Why friends are awesome (AKA Jesse rocks)

As you can probably tell by now, I am totally psyched about Creeky.  What you may not know is that there is someone else that is just as, if not more, excited about it.  That person is my buddy Jesse, who totally rocks (it's a family trait).  So far I have been completely consumed by thinking about all of the projects I need to do, what order to do them in, and how to build what I can't buy.  I have to admit that there have also been days when I can't focus on work because I am so distracted by these projects.  I actually feel pretty guilty about this.

Then, just as I am trying to refocus on work responsibilities I start getting emails from Jesse about how he just got off the phone with the guy at Edson about the tensile strength of the chain in their steering kits, and how when he spoke to the guy at McMaster-Carr he found out that they don't have an appropriate chain to cable option so he may have to fabricate it at his office.  He then goes on to send me this little concept he just whipped up while at work:

All of this took place in the span of a few hours, mind you.  Needless to say I felt a little bit better about the time I spent thinking about Creeky since I wasn't half as productive.  I used this to justify that I didn't spend half as much time as Jesse, but that may or may not be the case...

Everyone should be so lucky to have a friend like Jesse.

Too little time...

Keeping up with this whole blog thing while still juggling work, school, and projects is harder than you think.  I'm no Stu Watson, and this is no Regarding Nature, but maybe it will be someday.  Last week was huge in terms of progress and expect this one to be even more productive.  Some of the major accomplishments of last week include taking tons of measurements, ordering lots of stuff, engineering things in my head, and spending my first night on the boat (and comfortably!).  I also created a binder with all of the important archival info I discovered right under my nose (and electronified it).  I don't consider myself a historian by any means, but when it comes to reading through hand written notes that are older than me detailing the exact specifications of a huge project I am standing in I get pretty excited.  Here's a little teaser:

 Here's another one that showcases the unabashed marketing techniques of the early 80's:

 And finally, my favorite collection of specifications in the form of formal correspondence between Henry and Metalmast Marine, Inc.:

 

 I plan to create a page on this blog with all of the documents I have so far, but now I need to get back to doing some homework...

Still so excited!

This weekend I met Henry, the original purchaser/designer/builder of the boat, and his wife Birgitta down in RI to take a look at the mast and just generally chat with them.  What amazing people.  They showed me the mast and rigging then invited me in for coffee and I ended up staying and chatting with them about life for a few hours.  When I left they even gave me the foul weather gear that they had originally purchased for the boat.  Henry is a mechanical engineer turned cardiologist and Birgitta is a professional singer.  They are such an inspiring couple.  So after speaking with them I was even more excited to work on Creeky.

Today me and my roommate Nikolas went to talk with a guy at Admiral's Hill Marina where I more or less finalized a deal on a slip for the summer before going to take some steering measurements on the boat.  After I did some crawling around under the cockpit and around the engine to get to the rudder post we were ready to head back out into the snowstorm.  As we were leaving I noticed 2 envelopes full of papers that I had somehow completely missed until now.  They just happened to contain original drawings, manuals, receipts, and everything else for the boat from the 80's.  JACKPOT!  Double excited at this point.

I hope to order some more parts tonight to get these projects moving along.  I am really looking forward to doing some serious work to get the boat out of the slip and into the harbor.  If anyone that is reading this cares to offer any suggestions I made a sort of project inventory list you can check out.  Pretty basic at this point, but I hope to update it soon.

Time for a change

If you have ever met a Slagle, or more specifically Jerry Slagle, you know that we tend to do things a bit differently.  We are also prone to making radical life changes with incomplete information and without fully thinking things through beforehand.  To outsiders these usually seem to be random and sporadic, but to us Slagles they make perfect sense.  Our closest friends begin to understand this behavior after they have known us for a while, and some have come to rely upon it.  The one certainty about our big decisions is that regardless of the outcome they provide great stories that are retold for years.  Some of them are even inspirational.

In keeping with this family tradition I recently made such a decision.  I bought a sailboat.  I bought a really big sailboat.  I bought a really big sailboat that needs a lot of work, and I'm going to live on it...  Here's why:

1. Life is short, and living on a boat is something I have always wanted to do
2. My friend Brian visited a pair of his friends that are doing this on their boat for a leg of their journey and came back with the conclusion that it is not an impossible dream
3. My job is becoming increasingly desk-oriented and stressful, to which my natural instincts are repelled     
4. After passively perusing craigslist for several months to get an idea of what sort of boats are usually for sale and the price ranges I came across an ad for a Creekmore 45 sailboat with a reasonable price and an intriguing back story.  Despite it needing a lot of work I decided that it was worth the investment.
5. My girlfriend Jennilee (being totally awesome) gave the nod of approval for the future of our relationship to potentially involve living out at sea 
6. I love a challenge, and this seemed right up my alley
7. The idea of doing this gave me butterflies in my stomach, which is almost always a sign that it is the right thing to do.

Blog entry number one

I've never really paid any attention to blogs.  I've read a few postings here and there when they've involved friends or a topic I'm interested in, but I have certainly never followed any.  I do so much dense academic and scientific reading for work and school that I have a hard time reading things that aren't published in peer reviewed journals.  So the fact that I am starting to write one now seems a bit ironic.  However, in the interest of self-improvement I have been meaning to start a journal of some sort for a while now.  Hopefully the blog format will satisfy that desire and posting will become routine enough for me to stick with it.

But how do I start things off?  Who am I writing to?  Do I write to whatever audience happens to create itself or do I write to myself and let the audience look in?

Dear Diary,

Today I started a blog...