Sailing on Borrowed Time

                  "...and the sky is grey..."
                        -The Mamas and the Papas




          With Labour Day in our wake,  northern sailors can feel the end of the season looming just over the horizon.  The scent of burning leaves that hallmarks the return of autumn smells a whole lot like desperation to a sailor.  No more "Ah, the wind is too light (or heavy, or the waves are too choppy, or it's too humid, or I've got a project to finish), I'll go out tomorrow."

           After Labour Day, there ain't a whole lot of  tomorrows left, so best take advantage of today.

           Come to think of it, that's not a bad way to live every day.

       
        Last Wednesday afternoon was blustery, with a strong wind and waterspout warning.  The sky was somber and the wind was boxing the compass, making the Dock hobbyhorse.

       The only boats heading out were the Wednesday Night Beer Can fleet, and many of the racers quickly retreated once they were out of the relative calm of the marina.

      And Hillary.

     For the last month or so, Hillary had been making  up for lost time.  He had missed half the season, what with gallivanting across Canada on his excellent fly-fishing adventure, so he hadn't logged as much sea time as he would have liked. Since his return he had been getting as much tiller time as he could, usually solo.  Today he had crew and foul weather gear, so he decided to give it a shot.  I was on my way to see a client, so we exchanged waves, he as he motored past me, me as I strolled down the Dock.  As I drove up the street to the top of the bluff overlooking the marina, I decided to see how he and his crew were fairing.

     Hillary's Tempest is to the right, below.

   I have no idea what he is pointing toward.

     They returned to Dock shortly after these pics were taken, the rationale being that less beer would be spilled at the Dock.  Kudos for the attempt, Hillary!

    Thanks for taking the time to check us out.  Please feel free to "Talk the Dock!"  Link us, follow us, or just tell your friends.

Two-Burner Meal of the Week #5... and 6

     "Take one bite now, come back for more..."
                                                   -Aerosmith


A twofer this week!

   Pan-seared tuna, vegetable rice and Tuscan sausage with balsamic-steamed broccoli and cauliflower:

    Grilled tzatziki- marinated chicken with fresh local corn and "North of the Border" beans and rice:

     Thanks for taking the time to check us out.  As always, feel free to "Talk the Dock!"  Link us, follow us, or just tell your friends.

A Waypoint Marked

     "Oh won't you stay, stay a while with your own ones..."
                                                      -Van Morrison






       Father, husband, author, poet, angler, sailor, ad man, editor, editor emeritus, and, now, octogenarian.
   
       My father -in- law,  and Editor Emeritus of  Long Island Boating World, George Nammack, has just celebrated his 80th birthday.

     Happy Birthday, George!

   


     Well done!

Tying Up Loose Ends, Volume One- Cidnie Needs Us, Again!

              "Just want to make it real- good, bad or indifferent..."
                                                              -John Mellencamp




        The most basic difference between fiction and non-fiction writing is that fiction has a plot.

        That is what makes it interesting, which can very rarely be said of non-fiction, blogs included.

        (Hold your hatemail, fellow bloggers- I include myself in the above bald generalization.  If we're all gonna be honest here, some like how-to and what-we-did-last-weekend tales, some don't.)

        However, sometimes, with a little effort, you can force a plot onto real life.  Bring back a popular character,  tie up a story arc,  publish posts out of sequence to create suspense....

       ...Okay, it ain't gonna make this trainwreck into Wuthering Heights, but it's not like you're paying for it.

     Anyflashback, let's take a look at where one of our most popular characters is now:

     Remember Cidnie, of Ceol Mor and cute kids and cool photography and Dyneema Experience fame?

http://docksixchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/08/please-help-fellow-sailor.html

     Well, thanks in no small part to the efforts of you, beloved readers, she is currently holding the top spot in the Dyneema Experience!!!!

    http://www.dyneemaexperience.com/profile/cidniecarroll.htm


    But, it is close... really, really close.  Cidnie has 37 points- the loser  skipper behind her has 36.  It all comes down to this final Challenge.  Each skipper had to make a video summarizing their experience with the Dyneema Experience.

Cidnie's is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mryXB8_o3gE&feature=youtu.be

  It's really simple- the skipper with the largest number of warm bodies on their team and the largest number of views of their video wins.  So, follow Cidnie, watch the video, and tell your friends to watch the video.  Better yet, just email the link to everybody in your address book.

  Come on, it's not like you haven't forwarded them worse stuff.










         

State of the Blog Address: Seven Months On.

                   "I'm on my way, I'm making it..."
                                           -Peter Gabriel




     22,000+ page views.

    That is pretty (unprintable) amazing.

    Seriously.  Our small time, small town, small boat adventures have been viewed over  TWENTY-TWO THOUSAND TIMES.

   Even deducting the thousands of times SWMBO amd my mom have clicked through looking for dog pictures, that's still a pretty awesome number.

    27 followers is a damned awesome number too.

     Thank you.

     All of you.

    What's been really cool is the number of times this season boats have sailed past Whiskeyjack and skippers and/or crew have yelled out "I like the blog!"  Or "We saw the pictures on the blog!"


    NICE boats.

    With cute crew.

     Clearly, the Chronicles have found the right demographic.

 
   Of course, the increased notoriety means that a) we have to keep Whiskeyjack looking good and b) we keep getting asked "Where's Legacy?"


    More on Legacy soon.

    

    Some have inquired about what I am going to do with the wealth I have acquired from the advertising revenue generated by the Chronicles.  Are SWMBO and I going to quit our day jobs and blog full time, and maybe flog merchandise and low-buck advice at boat shows, spin off a cookbook and magazine column?

     Total ad revenue to date:
   $18.

   Yeah,  I'm a regular multi-media mogul.

   Look, I know what I like to write about, and what I think is important and interesting, but I am ME, and you are YOU, and I don't have to read this drivel because i am the guy writing it, and you don't have to read it because you can go to any of  the other uncountabajillion boat blogs out there, so YOU are important to ME.
  I like you guys.  I like your feedback.  Even the mean stuff.  So let me know what you want to see covered in the Chronicles.
Here's what is in the works:

Book reviews.
Tool reviews
Real-world Dock Six Boat Reviews.  Power and Sail.  Small boats, big pictures.
More food.  Y'all seem to like food.
More low-buck projects.  There are always more low-buck projects.
I've got more installments of The River and more short fiction if anyone is interested.

What else do you want to see?

Thanks for hanging with us. And, as always, thanks for passing the word.  Please keep Talking the Dock!

   

   

Low-buck Project of the Week #3

            "She'll give you every penny's worth...'
                                             -The Tubes

Coozies, Cozies, Koozies, whatver you call 'em, these things:



    ... are a boat show gimme-bag staple. Every boat show I end up with a couple more.  They're handy for keeping the wobbly-pops cold, but they end up all over the damn boat.  After picking them up off the cockpit sole, cabin sole, and retrieving them from the sink for the eleventy-seventh time, I decided to solve the problem.  I built a koozie catcher.

     Ingredients:
1 10 ft length of 4"  PVC pipe.  (Or less.  A lot less.  See below)
1 scrap of wood at least 5" x 5"
Paint (if desired)
5  #8 x 1/2" screws
Sandpaper
     Mandatory Tools:
 Hole saw
 Drill
 Screwdriver
 Saw
 Marker or pencil for marking.  Or penciling
    Optional Tools:
  Mitre saw
  Radial Arm saw
  CNC Machine
  Sander

  Step 1:  Determine how many koozies you need to corral- that determines the length to cut your pipe.  Sewer pipe usually comes in 10' lengths and koozies are about 4" tall, so you're gonna be doing some cutting.  Okay so the downside is you have to buy a crapload of pipe.  the upside is it's cheap- less than $12/ length.  The other upside is when all of your friends are awestruckingly amazed at your new boat improvement, you can make back your investment by selling them their own koozie korral.  While you're cutting, also cut yourself a 1" piece to use as a circle template for step 3.

   Step 2:   Once cut to length, grab your hole saw and drill a hole at what will become the bottom end of the catcher/korral.

Step 3:  You need to build a bottom to keep the koozies from falling out.  Using the  1" band you cut earlier, trace a circle on the scrap of wood and carefully cut it out.

     Step 4: Sand the bottom plate you just cut into something more closely resembling a circle, and install in bottom of koozie katcher.  Fasten with screws.


     Step 5:  Mark two parallel lines running the length of the koozie tube from the hole at the bottom end to the top end.  Then cut along these lines  with your saw, and use your sand paper to clean up the edges and corners.

   Step 5:  Paint, if so desired.

   Step 6: Install, and toss all of your koozies into your new koozie catcher.  Once you realize you miscalculated on the height, give away any koozies that don't fit.  You will always find more koozies than you think you had, and you always have twice as many as you need.  Trust me on this.

Total cost:  Under $15
Total Time:  Under 1 hour.




Thanks for taking the time to check us out.  Please feel free to "Talk the Dock!"  Link us, follow us or just tell your friends.

Dock Ponderings

      "Things that make you go hmmmm..."
                               - C&C Music Factory

    Discussion points and musings from the cockpit of Whiskeyjack

1.     In our marina, the big money boats dock on Dock Five.  There are 38 boats slipped on Dock Five, of which 9 are sporting “For Sale” signs.  At the opposite end of the spectrum is us.

     The ghetto dock.

     Dock Six.

    65 boats hang over here, and only two are actively for sale.  One because his wife said he had to, and the other is James’  this-one-is-a-keeper-uh-make-me-an-offer boat of the moment.

    

 2.    We have spent more money this season on holding tank pump-outs than we have on fuel.

    

     We have spent more on rum than we have on fuel.

     We have, however, spent more on dog food than on rum, pump-outs or fuel.

    3.  A racer acquaintance of mine  invested $10 000 in a new sail this year.  His boat is roughly twice as fast as mine.

      He will do it again two years from now.  His boat will still only be twice as fast as mine.

       For that kind of cheddar, I  could buy a brand new RIB with a brand new 25 hp outboard and be three times as fast as him, and still have enough money left over for fuel, pump outs and rum.

      And not have to do it again two years from now.

   4.   My kids don’t like me. 

     I’m okay with that. 

     They are both in college.

     Not in jail.

     I’m okay with that, too.

    Maybe one day they will see the correlation.

5.      I went to the grocery store the other night to buy bread.  I selected a bag of 6 kaiser rolls.  A shelf stocker rolled a rack of bagged “day old” buns past.

A dozen buns.Half the price of a half dozen. 

 The best before date on the “day old” was the same as the date on the buns I held in my hand.  I asked the store employee what the difference was.

 “I haven’t gotten to the ones in your hand yet with a price gun.’

  I bought the day-olds.  Bread must be like wine; within reason it tastes better with age.

6.      I know you shouldn’t wear white pants after Labour Day, but when the hell do you have to start tucking your shirt and wearing socks?

7.      You know you have the right boat for you when, no matter how hard you try, you can’t find a boat worth trading up.

8.      And you can’t find anybody willing to pay what you think is a fair price for yours.

9.      And your wife isn’t harping on you to sell it.

10.  Rain pattering on a bimini is enchanting.  Rain pattering on a patio umbrella is just depressing.

Boats have biminis.  Golf clubs have umbrellas. 

Thanks for taking the time to check us out.  Please feel free to "Talk the Dock!"  Link us, follow us, or just tell your friends.