Turmoil in Rio

Rio de Janeiro is suffering under a bit of a turmoil, caused by drugdealers and their gangs. In the last 3 decades, armed gangs have ruled unbothered over slum areas, the favelas, where they allways found a safe haven for their ilicit business. The labyrithic, unpenetrable, and highly populated areas gave them protection.

However, in the last 2 years the government has iniciated a strategic, long term plan to regain the territories, claimed by the gangs. Strong police action has driven them out of some communities, with subsequent, permanent installation of police stations, and gangsters are loosing ground.

In a desperate reaction, these villains have gone over to terroristic acts. They are randomly putting public transportation buses and private cars on fire.The aim is to drive fear into the population, and to make a statement of power.

But the result has been the oposite. The population, tired of random violence and fear, is backung up decidedly all police action, to restore the law. The society feels that it is, in fact, a sign of weakness and desperation.

To put an end to the turmoil, the police is joining forces with the army and navy to confront the gangsters in their ratholes. The result is a rather uncivilised, belical confrontation.

Since Ramos, where I build my boat, is right next to the hotspot of action, my Saturday boatbuilding has been veto-ed by the Admiral. Personnaly, I do not believe in letting my freedom be constrained by such things. And I don't think that the Club is in the line of fire either. But, in order not to worry my loved ones, I'll try not to drive out, to build my boat, tomorrow.

Models

The construction of models is an excellent way to learn boatbuilding techniques, and the challenges involved in such a project. I've had great fun in building models from early on. And before I started my first boat, the Arara canoe, I've produced a small model.

As a result from my learnings with the model, Arara came out in a totally different configuration. The model was thought as a proa, while my canoe, despite being a double ender and having a palindrome as a name, was rigged as a tacking outrigger.

Turn of events

In a surprising turn on events, I've managed to put in some extra hours on Arpex, this Sunday. Making the best out of a weekend without my girl, who crossed the country to Fortaleza, to make a presentation of her theater piece, I decided to push the gluing of the bed-bench a little furhter.

And so I did. Things need to be glued on in place, since nothing obeys straight angles. Everything needs to be cut to fit. After some two hours of gluing, I went to have lunch with Jonas. And a delicious lunch it was!

Red flag?

This blog has the colateral effect of being some sort of virtualised conscience to me. I sometimes catch me thinking; "Hell, I need to move on with my construction! It's going to look bad in my monday report, if I say, that I went to the beach, for a ride on the bike, instead of gluing the mast base..."

Sounds ridiculous. But what can I do? In the end of the day, it is a good thing. Keeps me moving on. I say this, because keeping the drive and motivation up, is hard sometimes. Last few weeks have been of the hard sort. I allways get slightly alarmed when this happens, and try to find the true causes for the affliction.

I suppose I have pointed some out, for this case. One has got to do with the current phase of construction. The furbishing and finishing of the cabin is a complex task, and it has no clear definiton of sequence for the mounting of the parts. Lots of small parts, and small projects are driving complexity. This results in me often sitting there, and trying to figure out, whether I will be penalising some other task, if I commit, and glue something on. For example: I try to get all pieces fully finished, before I glue something on, because it is infinitely easyer to do so when the piece is not bonded to something else. However, this approach imposes wayting times. Epoxi needs to be applied. Then it needs to cure, then sanding, epoxi again....

Having lots of small projects going on, means that tasks need to be carried on in parallel, so that the waiting times can be used to work, instead of sitting and waiting. But small jobs also means frequent change of tools, moving of parts, losing of parts,... Which ruins efficiency of my work. It is, therefore, frustrating at times, to see only marginal progress in the end of the day. I mean; Look at how long I've been working on this bed-bench-construction! Today I got the main support beam sanded, finished, and glued on . It is to be seen on the picture below, being held in place by the red clamp. Else, I've glued together part of the bench. I'm not nearly done with the whole thing.

I'm glad there is not much interior to do. Not much left after the bed-bench. ...And the entrance, step-box, mast base, painting of the inside, washboards, steering system, porthole-windows,....

Sitting, waiting?

Well, sitting and waiting, won't help. I need to pick up my heels, and get back to work on my boat this weekend!

A passo de formiguinha...

Rain, cold and a birthday celebration in the Club.

The Iate Clube de Ramos celebrated its 69th. year of existance.I couldn't turn the invitation down, could I? Afterall, we should celebrate a 69-er, shouldn't we?

There are a lot of good and nice people in that club, and they helped me a lot already. So, now was the time to show my appreciation.

The good thing is that during the course of a joint lunch with two of the directors of the Club, Mr. Palma re-affirmed his desire to build the metal parts for the steering mechanism.

Else than that, I just found a little bit of time to re-cut the steering pod parts. It needed sligthly more volume to house the steering drum.

Buckin' bronco ride

The nautical equivalent to a "buckin' bronco ride". Try to keep your hat with the right side up.

See this awsome footage of a solitary sailor, one a sweet looking boat, doing a fine looking job. It is incredible how much power these boats develop. Turn the sound on, put it on full screen, and enjoy the ride.

Valeu, Zé!

O Tahiti Nui Freedom reaching China

The 50ft. outrigger canoe "O Tahiti Nui Freedom", which left Tahiti bound to sail to the coast of China, is reaching its destination.

The canoe used in the epic crossing is inspired by a historical plan drawn in Tahiti by the Admiral Paris around 1820 (standard plank of wood and stich construction). And of course the voyage interests me because of the similarities between "O Tahiti Nui" and Arpex.

Foilers!

Here is one interesting new blog! It is called "Foilers!" Well,... it is new to me, anyway. Actually its records start in July 2006. It focusses on development of foilers, proas and some pretty far-out developments. Some of which have achieved fame and notoriosity in records attempts and speed weeks.

Check it out. A good opportunity to polish you french skills.

The picture I've taken from there. I'll add the blog to my blog-n'roll list.

Slightly disturbing...?

Scant progress

A bad combination of bad, rainy weather, election blues, and, admittedly, a general miss-tune, had a devastating effect on work progress in the last 3 weeks.

Nevertheless, I made it out to the boatshed yesterday. I found the place in a quite abandonned state, after two weeks of neglect. The best job to do first, in such a situation, is cleaning. I took to the sweepers, to give the place a good clean-up. The vigorous exercise also prooved good to hush away other thoughts, and focus on the day's tasks.

After the cleaning, I went back to the current job, which is the construction of the extractable bed-structure. It needed sanding and gluing. And due to rain, gluing was, again, not possible. So all I could do, was to sand all the parts I had cut 2 weeks ago. I found that keeping them all together, and make them all align correctly is a challenge, wich requires time and attention.

In the afternoon, a very heavy downpour occured. It came with the noise of a passing train. The volume of water which came down was so great, that it flooded the whole place, and thus stopped all work. I was a bit frustrated by the precocious end of activities. But then, I just watched the rain falling down, washing this part of the world. As it passed, I packed my stuff and left.

Flash Powers

The box where I keep tools materials and stuff, is in a sorry state. A leak in the roof is causing rainwater to pour in occasionally, bringing dirt and humidity in. When the light also refused work, I knew I had to do something.

I called Ney, the Club's electrician. I stared in disbelief, when I saw him manipulating open wires under load, with lights on! I said; "Godam! Get off that thing! You'll get shocked!" He calmly said: "Oh, don't worry. I 'm used to it, I get discharges all the times." He told me that he just feels a light trickle, but he doesn't care any more. He said a friend once checked him with a voltimeter, and he had high charge on him...

That is how we humans are: We get used to the craziest things.

I made a weak attempt to recommend him the use of appropriate personal protection equipment, for the execution of maintenance on eletrically charged equipment. He smiled at me and nodded.

Rio Branco

This is the main avenue of the commercial center of Rio de Janeiro, Avenida Rio Branco, at its crossing with Avenida Presidente Vargas, one of the main arteries of suburban traffic. The city has been washed empty by a heavy downpour, only an hour before.

Click on the image, and you'll be able to see the monument at the very end of the avenue.

Praia Vermelha