Tropical Storm Ophelia will pass by in a day or two, so we spent a few minutes mowing the yard and checking that the gutters are cleaned out. Fortunately we were on the tree crew's schedule to have two dead trees removed, they're always fun to watch.
We also pulled out the pressure washer and gave CYANE a bath.
Neighbors lost a pine tree that was already on its way out, due to ants.
I kept a couple of trunk pieces from the red oak and a maple, to play around with. We may chip them down to size or haul them to a local small sawmill, but before that a had 5 minutes of fun with a broad axe.
First half of Ophelia heading out, but Spoiler Alert, the storm split and we still have remnants 4 days later.
It's not much but we bashed some scraps into a step for the HEUER GARAGE, the shed where we store several of our wooden boats.
Hot today but we have some rain coming courtesy of Tropical Storm Ophelia. Living high and dry in Virginia, there is nowhere near the All Hands On Deck sprint to prepare for a shoreline like we had to do in Florida. No boats to pull off of lifts or outdoor furniture to haul further ashore. Or boats to stuff in a shed.
From the Mariners' Museum Website: "When the sea claimed USS Monitor in 1862, the world lost an irreplaceable piece of cultural heritage. Fortunately, 140 years later, one-fifth of the ship was recovered from the depths of the Atlantic. These one-of-a-kind artifacts now reside within the Batten Conservation Complex at The Mariners’ Museum and Park, where they are undergoing conservation. In partnership with NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, we are proud to be the stewards of this revolutionary vessel.
USS Monitor represents the world’s largest marine archaeological metals conservation project. More than 210 tons of material were excavated from Monitor’s wreck site, all requiring care. Among the historically significant objects recovered are Monitor‘s revolving gun turret, two Dahlgren guns, and its steam propulsion engine. The Museum’s archaeological conservators tackle tons of challenges every day, working with materials ranging all over like iron, copper, wood, rope, fabric, and rubber."
We visited the Museum a few weeks back to check on the progress of preservation of Monitor artifacts. As more objects complete the process, they are placed on display. Several large items such as the anchor and propeller are out, and the ship's red lantern.
(Image: NOAA)
There are several interior parts of the ship recreated. I like the Officer's stateroom exhibits, and would someday like to copy the items to furnish our Library/Archives/spare bedroom.
If you've follow the blog long enough, you'll know that I like shop furniture, especially useful items like stools. I feel a replica of this coming on soon, although this one is probably conceptual.
Outside the space where the anchor and propeller are displayed is a full scale mockup of the ship's hull, built by the Newport News Shipyard.
There also a casting taken from the recovered turret, representative of how it looked as it was lifted from the bottom of the Atlantic. Human remains were recovered, so it is very eerie to look at.
There is much more to see at the Museum, which also houses a world class academic library and conservation complex. We hope you get a chance to visit, and go for a paddle or walk on the campus in Mariners' Park and Lake.
Some finishing touches to the double hull sailing canoe deck, we cut the hole for the stateroom hatch belaying pin and finished scribing the stern boarding step.
The belaying pin and line whip were dunked in Minwax Helmsman Spar Varnish to help them weather the weather.
There are two hatches, port and starboard, so you might be able to guess what is coming next.
We were saddened to hear that our poet-pirate jimmy Buffett had crossed the bar, but memories of his sailing spirit motivated us to head to the beach and launch a couple of our little boats. Hitting the waves today were Skipper's 1965 Alcort Sunfish WAVE, sporting her Jolly Roger colors and our Pelican Icon kayak as the photo ship/target.
Skipper has her groove back, trying to run me over like she used to do. I hid behind some poles to fend off her attack.
We add a snap shackle to the main sheet bowline, for one reason is to have a quick way of securing the rolled sail when the boat is in beach mode. Under sail the shackle attaches to a block that runs along the line bridle. Capn Jack came up with this quick way to rig and downrig, a little different than the standard wire bridle and bowline tied on the end of the sheet. I don't think he liked the idea of line rubbing on coated wire. And when the wire bridles rusted, which they do, he cut those off and switch the bridle over to a nice piece of line.
We applied multiple coats of Minwax Wood Finish Gunstock tint to the ship's wheel until it wouldn't take any more, then let it dry for a week. Next up was 2 coats of Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane Clear Satin.
Minwax Helmsman used to be Capn Jack's go to varnish, readily available at local stores. When he was feeling rich and near a marine supply store, he might pony up for a can of Pettit Captain's, and nurse that can for a year or two. We are interested to see how the Helmsman holds up outdoors, albeit under a shade tree.
Added another license plate to the collection, we've got a few from our travels, ours of course. Texas, Arizona, Florida, Virginia plus a few other States.
If you have a spare to share, send it our way and we'll add it to the collection.
One of our trailer guides started rusting out where the bolts secure it to the trailer bracket. So we replaced it. We might consider drilling a drain hole near the elbow.
Worked the bolts out and in with our JC Penney socket set. Everyone has one of these, right?
Plywood edges can tear out on one surface when it is cut, so one tip that we have is to put the good face down, the face that you plan on looking at, when making a cut with a circular saw. We used a framing blade, another tip would be to use a blade with more teeth and designed for a finer cut.
Here's the difference, the edge on the left has tearout as the blade teeth rotate up and away from the cut. The edge on the right was the down side, so the blade teeth are cutting into it.
It takes time to build a boat, and we want to optimize the use of our time by using good boat building lumber. We are lucky to have a World Panel store nearby in Windsor, NC where we can pick up a variety of marine grade lumber. A few days ago we took a trip with Super Sandy and Huey II to grab some 2x4 douglas fir and sapele plywood. They have many other species available, we picked up some solid sapele and teak on the last trip.
It's like being in a candy store.
One interesting stack had teak plywood with holly stripes.
We'll use the plywood for a table top, we needed a ten foot by two and a half long piece of wood that will stay dimensionally stable, but lightweight and thin. The void free sapele plies and marine grade adhesives will take care of that. The douglas fir is slated to make a mast and booms for a wooden Sunfish.
World Panel has their location here to service the needs of mid Atlantic builders, including folks putting together some mighty fine boats out on the Outer Banks. There is another store down in Florida and they will ship from either location at reasonable prices. The customer service is awesome, they took a lot of time to select my tiny pile of wood bits, while working on a shipment going out the next day for a multi millionaire's new build.
Does your trailer couple rattle on the hitch ball? There's an adjustment nut on the underside of latch to fix that. The coupler should be snug, but not too tight. Hitch balls should also be greased.
