October 4th...she will sail again

The wheels are set in motion towards an October 4th christening and sail for Epilogue. She's far from finished, but getting her sailing has been a top priority for 2008 and it looks like it may actually happen.

Ptarmigan Reunion...

I was dragged, somewhat begrudgingly, away from Epilogue for an afternoon by talk of an evening hike to Mt. Pilchuk with my longtime friends Jeff and Dave. The three of us hiked the Ptarmigan Traverse http://ptarmigantraverse.home.comcast.net/ back in 2003. It was the trip of a lifetime and the three of us often talk of returning to the North Cascades. We finished off the evening of our short little hike up Mt. Pilchuck at the top near the old lookout tower with some food we'd packed, cold beer and rye whiskey. A stunning sunset and the relaxing ease of being with old friends was just what I needed.

Traveler, Main Sheet Design...

I've been designing the traveler and main sheet system for weeks now including purchasing Harken parts, test fitting components and endlessly walking the docks looking for ideas. I think we've decided on a solid system that will be both simple and efficient. It's going to be a double-ended main sheet which means we'll be able to adjust the main sheet from either side depending on the tack we're on. Also, there will be double line clutches for the main sheet and traveler, freeing up the winches for genoa sheets as well...it'll all make sense when it's installed. For now, just use your imagination and trust that it's going to be a fine sailing machine.

boom vang install...

My local NAVTEC hydraulics expert came out and helped me install the hydraulic line to the boom vang late Wednesday evening (we both have regular jobs too). After swaging new fittings on the line, we fed it through the hole in the mast, bled the air out of the line and pressure tested it...voila! works like a charm. The other image is one end of the traveler mount which I had to grind down, fair with West System Epoxy, and prep for new paint. Pics of that job to follow.

We are installing the traveler and mainsheet system, hopefully all the parts I bought will work well. This weekend, I'm hoping to, at the very least, get the traveler track installed. It looks like it's going to fit perfectly. So glad we measured the camber of the track well.


Dan, Dave and Alec helped me install the genoa tracks last weekend. I put at least 5 days of prep work into this job. It went off without a hitch and we think the tracks are stronger than ever. also shiney!!!

even if she sank tonight while I slept...

People ask me every time I see them..."how's the boat?" I'm kind of getting tired of the question, not because I'm bothered by people asking me so much, they're genuinely interested and fascinated by the whole process. I'm tired of the question because I'm ready for a different answer. Right now, the answer is, "it's like a snowball gaining speed, size and desctructive power that cannot be stopped. There is an inevitable quality to this endeavor...there is no turning back, I'm all in." It feels truly alive and vital. It's terrifying and thrilling all at once. Even if she sank tonight while I slept, it would have been a profoundly meaningful experience. So, progress moves forward with fits and starts, but it moves and I'm more sure every day that she will sail again some day quite soon...and she's definitely going to be beautiful.

making ready to sail...

The next six to eight weeks will be a push to get Epilogue ready to sail. Measurments have been taken, sails have been ordered and the final rig tune, running rigging purchases and deck hardware installations will be made while I wait for the sails to arrive. My goal is to have her sail-ready before the sails arrive, which is actually quite ambitious.

...mast day 2008...

...4 hours under way...

Epilogue made it safely through the locks on Saturday morning and steamed nicely all the way up to Everett where she is in a temporary slip until she is rigged and ready to come back to Ballard. The day was as boring as we had hoped for. Beautifully sunny, warm, and complete with lunch and a toast with Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum to celebrate Epilogue's first voyage under her own power.

We're crossing our fingers for decent weather on Wednesday, though it doesn't look promising.

she will sail again...

After seven months of waiting, we are scheduled with the Port of Everett to install the mast on Epilogue next Wednesday, 4/16. There have been several hang-ups in this process, mostly related to delays in part delivery and component compatibility. Issues that couldn't have been foreseen. My rigger is very deliberate and fastidious, which is good for ensuring a quality job, but frustrating for my time schedule. We will be taking her up to Everett under her own power this Saturday and she'll sit in Everett until the mast is stepped and the rig is made up. I'm guessing we'll bring her back down to Fisherman's Terminal between April 23rd and April 27th.

This monumental event will undoubtedly trigger all sorts of other progress, like new sails, new deck hardware, fixed rigging, running rigging and navigation instruments. I'm guessing I'll be spending the Fall and Winter of 2008 addressing the interior job. It's way behind my ideal schedule, but the trade off of reclaiming my life has been well worth it....indeed, she will sail again, and be beautiful.

fail, fail again, fail better...

-- Samuel Beckett

saw this on a random writer's blog the other day. it's short and sweet, needs no real explanation. in fact, to explain why it spoke to me threatens foreclose the possible meanings for others...

hibernation...

You may be inclined to think that's me way up that mast. While it certainly looked fun, I have to say I was the one at the helm that day. It was the first sail of 2008 on Augusta and the wind was blowing 20 knots out of the North with beautiful sunshine all day. It is days like this that inspire me to continue with Epilogue. It's been a long, cold winter and I'm just now waking up from hibernation to dive into "the project", as I affectionately refer to it. It's been a bit slow going, getting back into the rhythm of things. Part of it's frustrating but mostly it's because after nearly three years of giving every spare moment to this boat, I've decided to put some balance back into my life and start living again. Really, I've just now started coming out of the hibernation I went into three years ago. I've been hunkered down with a combination of laser beam focus on rebuilding this boat and a somewhat unconscious circling of the wagons in an effort to somehow regain some sort of footing. I suspect recovering from this sort of trauma takes place on a much deeper and often unconscious level. It feels like spring is thawing out parts of my life that have been in a deep freeze for three years. I feel the warmth of the sun on my face, I see crisp shadows, I smell fecundity all around.

disobedience was not our downfall...

One supposes that, even then, this new taste for turning away might have been overcome, but that is assuming the two had found the result unpleasant. The beginning of loss was this: each time some manner of beauty was offered and declined, the subsequent isolation each conceived was irresistible.

excerpt from The Entrance of Sin by Scott Cairns, Recovered Body (1998)

Sea Trials...

Today was sunny and beautiful in Seattle so we did some more water proofing to fix leaky windows, dry-fit some more Flexi-Teak and then took Epilogue out for a little cruise around Lake Union. It's pretty fun to approach one of the three draw bridges on Lake Union in a 55' sailboat and not hail the bridge keeper. I was actually nervous passing under a bridge I normally see raise when underway aboard a sailboat. I imagine it's like having a phantom limb after an amputation. Soon enough I'll be nervous that the bridge isn't raised high enough for the 75' of mast she'll have.





Epilogue ran smoothly, cool as a cucumber and seemd to handle just fine. I'm confident she's ready to take the trip north to Everett as soon as the mast is ready to step.

Flexi-Teak

Flexi-Teak is a synthetic teak decking material that I'll be using in the cockpits and probably eventually in the cockpit soles. Today I installed the first two, of 10, panels just to get a look at how they look. I think they're going to be beautiful and virtually maintenance free! Tomorrow I'll go back and run a bead of black caulk around the outer edget to seal so water can't find it's way underneath. Tomorrow we may install the large center cockpit panel, depending on weather.

This is the main drum of the new roller furling system I'm installing. I've never seen a roller furling drum this big. We're hoping to take Epilogue north to Everett in a couple of weeks to have the mast stepped and rigged and return to Ballard for the winter. This will be a huge event. She'll look like a real sailboat and have a mast that is 73' off the deck.


This is the new mast collar and cut-out where the mast will enter into the boat. Have to get some work done before the mast makes it impossible get back in there.

Coasting...

There is in this aspect of land from the sea I know not what of continual discovery and adventure, and therefore of youth, or, if you prefer a more mystical term, of resurrection. That which you thought you knew so well is quite transformed, and as you gaze you begin to think of the poeple inhabiting the firm earth beyond that line of sand as some unknown and happy people, or, if you remember their arrangements of wealth and poverty and their ambitious follies, they seem not tragic but comic to you, thus isolated as you are on the waters and free from it all. You think of landsmen as on a stage. And, again, the majesty of the Land itself takes its true place and properly lessens the mere interest in one's fellows. Nowhere does England take on personality so strongly as from the sea.

- Hilaire Belloc, "Off Exmouth"

I'm reading Jonathan Raban's Coasting: A Private Journey - a story about his sailing in a small boat around his native England.

Shipwreck...

No other element has such accreted layers of significance for us, such complex archetypal meaning. The sea’s moods and uses sex it. It is the great creatrix, feeder, womb and vagina, place of pleasure; the gentlest thing on earth, the most maternal; the most seductive whore, and handsomely the most faithless. It has the attributes of all women, and men too. It can be subtle and noble, brave and energetic; and far crueller than the meanest, most sadistic human king who ever ruled. “I believe in the Bible”, an old sailor once told Lord Fisher, “because it don’t mention no sea in Paradise”. I happen to live over the sea myself, I watch it every day, I hear it every night. I do not like it angry, but I’ve noticed that most urban and inland people adore it so. Storms and gales seem to awaken something joyous and excited in them: the thunder on the shingle, the spray and spume, the rut and rage.
--John Fowles "Shipwreck" 1975

This passage came from The Oxford Book of The Sea, edited by Jonathan Raban. I was scouring it for inspiration and found myself quickly searching the web for other work by John Fowles.

Bitter-Sweet...

Ah my dear angry Lord, Since thou dost love, yet strike; Cast down, yet help afford; Sure I will do the like. I will complain, yet praise; I will bewail, approve; And all my sour-sweet days I will lament, and love.
-- George Herbert

Rainy and cold in Seattle today...

Good times and noodle salad...

Last week my Dad came out to help work on Epilogue for an entire week. Again, it was great to have him see and experience all that I'm going through with this project. He even got to spend an afternoon doing parts runs for me...it's my least favorite thing to do, besides grinding fiberglass. He was a huge help and we spent many an hour laboring and dreaming about what is in store for this boat in the very near future. The last thing he said to me before he disappeared into the airport was "I'm proud of you." I think I knew that, but had been hoping to hear those words all week and even thought about asking him if he was proud of me at one point. That it came unsolicited made me want to jump out of my skin. Thank you. I only wish we'd taken more pictures. Mom will be disappointed we didn't.