Joy

Black swans surprise us. A virus disrupts recurring economic global cycles.

Politics become strange and useless.

Computers replace people's craft work. Internet punches holes in entire industries, from retail to publishing.

Humanism has become something we have to try and make time for.  When I look around I see most people staring down at a little screen in their hands, while the pelicans sail the wind looking for fish in the water, while the children ask for an ice cream.

Antarctica experiences the warmest day ever recorded. Gaia is working towards homeostasis.

Webb touched the concept of Joy. I am grateful he did. There is more than enough not to feel Joy. It is a choice, to feel Joy and to try and spread It around.

It is a Holy thing, Joy. Joy For Living.

True Joy removes addictions, lowers consumption, slows us down, lets us turn the other cheek, lets us think about others who are worse off... Could it be the Key to a better world?

To be continued.

One under the Sun

Webb Chiles posted about the movie 1917. The Camus quote in it grabbed me and does not let go.

As an organizational consultant, I am challenged how to transform humans so they produce less Waste. Deming stated that any well run quality minded organization produces on average 40% waste. That means that 40% of the Sales produced are wasted on non-value-added activities. This could have been saved if the organization would work towards minimizing this waste.  These are well run organizations which have a high degree of systems management. Imagine what most companies/organizations have as a potential for improvement... Oftentimes organizations waste more than half of their resources. The greatest, saddest and most impactful Waste is the inability to use the ability of people (https://blog.deming.org/2012/11/the-greatest-waste/).

Yet most organizations are stuck in a way of working which minimizes the performance of all involved in that organization. I see similarity between the WW1 and the current business world. Albeit people are not physically getting mowed down my machine guns these days but they are being metaphorically speaking "mowed down" by policies and paradigms which kill worker's pride and income. This eventually will hollow out countries and bury us in the mud of this struggle.



We are in the area between two S-curves where things are always chaotic. Before the WW1, in the 1850s, the square rigger sail-ships had to transport the coals to destinations because the steamers could not travel far enough. Eventually the sail-ships disappeared because the steamers' boilers got more efficient. Once this happened the industrial age was on a roll.

Today the centralized fossil fuel electric generators power us all, with the consequent detrimental effects of overburdening our planet with CO2 (Waste). According to some (read J. Lovelock) we are doomed and even if all CO2 emissions stopped today, we would still be drowned by Earth which is working to come back to a stable state.

Solar power and battery storage solutions are starting to spread. The central power provisioning still has the economic advantage due to scale and is (together with fuel-providers) actively pushing back for a fear of loss of power and income. Once the scales tip towards the de-central solar produced power the unit price for centrally produced kWh will rise exponentially. That will cause more investments in de-central solar powered homes and business. The coming decade will see this transformation for many countries. Factor into that the electrical vehicles and fossil fuels will become obsolete.

Hopefully we will be in time and have not all drowned yet.  We as humans working together may need more pain before we wake up to the fact that we need to think and act as One. That will make us want to eliminate the elements causing us to waste some much of our resources. These elements cost us too much. Most often the elements can be identified by faulty (management) policies and regulations.

Camus' quote gave me the understanding that which gives me the deepest satisfaction; to help another human being discover something new which transforms their world for the better. I believe I am not the only one who thinks like this; I had to learn something first from somebody else, as John Welsford says "an expert is a beginner with experience". On my own I know nothing.

History, Intentions and Hardware

I love the USA, especially Key West. This ship-town still has a lot of smells and looks of the old sailing era. Through all the cruise boats and tourists roaming the courses and waterfronts, the rough and salty past can still be seen and felt... it is not so far away. 

When not thinking about customer requests and programming algorithms, thoughts of sailing and boatbuilding just drift up in my brain. The small pram in construction did not get touched much this year. That will change the coming year. 

Beautiful oarlocks with matching sockets were bought for her already.

 

Anticipating some good (solo) coastal sailing trips with Vanessa require this safety equipment. I always felt the need for a good lashing system and this hardware will be made into one. The snapshackle will tie my harnass to it. It has an emergency detachment-pull-string. The two carabiners are for a 1 meter and a 2 meter section so I can short tie or long tie myself to a hardpoint on the boat. I just do not want to have to swim back to shore in case I fall overboard and have Vanessa nicely balanced. She will not turn into the wind automatically and keep on sailing to Panama.

 

Some more, and even less

Some more humble pie was served to be eaten. This time by a freak bike accident, fracturing something in right hand.

About a month before Webb broke a rib I summersaulted over the front wheel of my bike. My right hand absorbed most of the impact, miraculously not exploding. Nursing it for some weeks and feeling small recovery steps daily I hoped that full function of the hand would return some day.

However the mind and soul work in mysterious ways; somewhere a reservation appeared in my thoughts. One that prepared me for the possibility of never being able to handle a sailboat alone anymore. It would not be safe not having the full use of my right hand available...

A few days ago was the first time i could do a plank without much pain and having to change hand position. We are now at 90% of handfunction. The body healed itself nearly completely in about 2,5 months. I now expect 100% recovery soon. Even less pain is in the future.

 I can now think about sailing again. So today I read all Webb's and Steve's posts since i stopped reading anything related to boats, sails, ocean and journeys because of the self induced block..

It is said that people dont change because they see the Light but because they feel the heat. I now see the Light because the heat of pain has left. Change happens. I wonder how much is self induced and how much is not.

Next post will be with sailing pics.

Humbling but good

Yesterday's test sail was humbling; it has been 11 months since Vanessa has touched the ocean. With the 25+ winds with gusts it took some time for me to get comfortable with her again. But as the first results of some of the modifications came in under jib and mizzen my anxious mood improved. After a sail with reefed main and mizzen things were enjoyable. Some points need further care which is a good thing. Sailing my own boat is a journey.

From Surfside beach I pushed Vanessa from the trailer into very low water, about 12 cm. The trailer has a hinge in the middle making this possible. It took more time than usual to rig her up. The boom has various lines attached now, all needing attention. The new gooseneck setup makes a single lazy jack possible. Very handy when all is fitted. Still need to fine tune that lazy jack attachment to boom so that the knots do not have to be undone to detach boom from mast. 

After an hour of getting ready I decided to raise anchor and take Vanessa for a spin with jib and mizzen set. The wind ripped and I was not comfortable initially with all the changes I had made...

Sailing close hauled into the lagoon close-by the start of the airport runway things were busy with tourists being hauled to and from our rock in the ocean. Dodging the jetplanes overhead and the subsequent additional gusts was a bit hairy. One gust was so strong it pushed the rail under. Vanessa did not tip of course but we did take in a bucket of seawater or two ... 

The new drain holes in the fore-deck took care of that in no time and all the water was in the cockpit quickly from there I pumped it out with the emergency bilge hand-pump. But now I really do have to install the manual bilge-pump I bought. I should do a faster job and require only one hand.

The cleat on the port side for the roller furling needs to have a small pulley so that the plastic cleat does not get sawed in half the next time I pull in the jib.  To have moved the furling sheet aft does make pulling in the job a lot easier when landing. I do not have to abandon my position at the helm for long to jump to the forward section of the boat with a head-swinging boom and loose mains'l sheets trying to respectively hit and trip me.

The two pulleys installed on the rudder stock to get and hold the rudder blade down worked flawlessly. Before them I had to hang over the transom and push down the blade. This works great.

Returning after a first short sail I needed a short break.  Hanging at the surfside beach I enjoyed looking at the stowed mainsail hanging in its lazy-jack...

Some rubber pulled from the bilge somewhere was test-rigged to the rudder so it could be used for future autohelming. But not today with this wind. Basically the two rubber "things" have slots in them so the helm can be fixed at any position. They can be quickly released from the cleat by sliding aft.

Just looking at the mains'l gave me the idea to sail with reefed main and mizzen. The first reefline was set, but I should have put in two lines. Chickening out often because going upwind things just get hairy sometimes and as you can see I do not dare to make the wind flow optimally.

The bulging is also caused by the loose and missing attachments to the mast of the mains'l.  Good seamanship takes courage.  I did not have it all the way.

I like sitting on the deck. A good view around and better balance of weight needed with this wind are good reasons.  Right now the coaming makes sitting on the deck a pain in the rear. So maybe the coaming needs some trimming. The footstrap installed in the cockpit is great. It gives me a safe feeling  because I cannot flip overboard.

Check out those palm trees... And the jumbled reefing lines bungling from the boom. That needs some fixing also. And the reefing lines should be fixed to cleats, not clams.

An impression taken between gusts:

After an upwind sail I anchored at the east of the Bucuti Yacht club South of the airport. The Sail school is where the cats lie on the floating dock.

The sun is blistering. I wish there was some shade...  hmm...  a cabin would provide that...

Nice lines. Missing a vertical one though.

This is the Aruban rescue vesselI never want to have to see.

The Bucuti Yacht club...

and the yachts we will be sailing with during at the Regatta in August. 

Down wind the boomvang was doing its job wonderfully. It will need repositioning in case of a dodger and or cabin.

7 - 7.5 knots... over ground.

Good sail. We need a shower.

Good wind

Wind looks good for sailing tomorrow pm 22 with 30 gusts:

Expect some pics here soon...

Volts

Besides working with wind and water energy, Vanessa will be equipped to deal with electrical energy. Basic electrical backbone (battery, bus, distribution panel, with appropriate fusing along the way) and the first application of fixed VHF radio with antenna is still in engineering and financial approval phase.
The process of learning about electrification and marine comms is half the fun.