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.