remasting

Because Jarred had replaced all the standing rigging, from hardware at the mast and the deck to the Dymeema lines, remasting was a moment of truth. Five of those Dymeema lines (forestay to the bow and the four shrouds on the sides) have only a couple of inches of adjustment in them, and those inches are really destined to accommodate future stretch, not past mistakes. And it wasn't just about measuring - each line was stretched after Jarred spliced them together. 

The other three (backstay and running backs to the stern) are quite adjustable so involved less nailbiting. 

Also getting a 100 pound, 37 foot long post that is top heavy onto a specific spot on a floating boat takes three people and some concentration. Even the outgoing tide was a minor factor for the crane operator since the boat was slowly dropping while Jarred attached all the lines. 

It all went fine though, except for the use of a borrowed pole to reorganize a couple of lines that were tangled. 

standing rigging was stretched between a big dock cleat and our truck with a come-along.

about 2000 lbs of tension for prestretching. the rounded plate at the top of the photo is the type of hole that is in the mast, and the spliced line that loops around the eye attached to it is part of what needs stretching. the truck started to slip at this point so Jarred had to put it in four wheel drive, although the e-brake is in the rear and so it's pretty easy to make the truck slide when it's empty in the back.

cleared the light pole by a couple of inches.

holding onto the bottom of the mast while the crane moves it down and over to the boat.

mast in place. the forestay and shrouds are hooked up, Jarred is attaching one of the running backstays.

Dyneema lines are spliced around teardrop shaped "terminators" that Jarred made, which in turn are hooked up to turnbuckles which are the only adjustment for length in the system, which in turn are hooked into loops bolted into the hull.

all standing rigging (except the backstay) attached and taut enough to hold the mast up, ready for final tuning back at our slip.

Google Earth at the marina

I was dorking around in Google Earth and happened to notice that the algorithms they use create some intriguing and spooky images in marinas. I zoomed in our old boat, the Haida 26, still there in Google Earth when it was in the Port of Edmonds last summer. In the quest to make the world look more three dimensional on your screen, Google Earth apparently made a decision to give boats sails even when they are at the dock, and these sails should be ghostly, grey and loose - are the ships abandoned or being stolen by zombie pirates? Upper parts of masts hover above boats, sometimes even over motor boats. Some boats are distorted and some are broken or missing sections. Some are made of fainter pixels that make them look partially or totally submerged.

armarinageddon.

our previous boat Tatsao is directly in front of the big boat that is the location of "Just Frogs Toads Too". (I had no idea about Just Frogs either until now.) from this view, it looks like our boat was spared invasion by ghost pirates since it is not flying sails, but it is missing its mast and the stern is partially severed, and it is sinking stern first into the water. I am glad the pirates didn't take it - maybe it will not be used for evil, and perhaps it will sink in time to escape the smoke and flames coming from the stern of the boat to the left of it, so maybe we can fix it up again later.

cleaning

When it comes to projects, when I say "we" I usually mean Jarred. I sand and paint, and often I measure things, and I use a socket wrench to hold bolts in place while Jarred puts on washers and nuts, and so on. I think it is fair to say that I do almost all the cleaning. I contribute to most technical decisions. And I do the sewing of canvas and other stuff. It is not that I can't do any of the stuff he does, and I have learned a lot from him over 20 years. But Jarred is extraordinary at projects, so I work around him. And of course there are many things I can't do as meticulously as he does, if at all.

So I'll be sure to point out to everyone our nice shiny clean blocks.

check out the clean shiny blocks on the left.

the naming of the cheeses

On our weekly boat date it's a thing to bring crackers and three to four cheeses from the sample bin at Central Market to fuel our projects before dinner. These cheeses generally have unfamiliar names probably made more cryptic by abbreviations chosen to help the names fit on the small labels. So we start off each evening with The Naming of the Cheeses, when I read aloud what's on each label to the best of my ability. Seagulls made off with a few cheeses before we learned to be vigilant about them as we move around the boat.

cheese names in no particular order:
graskaas - spring milk che beemster; smoked dorset red cheese ford farms; mahon coinga; swiss cewetie miforma