I HATE SHOES

The old one was a hunk of rotten mahogany and the most visibly apparent reason why I could not head south this year. The new one is three 2x6 pieces of plantation teak, ordered from Florida in October. I had them shipped to Maine with the intent of driving up to my dad's place to assemble and cut it in his wood working shop up there. Unfortunately, the Geo is on its way out and won't make it off Aquidneck Island, I found this out the hard way. My dad came down to Newport with the wood and some tools and I started joining the pieces together the next day. After the epoxy had set, Elizabeth came down from Boston and helped me cut and shape the wood into one resembling the old bowsprit. I had to be careful on the length and get it exactly correct, I didn't want to get a new headstay! My neighbor at the marina here knew a guy with a big sander at the shipyard, that saved me a whole lot of time. After it was cut and sanded, I ordered some bronze hardware to ...

Last night it dropped below freezing for the first time this season. I could see my breath as I went to sleep last night and I was greeting in the morning with a thin layer of ice on the dock. All of this is so wonderfully reminiscent of living on Winchelsea  three winters ago in Boston. As much as I can't stand the cold, that was an extremely pivotal and significant time in my life, and to be revisiting it with the additional knowledge I've gained and a boat I truly desired is blissful. Below is my typical morning: bOatmeal and coffee with my Primus OmniFuel stove, that I plan to put on gimbals soon. Boatmeal is simply a handful of rolled oats (not instant), some dry milk, raisins, cinnamon and hot water with some Grape Nuts or granola on top. Yes, the coffee is instant, but I plan on fixing that soon. Hurricane Sandy was not all that bad on the Rhode Island coast. The floating dock I am tied to was above the fixed pier it is attached to, due to the 3-4 foot sto...