Another Day… Another Lake

Well it's been awhile again.  This seems to be a trend these days.

So, what's up with The Fuzz?

Well, first he was on "Grandpa Duty" for awhile.

This involved trying to keep up with a wild little granddaughter while her momma was at work.

And this did keep him busy, we assure you.

But he did survive.

When he got back in town there was a bit of gardening to take care of.

And that seems to be doing fine for now.

There had been a good deal of rain around here while he was gone.  It turned out that the water had pooled up on the Molly B's tarp-cover and kinda caved it in.

This sorta bent up the PVC frame for the sun awning.

He's attempting to get things straitened out now.

How well this works remains to be seen.

But he did make it up to the lake yesterday.

And got a look at this guy.

But he didn't stay still for long…

Still dragging the landing gear.

And one last brief look before he was gone.

Sorry the pix aren't better though.

The Fuzz caught a couple of tiny fishes, then spent the rest of the day on a slow exploration cruise.

It turned out to be a nice day.

Lakecamping Backwaters

Although she is not a canoe or kayak, the Molly B can take The Fuzz into those backwaters he enjoys so much.

When the water gets shallow, it's no problem to pull up the motor and get out the oars.

How could he not love a place like this?

Fishing is just an excuse to get out and "Mess About" as it were.

But it seems that his bobber has a stowaway on board!

And that stowaway has plenty of friends around.

Now here's another challenge.

These guys are really beautiful…

But how to catch them in flight?

They're fast!

And just Forget auto-focus…

But it can be done.

And yeah…

They did get the worm while The Fuzz was busy with the camera.

But that's all part of the fun.

Lake Camping

The Fuzz recently got to campout over at Jordan Lake.

Of course he took his little boat along in the hope of doing a little fishing…

Which usually amounts to more like

"Feeding the Fish"

But the weather was nice with no rain, which is always good for camping.

So here are a few pix.

A view of the camp from across the inlet

And a look at The Fuzz's little Molly B complete with sun awning.

And lastly…

The camp after sunset.

The Fuzz has a few more pix of course, and promises to get a few more posted next time.

Winter Lake Break

With a nice break in the weather, The Fuzz thought it might be nice to get out in the boat.  So he checked to see if he could crank the motor…

And was amazed that it started on the 2nd pull!

And a hasty plan was made for the next day.

The trip up to the lake went fine, and the launch was good…

And the motor started again!

(It's a kinda old thing)

There were a lot of "seagulls" out on the lake.

You don't see them around here* in the summer…

But they do hang out this far inland in the winter.

The Fuzz did get to fish a bit, but alas…

Lost the only bite he had!

But regardless, it was a good day.

*The Fuzz has posted on this in the past

Back to Camping (Jordan Lake Revisited)

As has been obvious to anyone following this blog, The Fuzz has been quite slack as of late.  Perhaps even more than "slack", more like negligent.

So perhaps it is time to catch up just a little.

No, The Fuzz is still living and he and His Sweetie have been up to a number of things this summer.

It may be remembered back in June, that they were camping with family at Jordan Lake.

And while there there were a couple of decisions made.
The 1st was to look into the purchase of a boat.
And the 2nd was to plan a return trip.

It may be remembered that #1 was accomplished.

Then after a babysitting session, it was time for #2.

The reservations had been in place for a good while.  The Fuzz and His Sweetie had scouted out a new campsite with a nice view of the lake.

Here's a look at the camp*.

And a view of the lake from the camp in the evening.

There was even a place to keep The Fuzz's new/old boat.

And here we have a view of camp from the lake.

Having the boat handy was pretty nice.

The Fuzz was able to get out and feed the fishes in the mornings.

And here's a couple shots of the morning lake.

And The Fuzz will get a few more posts up soon...

He promises!

*It may be noted in this pix how the tent appears to be kinda leaning a bit.  Just after it had been put up it was hit by a serious little storm.   The Fuzz was forced to scurry around in the wind and rain adding a few extra guy lines.  And these needed to be very tight.  When the wind had died down, it was noticed that things were pulled just a bit too tight for the now calm conditions...

Oh well.

Shakedown Cruise I

In a previous post, The Fuzz mentioned a new "Tin Boat".

Well, first there was a bit of official paperwork to take care of.  But getting it home out here in the woods was only the start.  Some more equipment had to be scrounged up.  While perhaps a paddle might satisfy any "requirements" The Fuzz would not be satisfied without a real set of oars.  And these had to be ordered.  And of course life jackets - or rather "PFDs"*

Finally the stuff was gathered and it was time for a shakedown cruise.
And it turned out that there was a lot to shakedown!

Lake Rhodhiss was selected for this...

And the ramp at Castle Bridge.

 The Fuzz and Family had been here some years before on a few canoe outings, and it was not too far to drive.

The Boat made it into the water OK and neither car nor trailer was lost in the lake.

But when The Fuzz tried to crank up the motor...

all he did was exercise his arm.

His Sweetie said they could just go back home if he wanted-

In truth, he was just a mite disappointed.

But he did have those oars.

And he did not want to waste a trip and a chance to get out on the lake.

So they rowed a short way up the lake, tied up to a tree branch and did spend some time fishing and painting.

Back home again, The Fuzz was determined to find out what went wrong.  He had seen the motor running fine before he bought the thing!  Was he doing something wrong?

After going over it a few times in his head, he decided to have a look at the darn thing.  When he tore into it, he discovered that the choke had been somehow disconnected.

That was not hard to fix, and now he could crank it fine.

And so another excursion was planned.

 * "Personal Flotation Device"

Shifting Gears

While The Fuzz and His Sweetie were camping at the lake the subject of boats naturally came up.  And while it's never been a subject of this blog, The Fuzz has been contemplating trying to put one together.

And while he has never considered his skills anything like expert, he was confident that he could knock together something out of plywood that would float.

So he has been studying various websites, books and plans.

Of course while he had been making various preparations and gathering tools with this in mind, he had never quite gotten to the point of actually cutting a board.

This would certainly end up as a long term project.

And at The Fuzz's age he had to ask the question-

"Is the point the actual building, or getting out on the water?"

And as much as he admires fine craftsmanship in the boatyard, and those wonderful traditional wooden boats; he reluctantly had to admit that at this point, what he really wanted was to be floating again.

"Again..."
The Fuzz actually did grow up on a lake back in the Old Country.  And it seems he has never really gotten that out of his system as it were.
So once they were back home he went on into town to visit the local Marine Dealer/Pawn Shop.
That sounds like quite a combination and of course it is.

But all that aside, they just so happened to have on the lot almost exactly what he had grown up with.
So now he was torn with the decision, to hold out and go with a classic somewhere, or just cave in for this "Grumpier Old Men" style aluminum skiff.

The skiff won.  

A Long Shot

The other day, The Fuzz and His Sweetie took a drive up to the other end of the Island*.

Whilst she did a bit of sketching near area "A", The Fuzz ("B") had a walk a bit farther out along the inlet and around the end.

The tide was pretty low already, and still running out through the New River Inlet.

With his binoculars The Fuzz could see across over toward Sneads Ferry pretty well.  And he saw this cool boat.  It just looked like a nice little picture.

So he figured he'd give it a shot and maxed out the lens...

And ended up with this.

Still a bit hard to make it out.

But The Fuzz is not one to give up once he is obsessed with something.

Now it was time for some applied Photoshop.

Now we have this.

And while he was playing around...

Let's go for Artsy !

Just a bit of fun here.

*Satellite view via Google

The Rest of Boat Works Stuff

When we left off last time, the centerboard had made it into the boat, but was propped up by a timber.

This of course would not do for the long term-

or even the short term.

(The need to get back on the trailer)

It was necessary to provide a way to raise, or lower the thing as needed.

So a Temporary Winch Arrangement was provided.

This would serve while the rest of the work on the boat continued.

This pix shows what was finally put together.

But several earlier attempts were not as successful due to the weight of this massive piece of steel.

This winch is what will be used when finished, but probably not in this exact set up.

The final arrangements will be made as the boat is finished up.

But this will work for now.

All that was left now was to get her back onto the trailer.

This of course was the reverse process of taking her off.

And eventually accomplished.

The Fuzz would like to thank everyone involved, for letting him observe.

He does have a bit of interest in the subject.

Who knows?

Perhaps someday he may be involved in these things himself-

But probably not on this scale!

More Boat Works Stuff

We left our last post with the Boat Guys breaking for beer and burgers.

But now it was another day, with a big job ahead.

Cinderella had to get off her trailer somehow.

But these guys had a plan.

The plan involved supporting her with "Poppets"-

And a lot of patience.

(An example of a Poppet)

The  patience comes in because these nifty little stands will need to be placed between the cross members on the trailer;

Which means, that the trailer can only be moved as far as the next cross member.

At which point...

The whole thing must be let back down...

And the poppets moved back to the next section.

The process is repeated until the trailer can be pulled clear.

Now it was time to get to the centerboard-

which was the reason for all of this!

A template had been made;

And now it was used to determine exactly where the hole for the mounting pin needed to be drilled.

Everything had to be lined up perfectly and drilled through the solid oak keel.

The pin for the centerboard had been specially made with a flange to help secure it.

It needed to be inset into the keel.

Meanwhile, another hole had been dug for the centerboard.

Now the centerboard was raised into position in the centerboard trunk.

(Note the 2x6 being used to lever the 3/4 thick solid steel centerboard into place- that thing was heavy!)

Then the pin was installed, and the centerboard raised and propped up with a timber.

So far- so good!

But this post is getting a bit long-

Maybe it's best to break off for now.

To be continued....

At the Boat Works

It was getting to be time for The Fuzz to leave the coast.  After all, there were plenty of projects waiting for him back in the woods.

Checking the weather predictions, The Fuzz saw one day of good weather, and then rain ahead.

So he strapped his pack back on the bike and headed inland.

The Fuzz was fortunate to be able to break up the trip again with an overnight stop with family at Durham.

But this time there was a lot going on in the Boatyard.

When he got there, he found work in progress on Cinderella.

A friend had driven down from Michigan to help install the centerboard in her.

This would be a major undertaking since the boat would need to be removed from the trailer to do it.

And as Cinderella is considerably larger than your average sailboard, this was not a simple matter.

But the first job involved installing the rudder.

This also needed to be done from below.

But the boat could not be safely raised high enough, so a little extra space was created.

If you look closely, you will notice how the rudder is setting in a small hole.

This worked out fine.

Here's a look at the bottom end of the shaft.

The metal piece needed to be 

precisely lined up and fitted to the keel.  Here you can see it clamped into place before drilling for mounting

 holes.

And mounted.

Later these bolts will be replaced with something more saltwater friendly.

One more pix with the rest of the rudder attached.

This part can swing up, which is a handy feature in North Carolina's shallow waters.

Next time, The Fuzz will address the rest of the project;

Somehow getting 2½ tons of boat off of a trailer-

without leaving the boat shed!