SHIP'S LOG:
It is not that I was in Nome or that I am now in Seattle, but rather the weather has gone from lots of snow and cold to lots of rain an warm (relatively that is). we have had rain and let for the whole week and that is a good thing as it is making the snow go away fast. My only concern is flooding in the Connecticut River. It is already staring but so far it has been mild with little rise but the river is also bringing down more and more "flotsam" from the north. There really isn't much if anything I can do about the flooding except endure it and hope that it doesn't get really, really bad. i hope to get up to Portland today and get the lay of the land so to speak.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Saturday, March 14, 2015
So Much For Febrauary
SHIP'S LOG:
Yes, I kinda missed the month of February but what could I say about the month except that it snowed! A LOT! And it really put a damper on doing much of anything. Heck, I couldn't even get to ABISHAG as she was surrounded by HUGE piles of snow from the plowing down at the boatyard.
But this week there has been a lot of melting as the temp went up into the 40's and we have been getting rain and will get more this weekend. It should go a long way in eliminating the snow but it also means that the Connecticut River is going to rise and probably fairly dramatically. ABISHAG is in the lower lot and I would expect that there may be some flooding issues soon. It is not a question that the flooding will float ABISHAG somewhere but that it might wash out the ground under the jackstands that hold her up and cause her or perhaps a neighboring boat to tip over and so take-out ABISHAG or even start a cascading domino effect in the yard. I hope to get up there this coming week once the rain stops and survey the effects of winter upon her. Ah the joys of boat ownership.
I am off this morning to TYC. It is the first workday Saturday, aimed at getting the club ready for the coming the season. There is a St. Paddy's Day Party next Saturday and they also want to get the clubhouse ready for that. Of course, right now it is raining which might eliminate the need to do any shoveling but there is still the cleaning inside the clubhouse to get done. SIGH! But it is a day closer to sailing!
Yes, I kinda missed the month of February but what could I say about the month except that it snowed! A LOT! And it really put a damper on doing much of anything. Heck, I couldn't even get to ABISHAG as she was surrounded by HUGE piles of snow from the plowing down at the boatyard.
But this week there has been a lot of melting as the temp went up into the 40's and we have been getting rain and will get more this weekend. It should go a long way in eliminating the snow but it also means that the Connecticut River is going to rise and probably fairly dramatically. ABISHAG is in the lower lot and I would expect that there may be some flooding issues soon. It is not a question that the flooding will float ABISHAG somewhere but that it might wash out the ground under the jackstands that hold her up and cause her or perhaps a neighboring boat to tip over and so take-out ABISHAG or even start a cascading domino effect in the yard. I hope to get up there this coming week once the rain stops and survey the effects of winter upon her. Ah the joys of boat ownership.
I am off this morning to TYC. It is the first workday Saturday, aimed at getting the club ready for the coming the season. There is a St. Paddy's Day Party next Saturday and they also want to get the clubhouse ready for that. Of course, right now it is raining which might eliminate the need to do any shoveling but there is still the cleaning inside the clubhouse to get done. SIGH! But it is a day closer to sailing!
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
I Survived The Blizzard of 2015
SHIP'S LOG:
I can't say just how happy I am that I am not living aboard, at least here in Connecticut. In Key Largo or Key West would be different, but not here. Ensconced here in what a friend calls "the Bridal Suite," I am warm and dry and even have a warm toilet seat. AH! It something close to "paradise."
My car is parked in a lot behind the Crocker House. The lot must have once housed a building that has been torn down and so it is surrounded by three walls. With the 40-50mph winds and 26 inches+ of snow, all the cars really got buried. Before the lot was plowed, I could barely make out the roof of my car. The lot is small and when it was plowed out, they merely cut two pathways, further burying the cars therein. So I made an attempt to at least get to the car, get inside and see if it would start. I didn't have a shovel and had to make do with a broom. Lets just say it was the equivalent of bring a knife to a gun fight. I was able to get in and start the P.O.S. but that was about it. Of course, the weather will continue to be frustrating as today was supposed to be clear though cold, but tomorrow there will be more snow. Then clear and old on Friday and more snow on the weekend. O, I hate winter.
I can't say just how happy I am that I am not living aboard, at least here in Connecticut. In Key Largo or Key West would be different, but not here. Ensconced here in what a friend calls "the Bridal Suite," I am warm and dry and even have a warm toilet seat. AH! It something close to "paradise."
My car is parked in a lot behind the Crocker House. The lot must have once housed a building that has been torn down and so it is surrounded by three walls. With the 40-50mph winds and 26 inches+ of snow, all the cars really got buried. Before the lot was plowed, I could barely make out the roof of my car. The lot is small and when it was plowed out, they merely cut two pathways, further burying the cars therein. So I made an attempt to at least get to the car, get inside and see if it would start. I didn't have a shovel and had to make do with a broom. Lets just say it was the equivalent of bring a knife to a gun fight. I was able to get in and start the P.O.S. but that was about it. Of course, the weather will continue to be frustrating as today was supposed to be clear though cold, but tomorrow there will be more snow. Then clear and old on Friday and more snow on the weekend. O, I hate winter.
Monday, January 12, 2015
Stuff & More Stuff
SHIP'S LOG:
One of the things that happens now that I have "swallowed the anchor," I have the opportunity to consolidate all of my remaining stuff. When I first got set to head south down the ICW, I made it a point of unloading as much of my personal stuff as I could. I got rid of a lot of clothes, all of my books and other odds and ends. I simplified my life by getting rid of lots of possessions. . . .or at least I thought I had. Turns out that I still had an awful lot! And it had become necessary to do a further unloading.
The places that I had stored my things have become unusable for storage and the simple truth was that I rally had little in the way of storage in my new digs. Indeed, I would be hard pressed to much more than a few items in the apartment. It became necessary to rent a storage unit. That was easy, but the tougher part was to get my stuff stashed!
Part of my stuff was on the 3rd floor of a rectory and it required that I not just pack it up, but that I get it down the stairs and into my car. It took two days. The first day was spent going through all the stuff and deciding what to take and what to trash. I found out during the first time I did this, that one has to be ruthless in throwing stuff away. I filled bags and bags with papers, files and nicknacks that I had collected over the years. It is a tough thing to do as I first saved all the stuff for it was "important" to me at the time I set it aside but as a friend once said, if you haven't worn it, used it or were aware you had it for over two years, then it was like you didn't have it. That made it easier but still not easy, which is why the "sorting" process took a whole day. Truth be told, I know that even the stuff I sorted to be saved and eventually packed up and stored in my rented "cube," I am going to have to go through again and trash lots of it. It is sort of refining process and there is more "refining " to do.
After I finished the sorting, I packed it the next day and hauled it down the triple set of stairs and got it into my car. The storage in in Gales Ferry and it was actually easier to get it into storage than to get it to the place of storage. And that was just the stuff from one place. All of the boat stuff that goes on the boat in the spring and off the boat in the fall has to go there as well. That will be done this week once the weather begins to cooperate again. I'll have to do the same save /trash process though it should be a lot more simple as the boat stuff is already "refined" and is all immediately usable, even necessary. But there will still be packing and hauling, up stairs this time, that needs doing, but I have a place for it all to go.
Once those two places are taken care of, I will still have an item or two that I will need to gather up for storage. It is really a pain in the but but it will be good at last to gather it all together. Ah, the fun of boat ownership!!!!!
One of the things that happens now that I have "swallowed the anchor," I have the opportunity to consolidate all of my remaining stuff. When I first got set to head south down the ICW, I made it a point of unloading as much of my personal stuff as I could. I got rid of a lot of clothes, all of my books and other odds and ends. I simplified my life by getting rid of lots of possessions. . . .or at least I thought I had. Turns out that I still had an awful lot! And it had become necessary to do a further unloading.
The places that I had stored my things have become unusable for storage and the simple truth was that I rally had little in the way of storage in my new digs. Indeed, I would be hard pressed to much more than a few items in the apartment. It became necessary to rent a storage unit. That was easy, but the tougher part was to get my stuff stashed!
Part of my stuff was on the 3rd floor of a rectory and it required that I not just pack it up, but that I get it down the stairs and into my car. It took two days. The first day was spent going through all the stuff and deciding what to take and what to trash. I found out during the first time I did this, that one has to be ruthless in throwing stuff away. I filled bags and bags with papers, files and nicknacks that I had collected over the years. It is a tough thing to do as I first saved all the stuff for it was "important" to me at the time I set it aside but as a friend once said, if you haven't worn it, used it or were aware you had it for over two years, then it was like you didn't have it. That made it easier but still not easy, which is why the "sorting" process took a whole day. Truth be told, I know that even the stuff I sorted to be saved and eventually packed up and stored in my rented "cube," I am going to have to go through again and trash lots of it. It is sort of refining process and there is more "refining " to do.
After I finished the sorting, I packed it the next day and hauled it down the triple set of stairs and got it into my car. The storage in in Gales Ferry and it was actually easier to get it into storage than to get it to the place of storage. And that was just the stuff from one place. All of the boat stuff that goes on the boat in the spring and off the boat in the fall has to go there as well. That will be done this week once the weather begins to cooperate again. I'll have to do the same save /trash process though it should be a lot more simple as the boat stuff is already "refined" and is all immediately usable, even necessary. But there will still be packing and hauling, up stairs this time, that needs doing, but I have a place for it all to go.
Once those two places are taken care of, I will still have an item or two that I will need to gather up for storage. It is really a pain in the but but it will be good at last to gather it all together. Ah, the fun of boat ownership!!!!!
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
End Of The Year
SHIP'S LOG:
It has been a very busy month, not anything great but just a lot of busy stuff. Trying to get used to "dirt living" takes more work than you might think, though it is probably equivalent to getting used to living aboard a boat.
My possessions are slowly accumulating, though many are duplicates of items I already have. Those other items are on the boat (actually in winter storage) and it didn't make a whole lot of sense to cart them here and then cart them back to the boat, knowing that eventually and probably quite regularly, I will have things in one place that I need in the other. I have two vacuums now, one for the apartment and one for ABISHAG. However, the one aboard ABISHAG is a wet-dry shop vac and the apartment one is an apartment one. I now have a microwave in the apartment( thanks Mike & Sue). I used to have one on the boat but it didn't long survive the marine environment and ceased to work and got trashed during the spring. Whereas all of the furniture aboard in basically built in place, the apartment came with nothing but a stove, a sink, a refrigerator, a toilet and a shower and 350 square of empty space. Obviously, I wasn't going to haul any of those items to the apartment as 1.) I didn't need them, 2.) getting them out of the boat would have been a major undertaking, 3.) hauling them in my car would have been bloody impossible, and 4.) who the hell wants to lug them up three flights of stairs?
Now I have a real bed as opposed to a berth. I have a bookcase module, which began empty but is slowly filling up with stuff. I have a chaze lounge which sort of fills the roll of a recliner in which I can sit watching TV. And yes, I have a TV now. People used to wonder how I survived without one all these years. Actually, it is easy as there is an amazing amount of crap on TV, no matter what service you get, that doesn't bare watching. As long as I can get the news and Red Sox Baseball, all is right with the world.
Perhaps the best part of "swallowing the anchor" is that I have a base. I still do some living on ABISHAG during the summer, the days of rocking & rolling during a Nor'easter are a thing of the past. Fixating on the "Marine Weather Forecasts" will be a thing of the past. I doesn't mean I won't check daily, it just means I won't check several times a day. but In addition, I no longer have to worry about where I will be living once ABISHAG gets hauled in October. I've got my spot, a small spot true , but I've got it.
It is only New Year's Eve and I am already thinking and planning for the spring and getting ABISHAG ready for another season. I hope that someone decides to buy her over the winter but if not, I'll just keep sailing her. She is a great boat but she is more than I need now as long distance cruising is no longer something I intend to do. Day cruises and weekends, all of it local is what I will be into. Florida and Bermuda are no longer on the radar. . . unless it is on someone else's boat.
Have a great and Happy New Year's and a wonder 2015!
It has been a very busy month, not anything great but just a lot of busy stuff. Trying to get used to "dirt living" takes more work than you might think, though it is probably equivalent to getting used to living aboard a boat.
My possessions are slowly accumulating, though many are duplicates of items I already have. Those other items are on the boat (actually in winter storage) and it didn't make a whole lot of sense to cart them here and then cart them back to the boat, knowing that eventually and probably quite regularly, I will have things in one place that I need in the other. I have two vacuums now, one for the apartment and one for ABISHAG. However, the one aboard ABISHAG is a wet-dry shop vac and the apartment one is an apartment one. I now have a microwave in the apartment( thanks Mike & Sue). I used to have one on the boat but it didn't long survive the marine environment and ceased to work and got trashed during the spring. Whereas all of the furniture aboard in basically built in place, the apartment came with nothing but a stove, a sink, a refrigerator, a toilet and a shower and 350 square of empty space. Obviously, I wasn't going to haul any of those items to the apartment as 1.) I didn't need them, 2.) getting them out of the boat would have been a major undertaking, 3.) hauling them in my car would have been bloody impossible, and 4.) who the hell wants to lug them up three flights of stairs?
Now I have a real bed as opposed to a berth. I have a bookcase module, which began empty but is slowly filling up with stuff. I have a chaze lounge which sort of fills the roll of a recliner in which I can sit watching TV. And yes, I have a TV now. People used to wonder how I survived without one all these years. Actually, it is easy as there is an amazing amount of crap on TV, no matter what service you get, that doesn't bare watching. As long as I can get the news and Red Sox Baseball, all is right with the world.
Perhaps the best part of "swallowing the anchor" is that I have a base. I still do some living on ABISHAG during the summer, the days of rocking & rolling during a Nor'easter are a thing of the past. Fixating on the "Marine Weather Forecasts" will be a thing of the past. I doesn't mean I won't check daily, it just means I won't check several times a day. but In addition, I no longer have to worry about where I will be living once ABISHAG gets hauled in October. I've got my spot, a small spot true , but I've got it.
It is only New Year's Eve and I am already thinking and planning for the spring and getting ABISHAG ready for another season. I hope that someone decides to buy her over the winter but if not, I'll just keep sailing her. She is a great boat but she is more than I need now as long distance cruising is no longer something I intend to do. Day cruises and weekends, all of it local is what I will be into. Florida and Bermuda are no longer on the radar. . . unless it is on someone else's boat.
Have a great and Happy New Year's and a wonder 2015!
Monday, December 8, 2014
I Have Become, In The Parlance of Sailors, a "Dirt Dweller!"
SHIP'S BLOG:
Well, not really. But it is true that I have a place to call my "own" and will no longer be homeless during the winter months. I now have a studio apartment in the Crocker House in downtown New London about two blocks up State Street from the train station. It has a little more space than ABISHAG but actually probably not all that much, just arranged differently. One thing it does have is heat and for an old fart like m that is a welcome winter pleasure. And unless something changes radically, like Publishers Clearing House finally finds me, this will be my home. It is basically "just down the road" from TYC and so far, it seems "ideal."
One thing I have noticed is that there is a "lot' more noise living in an apartment than living on a boat. It is an old building, having been erected in 1873 and though it was renovated in the recent past, they didn't really get into "sound insulation." It has very nice hardwood floors which though beautiful, make wonderful sounding boards for the transmission of noise down to 10 decibels which is about the level of sound made by someone folding a paper towel. But I will adjust and get use to it.
I have to head off to the TVCCA, an organization that helps "us" poor and elderly with rent and heat and food and the like. A few extra bucks here and there will do very nicely.
I have to "decorate" the place. I got a bed, a big step as sleeping on the floor would have been a drag. I also purchased a set of folding tray tables and a rack to hold them when not in use, a folding wooden chair, a TV, and a host of domestic products like toilet paper, pare towels, knives, forks and spoons, coffee mugs, plates, tea pot and fry pan,sheet, a trash can, etc, etc, etc. It is amazing what you have to get when you don't have anything(shower curtain and soap!). But when I think back, it took a good two years to outfit ABISHAG and I am in no rush. My sisters will be by buy in a day or so to see what they can help out with from their storage units. But no too much as I don't need a lot and don't have a lot of room anyhow. But the truth is, I have "swallowed the anchor!"
Well, not really. But it is true that I have a place to call my "own" and will no longer be homeless during the winter months. I now have a studio apartment in the Crocker House in downtown New London about two blocks up State Street from the train station. It has a little more space than ABISHAG but actually probably not all that much, just arranged differently. One thing it does have is heat and for an old fart like m that is a welcome winter pleasure. And unless something changes radically, like Publishers Clearing House finally finds me, this will be my home. It is basically "just down the road" from TYC and so far, it seems "ideal."
One thing I have noticed is that there is a "lot' more noise living in an apartment than living on a boat. It is an old building, having been erected in 1873 and though it was renovated in the recent past, they didn't really get into "sound insulation." It has very nice hardwood floors which though beautiful, make wonderful sounding boards for the transmission of noise down to 10 decibels which is about the level of sound made by someone folding a paper towel. But I will adjust and get use to it.
I have to head off to the TVCCA, an organization that helps "us" poor and elderly with rent and heat and food and the like. A few extra bucks here and there will do very nicely.
I have to "decorate" the place. I got a bed, a big step as sleeping on the floor would have been a drag. I also purchased a set of folding tray tables and a rack to hold them when not in use, a folding wooden chair, a TV, and a host of domestic products like toilet paper, pare towels, knives, forks and spoons, coffee mugs, plates, tea pot and fry pan,sheet, a trash can, etc, etc, etc. It is amazing what you have to get when you don't have anything(shower curtain and soap!). But when I think back, it took a good two years to outfit ABISHAG and I am in no rush. My sisters will be by buy in a day or so to see what they can help out with from their storage units. But no too much as I don't need a lot and don't have a lot of room anyhow. But the truth is, I have "swallowed the anchor!"
Friday, November 21, 2014
Housing
SHIP'S LOG:
Well, I heard from the Norwich Housing Authority and they have decided that I am poor enough and old enough to qualify for elderly housing. They handled it with greater rapidity that the Coast Guard did with the license procedure. My application was accepted and now I simply ave to wait for a spot. On the Federal list I am #106 and on the City list I am #108. That's an awful lot of blue-hairs who have to peg out before I get a spot. Sadly, I don't think that it will be all that great a wait. This winter is forecast to be nasty, very cold and we "old folk" don't handle the winter weather all that well. as for right now I have a nice spot with some very nice people and I'll just see hat the winter brings.
Well, I heard from the Norwich Housing Authority and they have decided that I am poor enough and old enough to qualify for elderly housing. They handled it with greater rapidity that the Coast Guard did with the license procedure. My application was accepted and now I simply ave to wait for a spot. On the Federal list I am #106 and on the City list I am #108. That's an awful lot of blue-hairs who have to peg out before I get a spot. Sadly, I don't think that it will be all that great a wait. This winter is forecast to be nasty, very cold and we "old folk" don't handle the winter weather all that well. as for right now I have a nice spot with some very nice people and I'll just see hat the winter brings.
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