The Great Eclipse and Preparing Jean Marie for Donation

On Monday, August 21st we had the great eclipse, yawn.  My neighbor, Taylor, had an imposing set up with binoculars and a viewing screen made of poster board and two sets of glasses.  One set was commercial and one was home made with three layers of emergency blanket material.  He shared his setup and I admired his work,  Really a smart guy.

As I was leaving I noticed the shade from the trees was making little eclipses on the ground.  The trees leaves were making natural pin hole viewing spots.  The photo at the right is on my front porch with the natural pinholes through my wisteria vine.  The center of the photo shows the little eclipse patterns.  Later I saw the same thing on the TV News. 

The Dolphin is still on the hard in the boat yard.  The trailer fell apart as they were lifting her with the big travel lift.  Currently the yard is repairing the trailer bunks and the winch post.  They were rusted out.  I knew the trailer needed work, but hoped to do it this winter.  No such luck.  I was blessed by The Almighty that this didn't happen on the way home.  It would have been a major disaster.

On Wednesday, the 23rd, I went down the to docks and took the sails off Jean Marie.  I had found that there was a high tide the next morning and I needed that to get the boat on the trailer at the ramp.  The river is low and at low tide the trailer rolls off the end of the ramp into a hole. 

Thursday I parked the truck and trailer at the ramp next door to the docks and hiked around to my dock.  I motored to the ramp and then retrieved the boat.  The mast came down fairly easily and I strapped the boat to the trailer and drove home without incident.  Whew!

 On Friday, my neighbor Rick helped me switch the outboard motors and I put my newer Mercury in the boat house.  I went to Harbor Freight and bought a package of bungy cords to secure all the rigging for extended travel.

Saturday I got up early to beat the heat and spent five hours emptying the fishing gear, fuel tanks, porta-potti, and various anchors and rodes out of the boat.  I put it all away in the boat house, my shed, and in the living room of the house. 

I left the sails and running rigging in the boat along with the winch handle, fire extinguiseher, oar, spare tiller handle, and the whisker pole.  The boat has a handsome power panel and I left the depth sounder installed.

Oregon Public Broadcasting is supposed to have Speeds Towing come get the boat next week.  I did the same with my old Fiero last year.  I hope this goes smoothly, but nothing has so far this summer.  I am supposed to get a tax deduction for the donation, but I am not holding my breath.  We are due another heat wave starting Sunday, so I was hustling to get this done.  At least the dock is now clear if I ever get the Dolphin rigged and launched. 

I started to get a little melancholy about the boat as I was working to get rid of her.  Then as I thought it through, I realized I had gotten my fair share of fun and adventure out of her over the last 33 years I have owned her.  From Palm Harbor, Florida to St. Johns, Oregon I have sailed, camped overnight, fished and voyaged on her.  I took her to Timothy Lake in the cascades and slept in her in view of Mt. Hood.  I motored and sailed from Portland to Astoria on a six day solo trip.  I towed her from Florida to Oregon.  Last but not least, I boated four spring Chinook salmon on her.  One was caught by my elderly father-in-law and three by me fishing alone. 

Good bye Jean Marie.
 

Dolphin on the Hard

The Dolphin was put in the Multnomah Yacht Harbor yard on July 21st to have her bottom scraped and sanded.  She was then to get two coats of barrier paint and one of anti-fouling paint.  Her center board was to be freed from the barnacles growing on the board and in the center board trunk in the keel.

No one is allowed in the boat yard.  I would drop by at night and commune with her through the fence.  Notice that The Dolphin has become a SHE.

 The first time I went by she was still on her trailer.  The second visit she had been blocked up and the old paint removed.  I had consulted with the yard boss and decided to remove the cove stripe and paint up to the top edge of where it had been.  Barnacles had grown into the cove stripe.  The blue tape is were the paint will go.

The next evening visit showed definite promise of progress.  The paint was on and she was looking good from where I was outside the fence.  It sort of reminded me of visiting someone in the ICU in a hospital.  Things ground to a halt after that with a heat wave, smoky air from Canadian wild fires and the breakdown of the yard lift.  She had to be lifted and propped up so the center board could be worked on. 

I visited one day earlier this week and she was sitting high and dry with a poor yard worker scraping away on the now dropped center board.  I didn't have the camera, but I really didn't want a picture of such hard, hot hand labor.

Tonight, Thursday, I went to see my patient about 7:00 PM and there she was, raring to go home.  I expect the hospital, boat yard, to release her tomorrow.  I did have good news today.  The new main and jib are in from the North Sails factory in Sri Lanka or Ceylon.  I will go ransom them in the morning.  I paid half down.

The boat yard had put three hours in the quote for scraping barnacles.  Debra in the office warned me they were over ten on the much wedged and barnacled center board.  Like I told her, "I sure couldn't do it."  I will bring a big bag of money when they call me to collect my patient.

Now I have to figure out where to park my partner of 30 years, Jean Marie.  It isn't easy being a two yacht owner.  Sigh.