Navigation and Time

I am pleased with the rate of progress on the restoration of the Starboard Teak Decking. Approximately 1/3 of the old caulking between the teak planking strips have been pulled and replaced with new Boat Life Teak Deck Sealant. (Stock Product #1252) This is a sandable teak deck sealant. After 24 hours the cure time is reached and the product can be sanded to only show the black lines between the teak decking. I have been replacing the lost screws with new brass 8x 5/8th screws and the restored areas are tight. Also ran teak sealant caulk lines along the 3 bottom joints where the deck connects to the forward and center pilot house cabins. Removed all the old caulking first. Again, the goal here is to make sure all water below the water line stays outside and all rain water or melting snow does the same topside. 'A dry sailboat is a good sailboat'. Concluded the day with the sanding of the Traveler Trimming Mount and applied the first coat of Cetol. This also gave me time to examine the Traveler rigging for main sail trim adjustments. Socrates once said...'Man Know Thy-self'. Shakespeare in his Hamlet Tragedy produced a variation on the theme by stating...'To Thine Own Self Be True'. Logically, the sum of both statements means to Know Thy-self and Know Thy-sailboats rigging. All of it and the names of the sum total of all her parts.
Now to Navigation and Time. I went to West Marine last Wednesday and found a good deal on the sale of a last year's model Garmin GPSMap 440s. Just ahead of my Helm is a teak pedestal deck stand where I will mount the unit. I have already sanded this stand after applying teak putty to a few former mount holes. The Garmin GPSMap 440s is a color GPS Plotter with built-in U.S. Coastal Charts and dual frequency sonar. I picked up the unit substantially cheaper than all other units with an In-Hull, adjustable angle Depth Transducer which ties directly into the GPS to show depth readings at all times on the GPS Color Console. This gives The Bridgeman a functioning GPS Mapping system for way point navigation and depth readings at all times at the Helm. Still have my former Garmin Colorado 400c handheld Marine GPS as redundancy and backup which I used during my days of sailing my former sailboat 'Morning Dove'. (God Bless Her!) In addition to dead reckoning, once must also have charts, redundancy of GPS and redundancy of radios, flares, life-vests and flotation devices. Life is precious. Adventure and safety go hand in hand.
Perhaps 10,000 years ago, men and women as the first sailors started to draw maps. Maps are good. To know who we are and where we are and where we are going and why we are going there in the first place, are are all vital components in navigation. Navigation is a science. 'Navigation' is an art form designed to connect the dots as way points on a journey. Similarly, our lives are seemingly a series of way points linked together by another dimension called 'Time'. It only takes an estimation of time to travel from Saint Mary's City to Annapolis along with cooperation from several external conditions such as wind directions, wind speed, and distance. Time on the other hand is the relative condition between two points. Time is our most precious resource. We as mortal humans are unfortunately running against the hour glass called time. Our creator guides us, but we have only such short time frames available to us to learn all the lessons and to get it right in this life. In the fine tradition of the Jewish Torah and in the succeeding Christian New Testament, the subsequent Islamic Book of the Holy Qur'an states in very Poetic Classical Arabic, that: "We are all coming home" and that "God knows every breath". Time, Navigation and Every Breath. All seem to paint a picture of just how important it is to live a deliberate life, a focused life, one optimized for calculated navigational way points and for optimum management of time. How proud I am of my two daughters Kristin and Olivia who are doing their Masters and PhD studies in Business Marketing and Neuroscience at JHU and NYU respectively. How joyful it is to be a parent and to see one's own children excelling in life and acting as beacons of light and guiding inspiration in the course of a parent's own journey. It is good to know that we can always try to live a better life that is better and more full of purpose than the day before.
It has now been approximately 10 days and nights that I have been living on The Bridgeman by night and working on her by day. Not bad with just a few tools, a few supplies, some work clothing, a crock-pot and a coffee pot. It has been nice getting to see rural Northern Neck Virginia to witness first hand farms and folk living in small towns like Callao/VA. I told myself that it would be good for me to go to a Church on Sunday...IE: Today. So I did. At first on my drives in and out of Callao/VA I spotted some rural churches. Kept trying to note the timings of Sunday Service. Finally, on route to Ace Hardware, I spotted Zion Baptist with Service at 11:30am. So I made a mental note and off I went to Zion Baptist today. They must have gotten off to an early start because when I walked through the double doors today at 11:15am they were in full gear. I walked into Zion Baptist Church of Lottsburg/VA and found myself in a full congregation of African Americans with myself as the late arrival and only white/Caucasian member of the worshiping community. Found my way to a set and was then helped to another by an usher as I had sat in the spot of a woman who was already up at the alter receiving a blessing. The Gospel Choir was singing beautiful songs and the Minister was gearing up for a wonderful sermon. I was at peace and noted the electrifying energy of the tone of celebration that was going on all around me. Rapture seems to portray what was going on in this service by a collective community of worshiping African Americans. The battle of good over evil was being preached upon by the Minister and yes the humming of the Church was all in unison and vectoring in the direction of good like the hive of a bee pod full of honey. And their I was in the middle of the honey pot. Right in the middle of Northern Neck VA Zion Church of Lottsburg and quietly at peace and quietly appreciating the beauty of the Gospel singing, the beauty of the Minister's sermon and the rapture of the Congregation as they stimulated the whole of their community to effect the unity of all as 'one'. I wondered for a bit during and after how it must have been to have the shoe on the other foot? The welcomes I received after the service were as best as I can tell genuine. The welcomes and the sermon and the Gospel Choir have truthfully inspired me to look forward to returning next week to the Zion Church of Lottsburg. I tried hard to just be myself and if someone reached out his hand to welcome me I for one reached out equally and asked to know his name before telling him mine. Yet overall, I could sense the great divide that still exists in America in the segregation of society and the split that seemingly divides this land in two. If the shoe had been on the other foot, would the welcoming into the community have been the same?
As for time, the hours we live when we feel like we have something to really live for are what I now call life and living. For the hours that we waste away hopeful that they will pass soon, what is this but anything other than lack of deliberate living and far afield of the course we should be on as we journey from one optimum navigational way point to the next way point and beyond.
The Bridgeman is safe and sound. She is berthed in her slip and I am berthed in her. She is like the Star ship Enterprise back in space dock when Captain Kirk and Spock and Crew have returned from harrowing difficulties with the Klingons or Romulans while on Nobel missions to seek out new life forms and new civilisations. The Bridgeman is now in space dock while I tend to all of her phaser ray gun marks and proton torpedo hits. She is like a woman who has gone a decade long from a visit to the Beauty Salon. And I am her caretaker. I am here to polish her hull, change her zincs, change her old engine oil and filters, tighten her rigging, repair her sails, restore her teak decks and teak topside embellishments, polish her stainless steel and her brass. I am her devoted beautician and aid and she is my Enterprise.
Life goes on, as does the divinity in all creatures great and small.