Felony Child Endangerment?

Maybe that, maybe not...what DO you do with a typical headstrong, positive thinking, almost totally logical, immature but nearly completely THERE physical specimen of a female who knows how to sail, even alone or mostly so and desires with all her being to be the youngest person to have ever circumnavigated the planet by boat? Long sentence but it nearly wraps up the conundrum. Let 'er go? Help her go? Follow along behind? Get out of the way? She's ONLY 16 years of age, not the age of Majority in the US of A, that's 18 years. Say no? Can you hear the screaming? Can you hear the logical blabber? Kids die in car accidents. Yes and I regret that too.
They shouldn't drive at all until they are at least 18, but that's my stupid idea. It's cut down on the heartbreaks I think if it were so. But what about this Abby Sunderland kid? Skilled, oh yes, skilled...all the way from Marina Del Ray in Southern California down and around Cape Horn non-stop and was intended to BE totally non stop until technical difficulties caused her to go into port in Cape Town South Africa after crossing the Southern Atlantic Ocean ALONE in a 40 foot boat.
Damn folks, she has balls! Big ones too! Bigger than mine I'll tell you! The ocean is The Ocean, it is merciless and cruel and beautiful and very, very big. She wanted to do it, cross them all and come home to fame and fortune, book tours, more sailing, be an expert at a young age and show us all what the human spirit can accomplish. Where WERE her parents mentally in this exercise? Were they wondering of it at all? Did they have doubts? Did they read every account of blue water sailing and these sorts of adventures and think "oh, she'll be fine." Are they nuts?
Capsizing, more than one, de-masted in a 60 knot storm with huge waves for days at a time across the Southern Ocean as remote a place as you could find on the Earth. And what about the sponsors? The magazines that waited for the daily reports, the blogosphere that hung onto her every word? No one said, "stop, WHAT IS SHE GOING TO DO?" "Sail where?" "By Herself?!" All those boaters who followed her out of the bay at Marina Del Ray rooting her 16 year old self on, were they in their right minds too? The frenzy, the excitement, the thrills...all worth the life of this young heroine? Really? Someone or some company got her the 40 foot vessel she desired. Someone set it up with sails and supplies. They are all guilt by association with it and her near loss. Attempted Murderers or accomplices at least. Pandering their needs for money, fame and notice in the support of Abby's Folly. I'm sorry but that's the way it feels, the way it is. Now what? Will she get a new mast fitted and continue this attempt? It may happen folks, it very well may happen. Money is no object to these pimps, if they can find a fool to go on their errand they will do whatever is necessary. Now...is she and her parents their fools?

So Much To Do

The last WHILE has been busy as all get out. My friend of some 42 years came to help me pull the BMW diesel from Zulu's hull last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Heavy and dirty and, at times, dangerous work. The engine weighed some 300 kg/660 lbs and was NOT an easy thing to get off its mounts. Once loosened by disconnecting electrical, hydralic, steering, fuel lines, it had to lifted off using a hoist, only three inches to get it off the mounts but it took us over an hour to do the job. Then we waited for the owner of the yard to clearify how we were going to lift the engine from the engine room and place it on the bed of my truck. Smallish problem, he wasn't there. Yes, we worked in the yard alone. Not enough business to keep a staff either, times are hard in the boat maintenance business. People are more likely to want their boat pulled from the water but then to do the repairs, maintenance themselves instead of having Mr. Walton and his able crew do the work for them. Tough times indeed! Mr. C and I accomplished our deed in the same manner except that I've had Zulu up on blocks with a major hull repair for three years now. Eventually we completed the engine placement below the large deck openning and decided to call Tuesday a day, then as we drove north out of Rio Vista S saw a grouping of CRANES, not the birds, the giant winches (not wenches either!) and had me pull into the yard and stop in front of the office. Once inside we addressed our little job to the secretary who promptly forwarded our request for a price to another individual over the phone who quoted $650 at first then after S balked at the price, asked S how long did he think it would take...S replied 20 minutes and then the price went down to $50!!! Wow, what a deal! So back to Zulu we went to remove the rear roof and prep for the giant lift exercize. We completed the removal and positioned ourselves opposite Zulu on the other side of the fence. About 1/2 an hour later here came The Beast...a HUGE 35 foot long firetruck-like vehicle with a long hydralic powerred crane mounted thereon. This thing was huge! Capable of lifting Zulu herself if need be! Within 20 minutes it had lifted the diesel and placed it gently on my truck's bed. Then the travesty, upon going to pay the driver for the lift of the engine S gave him the 50 dollars, the driver BALKED...he wanted MORE, much more...550 USD! S Balked, the driver babbled about how much the rig normally charged for such a job then said $350. S balked again, "The guy said $50 dollars", another exchange and he called the BOSS. He reiterated the 550 dollar amount and finally S offered all he had on him...$120. They accepted and the deed was done. It was still a bargain. Steve and I spent Wednesday morning cleaning up around Zulu then came back to put both of the diesels in his van in preparation for his trip to NC in a couple of weeks. The van nearly touched the ground with the Farymann and BMW tied within. What a job that was. What a job. Thanks S!!

Zulu, The Boat That Is...

Well yesterday I ventured to Rio Vista and Walton's Marine Repair, Inc. to see how the ol' girl is doing these days. She has been in that yard now for three years and fed a diet of money intermittantly ever since. Mostly her problems came from the iron fasteners used to assemble her some 75 years ago in 1934. In the ensuing years they slowly began to disolve, being iron and subject to electrolysis and the result of same, rust. Yes they were closed over with red lead, typical for the time and that was that. Some of the fasteners began to allow trickles of water into her bilge several years ago and were difficult, no impossible, to find the location of. I tried many times to find these weepers but to no avail...all that could be seen was the trickle flowing down into the bilge and slowly to the mouth of the bilge pump. Little did I know or realize the ulrtimate catastrophe that was coming someday...Zulu would sink at the dock, which she finally did. Not good and arrangements were made to get her into Walton's for the ultimate fix...a new bottom.
Then before anything further could be done she sank a second time when a kindly neighbor relocated her bilge pump output to her own deck! She became a submarine again! What a job it was to get her afloat, my expert diver neighbors came to her (and my) rescue and helped by going inside (very dangerous proposition) and sealing the windows, toilet valves etc. so the 20,000 gallon per hour pump could do it's good work, as it did. Then we towed her to Walton's in Rio Vista for the gala pulling and she has been there since. She is close to being finished, the bottom is largely done, she needs caulking and bottom and top paint and a new diesel which I am currently trying to acquire. Then my buddy S who visited me in France this last summer is coming all the way from North Carolina to help me install the bloody diesel and take the old engine home with him. When this will all happen is somewhat mysterious as part of the bottom repair remains to be accomplished AFTER the BMW diesel is pulled from her. Bob the master of the yard will do that work himself as I have no clue. So that is the case with the "Z" boat.

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We are due in Walnut Creek at 1:30 today to pick up a double convection oven we bought on eBay. It was a good buy from afar, we'll see when we get up close just how good a buy it is...I spy some greasy looking areas and some redish area that I cannot identify, the seller says it's all functional so I guess we will live with the sale one way or the other. I'm GOOD (but not terrific) at oven cleaning.

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We are also headed to my son's place for a Halloween Party with many, many guests.
Hopefully someone will talk to us as that is a rarity at these events. We soon feel ignored and thus it leaves us somewhat sad and depressed. Families are hard on each other somehow. Different directions, differing interests, friends, activities all add to the confusion. There's no one to blame it's just the way it is.