glad that's settled

Billy loves air conditioning and yoga

If you read the previous post then you know that Travis and I have been perfecting the "rolling and tipping dance" while planning a small wedding aboard Lucy Maru. Well it all got to be too much. We kept coming back to our back up question in times of uncertainty ..."what would 'normal' people do"?

Indeed it seemed ridiculous to be restoring a boat with an arbitrary deadline of early August, so we can invite our parents, who in our eight year relationship have never met, aboard our boat/home to perform the equivalent of a theatrical production surrounded by decorations that cost way to much. OK, so as you can guess, we are not going to do that. Phew!

Instead we are going to get a marriage license in a nice and private courthouse ceremony, just me and T, and invite the folks to meet each other when its convienient for all involved. This plans feels so much better!

Having made this decision we decided to relax a bit and have some fun. We have, after all, in three weeks, painted the hull of Lucy Maru, painted the deckhouse, painted some overhead sections, and painted and varnished the stern. So yeah, we're beat. Coz you see when I say painted, what I really mean is we sanded, then wiped down, then painted... then sanded then wiped down then painted again all of the above mentioned boat sections, all while keeping our day jobs, which are not the usual nine to five grinds, but still take their toll. Ahhh...relaxation is well deserved and well appreciated.

While Me Voy waits, T perfects his skillz on something a bit smaller

Lucy Maru's hull is all painted!

Chopper watches as Travis goes sailing. The stern we worked so hard on the last week, is now varnished and ready for letters

Lucy Maru is such a pleasure to live on! We are so privilaged to live on this classic cruiser. I only hope we can simplify with grace when it comes time to move aboard Me Voy.

We must get Me Voy out of this Satellite Hell as soon as possible, which

looks like next Fall perhaps?

I know its summer

Me beginning work on the transom.

I was the only one in the marina working outside today. I had the stern to finish, and the Epifane varnish was not going to listen to excuses like its too hot to work. I had already put that job off, and my 72 hour timeline in between coats was wearing thin, which meant I had to varnish today with no sanding, or varnish some other day with sanding. The answer seemed pretty simple to me. I have to say here that I love the Epifane varnish. Other then the no sanding between coats, which is an obvious blessing, it covers well and smooths out to a nice gloss. I learned that flat surfaces like rails should be Epifaned out of direct sunlight as the finish will flash and look matte, but as this was not a factor today, I slathered myself in sunblock and began the work.

A small piece of the transom was rotten and needed to be replaced.

Travis works on filling the previously removed bungs. We drilled all those little plugs out last year to expose the screws so we could replace the whole plank. This year, that seems like a bit of an over kill, and we have decided to replace only the small rotten section instead.

T and I have perfected the dance called "rolling and tipping". He rolls the paint on and I follow with a brush and smooth out his bubbles. We're using Petit Z-Spar which gave us good results on Me Voy. Its tricky to get just the right mixture of paint and solvent, but when that magic happens, the paint lays beautifully, with great shine and no brush strokes.

I'm not as happy with the final coat on the deck house as I would like to be. The paint was very runny, and there are some obvious runs. Yuck!. I hate it when something turns out less then perfectly acceptable, but I'm think I'm gonna have to let this one go, and move on.

Lucy Maru has become our sole focus as we are trying to get her ready for this upcoming wedding. Mixed feelings abound as to this ritual that seems so strange to us but so important to both our families. How do we make this experience meaningful for us? We'll be working on that and the rest of our Lucy Maru list this week. So, if you're sitting in your office, or your home or even your boat, take a little air-conditioned breath, send us some good vibes and pray for rain in the Baltimore area.

Back in the US (thanks to Dad)

My flight from Poland was cancelled due to the strike at British Airways (avoid traveling thru London!), and rescheduled for June 9. Dad rebooked me on a direct flight to Chicago, where I spent a lovely day working off my jet lag by lounging in the sun, riding in Dad's convertable, and shopping with Mom.

Now I'm back on the boat, where fans are running at high speed, and the sun is scorching our decks. It's ninety something outside today, and I'm waiting for the sun to creep across the sky to offer me some shade to work by. Travis is off in Va. going to motorcycle school and I will attack the overhead on our back deck, meaning I will peel off what fiberglass there is hanging loose, then grind, sand and finally primer the exposed wood. Its not a big area, but its all overhead, so it should be pretty terrible. I'm going to capitalize on my renewed enthusiasm for boat work however, and get this job over with. Having been away from boats for the last 14 days, I'm pumped enough to perhaps enjoy this job a bit. OK, who am I kidding? This is not going to be fun, but, the after-glow of a hell job completed will be awesome.

I will leave you with a few pics of Poland.

This is Bialystok. The city I grew up in. The biggest culture shock for me was the cleanliness of the streets. There are trash cans everywhere(and people use them) as well as people walking around sweeping the streets and parks. I didn't see a single piece of trash anywhere!

Churches, and there are many of them, are open all day long. Anyone can come in and vandalize... um, I mean look around. I thought the bloody feet on this Christ were particularily disturbing.

Inside this church is dripping with gold leaf, typical of the Catholic style. You can see a worker on the left, touching up the gold leaf. My footsteps echoed loudly as I toured these quiet sanctuaries, where ordinary people stopped by on their way to or from somewhere to say hi to God.

These trains are loud and fast, and the train station chaotic but immaculate!

Stork migrate from Africa to Poland? Its true. They come back year after year, and build their nests on top of special platforms people set up on top of electrical poles. Storks are said to bring good luck and having a nest on your property means you are free from moles digging up your yard, as moles are evidently easy prey for the stork.

Restoring old things must run in the family. My aunt took over as director of what used to be a dilapitating country school, and after fifteen years, this is what it look like today. Beautiful!

I saw this sticker in several places. I also saw a gang of skinhead questioned by the policja. Poland is a land full of history and contradictions.

Trippin

It's true. I flew across 'the pond' to Poland. Cheating? Maybe, but as the waters of Poland are not on our list of sailing destinations, I boarded a flight bound for London, and released all control of my destiny for the next ten days.

Poland has become quite Americanized, with shopping malls, ethnic foods, cell phones, and political discontent. Prices are similar to that of the US, except the average Pole earns about 700 US a month. No one recycles, except the bums, who dumpster dive for aluminium cans. This early morning ritual can pay up to $20 US per day, a good wage. It also earns, however the resentment of ordinary people, who despise the noises coming from the dumpsters in the early morning hours, and the us vs. them divide deepens.

There are floods here in the North reminiscent of Katrina. (Not one person here has heard of Katrina) People are stranded in their houses, in rescue shelters, and there is nowhere to go. The funny thing is there are little rescue boats, that go from house to house distributing food. (I see a Polak joke in there somewhere.) These floods are the worst they have seen in recent memory, and the season is all wrong for flooding.

Here are a few things that blew my Americanized mind:
1. No one I talked to has heard of Sara Palin
2. Pigs feet make a good soup
3. Birch trees make good syrup
4. There are ancient "jungles" in the Northeast Poland
5. Polish mountain music and Jamaican reggea sound great together
6. Poles are the only people in the EU (european union) that are required to apply for a visa
when travelling to the US
7. The streets are free of trash

I'll leave it at that... goodnight.

Holding Down the Fort

Maggie has gone away on a big old jet airliner, to the far off Eastern European land of her birth, Poland. She has not visited with her family there in a very long time so I am glad she was able to make the trip. Unfortunately, I was unable to accompany her. It is difficult to find an appropriate sitter for the boys and our two boats, so I stayed back to hold down the fort. My hope has been to get loads of work done on the boats and my old truck, but with the rain steadily falling, I am held up below deck making the most of it with Chopper and Billy. We have been missing Maggie terribly but we are managing to keep ourselves occupied with a lot of reading, cooking, cleaning, and documentary watching.

Today, like an old friend, the Black Crowned Night Heron returned to our marina. He is one of the last waterfowl to return from warmer climates back to his Summer fishing spot here in Baltimore. I watched him in amazement all last summer as he would patiently wait on the swim platform of our neighbor's boat for an unsuspecting fish or snake to swim by. Today he sat perched on the bow rail right outside the window drying his feathers in between rain showers. These are rather rare so it's neat to get to be so close to him. He looks a lot like a creature from a Pink Floyd video. Gosh I miss Maggie.

Objects in Motion

Our boat lists are slowly getting shorter. Emphasis on slowly. I've been prepping L.M. for starboard side hull paint, which meant spending a lot of time on The Raft. I really enjoy working on the raft. Its peaceful and private, and bobbing on the water, even when holding a sander most of the time, is somehow soothing. The exception is the bow of the boat, where the situation quickly deteriorates into a hellish spectacle: me, arms stretched overhead holding sander, balancing on a bobbing raft while doing an ungraceful backbend, struggling to sand the tip of the bow. I have nothing good to say about that hell spot.

I've spent many days on this raft and it still doesn't have a name

I did finish all the prep work and we planned on painting this Sunday,but the wind had other ideas in mind, so the paint job is being pushed back to probably the end of the month. Unfortunately its a two person job, which takes more planning and coordination of schedules then is really convenient, and then there's the weather to contend with. Anyway, I feel like this is a big hurdle to overcome as far as Lucy Maru goes. Having this behind us will mean we can flip her around again, and then paint the decks and house, do some fun canvas sewing, and ta da... I think this is as far as we're prepared to take her.

Meanwhile Travis has been focusing on Me Voy. With the engine painted, he dropped it in, but before any further progress could be made there, the rot in the transom had to be finally addressed. If you've seen the previous video you know the kind of effort required there. Poor T has another weekend to go, crumpled into a sort of N, before I take over with the painting. This job will also be a milestone for Me Voy as it will officially conclude all rot removal and replacement!!!!

Mr. Perkins awaiting further attention

Universe smiled upon us (or was it really just laughing?) last week, and we got a plot at Baltimore's City Farms. Evidently the wait for a plot is on average 3 years, but after waiting only a week, we got the call. The timing was perfect, and even though we are so busy with the boats and work, we just had to do it. It s so nice to get my hands into some dirt. We cleared our 10ft x 15ft plot and thanks to Homer The Tiller Guy we had cucumbers, squash, chard and spinach planted all in about two hours. Tomotoes, lots of tomotoes, peppers, onion, beets, and radishes, will round out our first planting.

For $40 a year you can get a plot in the city to grow your own!

Its so neat to go from boat, to garden back to boat. The contrast of the elements is striking. The rich soft dirt in between my toes vs. the cool humid air of the docks. The smells of the two places are so far apart in reality that it feels like I'm living in a dream where anything can happen. The addition of the garden has completed our set-uppedness in Baltimore. Too bad balmy winters and palm trees don't show up much in B-more, otherwise we might get stuck here for good.

T pulling weeds out of our garden

All tucked and ready to grow

live- sort of

Its a very beautiful and blustery day here in B-more, and we're making decent progress on both boats. Details soon to be posted, but for now just a little video to prove we're alive. (I got a better HD camcorder but the uploaded quality still sucks compared to what I got on the puter, and You tube really sucks coz it got rid of all audio coz of some copyright issues. Anyone know ways to get around this, especially the video quality thing?) Anyway here we are...

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Uncharted waters

We finally got a camcorder, and today I spent a rainy afternoon figuring out how to make something with it. I learned however that the camera should record in high res mode, if you don't want your video to look crappy like this one, but decided to post this anyway despite the

low res. So here's a little tribute to Baltimore and a day of no boat work!

One Boat at a Time

It was never our intention to restore two boats, much less two boats at the same time. It just happened. Even when we found Lucy Maru, and decided to move in, we still deluded ourselves into thinking that we were only going to live on her, and only work on Me Voy. I remember being sincere in that resolve, and thinking back, I can only laugh at our ignorance. I 'm not sure what it is about boats, but there seems to be something special, something akin to a soul, a consciousness, a bond, that forms between the crew and the boat. There are times, when I know that Lucy feels my presence, like when she edges closer to the dock when I'm stepping aboard, or when Me Voy giggles as I sand her brightwork. Am I imagining this? I tell myself that I am, as the feeling of betrayal starts to creep in whenever I don't work on one of our girls.

Last weekend it was Lucy's turn to get neglected, as both T and I focused on Me Voy. After the crazy temperature swings we have had, the weather was perfect for piddling around on deck.

T making proper mast wedges

Me sanding doggie hatch

Together we caulked the window frames into place. We made the switch from Boat Life caulk to the West Marine caulk. T discovered it thru work, and its so much better then Boat Life! It wipes away much more easily, doesn't discolor, and is about half the price.

We kept a pretty relaxed pace, focusing on enjoying ourselves rather then pushing towards the accomplishment of specific goals. It worked great. We had a good time, and accomplished everything we set out to do. I hope I can apply this attitude to future boat work, coz with so much of it still ahead, it 's easy fall into the trap of rushing to get things done and hating every minute of it. And what's the point of that?

Tax Day

I suppose apologies are in order, to all of our loyal blog followers, for our neglect of our blogging duties. I was going to make some lame excuse, but I think we have just been preoccupied with the new beginnings of Spring and have fallen away from our old routines a bit. We have made some boat progress, including mounting the engine in Me Voy, and re-bedding the port lights. I also removed the "last" of the rot from the hull and transom and began installing the new wash down pump. We have had to put finishing the engine install on the back burner while we replenish our bank account after paying the marina and the tax man. I should be back on that next week-end. Maggie also began prepping Lucy Maru for paint.

But this blog is not going to be about boats or about the tax man, as the title may have indicated. This blog is about us. Me and Maggie. You see April 15, tax day, is the anniversary of the day we first met. I was working at an art studio in the wood shop, while living with the artists who owned the place and Maggie was freelancing for a few weeks with us, doing some painting and she also was living at the bosses house. We were instant friends. We spent at least one entire night banging on a drum together beside a big fire pit alone under a blanket of stars in blue ridge VA, and many others just hanging out talking. I thought she was the coolest person I had ever met. That was eight years ago, and I still think she is the coolest person I have ever met.

She went back to L.A. way too soon for my liking and a few very long weeks later, I sold most of my bigger possessions and got on a Greyhound with a one way ticket to Los Angeles. We have been together nearly every day since. It has been really hard at times, but we have only grown closer through all of our trials. She is the best friend I have ever had, and there is nobody I would rather be sharing this dream with.

I hope this isn't too sappy. I promise to get back to boat blogs within the next few days. There is just one more thing I suppose I should announce. You see all this time we have never made our relationship legal. We have often debated the significance of marriage, and wondered if it is a broken institution set up by "the man" to somehow keep us in line or otherwise under control. What is the point we would often say. We have often declared our love to each other so isn't that good enough. Our parents don't think so. So, in light of their desires and family and all of that other really neat stuff, we have decided to do it. So here it is. The day will be August 7 of this year aboard Lucy Maru. Can't wait to blog about it.