought 80 grit, 120 grit, and 150 grit sanding disks, got out my kneeling pad, and went to work. The sanding took one whole afternoon of enormous effort as the sander would buck every time it hit one of the yellow stripes that were higher than the surrounding wood. Also, teak is extremely hard and it ate sanding disks as if I were sanding metal. After the floor was silky smooth following the 150 grit,  I cleaned it thoroughly with a tack cloth, and applied Teak oil. Now, the floor is perfectly clean, smooth to walk on, and a delight to my bare feet.

I hate to say that I am sad to have run out of projects! Perhaps it is time to build my dinghy:

Eastport Nesting Pram

This boat comes as a kit that supposedly takes about a week to put together and probably another week to finish. It is 8' long, but divides into two sections that 'nest' together, allowing it to fit on deck of a small cruiser like the Sunrise.
So far, I have organized the financing and most of the necessary tools. All I need is a place to build it.
Having lost two little boats because of rough sea while towing, I have kind of vowed not to (mostly) tow another dinghy; thus, a rowboat that can fit on deck should be a real winner.

Violence Against Women

The theme of this blog is the adventures of the Sunrise and the Skipper of the Sunrise. Thus, I write about life in Apalachicola on my boat and related happenings (by the way, I found that the starting motor fault on my little car was due to a bad wire that supplied power to the starting circuit--for unknown reasons, it only had half the necessary voltage-- so I just ran a new wire straight from the battery). However, it is not my nature to be isolated from world and domestic events, so I want to make an explicit comment inpired the horrendous murders in Isla Vista, California, a place I know.

I am guessing that maybe four thousand years ago, there occurred some not trivial inventions in the populations of Homo Sapiens around the world. These were patriarchy and the worship of the "Sky Gods," modes which displaced the previous culture of matriarchy and worship of the "Earth Gods." I cannot speak of all the continents and all the peoples, but our Indo-European ancestors (ancestors of some of us) fully adopted these new modes, with concomitant militarism and authoritarianism, and came charging out of the East, heading west to Europe and South to India, conquering all the matriarchal tribes in their path. These were the Celts, the Aryans, the Greeks, the Latins, the Germans, and surely others, all establishing cultures that emphasized patriarchy and sky gods. Women, who previously ran the show, so to speak, were relegated to a role of servitude, as were the conquered peoples.

The modern world created by the sky god culture is about as much of a cock-up as I can imagine, with pollution, the possibility of nuclear annihilation, destruction by war, aberrant killings, violence against women, abject poverty, and global warming just some of the results.

It is not that matriarchy and the Earth Mother disappeared from our culture and our world. History shows that the patriarchy has kept quite busy repressing feminism. Think of the destruction of the Isis cults in the Mediterranean and burning of witches throughout Europe, the annihilation of Native Americans and other "indigenous" peoples. These days, women struggle to throw off the yoke of the patriarchy and establish themselves, but the patriarchy is battling desperately to maintain its privilege, a one-sided battle, because feminism does not fight with the same tools. Thus, women are murdered and repressed.

The matriarchy had a good, long run, probably in the hundreds of thousands of years. The patriarchy, in just a few thousand, has come close to destroying the whole world. This way cannot continue and I cannot imagine a patriarchal culture that can control itself; nor is it really possible to reinstate a matriarchal culture (although one might emerge if we do endure apocalyptic nuclear war or extreme global warming). So, what we desperately need is a balance, the yin and the yang forming unity.

More New

After Ryuho Yamada Sensei , Zen shiatsu teacher and healer, died in 2003, Hollis DeLancy bought his 1986 Toyota Corolla All-Trak, from Ryuho's wife, Mayumi (so she could return to Japan). Since she did not really need another car, she gave it to me. It was a bit of a problem from the beginning because it often failed to start (the car came with a small battery charger), and I went through a series of repairs, replacing the alternator and starter, until one smart mechanic replaced the ignition switch and it worked perfectly. The car served me well, especially during torrential winter rains when I could flip it into four-wheel drive and safely negotiate water and mud.

Moving to Florida, I had to pay more than five hundred dollars to register it! I should have sent it to Pull-A-Part right then, but I had the money and lacked the sense. I used it well for several years until it was stolen and ended up in Kingman, Arizona. Sara Smith rescued it and her Santa Cruz mechanic, Pedro, put it back into shape. Curiously, though, somewhere in its journey, its nice, new, 100 amp-hour battery, got switched to an older, 60 amp-hour model.
Last year, before I sailed off to Fort Meyers, the car failed to start reliably. Sometimes it would, sometimes it wouldn't, not a desirable behavior in a car. I found that if I could get the battery voltage up to about 12.8 volts (higher than a resting, fully charged battery), it always started, indicating a big resistance in the starting circuit. I attempted to check the cable connection, but there is so much metal back where the starter lives, I could not even see the starter motor. I abandoned the car and sailed away!
Well, now daughter, Lisa, and son-in-law, Andrew, are moving back to Tallahassee, I need a car again as there is no public transportation to the Forgotten Coast. I also had to miss a meeting of the Franklin County Democratic Party Committee because I could not get to Carabelle--I thought about taking the boat, but that would mean six hours on the engine because there is seldom any fair wind in the Waterway, or ride my bike, but that would probably be beyond my ability. And, Tallahassee is just out of reach entirely!

1986 Toyota Corolla Ignition Switch

So, I guessed that the starting problem was once again due to a faulty switch and dove in. It took me hours to remove all the old, junky plastic to get the switch and diagnose it was indeed the problem--I jumped the connection between the hot plug and the starter plug and the engine turned right over, then I had to crawl under the steering column to unscrew it. I took it apart and attempted to clean the connections, but when I put it back together, it would not work at all. So much for repair! An eBay seller had a new switch for $35 and it is on its way.

I finished painting the quarterberth and other places while I was at it. Hopefully, the little flecks of white paint are banished from my cabin. It looks good, too, all clean.


I also decided to add a shelf for my computer, printer, etc, and provide a secure place to store charts. So, I taped off a section (blue in the photo) to provide a foundation for fiberglass. After the new paint dried, I ground off all the old gel-coat and paint right down to the fiberglass of the hull. Then, I fashioned a 1"x3" board to glass in to the hull and provide a ledger to support the shelf. In order to make it conform to the hull shape, I sawed about fifty kerfs across the width of the board, down to about 3/8". I prepared means to hold the board in place and glassed it in.

My shelf job is not perfect, completely due to my inexperience as a "glass-man". Neighbor Mike Young, a real glass-man, advised me, but the technique is tricky. It is necessary to add just the right amount of hardener to the resin--too little will cause the resin to set up slowly, too much will cause the resin to set up too quickly and be brittle, to boot. I did both. The first batch fastened the board to the hull and it set up too quick. The second batch wrapped the wood and fastened to the hull below the board and after two days, it is still tacky. Nevertheless, the shelf looks good.

When the resin finally cures, I can use the last of my cabin paint to touch up, then I get my cabin back! I am so tired of typing on my dining table. But, I believe the result will have been worth the travail: a bright, clean quarterberth, a bright, clean cabin, and a sturdy shelf to keep my laptop secure at sea.

New Tiller

On the voyage to Fort Myers, we got stuck in the mud heading into a little marina on the side of the Inter-coastal Waterway (ICW) and got the tiller broke off at the rudder post due to a misplaced tow rope and a too small tow boat. I fixed the tiller by sawing off the broken end and drilling a new hole, but the resulting tiller was too short--not enough leverage and poor steering position--and irremediably broken-- delaminated core. So, back in Apalachicola, I searched the net and found Tillercraft, which seems to be the only custom tiller house left in the US.
Richard, there, after a bit of negotiating the correct shape and size, fixed me up with a beauty. Because of the shape, tillers are hard to photograph, but here are a couple of shots:

So, now the tiller is prettier than the boat! I look forward to my next sail. BTW, I am keeping the old one. I can double as a spare tiller and a spare cudgel, should I need either.

Too pay for the tiller, I had to sell my marine SSB radio. The truth is that I never liked that radio. It was based on channels, i.e. pushing a button got a specific frequency and mode. The trouble was that there were only two channels out of sixty million that I ever used and could remember. To surf the ham spectrum was possible, but required pushing about sixty buttons. I like dials! So, it was more radio than I ever needed. It had one advantage which was its Digital Service feature--a red button that when pushed sent a distress signal all over the world. However, I already have a similar device that works with satellites, much more of a sure thing. So, it was not too hard to see it go to Louisiana.

The radio had a special antenna tuner that I included because it only worked with the ICOM M802 and my next radio will surely be an old Yaesu or Kenwood--solid Japanese ham radios--and their corresponding antenna tuners. [Boat antennas need tuners because they are essentially long wires, not cut to a specific frequency's length]. At any rate, in order to retrieve the tuner, I had almost insurmountable problems. The guy who installed was very small and he drank a lot. So, when he read the instructions to install the tuner as close to the antenna as possible, he did not discriminate between electrical length--the length of the coaxial cable connecting antenna and tuner-- and physical length. So, he mounted it as far back in the stern as he could get, leaving about six feet of extra coax neatly coiled.
I barely even reach the tuner, let alone unscrew it. I managed to unscrew one screw of three, and my friend Marsha, a small person, crawled back in there and unscrewed another. The final screw was stripped, so I tried to lever it out and could not budge. Marsha's husband, Mike, a very, very strong guy, got his crow bar literally ripped it out of the hull (I epoxied all the holes).

The point of the antenna tuner story is that whenever I crawled back there on the quarter berth, I always came out covered with white flecks, paint or gelcoat coming loose. Plus, the new tiller inspires me to get this old boat spiffed up. Here is the quarterberth now:

 The purpose of the quarterberth is to allow an additional sleeping space underneath the starboard lazarette, but it was probably never used thusly. In fact, it is mostly a handy place to stow life jackets, fishing equipment, and other gear. But it is also useful for me to crawl aft and check the transmission oil, tighten the stuffing box, etc.

It should be very clear that my next job to spiff up the boat will be to do a little painting! I am experienced now that over a week I helped my daughter Lisa and son-in-law Andrew repaint their Tallahassee house, so I purchased a quart of very expensive boat cabin paint and UPS delivered it today.

Longings

Mainsail with Full Moon

When I was on the journey from Fort Myers, I felt the calm of the sea, the exhilaration of its power, its steady movement. When I began formal Zen meditation in 1967, one day I realized I had done this kind of meditation before when I was a swimmer in high school, especially when swimming long distance. In fact, I found many life actions that were the same as sitting. Sailing the sea is another place for this different kind of sitting, although I know that sitting sitting is more steady.

Still, I cannot sit anymore due to my failed knees; I suppose I could take up sitting zazen in a chair, but I am so used to the power and intensity given by my lotus seat that I would rather sail!

When the front passed us on the Gulf, the force of the waves on the dinghy's fouled painter against the self-steering gear bent the actuator shaft, the device that connects the wind vane to the water vane and steers the boat. Back in Apalachicola, my good friend Harry, boat mechanic at Scipio Creek Marina, carefully straightened it for me so that I could reattach it. The self-steering gear is good to go.

Another problem surfaced in Carabelle when I refilled the tank. I stopped filling the diesel before it slopped over, but there was still fuel in the hoses, i.e. the tank was completely filled. This caused fuel to leak out of my home-made inspection plate into the bilge and thus, into the whole boat. 

Diesel fumes were particularly noxious in the V-berth as the bilge runs from the engine compartment all the way forward, under the floor boards, forming a kind of pipe that directed the fumes into my bunk! I bought some fuel-capture cloths, tied them to a stick and swabbed out the bilge. By squeezing the cloth, I  pulled most of the diesel out, almost two quarts, and then carried my bucket of dirty fuel to the fuel dump at Gander's BP Oil Dock & Marine Marina, a few hundred yards away.

The cause of the fuel leak was due to the poor quality gasket sealant I had used--it literally dissolved in contact with diesel. I purchased a small tube of high-quality, diesel-resistant Permatex silicon sealant, #85420, and reset the gasket and plate. Hopefully, no more leaks! If the repair works, I will save the purchase of a $160 professionally made inspection plate.

The only boat repair left is to replace the tiller. During the trip to Fort Myers, we ran aground and some Good Samaritans (I believe that was their tribe, but I learned to prefer the Sea Tow tribe) pulled us off the mud. In doing so, their little speed boat took the tow line and speeded off south, somehow managing to drive the rudder as far over as it could go so that the tiller jammed against the back stay and broke right off at the rudder post. I unbolted the tiller from the rudder and sawed off the broken part, drilled a new hole, and we continued on. Later, I saw that the tiller had delaminated towards the end and I glued it back together. Finally, on the way back I missed the extra leverage lost due to inadvertently shortening the tiller. The upshot is I need a new tiller, but can get along with this one as the new one would have to be custom made at a price approaching $180.

New tiller or no new tiller, all in all, I want to go back to sea. 

Back in Apalachicola

Dyer dinghy on tow, Monitor holding course

Sara and I made it across the Gulf without too much damage, although I was quite exhausted after arriving in Apalachicola--it took days and days to recover. The passage was trying.
Leaving Fort Myers Yacht Basin the morning of March 13, it took us more than a day to reach the Gulf, all by motoring about five knots, towing my new, bright yellow, Dyer Dinghy.
We passed through Boca Grande Pass Friday afternoon about 3:00 pm and set sail for Apalachicola with the Monitor self-steering gear holding a near perfect course.

Windvane

At first, we paralleled the coast, sailing when we could; however, we felt justified to use the motor to hurry across the Tampa shipping lane. Those ships are really, really big! And, they neither stop nor maneuver quickly. But, we missed them all. Because the wind was light, we hove-to for the night.
Saturday, the wind was brisk at our backs, which caused for some big, following seas. At one point when we surfed down the face of a big wave, we hit almost ten knots! The gear held our course beautifully and we made very good time, with usual speeds from 5.0 to 6.2 knots.

Seasick Sara Sleeping

Sara got seasick, so that when night came, I had to stand watch. I figured that someone should take a look around and check the course and dinghy at least every half hour, so I set my alarm and tucked in. This is a very tiring system, by the way. Sara roused herself for a few checks, so I got a little sleep.

The next morning, Sunday, March 16, we were out of sight of land and the wind was at least 15 knots and getting stronger. We were finally getting close to Apalachicola according to the GPS. However, the Coast Guard weather report indicated a cold front would pass us towards the end of the day. So, I altered course slightly to Dog Island Pass (close to Carabelle) and put one reef in the main--should have put two reefs and changed the head sails). The day went smoothly enough and we made good time; again, the Monitor self-steering gear worked superbly.

Genoa Jib Drawing Full

When night came, I dropped the Genoa jib, tied everything securely, and hove-to for the night because Sara was seasick and I was beyond tired. The front hit like a freight train and turned the sea into a slosh of running horses. The wind literally howled in the rigging and the wind generator shot the ammeter's needle off the dial! The boat was sound, though, and although we had to hold on to move around (keep one hand for the boat) and use lee cloths to stay in our bunks, it was not too bad. I got quite a bit of sleep.

Monday morning was hard. The front had passed, leaving a calm. When I looked for the dinghy, all I saw was its painter disappearing into the Gulf; also, that painter was fouled around the self-steering gear's water vane, its rudder. So, when the waves were crashing, the dinghy jumped around the water vane, and both were damaged. As for the dinghy, its bow ring eventually pulled out--that's all I have left of my $400 investment is a brass bow ring, bolts and nuts included. As for the gear, the force of waves and boat had broken a retainer ring of the shaft connecting the water vane and the wind vane, so the shaft was loose, bent, and unable to do its self-steering job.

Genoa Jib Broken

Then, I went forward and found that the Genoa jib had come loose and most of it was in the water. During the storm, the bow must have stomped over and over on the jib's body, so that it ripped in the middle. I don't know if it is reparable or must be replaced. Too bad! That sail could drive the boat smartly. When Adam and I crossed, with the main, Yankee, and staysail, we averaged 6 knots. Later with the main gone, I set just the Genoa and we made about 5 knots. What a great sail!

The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful. Due to no wind, I dropped the sails and we motored through Dog Island Pass and into Carabelle. I won't mention that we ran aground in the river and had to be towed off by good old Sea Tow (thank goodness for the membership), but we finally met up with our daughter Lisa Tripp bearing sandwiches, and I spent the night at Slips and Moorings. My crew went on to Tallahassee, so the next day I continued single-handed.
First, I filled up with diesel and found that it took only twelve gallons to go 280 miles. Not too bad. A lot of cars can't do that. The wind was right in my face until the buoy turn to Apalachicola, so I enjoyed putting along at five knots. After the buoy, I raised sail, but the wind was light, so I assisted it with the engine. Once in the river, I dropped all sail and motored to my slip. Home again!

Ted and Sara are off again!

Ted and Sara took off Thursday afternoon from Ft. Myers and are on there way back to Apalachicola. So far the report is that there is little wind so they are headed very slowly up the cost (2.7 knots). Waves are calm. They should be off the coast of Sarasota some time this morning if all went well last night.

Sara sent me a couple of photos to share, so I'll post them below! 

—Lisa

"On the Move" — Leaving Ft. Myers, FL, March 13, 2014

"Sunrise" — March 14, 2014

 

"Sunset" — March 14, 2014

"Chilly. Good wind. Drinking my chai. Pretty sunrise.  

Almost ready to sail." —Sara, March 14, 2014

"We had backed over the rope tied to the dingy.  It was stuck so I went on with a knife to free rope from the motor." — Sara, March 14, 2014

I just watched Oliver Stone's Heaven & Earth, said to be the third of his Vietnam trilogy, following Platoon and Fourth of July. I was much moved by Heaven..., an incredible life odyssey of a Vietnamese woman, Le Ly, caught soup to nuts from the French colonialists to the American invaders and finally, Vietnamese liberators. She even marries a Marine and lives in San Diego for some time.

As captivating as Le Ly's life adventure is, what struck me over and over was the immeasurable destruction of Vietnam and Vietnamese society resulting from the American invasion. We destroyed that country--how does it go, "I had to destroy the village to save it..."? I always knew this, but Oliver Stone shows this. Such an insight is worth seeing the movie for.

And in the end, we did not 'save' Vietnam. My neighbor Al, a lifelong Air Force soldier and Vietnam Veteran, still believes America could have won that war, and my rejoinder is that our victory could only have been achieved by wiping out practically all the Vietnamese people, so what would have been the point?

The ruination of Vietnam for ideological and economic reasons is only one of many events that condemn America and give the lie to American exceptionalism. Just in my lifetime we see Korea, Iran, Guatemala and others..., Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq again, Libya et al, actions that destabilized and or destroyed entire nations and caused the deaths of millions of people. Not much to be proud of, sorry to say, and the impulse continues as there is evidence that the US had a hand in the Ukraine rioting that led to the ouster of its kleptocratic  president, Yanukovych. I am quite sure that US motives for removing Yanukovych had nothing to do with his corrupt administration and everything to do with his rejection of European neoliberal policy. In other words, if he had been willing to go along with European austerity and privatization policies, he could have as many gold-plated bathtubs as he wanted. His sin, like those of many past autocratic leaders, was to reject Western leadership. Perhaps Oliver Stone could yet make a film about the downfall of one of these autocrats who strayed from the Western path.

Back in the Scanmar Monitor Self-Steering Business

Messy cabin workshop

I had some spare time between projects while staying at the Fort Myers Yacht Basin, so I decided to rebuild my Monitor self-steering gear. The reason is that twice in the past six months it had jumped its gears, which Ron, the designer at Scanmar Marine, wrote me indicated worn bearings. Furthermore, the thing was installed about 1994, so its parts were twenty years old. I bought Scanmar's bearing kit and used the Yacht Basin's utility barge to allow me to unbolt and remove the gear, then my neighbor Greg helped me haul it up to the dock. Next, I carefully marked all the support tubes so I could put them back together the same way, removed them, and rigged a block and tackle off the backstay to lower the gear into my cabin, disassemble it, and begin the task of replacing bearings and bushings. For about a week, the gear dominated my life as I had to share everything with all these pieces, tubes, and gears.

Visible in the photos above and on the left are the main frame and many of the pieces requiring new bushings. The Scanmar design primarily uses Delrin bearings because they are self-lubricating. All that can clog them is salt, which is usually cleaned out by rain or a marina-fed garden hose. This is a great advantage for a mechanism constantly drenched by ocean waves. However, Delrin is not cheap. The parts cost $155, including shipping, and arrived in the smallest Priority Mail boxes USPS sells!

Parts on dining room table

 I put it all together. In fact, I put it all together several times, in my clever attempts to outsmart the Scanmar engineers. I actually studied the Parts diagrams many times, yet invariably got something in backwards and had to start over. For one thing, though, the parts are very beautiful after some study.

Close-up of ring & pinion gears and actuator shaft. Lovely!

Here is a close up of the water vane operating gears and the actuator shaft that moves them in response to movements of the wind vane that then moves the tiller to catch the wind.

Gear in the cabin

The hardest task was reassembling the gears, mainly due to the lack of a shop bench and a strong vise (I turned my fold-out dining table into a workbench and used a very small Stanley vise I bought for splicing work). I found a concrete block that gave me clearance for the water vane shaft and rigged my little vise to hold everything in place while I carefully replaced the main gear shaft with its new bearings, shown at left.

Gear in the cockpit

 I wrecked some parts in the re-build, but Suzy at Scanmar promptly sent me new ones. I think she did this three times, only charging me once. To my credit, I never wrecked the same parts twice! Finally, the job was mostly done and I hoisted it out of the cabin into the cockpit. To do so, I had to fold back the canvas dodger in front of the cockpit, then again rig a block and tackle from the backstay (I used an old carabiner Adam Tripp gave me that, hooked to the main halyard and the block and tackle, could slide along the backstay until it was positioned directly above the hatch).

Gear on dock

Next, I hauled the main body to the dock in order to reattach all the support tubing. To my horror, I discovered that my relentless cleaning and polishing while waiting for parts had dissolved all my careful markings! There are four tubes that can go one way or another, so as I remember from my math classes, that is 4x3x2x1, 24 combinations. It took some time and patience, believe me, but I finally got it, as you can see on the left.

Gear on barge

Following reassembly, I changed the block and tackle position and lowered the gear onto the barge. Barges are tricky in that they reside in water so that pushing achieves an opposite reaction, likewise pulling. Plus, due to years of stress and strain on the gear, the hole positions had shifted. I did not have a good drift, but a bicycle trip to Tropical Hardware for a spike solved that problem. All in all, it took most of the day to remount the gear and I ended up with some pretty chapped lips but a mounted self-steering gear!

Watervane reflecting the dawn

Once remounted, I only had to readjust and reattach the control lines, and I can now go back to, if not a normal life, a life similar to the one I led before I decided to become a Monitor repairman! The result of all my work and expense is quite lovely, really. My new self-steering gear is clean and polished and the workings are whisper-fresh. I plan to try it out soon, and I am positive it will work very well.

Self-steering gear ready to go!

The photos show the water vane up, which is the position while in port or traveling by engine (one photo was taken early morning and reflects the dawn sky). It is like a rudder. The water vane locks in its down position when it is released from a rope holding it. Then, the wind vane, a thin wooden board like a sail and kept onboard when not in use, attaches to the top of the gear. The wind vane is aligned with the course, then control ropes are attached to the tiller. As the wind shifts or the boat moves off the wind-course, the wind vane moves, causing the water vane to move and the tiller to move, thus compensating for changes as the boat returns to the wind-course. Note this action is not adjusting to a compass course. The gear only cares about the wind, so the skipper can adjust sails perfectly and then be assured they will stay adjusted. There is no reason to man the tiller and most of the crew can go below for tea while the watchperson scans the horizon and checks for hazards. The single-handler can even go below for a quick nap!

One real plus about doing this work is I now have a fine understanding how the gear works. In addition, I have found that the Scanmar team, Ron and Suzy, are supremely dedicated to their customers; furthermore, they are friendly and super-helpful. It is nice to know that such people exist. They show the way that American business should exist. Thank you!