The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

Naoko Matsubara https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsubara_Naoko gave me one of her works.

I am very happy.

Thank you Naoko.

Her work is in the White House and now in my house.

So, I have to move the boat onto an even higher trailer, which Tabata san has miraculously found for me, to enable center plate fun. I need to be able to lower and raise the center plate easily. The plate was previously jammed but now it moves freely. However the cable that raises the plate has to be replaced and the plate itself is grotesquely corroded. I don’t know if that matters that much as I do not think looking good is the premier requisite for a center plate.

Anyway, I have to get the guys to push the boat to the huge hoist, raise her off the trailer, remove trailer, bring in the new higher trailer and dump boat on to it.

This is planned for 9:00 this morning but we get off to a slow start but being Okinawa, no-one cares in the slightest.

I profit from the delay by installing the second set of floor strips in the cockpit.

Suddenly the guys show up and off we go to the hoist.

Ready to go.

Hoisted. Notice descended center plate.

We bring in the high trailer but how to balance and secure the boat onto it is problematic. Basically there is a very good chance that she will topple over one side or the other. It becomes clear, after much good-humored  messing around that we need a long strong plank to support the bow.

Kiyuna san of course knows where one is.

Kiyuna san, Nick and perfect plank in the mighty X-Trail.

Mounted! Check out the center plate. This is the first time I have seen it.

All of this, I mean installing heavy boat high on a totally unsuitable trailer, would have been stopped for safety reasons in most places in the world, but in Okinawa it is all part of the fun.

Is n’t she beautiful ?!

So we then take her back to my slot, dreading that she will crash off the side at every bump.

We make it.

Let me take you higher.

I am not sure what to do with this. Paint it?

Here is a video.

Of late, my posts have been very boat-centric. I feel I should add a little context.

Okinawa is an amazing place to live.

I take Medium Blue  out to view the sunset.

She is a hell of a good bike and loves this kind of thing.

We end up at a little fishing harbor about 5 minutes ride from my crib.

The air is so pure

A few minutes later

Yep, Okinawa

I ride home. It is 28 degrees.

Banana skins you slip on.

So do you on gloss paint slicked with water. It is therefore necessary to paint cockpit and other surface with special anti-slip paint. This paint has granules in it that creates a surface that is very unslippery. I apply lots with very complex taping. It is fun.

Prow

I start to re-install the wood strips.

Strips screwed

All anti-slip finished. 2 coats.

There is something about peeling off masking tape to reveal clean line between white and cream color that gives great satisfaction.

Folks, I started at 9:30, by 2:00, I am suffering from heat exhaustion.

I have to reconsider my working hours. I think I have to sleep on the boat, work the early morning hours then return home to shower, cool off etc. Back to the boatyard in the evening for more work and then sleep on the boat.

Walking down the stairs this morning I come across one of my favorite bug species. I used to know what they are called but alas, have forgotten.

They always make me happy. This is a baby one.

Down at the boatyard, I am distressed to see people glorying in having slaughtered very rare and soon to be extinct fish.

This should be banned lest the Marlin goes the way of the Dodo. Would people be allowed to hang up dead Rhinos?

I spend a lot of time taping off the areas that I will  paint with anti-slip. This is a delicate job as the corners of said areas are rounded. It is difficult to tape arcs. I think up a very clever little technique, too complicated to explain here, which I think is going to work.

First coat of anti-slip on some of cockpit surfaces.

A reminder

Kiyuna san roars in. We fix up a rig with cooling water, diesel feed, jumper cables to my car’s battery. Kiyuna san touches a wire to the starter motor. There are sparks and she starts!

This wonderful! I have got an overhauled engine.   Thank you Kiyuna san! Thank you Yanmar!

A reminder

So, I am heartily sick of painting the boat. This morning I finish the 5th coat. The result, is of course  unsatisfactory. To the outsider, it looks wonderful but I only see the tiny runs, dribble, splashes and brush-marks that could have been avoided.

I now only have to do the anti-slip stuff but that can wait a while.

Kiyuna san comes by with the totally restored gear box.

All bearings changed. Kiyuna san ripped them out with his teeth.

The gearbox will outlive me

Tomorrow we will try to start the engine!

Change of subject.

I met  Naoko Matsubara san in 2014 and since we have become friends. She is one of Japan’s leading artists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsubara_Naoko

She very generously painted a mural for our university.

She is wonderful.

We have a dedication ceremony with lots of high rollers. I think mainly of my engine.

This is a very distinguished bunch. The People on the photo are: left to right:
https://www.oist.jp/senapathy-gopalakrishnan
https://www.oist.jp/albrecht-wagner
https://www.oist.jp/yoko-aniya
https://www.oist.jp/jerome-friedman
https://www.oist.jp/mr-koji-omi
https://www.oist.jp/peter-gruss
https://www.oist.jp/curtis-callan
https://www.oist.jp/yuan-tseh-lee
https://www.oist.jp/kiyoshi-kurokawa

Me, Naoko, Peter, Betty.

I go home and contemplate the amazing sunset season.

Only the beginning.

Back to it. I am down at the boatyard at 8:30 applying the final coat of Toplac; I hope.  Kiyuna san  roars in and explains that the engine is finished. Yay!

Looks like new!

So schedule is – finish painting – put boat on higher cradle – do wizadry on center plate – put boat back on original trailer – re-install engine. Nae bother.

We fiddle with rudder. Look at that huge lump of teak!

Again, it is too hot to paint by 11:30 so I wend my weary way home.

It is such a beautiful day that I release Medium Blue and cycle over to a place which the Americans labelled ‘Mermaid’s Grotto’. This is an awful name, smelling of sleazy bar in Miami, and I refuse to use it.

Great place. 5 minutes on Medium Blue.

I snorkel.

The sea is warm. Look fish!

Wash my sins away

Baby Barracuda

The only other people on the beach are three young Japanese girls.  They wave at me and beckon me over. I run. I am such a coward. I dread being sleazy.

Medium Blue is a worthy successor  to Big Red

It used to be common to hang a grapevine, ivy or other greenery, “bush”,  outside an inn or public house to advertise the availability of drink.

Notice bush hanging outside pub. Yay Bruegel!

If the drink is good, it is not necessary to advertize it – good wine needs no bush.

Outside Sake brewery – big bush.

Before I go to the airport I am quickly taken to an adjacent sake brewery.

I never drink sake. The drink in Okinawa is Awamori. This visit however was an eye opener.

I learnt how  good sake is made and I will do my best to drink it henceforth out of respect for the extreme care and craftsmanship involved in its manufacture.

Barrels of sake advertized by bush

I have to buy a bottle,

Aregato

I zoom back to Okinawa and leaving the airport, I stop off at the stinking pond. This is the home, sometimes, of a very rare bird. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-faced_spoonbill

This one’s bill is not very black. A Hybrid?

Good luck. I hope your race survives.

That spoon, that spoon, that spoonbill.

I must go to mainland Japan more often. There is so much to discover.

Having written propaganda all morning about chirality, you try doing that, I am taken on an amazing ride.

We visit the Hiroshima Peace Park.

No comment

We go to Miyajima.

Amazing.

They make spoons here.

Spoonfull

I buy one as I actually need one.

Rice spoon made from Maple.

Chirality

The place is infested with deer.

Oyster udon and conger eel on rice, washed down with Miyajima beer.

Thanks Nori san for driving me around.

We work hard on how to win a multi million dollar, yen, euro, clamshell,  grant to set up an international center to study integrated chirality. You know how it is.

This is the best fun.

Then we go and eat.

Hai!!

Oichi!

Friends and companions

Let not the relaxation disguise the work. I really hope we win this grant.