The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

My intended adventure in the new boat was stymied by cold, rainy, windy, weather. However I profit from the opportunity to take the boat out of the water to repair the various blemishes she suffered when washed up on the beach. How to drag her out of the water?

Well, this is something I have been thinking about for the last couple of months. I need to get the boat into safety if bad weather blows in. I need to be able to do it without assembling a football team of helpers. So, I bury a pole deep in the sand at the top of Dead Man’s Gulch. I buy a portable winch  that runs off a 12 volt car battery. I repair the nasty little trailer that the boat arrived on, putting on new wheels. I have grave doubts about these wheels as they are small diametrically and I fear they will sink into the sand.

Anyway,  the winch is on pole, cable and rope arrangement is attached to the trailer on which sits the boat. I press the red button and the winch hauls the boat satisfactorily up the beach

Notice tiny wheels

Satisfactorily? Well, sort of; I need another person to guide the trailer and place boards under the wheels.  Thank you David. One wheel digs into the sand and concurrently the battery runs out of er, you know, stuff.

When the power ran out. Notice buried wheel. Good looking boat!

No worries. I take the battery home to recharge and lie in the drizzle and rain, repairing the boat. Dior does a very good line of boat repair products.

The set up

Next morning I sally forth with charged battery, looking forward to dragging the boat a bit further up the beach. I place the battery in the cooler near the winch and start to pull out the metal winch cable. Somehow the cable gets coiled and flips over. Miraculously, it lands on both terminals of the battery.

How could the winch cable get in there?

Flash, sizzle, melt! I do not know what to do really as grabbing the cable would probably result in extreme pain. I watch it all sizzle for a while and then kick the cable off the terminals.

The upshot is the winch no longer works.

Oh well.

So, I have a new boat. She is moored in front of my house. I have sailed her and she is a fine boat. However sailing and anxiety are joined at the hip and I worry that the carabieneri that I use to attach the anchor rode to the anchor chain is weak. It is a crappy thing that I bought 6 of for $2 in San Francisco. It was at hand when, in the euphoric delight of setting up the boat, I needed a carabieneri for the  anchor rode.

The weather has been wonderful, with calm seas and gentle zephyrs and I knew that the boat was safe at anchor even given the febrility of the carabieneri. I knew the weather would eventually change, so after work I went to the carabieneri store and bought a stout stainless steel version that I could trust in the worst of weather.

When I got home it was dark and a little rainy and high tide. I did not wade into the sea and replace the feeble carabieneri. I stayed at home, ate octopus and practiced Beethoven’s Minuet in G on my flute. Big mistake, probably.

Corrupt and honest carabieneri

I was awoken  at 6:00 by the un-ignorable alarm clock of howling wind and waves crashing into the shore. I leap onto the deck and stare out to sea. No boat!

In 4.3258 milliseconds I am on the shore and I spy the new boat aground on a beach very close to where Dileas hurtled to her doom. Thankfully the wind was onshore else the new boat would be in China now.

Big swells are crashing onto the beach and I use them to heave the bows into the seas as the waves lift her keel. I get her out into the water, which is mountainous, and begin to haul her back to the mooring. Once again I am up to my neck in the wild and wistful ocean at 6:15 am rescuing a boat.

I get her back to the mooring which is a big Fortress anchor. http://fortressanchors.com/

Sure enough, there is no sign of the crappy carabieneri. It must have absconded from duty at some time during the night. Do not trust the Italian police.

I then swim home to get my fins and mask as I worry that the anchor might not be holding. I dive down to the anchor with a lump hammer and batter the anchor deep into the compacted coral sand bottom. It is 6:30.

New boat back on the mooring.

I make tea, shower,shave, go to the toilet, put on my suit and go to work.

Whoopee! I love it when things go wrong! I got to work feeling 110% alive. So, the question is  – should I have done the sensible thing and changed the carabieneri immediately? Or, given the fact that the boat is undamaged other than a few egratinures, did I have a more rewarding experience plunging around in the East China Sea at dawn?

I hasten to add that the East China Sea is warm. Similar activity in West Loch Tarbert at 6:00 in April would probably have killed me.

All these photos were taken either in the kitchen or from the deck.

April is a good month in Okinawa

Spring low tides.

Then

Now

I go down to the Chelsea Drug Store to buy an octopus. Great excitement as a boat has just come in, heavily laden with anchovy, sardine things. There are tons and the pharmacists are selling big bags for 500 yen.  They are really fresh.  I grill them and eat them with olive oil and lemon. A classic.

Before I eat them. Actually there was no way I could eat all of them. I think I will make an offering to Poseidon.

People come from all over the world and pay trillions of, er maybe millions or probably more like thousands of yen, to go diving in front of my house.

I dived, I dove? I never know which.

Pacific Rim Egret ( White morph) fishing for crabs right in front of the house.

What an amazing day!

Tomorrow, I will try to launch the boat. There may well be local resistance of the fisherman ilk. Am I man enough?

Light is the burden of labor when each man bends his back with his neighbor.

I work here

Here too!

When I leave work, I watch sunsets.

The sun going down on me.

Ying tan tiddle I po

So there is little content to this entry other than to say  – Yay!

Shoals of herring

The boat is essentially all varnished and oiled. Today I strung together the rather complex main sheet set up.

Silver Darlings

I am very pleased with my new double block. I got it on Ebay. I love living right now. I need a double block I go to my computer. 3 days later it is delivered by hand having come from Taiwan.  So easy.

Neil Munro

I now have to put the leathers on the oars. I am not good at precision stuff so I rather dread this.

Keramas bound

So, we have a big week of changing Japan’s er, like science communication.

Cortez, what a killer.

But the real stuff was at the weekend. I play with my boat.

The Kanna is the best tool. It untimely rips that wood from its mother’s womb

All you pretty women stand in line, because this weekend I am working on the boat. I plane down my oars. I drench them in teak oil and then apply the first coats of varnish. I position the stag horns.

Thanks Patrick

Spring is surging. The sap is spouting. This means butterflies, who watch me sand and varnish with  Etonian disdain.

Warm my toilet seat.

That’s allright

A quick break to play music in a shopping center which allows me to stop by the dirty pool.

I’m Mandy – fly me.

I’ve got my love to keep me warm

Jonathan and I hoist the sail for the first time. Regrettably the wind is strong and coming from the worst possible direction. No worries, we get a pretty good idea of rigging and hoisting protocols.

If I win some money , sure nuff, I’ll bring you some.

Quite frankly, playing with boats in warm Spring sunshine with good company is  very fine.

A little girl comes by and wants to sit in the boat.

I see the future very optimistically.

I remember being told a joke by an elderly South African gentleman.

Two old guys are swapping tales. One says “Lets make up stories that hide the name of a book and the other one has to guess the title.”

“Here goes; A man lived in a valley which was very green and there were lots of cows that ate the grass.”

“Dunno.”

“How Green Was My Valley,  you fool!”

“Your turn.”

“Well, once I was riding my bike down to the shop and I got a puncture. So I took off the wheel.  Luckily I had a puncture outfit in the little leather pouch under the saddle. So I took out the inner tube but couldn’t see where the hole was. I walked over to the next farm and had a cup of tea. I went back to the bike with a bucket of water and sure enough saw where the hole was from the bubbles. So I roughened up the surface put on the glue and slapped on a patch. It looked OK so I  put everything back together and pumped up the tyre. Just then a car came by and ran over the pump that I had left in the road.”

Long reflection by friend resulting in:

“I give up. What’s the name of the book?”

“The Death of Pompey.”

These things are fantastic!

I don’t know if these things are available in the rest of the world. If not, here is your chance to make a million dollars. They are pumps for car tyres, or bike tyres if you want. You plug them into the power supply, or what used to be called the cigarette lighter, of the car  and attach the pipe to the valve on the tyre.

How cool is that?

You press the nuclear power button and it inflates the tire to whatever pressure you want. It also has a light show, music and Bluetooth.

Happy trailer.
Notice how beautiful the boat is looking.

Here is  a list of all British ships that visited Okinawa between 1613 and 1900. I am indebted to my very learned friend Michael Nabholz for compiling this list. There is endless fun to be had looking up these ships on Wikipedia.

Michael is also an expert on Italian Scooters. He has my total respect.

A TV 175 in San Francisco. Ben’s Yamaha in background.

I included this list in the original draft for my article in Marine Quarterly. Maybe the article was a bit long at 83 pages but I am surprised they did not publish this excellent research. Wikipedia, which I love above all things, gives a wealth of info about both boats and captains.

British Ships in The Ryukyu Isles

-1613, June 2. (Passing) Clove. Captain John Saris (ca 1580 – 1643).

-1614, December 27 ~ 1615, May 21. British ship – Sea Adventurer. Captain William Adams (24 September 1564 – 16 May 1620). One man killed at Naha.

-1618, April. Sea Adventurer. Captain William Eaton.

-1618. April 6 – May 2. Chinese Junk – Belonging to Fingo Shinquan. Captain Chimpow.

-1793. (Passing) HMS Lion. Captain Sir Erasmus Gower.

-1797, May 16 – July. H.M.S. Providence. Commander William Robert Broughton (Died Florence 1821).

-1803. HMS Frederick, of Calcutta. Captain James Torry.

-1816, September 15 ~ November 9. British Navy ships – H.M.S. Alceste and Lyra.

Under Captain Sir Murray Maxwell (10 September 1775 – 26 June 1831). One man died buried at Tomari.

-1818, November 19 – 21. British Brig – Brothers. Captain William Upton Eddis (1788-1850)

-1822, October 20 ~ November 4. British merchant ship / whaler – Tuscan. Captain Thomas Reed Stavers (Born Deptford County Kent, September, 19 1798).

-1824. Unknown British Vessel. Unknown Captain.

-1826. Unknown Whaling Vessel. Unknown Captain. (Likely British)

-1827 May 16 – 25. H.M.S. Blossom. Captain F. W. Beechey (Born London 17 February 1796 – 29 November1856).

-1832, February. English Whaler – Partridge and two other ships. Captain

Francis Stavers.

-1832, August 22 ~ 27. British ship – Lord Amhurst. Captain M. Hugh Hamilton Lindsay (1802-1881).

-1837. July 14 – 16. British warship – H.M.S. Raligh. Captain Michael Quin.

-1837-1838. Unknown ships from England, America, and France reported.

Great White Egret hunting

-1839, March. Unknown Mariner (Likely a British Naval ship). Unknown Captain.

-1840, August 14 ~ September 29. English ship of the East India Company – H.M.S. Indian Oak. Captain Grainger. Shipwrecked in Chatan. None lost.

-1840, September 16 – 29. H.M.S. Cruzier and Nimrod. Captain Barlow.

-1840, H.M.S. Nemesis. Captain William Hucheon Hall.

-1842. Unknown British Ships. Unknown Captains.

-1843, November 31 – Dec. 20 British Ship (26 gun) – H.M.S. Samarang. Admiral Sir

Edward Belcher (27 February 1799 Halifax– 18 March 1877 London).

-1845 June. British Ship (26 gun) – H.M.S. Samarang. Admiral Sir Edward Belcher (27 February 1799 Halifax– 18 March 1877 London) and Lieutenant Anderson.

– 1845, June 19 ~ Jun 21. H.M.S. Samarang. Sir Edward Belcher.

-1845, August 18 ~ Aug 22. H.M.S. Samarang. Sir Edward Belcher.

-1845. H.M.S. Loyalists.

-1846. HMS Daedelus. Captain McQuoid.

-1846, April 30 ~ ca May 4. British merchant / trading schooner – Starling. Captain McCheyne. Delivered Missionary Dr. Bernard Jean Beetleheim to Naha.

-1846, October. Unknown Ship of the British China Station [Possibly the HMS Vestal

(See below)].

-1846. HMS Vestal. Captain Talbot and Sir John Charles Dalrymple Hay.

-Dalrymple was a Scottish hydrographer, historian and publisher of maritime materials who worked in India and was involved in the British fur trade at Nootka. He turned down an offer to captain what would become James Cooks first voyage.

Mrs Pintail

-1848. Unknown Vessels. Unknown Captains.

-1849, February 10. English bark – Elizabeth and Henry. Captain Clark. Shipwrecked off Kume-jima.

-1849, March 8. British Navy – HMS Mariner. Captain Matheson and Robertson.

-1849, May 22 – 27. British Yacht – Nancy Dawson. Captain Robert Shedden.

-1849, December 20. British Navy Ship HMS Pilot. Captain Lyons.

-1850, October 3 – 10. Steam Sloop – HMS Reynard. Captain Cracroft.

-1851. Unknown ship. Unknown Captain.

-1852, February 6 – 17. British Navy – H.M.S. Sphinx. Admiral Sir Charles Frederick Alexander Shadwell (31 January 1814 – 1 March 1886).

-1853, October U.S.S. Saratoga, H.M.S. Riley and Contest.

-1853, ca late June or July 1. British ship – Brenda.

-1854, February 14 ~ 20. H.M.S. Robina. Delivered George Harman Moreton (Buckinghamshire 1826 – July 3 1902 Burwood) and family of the Loo Choo Mission to Naha.

-1856. Unknown Vessel. Removed G.H. Moreton and family.

Shoveler checks his tie

-1871, September 10-12. Gunship – H.M.S. Dwarf. Captain Bonham Ward Bax.

-1873, October 8. British merchant ship – Benares. Captain James Anderson. Shipwrecked with 13 lost, 4 buried in Ginama, Okinawa.

-1873, January 7. Gunboat – H.M.S. Curlew. Temporary Captain Nathanial Cotton.

-1875, December 11 ~ 13 or 14. S.S. Thabor. Richard Henry Brunton (December 26, 1841 Edinburgh –April 24, 1901 Kinsington), Sir Ernest Mason Satow (30 June 1843 Wismar – 26 August 1929), and Sir Harry Parkes (1828 Staffordshire – March 21, 1885 Peking).

-Brunton, was a Scottish civil engineer and the so-called “Father of Japanese lighthouses”, building 26 western style lighthouses in Japan between 1868 and 1876.

Parkes was a British diplomat in China and Japan, related through marriage to Karl Gutzlaff. He wrote several articles about the islands including ‘The Loochooan Tribute’ and ‘Loochooan Envoys’. He would later help facilitate Ryukyu France treaty arrangements. Satow was a naturalized British citizen who acted as a diplomat during the Bakumatsu and Meiji periods. They departed Kagoshima on Dec. 9th arriving in Naha Okinawa Shima on the 11th. Together they explored Naha remarking on the port, houses, tombs, people, and Tomari cemetery. It was mentioned in Guillemard,1886 that, “Mr. Brunton, who seems to have been the latest visitor to the islands who has published any account of them, found the gates (to Shuri) closed”.

-1876, April 10. British Bark Liberator. Captain Vandervord or Martin.

-1876, September 11. British Transport Barque – Theseus. Captain Alexander Matthew (Died at sea prior to wreck). Shipwrecked in Kikai near Amami. 10 lost

-1881. November 6 – 7 (Planned). “The Flying Squadron”: Steam Frigate HMS Inconstant (Flag Ship), Captain Charles Cooper Penrose-Fitzgerald. Corvette HMS Cleopatra, Captain Francis Durrant. HMS Bacchante, Lord Charles Montagu Douglas Scott. HMS Tourmaline, Robert Peel Dennistoun, and HMS Carysfort, Henry Frederick Stephenson.

-1882, May. HMS Daring.

-1882, May 3 – May 11. “The China Station Fleet”: HMS Iron Duke, Curacoa, Encounter, Albatross, Foxhound, Vigilant, and Zephyr. Captain Tracy.

-1882, May 11. HMS Swift.

-1882, June 28 – July? British Schooner Yacht – Marchesa. Captain Francis Henry Hill Guillemard

-1891. Unknown Vessel. Rev. Robert A. Thomas.

Mrs Moorhen gets ready

-Thomas was a Scottish Baptist Missionary financed by a Presbyterian woman from Glasgow.

He was accompanied by two Japanese evangelists who became the first Baptists in Okinawa.

-1892, November. Unknown Vessel. British Rev. Edward Bickersteth (27 June 1850,Banningham – 5 August 1897 Chiselton).

-1893, March. Unknown British Vessel. Basil Hall Chamberlain.

-ca1894. Unknown Vessel. Henry Evington, Bishop of Kyushu and Bickersteths successor.

-1898 December ~ 1899 January. Likely the three-masted schooner – Traveler. Walter John Clutterbuck (1853-1937).

-1900. Unknown Vessel. Henry Butler Schwartz D.D. (Died September 28, 1912 Manchester).

Huge round of applause for Michael.