A redesigned desk

The stateroom has a desk that I built to use the computer on the trouble is that I also built a lip on the desk to prevent items from rolling off if the boat was pitching. The lip is too high and when we use the desk it hits you right under the wrist. Today, I decided to do something about it. Out came the chisels and the hand planes and in 20 minutes, the desk became user friendly again. Another small problem solved.

Getting old

There I was, wandering through the Smithsonian American History Museum when I came across this car. A Honda Civic, it's an exact copy of the first car that I bought! I feel really old.

Strange sights in Washington

A funny thing happened on the way to the museun this week. On the way to the Smithsonian Museum I took a picture of the flowers in the garden behind the Smithsonian.

The next day when I went back to show the garden to Anna, everything was gone.

The next day when we walked through the garden,they had all appeared again. If I hadn’t had the camera to prove it I would have thought I was having a senior moment. Strange things happen in Washington when your not looking!

Air and Space museum

WOW!!! Here’s a few of the items on display. I was just blown away.

Human powered flight

First flight

Private aviation

Early commercial aviation

Finally to the moon

Now, Private space travel.
There is Sooooo much that I have left out. What a place!

Washington

Yesterday, our dinghy light committed suicide by leaping overboard. I threw a life ring after it but, alas, it couldn’t swim and now it sleeps with the fishes. The DC maritime police take a dim view when you run your dinghy at night without a light so, I rode out to the nearest “big box” store, a Home Depot, to buy another one. We use one of their $3 solar walkway lights for our dinghy light. The ride was about 6 miles each way so I biked to it through the DC neighborhoods. Lots of very nice neighborhoods and also a few that weren’t so good. I came across the “home” of a homeless person who keep his area under the 4th street bridge very tidy right down to his shoes lined up and a copy of the bible on his ‘bed’. In a town that displays such wealth it’s hard to understand how we can ignore such misery before our eyes. I suppose that if you’re in your car listening to the radio, enjoying a latte and driving by at 40 MPH it isn’t too difficult.



It's cheep but it works!

Propane

When I rebuilt the Snow Goose I needed a location to store propane. The previous owner had a tank stored on the back deck and it looked awful. I didn’t want that and I didn’t want to have steel tanks because of the rust problems so when West Marine gave me a great deal on a 10lb aluminum tank I bought one and the year after that, I bought another one. Then, the price of aluminum tanks became ridiculous so I have never purchased another tank. I wanted 3 tanks though so, I built a teak deck locker that would hold 3 - 10lb propane tanks (even though I only had 2 tanks) I figured that someday I’d run across another 10lb tank. This deck locker not only provided a place for the tanks but it doubles as a convenient place to store small sail handling gear and is our step stool for reaching the main sail and gives me a place to sit while Anna cuts my hair. I still needed another propane tank so, when they started to produce tanks make out of fiberglass I jumped on the net and bought one. This new tank is partially transparent (so that you can see the level of propane remaining) and it doesn’t rust or corrode! It’s as light as aluminum and it fit (with a bit of trimming) into the locker! Now we have 3 tanks and over 3 months of propane. If the aluminum tanks ever go bad I will definitely buy more of these fiberglass ones. They’re a great idea that I fully endorse.

Davits

As you have seen, the davits are installed and work excellently! They not only hold the dinghy at a better height but give it a bit more room too. They compliment the back of the Goose a lot better than the old scrap 2x4 davits did and they will hold more weight than the wooden ones did. I built attachment devices to lock the davits to the rear rail. They are just two pieces of 3x4 inch SS flat stock that I bent a pipe shape into the middle of. By turning them 90deg.to each other and drilling 4 holes in the corners I was able to lock the two perpendicular pipes together. A simple $5.00 solution to a $90.00 answer (if I had purchased them).
Here’s how they mounted to the rail and how I mounted the end of the davit tube to the back of the boat. The pair of block and tackle that we use to lift the dinghy I picked up at a marine swap for $10.00 (with the rope) so, the entire cost to replace the davits was about $275.00.