Raining in Rio

Rio when it rains; nice picture - bad situation.

Usually we "Cariocas", habitants of Rio de Janeiro, get lots of sun and warm weather. Winter is generally short and clement. But every year we get about two weeks of miserable wheather. Well,... guess what: we are just having them!

My honouring of Yemanjá didn't work. How could it? No white flowers into the sea, no perfumes, no offerings at all. ...

My thanks to Heloísa (http://www.flickr.com/photos/eloisa/), the author of the nice picture of Praia Vermelha in rainy wheather. On Top.

And thanks to Agencia OGlobo (oglobo.globo.com/fotos). Below.

Yemanjá - Goddess of the Seas

Yemanjá is the goddess of the Ocean and the Seas, one of the seven orixás. She is worshiped by African Umbanda religions, and as such, has many followers in Brazil. In representations, like the above, she is shown as a beautifull, well proportioned lady, emerging in a voluptous dress from the waves of the sea. An image not far away from a syren or mermaid... She's got my full sympathy and attention.

Being the goddess of the sea, my take is that she'll take care of sailors too. And, maybe she'll extend that goodwill to boatbuilders? And, again maybe, she has some good relations to the orixá responsible for the weather? ... Yes?

If this were the case, I would ask her to make her influence work, to improve our weather in Rio de Janeiro. It is raining around here since Sunday! Cold, rainy weather is stopping our boatbuilding works! We have to laminate to get to the next step! Turn the boat and move on!!! Goddamit!!! Oh, sorry - no swearing in this post... :-/ I'll need to prepare a feast to do some honour....


From Wikipedia:
"The goddess is known as Yemanjá, Iemanjá or Janaína in Brazilian Candomblé[3] and Umbanda religions. The Umbanda religion worships Iemanjá as one of the seven orixás of the African Pantheon. She is the Queen of the Ocean, the patron deity of the fishermen and the survivors of shipwrecks, the feminine principle of creation and the spirit of moonlight. A syncretism happens between the catholic Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes (Our Lady of the Seafaring) and the orixá Iemanjá of the African Mithology. Sometimes, a feast can honor both."

Crossing continued

This time I was positively suprised.

After the cryptice message I got on the phone, I was prepared for the worst. I started calling for options to store the boat - a new shed... I thought new crew was required. Urgently.

But, upon getting to the boatbuilding shed, I found Luiz Fernando quite well humored. A bit out of breath, that's right. But he was well humored and positive.

After brief greetings, I found out he had not only executed the activites we had agreed upon, but had already started lamination of the hull. He had done 1/4 of the hull.

The problem was - and this was what he was eager to talk about - his epoxi alergy... Luiz Fernando was stuck by an epoxi intoxication ... He was rather incommodated by this. And so was I. He had started lamination on Thursday, whith an intention to surprise me positevely. And so he did. The negative side was the unitentional side effect.

Well,... I orderd masks, gloves, protection suits, and whatever other IPE can be found for lamination jobs. I shure don't want to ruin Luiz Fernando's health with the building of this boat!

The panels for tha ama are cut out. I think the ama seems rather small. But, that's how it is. If it proves to small, I'll build a bigger one.

The keel is fixed and is being moulded.

I have not written about Bugre, the dog. Bugre is Luiz Fenrnado's dog. He is about 195 years old. His favorite past-time is to sit right where we need to work.

Crossing

Glad I got out early today. The day is fine. Lots of moisture in the air. But my take is that the sun is going to burn that away before noon. Is it not? The view over the bay is somewhat hazy. Well, ok,.. more that somewhat... Can't even see the other end of the bridge. Is it still there? It allways is, so; get the pedal down! I need to get to the workshop before 10am!

I call Luiz Fernando, to arrange things. We need to get this lamination done today!

On the phone he is cryptic. I ask: is all ok? How do you feel? Do you think we can do it today? At least get started?
I get no clear answer. He says: "Come over here - let's talk."

Oh!

"What? Let's talk what? The day is clear, hot. Shall we? Laminate? Do it?"...
All I get is: "Come over here, we'll talk."

Rats! not again!

"Is that a yes, or a no??" I ask...
I hate cryptic answers...

Cabin and deck

These dimensions are more towards what we are really building.

I had thought about a dagger- or centerboard, but left it, due to the complications regarding the interior cabin-space, and growth of barnicles in the board-slot. The water in our bay is rather dirty, and barnicle growth is a problem. I'm considering a copper-epoxi paint for protection. Need to find a source for the copper powder...

I did not consider a transom hung rudder for eastetic reasons. And;

Aleguá, the first boat I sailed on, my fathers, had a transom hung rudder. I loved the boat. But for some reason, I allways envied the boats that had inside rudders... Like, ... real boats had inside rudders. Hardly a well founded, reasonable motivation to build the rudder I will build... I know... but what can I do? I have to nourish some of my childhood frustrations while I build my childhood dream. Just to keep the ballance. A sort of "I want it, because I want it" argumentation...

General layout of Arpex

Following a request by Creed, from the Ethnic Catamaran Company, see a few images which ilustrate the general layout of Arpex. They are not exact plans, but rather something going towards an artist view. They are PowerPoint developments, which I have drawn over the plans which I received from the Naval Architecht. I have posted them before.

The above shows a side- and stern view of the boat. The rig is a adapted Wharram rig - here shown with the first reef tucked in.

And below is a seagullseye view. The image is a bit dated, since I have eliminated the ringframes. Instead I will have the crossbeams going across the main hull, to have a more conservative structural solution. Shure, this will ruin a good part of precious cabinroom. But it is the price I have to pay for some piece of mind. The solution that the NA gave me, with the beams attached to an intermediary aka structure, just didn't convince me. The crossbeams will not be as massive as shown here on the picture (20x15cm), and are slightly more apart from each other - actually 220 cm.

To all those new readers a short description of the requirements regarding the livability:
- sitting headroom in the cabin
- confortable double bed (in the leepod, 70cm, and extendable into the mainhull, +40cm = 110cm)
- confortable navigation table with view forward
- inside steering position, from the navigation table
- two sitting positions, in row
- small "heads" (in the back of the cabin)
- room for an icebox
- minuscule room to store a camping stove and cooking stuff
- generous outside living space, on the aka deck, where most living will take place

All this is thought to provide a platform for an extended weekend cruise, not a luxurious cruiser with plenty of inside space.

Back in the office

Reality bites. I'm back in the office.

But, really, I've got to take it from the good side. In a time of turbulent financial world markets, I can be glad to be sailing in fair weather towards my own private dream - mostly untouched by its effects, until now.

To give a perspective: Just imagine If I had decided to put my money in stocks, instead of wood and epoxi! That would have been a reasonable decision. Yeah; I would be so f**@%g pissed off! Instead, I sold my last stocks to buy epoxi, just before they crashed down more than 60%!!! I mean.... think about that!!! That must be a sign!!!

Image from: http://wwwb.click21.mypage.com.br/MyBlog/visualiza_blog.asp?site=outracoisa.myblog.com.br
It is a brazilian fishing canoe, from the NorthEastern State of Ceará. Unfortunatelly I have no more information about it... looks nice, doesn't it?

Blue Nose - Queen of the Grand Banks

This is a phantastic document of one of the great fishing schooners of the Grand Banks - the Blue Nose. It is sailing a regatta against another great schooner. This defines the expression "a cloud of sails". Pure beauty.

A time which is long time gone. The time of the fishing schooners... and of the Grand Banks as a fishing eldorado...

Arpoador

A nice picture, showing a dramatic view from the Arpoador Rock, the namegiver of my boat. It is a good image of the current situation of the boatbuilding project. Waves are high, storm clouds passing. The sun is going down, giving end to a laborious day.

Anyway,... a nice place to sit and enjoy the view.

What will come next?

The image is taken from the internet. Sorry, I don't have the source...

What is your spot?

This blog is close to reach a milestone in terms of numbers of visitors. Almost 10.000,... currently 9.538, to be precise. Interesting.

But, more interesting than the counter, I find it to observe the clustermap, which records the origins of visitors. Each visit is recorded as a red spot on a beautyfull world map. Bigger spots reveal the locations of frequent visitors. There are about 70 of you... mainly in South and North America, Europe and Oceania. But also Israel, Thailand and others... To many of the spots, I know, or suspect, the respective names behind it. Some have left comments or written privately. Most are anonimous.

There are visits from the Galapagos Islands, for example. Did this visitor read my post about my stay on the island? Did I meet this person, maybe? Did we cross paths without looking up, without noticing each other?

But also, there are visits from Mongolia, Algeria, Nigeria, Madagascar, Vanuatu, Fidschi, Pitcairn, Island, Saudi Arabia...

Fascinating.

Anyway, I meant to write a post about why I blog. But won't manage to answer this question today. Maybe soon.

Many shades of gray

In the last few days I was fully focussed on getting the hull laminated. I was very upset at the prospect of not getting there. Now that I didn't, I'm not upset any more. I know I tried.

My participation on the construction was a very enriching experience. And we did a significant jump forward. Even if it might not appear so to some, judging from the pictures.

Weather window closed...

Despite many efforts, we have not achieved the objective of my holiday period, which was to laminate the main hull and turn it. As of next Monday, I will go back to the office, and will not be available for construction.

In fact, we might have just made it, but our weather window closed down on us. It started raining just as we finished fairing the hull. And lamination with epoxi can not be done in rainy, humid weather. Take a look at the forecast below. It is amazing how bloody accurate they have become. In this case, I found that quite annoying...

This kind of messes up our whole process. There is not much to be done on the hull now, and we will have to wait until Saturday for lamination, so that I can be there and help. I have therefore asked Luiz Fernando to cut the first pieces for the ama during this comming week.

Microcruising

That's micro-cruising... ;-)
Micronesian cruising equipment.
But hey!.... how do you shunt a rig over this structure?
It is a shunting proa.

Cozinha total

Fairing Arpex

We spent the day applying "bondo" (massa sintética), and fairing the hull. A whole lot of work.

And yes; "Thank God for sanding machines!" ... what a cliché sentence... must have been repeated by zillions of boatbuilders already... sorry, but it is still true.

During the lunch break I went to the beach. Hey! Remember? I'm on holiday!!! I enjoyed. We had a beautyfull day. I was pretty much alone, and enjoyed the sparkling view towards the hills of Rio de Janeiro.

Unfortunatelly it was not possible to finish the job. So, more "bondoing" and sanding tomorrow. I would guess, that we need some 4 hours more. And if, just if, we are lucky, if the weather cooperates, then we might manage to laminate on Saturday. But I'm afraid, that the weather is not going to hold. It is actually clouded already...

My brother Stefano's canoe in Parati Mirim

Stefano has posted some nice pictures of his canoe adventures on his Castelinho 38 blog. He uses his traditional Paraty style canoe to explore the so called "tropical fjord" - "Saco the Mamanguá", and the surrounding mangroves.

Stefano has also suggested to bring my canoe, Arara, the 14ft. tacking outrigger, to the same place. A new home for Arara. Of course I love the idea. We will bring the canoe there on the next opportunity.

Amazon bassin

An interesting image of the amazon bassin. Colorfull. I like it.

Better ending

The end of the day brought this project back into the light. We managed to get the hull coated with epoxi. It was very satisfying for me to achieve this milestone.