s/v Mother Culture

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Sailing Videos

Are we having
fun yet?
Here are a
couple sailing
videos:

Sailing:

Tacking:

Our friend Adam took us sailing on a Catalina 22 yesterday. She was a lot more manueverable than our boat and she heeled over much further... We left the dogs at home and cruised around south of the Coronado Bridge.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Story of My Life

"It pleased me after thirty-some years of life, the baggage I carried could be reduced to one suitcase."

One of our neighbors lent us a book, and luckily I grabbed it on my way out the door...err...companionway this morning, because my American Lit professor didn't show up for class yet again. I knew after the first paragraph that this book was written for me. For us. Possibly by Ben, himself. Unless something goes terribly awry in the next fourteen chapters, I'm sure this book will be placed high on my "Good Reads" list.

Sneak a peek:

"I have been called many things in my life, but if there has been but one constant, one barb, one arrow flung my way time after time, it is the accusation that I am, in essence, nothing more than an escapist. Apparently this is bad, suspect, possibly even un-American. Mention to someone that, all things being equal, you'd really rather be on an island in the South Pacific, and they'll look at you quizzically, ponder the madness of the notion for a moment, and say: 'But that's just escapism. Now would you kindly finish stocking the paper clips so we have time to rearrange the Hi-Liter markers? We need to make sure they're color-coordinated.'"

Monday, April 27, 2009

Come Monday

Today was a pretty big day... Ben put the finishing touches on his newly designed exhaust system and the Atomic 4 is purring like a kitten again. Now, we need to pick up the jib from the sail repair shop and we'll be good to go. I foresee a sailing adventure in our near future!!

This is Ben, tucked inside the lazarette, working on the exhaust.

Here we have the bowels of the boat. The white tubing on the left is the blower, which pumps gas fumes out of the bilge before starting the engine. The mechanism in the middle attaches to the tiller at the top and the rudder at the bottom, for steering. The black tubing on the right is part of the new exhaust, which attaches to the muffler (which is in the back lazarette and not visible in this picture).