PierreR
Guru
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2022
- Messages
- 564
- Vessel Name
- Mar Azul
- Vessel Make
- 1977 Hatteras 42 LRC
Once in a while someone posts something that hits you in the face and you can put everything into perspective. Barking Sands has such a post here.
This says it all to me and puts everything into perspective. I have been reading these posts on here and feeling somewhat callous and reckless with what I will tolerate before leaving the dock and going away from parts availability. Barking Sands post puts things into perspective for me.
A bit of background. My father, a native American was raised by a drunken father with no mother. He left home at 14 and ran a trap line on snowshoes in Northern Michigan until 16 when (no birth certificate) lied about his age to get into the army for WWII. He spent the war in Europe, finished the war in the South Pacific and then Korea. The first 26 years of his life he witnessed the very worst that humans were capable of. He vowed his children would be tough and not be victims of a total collapse of civilization.
His solution was that we would be able to survive off grid and be able to fix anything without written instructions and with simple had tool with whatever was available to us. I hated it, other kids could play, we could not. By the time I was 7, I could fix any small engine piece of machinery out there. At 10, I could drive and got a 1916 International Harvester truck running after sitting in a field for 40 years. By the time I was 13, I had built my first complex boat. By 18, I had built a 1967 mid-engine Mustang four-wheel drive that did not look out of the ordinary. When I left home, I truly was MacGyver.
Barking Sands post just puts the mirror up. I am comfortable with normally high uncertainty. Subconscious for me is the reality “If it ain’t sunk, I ain't stuck”. I will take off with my boat with very little pre planning and expect a great outcome. Such as, I have headed up the coast for 6-7 hours and we will shop for an anchorage along the way. My tools are very simple, and my parts list has a lot of odds and ends for raw materials instead of great new parts.
Case in point, brought my boat home from Louisiana last spring. I knew the hoses were all junk on engines. Changed the coolant and took off. In Cape May, ready to head north I noticed a sheen in the engine room and thought the coolant may be lower. With a good weather window, I went but noted to keep track of temps and the bilge. Temps started to climb and I pulled back the starboard engine to idle. Went below and discovered a pin hole in a 2” coolant elbow. Shut the engine down, cut a patch of rubber, cleaned the hose and patch. Used JB Weld 5-minute marine epoxy (5200 on steroids), zip tied the patch to the hose, waited 5 minutes and topped off the coolant with 50-50 mix I had on board. That was in May, the patch was so good it’s still there. I will change the hoses in heated storage this winter. It only makes sense and I now have the time. To me the whole 3,400 mile trip seemed normal and rather uneventful.
My wife came from money and is not comfortable with things I will accept. Barking Sands post screams “Dude, you have alien powers with a dose of stupid, give your wife a break and be a bit more conventional.”
I need to adopt the thinking that civilization is intact, I an not off the grid, I have $, I have a yacht and can certainly adopt ways my wife would be much more comfortable with.
I recall in my early years observing how we had really basic tooling to use day to day when compared to our Air Force and Navy counterparts. As an example, all sheetmetal and riveting was done using an old hand cranked drill, bucking bar, rivet set and hand hammer to squeeze solid rivets. At times, during large jobs, some of the guys would get angry because we had all the needed air operated tools locked up in the tool cabinet. They were decades old and still shiny.
It wasnt until my first deployment that I understood why. We landed right on top of a narrow stump sticking up in a grassy field puncturing a 2 inch hole in the bottom of the fuselage. It was repaired that same day using those very basic handtools.
This says it all to me and puts everything into perspective. I have been reading these posts on here and feeling somewhat callous and reckless with what I will tolerate before leaving the dock and going away from parts availability. Barking Sands post puts things into perspective for me.
A bit of background. My father, a native American was raised by a drunken father with no mother. He left home at 14 and ran a trap line on snowshoes in Northern Michigan until 16 when (no birth certificate) lied about his age to get into the army for WWII. He spent the war in Europe, finished the war in the South Pacific and then Korea. The first 26 years of his life he witnessed the very worst that humans were capable of. He vowed his children would be tough and not be victims of a total collapse of civilization.
His solution was that we would be able to survive off grid and be able to fix anything without written instructions and with simple had tool with whatever was available to us. I hated it, other kids could play, we could not. By the time I was 7, I could fix any small engine piece of machinery out there. At 10, I could drive and got a 1916 International Harvester truck running after sitting in a field for 40 years. By the time I was 13, I had built my first complex boat. By 18, I had built a 1967 mid-engine Mustang four-wheel drive that did not look out of the ordinary. When I left home, I truly was MacGyver.
Barking Sands post just puts the mirror up. I am comfortable with normally high uncertainty. Subconscious for me is the reality “If it ain’t sunk, I ain't stuck”. I will take off with my boat with very little pre planning and expect a great outcome. Such as, I have headed up the coast for 6-7 hours and we will shop for an anchorage along the way. My tools are very simple, and my parts list has a lot of odds and ends for raw materials instead of great new parts.
Case in point, brought my boat home from Louisiana last spring. I knew the hoses were all junk on engines. Changed the coolant and took off. In Cape May, ready to head north I noticed a sheen in the engine room and thought the coolant may be lower. With a good weather window, I went but noted to keep track of temps and the bilge. Temps started to climb and I pulled back the starboard engine to idle. Went below and discovered a pin hole in a 2” coolant elbow. Shut the engine down, cut a patch of rubber, cleaned the hose and patch. Used JB Weld 5-minute marine epoxy (5200 on steroids), zip tied the patch to the hose, waited 5 minutes and topped off the coolant with 50-50 mix I had on board. That was in May, the patch was so good it’s still there. I will change the hoses in heated storage this winter. It only makes sense and I now have the time. To me the whole 3,400 mile trip seemed normal and rather uneventful.
My wife came from money and is not comfortable with things I will accept. Barking Sands post screams “Dude, you have alien powers with a dose of stupid, give your wife a break and be a bit more conventional.”
I need to adopt the thinking that civilization is intact, I an not off the grid, I have $, I have a yacht and can certainly adopt ways my wife would be much more comfortable with.