The Bridgeman Library

The year closes and with it a final decision to outfit The Bridgeman with her library. Are there any writings which state anything new under the sun that have not already been recorded by Homer in The Iliad and The Odyssey? "Of men who have a sense of honor, more come through alive then are slain, but from those who flee comes neither glory nor any help". - Homer, The Iliad.

All sailboats have souls like men and women, and all souls should move perpetually forward with nourishment to sustain them. With the year now closing and a new year emerging, I will outfit The Bridgeman with twelve (12) volumes to sustain both her and I. Twelve volumes like the twelve tribes of Israel. They are:

1. Homer: The Iliad/The Odyssey

2. Plato: Complete Works

3. Aristotle: Complete Works

4. Herodotus: The Histories

5. Epictetus: The Discourses

6. William Shakespeare: Complete Works

7. Charles Darwin: On The Origin of Species

8. Henry David Thoreau: Walden/Essays

9. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust

10. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays

11. Michel De Montaigne: Essays

12. The Bible: Old/New Testaments

And now after times hard at work and at times of leisure on The Bridgeman, my thoughts are the following:

1. The natural state of man is a 'state of war'. Men are always at war and nature supports this condition with her equal acts of violence. The seas are deep and black and full of one prehistoric eating machine monster after another. The art of war and the study of military strategy are in the end, utmost important for a man's survival in this life.

2. Boats that are useful in this life are boats that are used for some type of work like fishing or exploration or salvage or for military purposes. All other boats that are 'recreational' in nature are representative of an 'incontinent mind'. Possessions of a weak mind. They are nothing more than watery pit vehicles to pour money and time into the abyss. They are manifestations of Ego. Nothing more. If it is not being used to generate wealth or for the attainment of a prize, or some form of skill, it has as such no value in this world. And America is full today of one 'recreational' boat and one 'recreational' Marina after the other. States upon states in pursuit of recreation and big screen TV Entertainment. All built on the stupidity and carelessness of a society running in every direction toward a life of leisure and away from what John Adams (Founding Father) declared to his dear friend and wife Abigail, as their early American/New England Governing Principle: "Let frugality and industry be our virtues". What happened to my Country? Where are the likes today of men like John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson?

3. The Bridgeman today is more and more a METAPHOR in my life. A figurative representation of some type of parallel sensory symbols or set of challenges in this life. It is now more and more like that of a Science Laboratory. A place to discover the principles of AC/DC conversion and vice versa. A place to examine the laws of the natural world. Like the law of Archimedes Principle: "Any floating object displaces its own weight of fluid". That the net upward buoyancy force is equal to the magnitude of the weight of fluid displaced by the body. That if the object is either less dense than the liquid or is shaped appropriately (as is a boat), the force can keep the object afloat. A place now to discover why things perform as they do. Why does a sailboat really float? Why do winds and waves perform as they do? Why do men and women really do what they do in natural succession. The Bridgeman is now a place of discovery. An institution, a state of mind.

4. At first it all appeared that I was in pursuit of my lost tribe. Trying to regain attachment to a community of common interest and brethren. But now I can see in America that every town of ordinary size all have the same Walmart, Sam's Club, Burger King, Pottery Barn, and Victoria's Secret as all of the others. (What is Victoria's Secret anyway?) They are all the same. Mile after mile, east to west and north to south. The same lithograph print out of another. Cookie Cutter living, and beyond the 12 mile coastal boarder lies the rest of the 12 Billion savage inhabitants of the planet. Why leave the dock? Why journey anywhere beyond the Chesapeake Bay waterside towns of Reedville, Irvington, Whitestone, Annapolis, Delaware, St. Mary's City, Baltimore Harbor or Manhattan Island or the ICW? What lies beneath is nothing more than Megalodon and his distant ancestors who walked across the beach and into the jungle. Why go anywhere if it is not for pursuit of profit and gain. Why chase anything that goes beyond the noble state of man to build his own home with his own two hands and to do his best to live an honorable and productive life and to stay fit and capable to chop his own wood for the fireside?

The Bridgeman will continue to sail for the many years to come. She will sail to the tune of her own drum.

She is now a figurative form of speech. She is an instrument of discovery. She is a sentry on the lookout for changes on the wind. A place to erect and 'intelligence and alarm system' that stands on the lookout and alert for all dangers both foreign and domestic. "One if by land, and two if by sea."

Life is short, life is dangerous. Best to strike while the iron is hot!

"There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

is bound in the shallows and in miseries...

And we must take the current when it serves,

Or lose our ventures."

- William Shakespeare

Messy Bed..., Messy Head!

A one time acquaintance and friend of mine who spent his time working for the United States Navy as a Naval Navigator rotating off of the flight deck of Aircraft Carrier's , had a unique expression which he coined often. He always said: "Messy Bed..., Messy Head". I have since lost contact with this friend over a decade ago but the term "Messy Bed..., Messy Head" has always stuck in my mind. So I say, thank you to the United States Naval Aviation Training Teams. There is wisdom in this motto.

In tackling the restoration of The Bridgeman I continue to face the problems of clutter. Just as 'fear' is the killer of the mind, 'clutter' is the killer of any attempt to gracefully restore a sailboat. Everything on a sailboat has a purpose. And that purpose is to cut through the oceans with optimum grace and form. All components are engineered and balanced for optimum performance. Anything that is not part of this balanced condition of harmony is ultimately excess provisions or in effect clutter. Too many tools, too much of any one thing that does not serve a purpose specific to sailing. Birds fly, fish swim, squirrels collect nuts and sailboats sail!

Another new and good friend who I have gotten to know recently has also left me with some motto's of sailboat wisdom. He said that there are three essential things that one must observe as rules on a sailboat. They are:

1. A clean sailboat is a happy sailboat.

2. Reef early and reef often.

3. Always listen to the Captain and do what he says.

Yes, a clean sailboat is a happy sailboat. Sailboats in my view have souls. They have feminine souls and they have masculine souls. They have souls like those of beautiful and graceful women who love to be pampered and to get dressed up for a prom night with fine jewelry and exquisite lines of lipstick and eye shadow. They also have the souls of men as in the great sail ships of war and commerce that explored and colonized this world at the height of the Greek, Persian, French, Spanish, British and Early American Empires. They are the souls of the tall black ships that took Agamemnon and Achilles and the fleets of tall black ships to the shores of Troy. These men stepped the masts and took to the wind and brought along timbers to shore them up tight at the shores of Troy. These ships were 'Ship Shape'. There were rooms for food and rooms for tools and rooms for the weapons of warriors. They were engineered for the art of sailing and there was no clutter. They were of a time when men were more honorable and more closer to the Gods. They were men like Achilles who could not be bought for any price!

So the restoration of The Bridgeman continues. The art of fine tuning her purpose continues. The removal of old varnish and the repair of damaged wood and re-varnishing continues. The selection of the best multi-purpose tools to keep on board is always at the forefront of my mind as is the removal of 'clutter'.

Men have purposes in this life. A man does well to find his purpose. Give a man a screw driver, a crow bar and a hammer and he has a good shot at doing something with his life to serve honorable purposes and to not make a mess of his life. It is always the options that give grounds for following navigational courses for fame or for failure. 'Know thy Map'.

The restoration of The Bridgeman is always upfront and visual before my eyes. It is like a micro-reality representative of the bigger reality that faces us all. The reality of Life. When I focus on just one task in the restoration process I make progress. When I try to take on too many of the parallel tasks, I lose my ground. Simplicity is ever in the present moment and doing one thing to the best of one's abilities. Beyond this, we are hounded by our pasts and we are often tormented by our future. A past that we cannot change and a future that only right action one step and one breath at a time will serve to architect.

As the poet writes:

"Ruler of Olympus, why didst thou see fit

To add this anguish to man's other woes:

Foreknowledge by grim signs of future blows?...

Strike by surprise, and shroud our fate in night;

Even in terror, let hope remain man's right;

-LUCAN

Yes, a clean sailboat is a happy sailboat. Reef often and reef early, the storms are always just around the corner. Listen to The Captain.

We all have a Captain of our ship. In similar manner do all creatures great and small and all the celestial stars and planets in the heavens following there prescribed and orderly orbits.

Beyond the perception of chaos and beyond the successes and failures in our lives is to be found a Supreme Architect of all things who in one way or another keeps a clean ship and a happy ship sailing through the winds of time.

Messy Bed..., Messy Head!

Less Is More

Henry David Thoreau once stated that: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." He went on subsequently to say: "In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high."

The Bridgeman is a tool designed by a Navel Architect to cut through vast bodies of Ocean Blue Water and to deliver her Captain and Crew safely to a chosen destination. Every section of her Hull and her Cabin Equipment and her standing and running rigging are all designed to function together with harmony. Each component does its own job. Sheets, halyards, forestays, backstays, turnbuckles, cleats, the Lazarette and blocks and all other components function in harmony. They are the tools and components of a sailboat, which in itself, operates in harmony to the world around her.

Sailboats are like the human body comprised of bone and muscle and all such neurological nerve control systems that make the body perform in accordance with surrounding conditions. They both have capabilities and limitations. They both operate when optimized and balanced to the conditions around them. The human body reacts poorly to Junk Food abuse, and so does a sailboat when all on deck and below fall short of being in 'ship-shape' condition. Excess weight and excess clutter cause deterioration of optimum balance and optimum performance. In the case of a sailboat, I believe it is good to have a few good books on board. The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer. The Essays by Michael de Montaigne. Shakespeare, Emerson, Spinoza, Herodotus, Marcus Aurelius, Dante, and a handful of other classics to sharpen the mind. There must also be tools, but tools and spare parts that are well studied for functionality and for redundancy when in need. Best to look very close at a sailboat. Best to look at every component of The Bridgeman and count the sum of all her parts. Study them. Draw pictures of them. Measure them and get to know them intimately. Look at the forest and then look at the trees and then look at the root of the tree and even as close as the moss. See how they move. See how they operate. Find out how best to keep every part clean and operational in optimum form.

In the past days I have taken some time to see the Northern Neck of Virginia. Visited the towns of Reedville and Lively and Irvinton and many others. As a friend said, 'they all look like they made it through the Declaration of Independence and the Civil War....but that nothing else has changed with the exception of basic cell phones and digital TV's. Sure, HDTV. (Big Deal). But fundamentally, nothing has changed. Not even Uncle Tom's Cabin.

In Irvington I discovered and old and dilapidated Marina. It looked like a place that had once been very prosperous in its time. More than likely for 50 years. But now it looks like a tornado came through the Marina and blew out all the windows and doors of the buildings and crushed the roofs with all inventory inside. Almost as if one day humans were running a business and the next day spirits and ghosts. Old boats lying in a yard. Old sea-plane and flight simulator equipment. Ghost ships still tied to the docks rotting away. Reels of rigging wire everywhere. Old cranes and shipwright equipment everywhere. File drawers full of paper. All that is left is a story of the former owner in a hospital on 24/7 life support and a resident grounds keeper/watchmen and a few Pit Bulls on chains. At first thought as I walked through what looked like a Dresden/Germany WWII fire bombing was to think about all of the great stuff I could buy at pennies on the dollar. Started to even look at beautiful stainless steel turnbuckles lying on old drums and with the excitement of a pack-rat began to think how they would come in handy. Even started to dream of getting a good deal on the drums of rigging wire. How quickly the glitter of it all sinks into the minds eye and the minds belly. More and more and more. And with it comes more and more and more junk plastic from Wall Mart to store it all. In the end, a desperate act for desperate thinking. Unbalanced thinking. Pure pointless consumerism. All wrapped up in a neat little package of justification. This time it is the sailboat justification package. Formally it was with the Thoroughbred Horse justification package or the fly fishing or the scuba diving or the motorcycle or the bi-plane or tool collecting justification packages. They all come and go like some big crater in the soul. How hard it is on the contrary, to just go back to The Bridgeman and to just look at one turnbuckle and study her anatomy. To take the time to count the inventory of like species of sailboat parts. To see how many parts fit into the bigger part. Or to just be content with what one has and to take the time to get out the stainless steel polish in order to actually polish turnbuckles or cleats or any other existing equipment. Always the same old story. More and more and more. And with it fragmentation and degeneration. Never freedom and never sharpness as in the blade of a wandering Samurai and his sword.

It truth Less is More. Less gives us more. Having less gives us the freedom to spend less time thinking of our own 'miserable' self-generated and self-architected conditions, and more time to actually think about helping others or just being kind to others. To be free to speak nicely and sincerely to another human being at a Super-Market while waiting for a 1/2 pound of Swiss cheese to run through the slicer. To have more time to be connected to the dignity of other people and other creatures around us.

My conclusions are as follows: The Bridgeman must be lean and mean. Lean in the sense of having nothing on board that weighs her down and down into the belly of the sea. Mean in the sense of being a finely tuned tool with her Bow and her Hull and her Rigging all working in unison and in chorus to cut her way through the seas. The Bridgeman must cut through me and with it all of the baggage and drag that I carry throughout the day. Time to dump the stuff overboard in a near-literal sense.

Last night in the middle of the night I could not sleep peacefully and went topside to tie up a halyard that had been blowing in the strong wind and clanging against the main mast. The clouds looked wild and stormy. The wind was tossing everything about as the clouds moved across the sky and the trees blew sway from the wind. It looked like a wild world and like an untamed world as I was trying to imagine what it would be like in the middle of an ocean in such conditions with no one to talk to and no dock plug connecting me to THE MATRIX!

I have certainly started something that I must not forsake. Homer and the other thousands of brave souls have traveled down this road and there is nothing to fear but fear itself. Fear as they say in Dune...is the mind killer. So I say thank you to you Henry David Thoreau for your Walden and Other Writings. PS: And thanks to you Ralph Waldo Emerson for your Essay: Self Reliance and other Writings. PPS: And thank you to my dear friends in Republic/WA and to my new friends at Zion Baptist Church in Lottsburg/VA (Northern Neck/VA).

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.

The Sea Otter

Had a visit from a Sea Otter. Spotted him at the entrance to the Marina before He drifted over to The Bridgeman with something like an oyster or crab shell in His mouth. A sort of lackadaisical drifting on his back as if he had not a care in the world. As he drifted closer to the dock I could see that he was a big boy and wondered for a moment whether or not he was really a seal. But then I noted more of the puppy like characteristics of an Otter. Interesting that most all species of life on this planet have a set of eyes, a set of ears, a nose and a mouth to chew with. This Otter no doubt was fully aware of his environment and split real quick when he observed motion on board The Bridgeman.
Made progress today varnishing with Cetol the Port Side upper cabin teak embellishment railing. Completed first a review of the sanded areas and hit them again with 120 grit paper using the 5" orbital sander. Then I brushed the areas clean several times and masked off the surrounding areas with blue painters tape. Also taped clear plastic to the lower cabin wall and over the teak deck areas to make sure drops of Cetol did not run off. Used a 1 inch tapered brush for the best effect. Only applied one coat. Started with a second coat but the application appeared gummy....so I decided to hold off. Will wait for tomorrow and apply a second coat after rubbing clean with a Marine solvent. Looks very nice.
Also sanded smooth the 2 foot square section of the teak deck where I had applied the sandable teak deck caulking between the deck strips. Then I applied Teak Oil to this section just to see the effect. Sure enough, the deck was starving for oil and attention. The Sun is hard on substances in this world. Teak decking included. The Bridgeman decks are now 33 years old. Same age as Jesus Christ when he set foot in the ancient lands to deliver a message of Peace and a Gospel of Good Tidings. I am hopeful that my care of The Bridgeman decking will be a resurrection of its own accord. It would cost a fortune to install a new teak deck. So in my view, I will simple care for every strip of teak until all of the individual parts come together with fine new seams of teak deck caulking positioned to the left and right of every strip and the collective whole then hums to the tune of Mahler's resurrection symphony. Restoring a teak deck is a bit like dentistry. Decay sets itself in play and the Dentist removes the decay and carefully bonds new filler to a sculptured surface. Presently I am the Teak Deck Dentist. I use a simple tool that I found in Home Depot that is shaped like a V-Blade to pull out the old caulk. I then insert the new Boat Life Black Teak Decking Caulk and rub it smoothly into the joint. I make sure I apply an ample bead and then let it cure for 24 hours. Then I sand the caulking residue and the teak deck strips lightly to get a fresh clean-cut look and feel. It also looks like the hours of 3pm to 7pm are my favorite working hours of the day and the most productive. This is the time for sanding and varnishing and for careful on my knees work pulling out all the old stripes of teak caulking I find it best to sand and varnish port side, and in contrast, to work on teak deck restoration on the starboard side. An East/West routine.
Listening to music also helps. For teak restoration, I recommend a mixture of Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Alice Cooper, Def Leapord, Sting, Little Hatch and the House Rockers R&B, Marianne Faithful and a bit of Pearl Jam, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Bob Dylan and Stevie Nicks.
Wrapped up the evening with a walk over to the Skip Jack Inn. Walked a bit along the sand beach to watch the Cranes. Like the Otter, they seem well adept at life. They sit solo on some rock or sand bar where the water has ebbed away at low tide. With patience, they wait for sustenance to swim by as a present for an early evening meal. God almighty seams to provide each species their just nourishment proportionate to their needs and their relationship to him.
In closing, I am thinking of Aristotle. He believed in the Golden Mean. The point of balance which existed on neither too little or too much and in his belief that it was the purpose of each Man and Woman on this earth to find happiness in doing something that made them feel happy about life and challenged them to be the best that they could be in doing whatever skill they felt they could do best. I pondered today the subject of youth. Our own youth. Seems for the most part our time in youth is concerned with the "I" and never with the "We". How many years I wasted in the pursuit of the evil "I" as opposed to dedicating my life to the perpetuation and to the care of the goodness of the collective "We". Oh well, the good news is that we can change. Just takes courage and right action. And habitual right action in the view of Aristotle....leads to happiness in this life.

Kinsale Marina

Another beautiful day in Paradise.
Following an evening storm, I find that The Bridgeman is dry. One small leak at the cabin hatch and investigation has revealed the cause. Will add to the list of restoration tasks. The goal here is to keep all water outside of The Bridgeman. That being all water from below and all water from above.
Carried on today with sanding of the upper cabin top teak trim embellishments. What comes to mind is patience. It takes time to get even a small area ready to varnish. One must start with 100 grit sandpaper and move on to 120 and 150 respectively. Caulking has to also be removed where teak sections join. If it looks imperfect, it means that one is racing beyond the point of patience. Our guts tell us always what is right and what is wrong. It we race to the finish line of varnishing without near perfect prep work, we will not be happy. Always best to take the time to do it right the first time. Don't look at the whole sailboat, just look at the individual components that make up the whole. Like the human body. Many parts. It will take time, years worth of time to fully restore The Bridgeman to a near original condition of grace and glory.
Watched a Sea Gull devour a fish this morning. Another Gull was nearby on another piling but did not disrupt. The Sea Gull with the fish managed to consume the fish just by shaking his head left and right to devour as much as possible. No hands. Just beak. At one point he dropped a third of the fish back into the water. I was curious it he would swoop down to consume the balance of the fish but it was not necessary. Off he flew, and with great speed took off to a distant part of the river. How simple life must be to fly with a perfectly engineered body consisting of wings that serve as an airfoil and eyes to spot food and a mouth to consume food. No need really to think about Wall Street or retirement or the news on BBC.
John helped me to take down my Mizzen sail today and then John, Marty and Terry helped me fold her up in preparation for sending her off to be cleaned and tuned up with some new stitches if required. The sail will be sent to a Mom and Pop shop with very reasonable pricing. Also folded up the UV Sail Cover which is very worn. Will take measurements and in time buy a sewing machine to make a new UV Sail Protection Cover out of Black Materials. They will contrast the red masts.
Went sailing briefly with John, Marty and Terry. Strong head winds aborted the sail. Came back in time to resume sanding The Bridgeman. Will resume in the morning and also treat a one square foot section of the teak deck with the Boat Life Marine Caulk just to get familiar with using this sandable teak decking system product which will also be used for crack between adjoining sections of teak.
John was later playing R&B Accordion tunes for Terry, Marty and Myself. Lots of talent. While in the middle of the concert performance I noted the Sea Gulls again. They fly and fly and are always in harmonious union with the world around them. Humans are not in Harmonious union with each other or with themselves or with the world around them. We consume nearly everything in our path. Sea Gulls and Ospreys and Eagles on the other hand are in harmonious union with the world. They are beautiful airfoils on hunting and recreation missions. There is no war between them like the flying Ace's of WWI. Only harmony that is proportionate to the balanced resources of this world.
The Bridgeman is starting to change. I can feel her and she can feel me. Restoration is in motion and union is taking shape just like the part one and part two of epoxy once carefully mixed into a single bonding agent.

Sanding and Zen

Restoration of The Bridgeman

Arrived at The Bridgeman on April 5th evening just following Easter with my family at Patty and Eric's Home in VA. Marty, Gerry, my Dad, Kristin, Olivia, Delinda and my cousins all attending. Good time by one and all.
Spent April 6th organizing The Bridgeman for commencement of the project. Went to the nearby town of Calleao, VA that has Marine supply stores to order several tubes of Boat Life Teak Deck Caulking Material (Black) which is a sandable product. Have selected the upper cabin teak rail embellishments as the first project to commence on April 7th,2010 which is today!
Met John and his wife Marty and Mark who are my neighbors at Kinsale Marina who sail Hunter and Ericsson Sailboats. Went sailing yesterday afternoon with John and Marty on their Hunter 30' - Nova. It was a beautiful evening and a wonderful sail out to the mouth of the Potomac River in sight of Saint Mary's City and Point Lookout and the Lower Chesapeake Bay. Sailed back into Kinsale under a red sunset and woke this morning to a fresh pot of coffee that I made on board The Bridgeman as I sat on deck looking at the Sea Gulls and the nest of flying Ospreys. The weather is amazingly beautiful. The stars at night are vivid. Life is slow and serene. The maintenance of a sailboat is symbolic of the maintenance of the economy of life.

The Bridgeman Restoration Project Plan - Draft February 9th, 2010:

The Bridgeman Restoration Plan #1 - February 9, 2010

Restoration Priorities:

Install new automatic bilge pump.

Install secondary automatic high water alarm in bilge.

Investigate Cetol products for teak restoration.

Investigate caulking products for teak deck restoration.

Advertise in Craig’s List: (Wanted - Used Teak Deck Materials)

Begin restoration of teak decks.

Begin restoration of cabin hatch #1.

Begin restoration of cabin hatch #2.

Begin restoration of deck hatch #3 above the v-berth.

 Apply new exterior caulk seals to mounts surrounding the 9x portal windows.

 Apply new exterior caulk seals to mounts surrounding all remaining windows.

 Sand surfaces of teak decks and replace defective caulking and deck screws.

 Sand surface of bowsprit ‘walkway’ and apply Cetol restoration products

 Apply Cetol restoration products to the entirety of the teak decking surfaces.

 Sand surfaces of all upper deck teak trim and wood embellishments.

 Apply Cetol restoration products to all upper deck teak trim and embellishments.

 Measure dimensions for new Main and Mizzen UV Sail Protection Covers.

 Purchase new UV Cover material and custom build new Black UV Covers.

 Haul and block The Bridgeman and apply 3x coats of ablative hull paint.

 Install new through hull value and ball and engine winterization system.

 Inspect and adjust all  tension rigging.

 Inspect and upgrade all running rigging.

 Clean all cockpit and interior storage compartments.  

 Clean all interior wood work.

 Clean and polish all interior wood floors.

 Inspect and lubricate the helm’s rudder steering control system.

 Inspect water tanks and fill water tanks.

 Inspect fuel tanks and fill fuel tanks.

 Inspect sails in zero wind (Dockside).

 Conduct sea trials under Diesel Power.

 Conduct sea trials under Sail Power.

 Restore ‘The Bridgeman’ Vessel Name Planks at Bow.

 Restore ‘The Bridgeman’ Vessel Name Plank at Stern.

 Restore ‘ Washington DC’ Port of Call Plank at Stern.

 Install new depth finder unit.

 Install new running lights.

 Install new AIS unit.

 Polish all Brass and Bronze equipment.

 Polish all Stainless Steel Rails and Rigging Fixtures.

 Upgrade all Galley Counter Surfaces and Galley Equipment.

The Bridgeman

The Bridgeman is the story of an adventure.

The Bridgeman is a beautiful Ketch Sailboat.

The Bridgeman is the name of the beautiful Ketch Sailboat.

The adventure is The Bridgeman. The adventure begins with her restoration. The adventure is an immortal adventure. It is as old as the time when men and women first took to the seas in vessels propelled by sails in search of new lands, fortunes, fame, glory and in pursuit of all adventures which lead to an understanding of the nature of the world and the meaning of our lives in this world.