Saturday, November 3, 2007

Saturday August 3 began at 01:30 when I lost a water pump on the Focus on the way home. No flashlight no water no tools. Ah shucks. There is no questioning my despair when the heat disappeared as the for bringer of a rapidly skyrocketing temperature gauge the coldest night so far laid in wait. While outside I could have done without searching for water in the swamp with only a paint roller tray to transport water to the empty radiator.

After a short melee I managed to borrow a car from Anthony and we spent Saturday AM putting a new water pump in the car. Rufus however does not care and has taken to the laundry pile as a favorite day spot.

I am trying to keep to my shift sleep regiment on track as if I loose that balance will be a whole lot more difficult. It was a stretch but I have friends and Friday AM I swapped the dead Focus out for Anthony’s car. What a relief.

Saturday had a serious TO DO schedule to accomplish. First and foremost that water pump had to be replaced or no work, which is unacceptable. By 10:30 Tony and I had the hood up and we were popping components. Tony is good! This was a clean and effective mechanical job, one that would have graced any Dealers bay. A bit of a pain, and a whole lot less accessible, than Defiance is but equally as critical. The Focus has a pretty nice little twin cam 16 valve engine and it is time that I turned a bit more attention to the road ride.

I knew Hughy service was scheduled for 14:00 hours but as I pulled through Picton at 13:45 there was no way I could say good-by this filthy. As it turned out I did the clean up and dug out my funeral blacks and was off. I did not get a seat but came in time to catch for many of the stories.

Is is service over now. The service took place on Saturday November 3 at 14:00 at the Baptist Church with a lunch served at the Salvation Army Hall afterwards. It was a big turn out and the church was overflowing as one after another told Hughy stories. Johnny G and Vera provided songs to lift our hearts on this day both at the service and the lunch. Man unofficial groups broke off at have a drink at Jan's, which was really a bit somber so I only stayed for a single beer. Later in the evening the hard core reconvened at Perch and Carols house to have another "Free Hughy Beer". "Free Hughy Beer" originated in a Hughy practice of keeping a deposit box beer in the cooler for when he stopped by. Then when he stopped by Hugh would ask for his "Free Hughy Beer".

This was the tribute that Hugh would have wanted worked diligently on the libation supplies it took us back to happier times with our friend present. People came and went but with few of the regulars missing the invite. The evening was full of song and stories compleat with a fine curry by Perch and deserts by Ruth.

I hurt tonight. This limited time to deal with boat stuff is a grind the moment that you have a little Murphy tossed into the mix.

Ah Shucks!

Tomorrow I write my certification exam for the new job and I have to shake off this boat stuff now and go techie.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Marine Forecast issued for Eastern Lake Ontario. Issued: 3.00 AM EST Monday 5 November 2007 for the period ending at 3.00 AM Tuesday with an outlook for the following 24 hours. Forecast: ..Gale warning in effect.. Wind light and variable increasing to south 15 to 20 knots this morning and to 25 this afternoon. Wind further increasing to south gales 35 this evening and diminishing to west 25 to 30 near midnight. Isolated showers changing to scattered late this afternoon. Waves 1 metre or less building to 2 to 3 this evening. Outlook..Strong westerlies increasing to gale force southwesterlies then veering to strong to gales northwesterlies.

Sunday did not go quite as well as I would have liked. The weather was perfect for putting up tarps and I had both Defiance and Chenoa to do. The first skin of an old tarp went on well but the second brand new tarp ripped along a seam as soon as I put it up. What a pain taking down a 20 by 30 tarp by yourself due to mag..

Tuesday, November 06, 2007 12:EST

Marine Forecast issued for Eastern Lake Ontario. Issued: 10.30 AM EST Tuesday 6 November 2007 for the period ending At 10.30 AM Wednesday with an outlook for the following 24 hours. Forecast: ..Gale warning in effect.. Wind southwest 25 knots increasing to gales 35 this evening then veering to northwest near midnight. Gales diminishing to wind northwest 25 Wednesday morning. Scattered showers. Waves near 2 metres building to 3 to 4 this evening. Outlook..Strong northwesterlies diminishing to light to moderate.

Today is graduation, tomorrow is a day off, then I am start on the floor. Oh boy, bring be your sick and wounded printer. This morning started with a brief hailstorm announcing the unpleasant weather which is less than eight hours out with snow forecast for tonight.

It has been a push the last week and I will enjoy a regular day’s shift, without that graveyard hour’s drive across the County. I dodged the bullet with the water pump this time and was probably lucky that it choose a dry night to strand me. If the water pump had broke in another couple of months Ben Gill Road and the Swamp will reach the stage that I will accept the extra eight kilometers main highway through Bloomfield. I have done this commute before, the last snowplow goes through Ben Gill around 23:00 hours. I am an old rally driver from out west and snow is fun but when I have to back up and take a run several times to get through it is time to find an alternative route.

At least the winter cover is almost finished and Defiance is wrapped up snug as a bug with a much lower profile than the last time I hauled out. There is no work that needs to be done on the aft deck except creating a cat playground and covering the aft cabin to keep the insulation dry shelter and sheltering the cat door which is a heat loss but required for Rufus. There can be no doubt I have refined the art of winter boat shelters over the years, this one is primo, not pretty but primo. Key to considering spending any time aboard is the Espar and its 45,000 BTU's of heat as when I come home I want to be able to bring the cabin temperature up from the very cool cat comfortable level to my mush 70 degrees. You can see its nasty little exhaust sticking out the side and anyone who approaches will hear it running.

I got a little break in the weather and had another fight with Chenoa. There is simply too much stuff in that boat. Nothing is accessible and ever auxiliary piece of equipment is tucked in some recess that is guarded by all manner of nasty things to tear your flesh up. Now for some reason the fresh water pump has quit and the water tank was full. It will be cold enough and day to freeze water so I have to get that finished today. I will use one of my transfer pumps to flush it and deal with the dead pump later.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007 at 18:00 UTC

Marine Forecast issued for Lake Ontario. Issued: 10.30 AM EST Wednesday 7 November 2007 for the period ending At 10.30 AM Thursday with an outlook for the following 24 hours. Forecast: Wind northwest 25 knots diminishing to 15 near noon and to light late this evening. Wind becoming variable after midnight. Isolated showers or flurries. Waves near 2 metres lowering to 1 or less near midnight. Outlook..Light and variable increasing to moderate southerlies then veering to southwesterlies.

Sunday November 3, 2007 Post Script:

Two alligators down, a new one emerges. This time it is shelter as I am currently living aboard (picture Right). I came back Wednesday to find out the washrooms were locked and my hydro was turned off. My following conservation with the manager was pretty tense as he told me to leave.

I have had no formal notification, or even verbal indication that I was to move thus have been getting on with the specified work as cash flow permits. There are still boats in the water and a half dozen boater a day coming through, so the place is in no means winter dead.

Before I hauled out in August we agreed that I would be sandblasting and re-coating the hull (bottom job) over the winter. I have been living aboard my boat at Waupoos Marina, full time 365 days a year, since September 2 2004 including my live-aboard status with hydro charged at during winter at an agreed price. www.cruising.ca/daylogs/

• We agreed:
• .1. that I would be sandblasting the hull
• .2. that I would make any required repairs
• .3. that I would be re-coating the hull
• .4. that I would have access to a 30 AMP service constantly for my battery chargers.
• Image March 2007

This is exactly what Mike Bolton (picts) is doing on a similar boat in the yard beside me. Boats are plugged in all over.

My Waupoos Marina account is paid and current. As far as I know, I have been doing nothing but getting on with the “bottom work” that we had agreed I do, and doing what is expected of me after four years. My living aboard is a public fact. I expected at least power and absolutely nothing about moving, let alone November 8, 2007 without notice. I do not use his facilities, and heat with my own furnace, I have always been charged me for power and expected to do it again, if there is any question I will pay (and keep after) for my own a HYDRO meter#, and they can count the kilowatts.

Not a bad day off. Chenoa is finally winterized with the bilge pumped and siphoned. Once I finish this net work I will go back and start on Defiance as I have to service the batteries as it has been 9 months since I have done more than a casual glance and then perhaps get the door to the cover fitted. The Pacific oil stove is one step closer now having all the fittings and tubing on hand with the lack of a mount for the fuel tank being the only stumbling block as I want to test it before committing hundreds to use low pressure pumps etc.

Friday, November 09, 2007 at 17:00 UTC

Marine Forecast issued for Lake Ontario. Issued: 10.30 AM EST Friday 9 November 2007 for the period ending at 10.30 AM Saturday with an outlook for the following 24 hours. Forecast: Wind southeast 15 knots backing to east 10 overnight. Chance of showers or wet flurries otherwise fair. Waves 1 metre or less. Outlook..Light easterlies.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Marine Forecast issued for Lake Ontario. Issued: 10.30 AM EST Saturday 10 November 2007 for the period ending At 10.30 AM Sunday with an outlook for the following 24 hours. Forecast: Wind northeast 15 knots diminishing to 10 this afternoon then veering to south early Sunday morning. Isolated showers otherwise fair. Waves near 1 metre lowering to less than 1 this afternoon. Outlook..Light southerlies increasing to moderate.

Tomorrow is a day off for two weeks and I will need it. Staying aboard for much longer is questionable Rick wants me out yesterday and I am realize the constraints of one 30 AMP feed. For me to spend winter on the hard I would need to rework my AC distribution. I cooked another plug which was caused by the water heater going on, it will now remain off and I will plan HW use with a heat up period or boil it on the stove.

I am begining to worry about Rufus as he is spending huge amounts of time outside and somewhere in that cat brain I know the cause is Clyde being around and is not sleeping with me anymore. Yet he and Clyde spend hours hanging out together and I never see aggression beyond play chase. Clyde on the other hand is another issue as he is sneaking in during the night, when I put him out he will stay out while I am up, but it does not last. On the other hand it will not mater much as Rufus is soon going to have to get used to new digs and perhaps being an indoor cat which will be a huge cat problem as roaming is his love.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Veterans Day. I missed the ceremonies and focused on the last movesheritagee and getting hydro working again. People don't think when you are moving something like Defiance around that it effects anything, but they are wrong big time. You start shifting 20 tons around on strings and mass stops moving one way before going the other. After tracking the fault back from its source I finally discovered that the original AC shore power AMP guage was steeling a full 40 volts and a ground lead had cracked. I got the pendant off the mooring but failed to free the main shackle and tire, so there is another trip before I haul the dinghy.

I think I know where I am going to go for the winter. All dependant on if Rufus can get along with three strange, absolute look alike cats. I mean totally amazing Gray Boy is a younger version of Rufus, and his mother looks exactly like Clyde. Sharing space ends up being the choice as I simply cannot go live in a box. This place is pretty cool digs complete with its mini stage and Lake Ontario at the foot of the yard. Brenda is another survivor close to my own age who I instantly liked. She is an aspiring country singer with a karokie business which is even more fun.

Marine Forecast issued for Lake Ontario. Issued: 10.30 AM EST Monday 12 November 2007 for the period ending At 10.30 AM Tuesday with an outlook for the following 24 hours. Forecast: Wind south 15 knots veering to northwest 20 this evening. Drizzle or mist patches changing to scattered showers this afternoon And ending near midnight otherwise fair. Waves 1 metre or less. Outlook..Strong northwesterlies backing to moderate southwesterlies

I will not be able to live aboard at the marina as this is reaching far too close to physical intervention and has escalated far out of control. They own the property so it will be myself that goes to jail so there is no choice but to pack up and go with what I can carry. I looked at what would have been a reasonable even fun shared accommodation on Sunday. If I rent any sort of decent accommodation it will be $500.00 per month which would be the money that should be used to pay down the bottom panic debt of August and this winters marina fees, so I do not prejudice Defiance's freedom come spring. Better to suffer a bit of discomfort now than guaranteed chaos if I take the comfortable path.

Given the choices trying to figgure out a way to use the shop looks more attractive all the time as there are no other cats and it is already the depository for lots of my stuff. I will sit down with Tony on Wednesday and see if there is a way to make it work. I will face some major obsticles

Marine Forecast issued for Lake Ontario. Issued: 10.30 AM EST Tuesday 13 November 2007 for the period ending At 10.30 AM Wednesday with an outlook for the following 24 hours. Forecast: Wind northwest 15 knots backing to west near noon and to southwest this afternoon. Wind increasing to 20 near midnight and to 25 overnight. Fair. Waves 1 metre or less building to 1 to 2 overnight. Outlook..Strong southwesterlies veering to moderate to strong westerlies.