Mind games

There are times that you have to do something unpleasant, something that you really just don't want to do.  There are many ways to convince yourself, to persuade yourself, to fool yourself.

In this case, the technique I chose was to sneak up on myself.  (Anticipating the inevitable comments, yes I do hide my own Easter eggs.)

Water temperature

It is fall and thus it is time for the semi-annual zinc changeout here on Eolian.  This requires me to go in the water and dive down to the prop, remove the old zinc and install a new one.  It is the water temperature that is the deterrent - you know it's going to stop your heart when you jump in.  And who wants to go thru a "little death" just to prevent a little corrosion?  (You folks in the tropics, I can hear you, laughing up your sleeves.)

So Saturday while eating lunch in the cockpit, in the sun, Jane raised the subject, "What's left to do to be ready for winter?"  Reluctantly I confessed that the zinc still needed to be changed.  The sun was shining, it was warm (58°!), and it was almost calm.  I had to admit that this was probably the best opportunity I'd have before next June (and that would be way too late).

So while part me kept busy inventing excuses to put it off ("There's plenty of zinc left!"  "It'll probably be warmer next weekend!"  "We might not have any spare zincs on board!"), I just went ahead and got out the wetsuit and got ready to do the job.  I was in the water before my lazy side could mount an effective defense.  I confess that the beer I had with lunch might have helped, tho I'm not sure if it did so by slowing down my lazy side ("What the...?  We're wet!"), or by impairing the judgment of my Calvinist side ("Oh, go ahead.  It can't be that bad.")

But once in the water, the two halves of my personality briefly conversed and agreed that this was not bad at all... then I was single-minded again, doing the work.  It took no more than 10 minutes.

And then I was back aboard in the warm shower.

So dear readers, how do you get yourself to do something unpleasant?


* Note:  Jane filled up a tea kettle with warm water and dumped it down the back of the wetsuit* just before I jumped in.   This helps tremendously - the suit doesn't fill up with cold water when you get in, since it's already full of nice cozy warm water.  Try it!

Mind games

Beautiful sunrise this morning

Three things coincided to make this possible:

• Our neighbor happens to be gone this morning, leaving us with a clear view to the East
• The days are getting shorter and shorter. This means that sunrise happens when I am awake and sufficiently caffeinated to see and recognize a worthy scene
• We are sitting around on the boat this morning, waiting for news that Erica's labor has started.  (Did I mention that Ken & Erica are going to have a second baby?  No?  Sorry.  We are hoping that things are easier this time.)  No news yet...

Beautiful sunrise this morning

The perfect boat book

You know that wonderful anticipatory feeling you get when you first crack the cover of a new book?  You've set aside some protected time, you find a comfortable place to settle, provision yourself with the necessaries (some munchies?  a glass of wine?)... and then you open the book and dive in, letting the author take you for a ride.

Well I've been having that feeling a lot lately, and yet Eolian isn't riding any lower in the water.  That's because for my birthday, Jane gave me The Perfect Boat Book®:  A Kindle!  (After 40 years, she so knows me.  Thank you Jane!)

For the cruiser, a Kindle has some wonderful characteristics:

• It will go months on a battery charge - the only time it uses power is when you turn a page.  In fact, when you open the shipping box, you will find your new Kindle is already displaying the first page of the Users Manual, showing how to plug it in and charge the battery...  It can do this because no power is used to display a page. 
• Charges from 110VAC or a USB port
• It can hold literally thousands of books
• It does not require a connection to the internet (except to obtain new books)
• As well as buying books from Amazon, you can also download free books from a host of sources, and you can even check out books from your public library
• It is completely readable in bright sunlight - exactly like a book

(For the cruiser, I think the newly announced Kindle Fire gives up some of these important characteristics - most notably battery life and local storage capacity.)

If you should be gifted a Kindle (or buy one for yourself), you will want a cover for it.  Here's a piece of advice:  Get the cover that Amazon designed for the Kindle.  It is far superior to anything out there.

• When in the cover, the Kindle is just about the size and thickness of a paperback book - it is very comfortable to hold
• It contains a cleverly hidden but extensible LED light (draws power from the Kindle - no additional batteries required)
• The Kindle is attached to the cover - not by clumsy straps which go over the display corners or somewhere, but by two metal clips which engage slots on the left side of the Kindle (aside from attaching the cover to the Kindle, this is how the power gets to the LED).
• The cover is well-padded and just enough larger than the Kindle that if it were dropped on edge, no damage to the Kindle would result.

So I have The Ideal Boat Guitar®, and now The Perfect Boat Book®!

The perfect boat book

The return of fall

Here in Seattle we are now welcoming the return of fall weather.  For those of you not in Seattle, that means: rain.  And with the return of the rains, there is the return of the possibility of deck leaks.  (OK, I know that this is a lame post.  But come on... not everything about living on a boat is sitting in the cockpit and watching sunsets with a glass of wine).

Yes, here on Eolian, with the first rain we had drips coming in around the mast.  I never cease to be amazed at how much water can find its way inside thru a tiny, tiny hole.  In this case, the leak was a tiny place on the back of the mast boot, at the bottom of the seam on the back.  I had closed the seam with 3M 5200, but the last 1/8" of that closure had opened up, slightly.  One eighth of an inch.  And yet I had to put a container on the floor to catch the water that came in there.

In the ever timeless scenario, it was not possible to work on stopping the leak while it was raining...  so I had to wait until it stopped.  Thankfully it was easy to find the problem.  A small dab of 5200 fixed the problem - today's rain proved it.

Dry again.

The return of fall