On Desire

…and basking in beauty, that’s the summer of 2011. Hello World has been beached (blossomed) for a solid year following her crippling injury 30 miles north of Chicago that ended our 2010 expedition.

She’s communing with the flox and vetch across the street, waiting for repairs. Patrick and I are converting a storage shed into a workshop and that’s where she’ll be before the snow flies. I’ll mend her over the winter.

Meanwhile, she’s watching over another exploration of sustainability – the Lauren di Scipio memorial vegetable garden.  I’ve followed the weed free (layer cake) method – with commercial organic soil in some beds and composted horse poop from Willy and Marijke Church in others. Unfortunately, the entire plot is shadowed by the backyard bluff and misses most of the morning sun. The corn patch is growing in a wedge shape, plants are progressively lower the closer they are to the bluff. There couldn’t be a clearer demonstration of solar power.

So what’s the prognosis for Around Lake Michigan, Search for Sustainable Civilizations? Will there be another expedition? What about posting movies from the rest of the 2010 expedition? What the hell has Dan Kelly been doing for the last year?!

After the 2010 expedition ended, I decided to leave NYC and return to Michigan full time. I enjoyed the summer on Crystal Lake, intent on posting the expedition movies and evaluating the project. The abrupt end of the sailing may have been more discouraging than I was able to admit, my passion for the project waned and… I got distracted.

In August, documentation of Gretchen Eichberger’s American Document flowed into discussions about starting a performance company, which ultimately triggered a traumatic misunderstanding. Though our friendship has bounced back, we’ve since steered clear of any significant collaborations.

In September the lads and I joined my brother Mike for a trip down the San Juan River in Utah. My no jet travel protocol and recent ALM experience prompted me to do a little trickstery critique of James Weston’s Africa documentary in November.

Speaking of James, my experience with Mykl Werth’s partner dance methodology started an extensive exploration of how Mykl’s classroom technique could be translated to video. We started in October but by the spring of 2011, disagreements with Mykl about the business model ended the project.

Also in September, the Trickster Pictures motion graphics show reel was re-activated, featuring work by myself and the Bear Lake Kelly brothers. We posted Version 0.9 in May of 2011.

From October 2010 – March 2011, I taught Tai Chi at Studio on Main in Frankfort, which Patrick and I have since moved to the house. Joe Cissel, Patrick and I were also teaching ourselves combat mime for most of the winter.

In the spring, I conned James into forming a production affinity group, the Michigan Movie Makers. After the first meeting, James was off to film school in Montana,  but fortunately a slew of other local production VIPs have stepped into the breach. M3 had a presence at the recent Traverse City Film Festival, and I ended up volunteering for the TCFF video team and helping to edit a video for the Awards Ceremony.

The inventory of distractions wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t mention the house I’d neglected for the last 6 years. The furnace was toast, skylights leaking, etc. Still some stabilization required before real weather returns.

In summary, in the fall of 2010 I made a commitment to focus on current projects and not start any new ones. The Gretchen and Mykl dalliances were definitely new business – and they both tanked. M3 is also new business but has been justified as support for my relocated production presence. The other initiatives were arguably old business and have reached various stages of completion. However the two most important pre-existing projects – Daughter of God and Around Lake Michigan – have not been touched!

I haven’t been eating lotus only, progress has been made on various fronts and life is good. I even have a steady girlfriend and the possibility of an instant family.

But… I’m done with distractions. Now let’s be a laser beam, it’s time to make my movies. Since DOG has been on the back burner the longest, it’s first in the queue.

ALM is right after DOG. If we count the reconstruction of Hello World this fall, ALM will be happening concurrently to some degree. The next expedition of ALM will have to be re-thought if it’s going to accommodate sailing, movie making and distribution all at once. After Fukushima, I’ve been thinking about all those reactors I sailed by. What chance does a powered down civilization have surrounded by nuclear bombs? 10,000 years of toxic threat seems pretty daunting, maybe ALM needs a tighter focus.

Day 5 was the second and for real launch. June 1st was the official day of getting Hello World into the Big Lake and starting to sail but the truth was we weren’t ready. A few days of puttering around in Bear Lake and Beulah and then 6.5 hours organizing and prepping on Arcadia beach got us there. This short 3:33 segment gives a taste of Day 5 and Day 6.

10-06-05 Ready to go for real, Arcadia to north of Portage Lake, Michigan (computer, phone)

An easy afternoon on the beach making adjustments to Hello World, mostly the straps and plates that secured the waterproof rifle cases. There’s also insights about yawning.

Behind the scene details were posted on June 6.

10-06-04 Adjustments in Arcadia, Michigan (computer, phone)

Somehow the front aluminum pylon is sinking or twisting inside the hull. It might have happened while moored in Chicago’s Monroe Harbor, perhaps from an impact by another boat. Or it could be a sign of some internal problem that is only now showing up, like the pylon coming loose from the bottom of the hull? I did a deck job on both hulls a year ago and sailed 300 miles with no hitches. There are no fractures or cracks anywhere around the deck where the pylon emerges. There’s a ring around the pylon where the deck is now slightly concave. Any experienced Hobie sailors ever seen anything like this before?

Starboard hull outside	Starboard hull inside

Port hull outside	Port hull inside

Day 28

I woke up bright and fine after a terrific rest. Having surveyed the forest last night, I knew a nitrogen drop off was doable. The rich loamy sand of the forest floor had a dense root mat. I found a deep pocket of forest far from any trail, scrapped off the duff, opened the mat and dug a hole about 6″ deep. I emptied the poopamatic into the hole, replaced the soil, mat and lastly the duff.

Returning to the boat I crawled back into the tent until the sun climbed over the dune and made it feel like the inside of a light bulb. Before packing, repairs.

A cargo bracket had slipped out and had to be reseated. In the process of tightening I broke a buckle and had to replace it from spares. I sat down with the tiller extender in the shade and slowly worked it open. Wading into the waves with it, I coaxed it open and closed until all the sand was flushed out. Now it’s good as new.

I started getting ready and got as far as rigging the mainsail when the uphaul came untied and flew up the mast and out of reach. My options were either to shimmy up a 25 ft slick aluminum mast, drop the mast or tip the boat on it’s side. Option 3 was my choice and I eventually was able to get the needed leverage by hanging both dry bags and the anchor bags from the wire. She came over like a dream and back to upright without a hitch. By the time I was off the beach and into the big curlers it was 1:30 pm.

I has slept just a couple miles from the Cook nuclear plant, and I passed it sailing sw in a west wind. The wind tapered from a stiff blow to a whimper by 4:30, leaving me stranded in front of New Buffalo. A couple in a largish monohull helpfully told me where I was. They eventually gave up on the wind and motored in. I eventually followed powered by paddle and the occasional puff. On the way in I recovered a mighty blue plastic container which Mike and his family claimed for a recycling bin.

Sunset at New Buffalo

Friendly lighthouse at New Buffalo Public Beach

I supped at the Brewster, a stellar Italian restaurant. Before commiting to the Brewster, I confirmed my plan with the locals at the open til midnight boatshop. That’s where I bought my very own Thirsty Mate like the one Tim Cook had loaned me in Grand Haven. I still haven’t tried the sealant Mark and Marilyn gave me.

I’d like to say the evening was pleasant but I’d be lying. It was very blowy back at the boat but I pitched the tent on the tramp anyway and tried to sleep. I was up at 2:00 am and then again at 3:00 am with incredible night sweats, I think I might be getting sick. The waves were getting louder and the wind was giving the tent a fascinating geometry. I stuck my hand out and into the sand, it was wet! Waves were getting closer.

I offloaded the boat in the moonlight and dragged her to higher ground. I wrapped myself in a tarp behind the gear pile and crashed. I eventually added a sleeping bag to this arrangement to keep from freezing and enjoyed 2-3 hours of blissful unconsciousness. Now for a quick grocery run then vamos.

Day 5 of ALM 2010. It’s raining just north of Onekema tonight. Back from the beach about a stone’s throw, nestled in low dunes is a cozy wozy tent, glowing merrily with candlelight. Inside I’m munching my third bowl of the fresh and raw vegan version of a happy meal – thick oats, goji berries, raisins, flax seeds, almonds and salt marinated in Bear Lake well water. Oowee!

On June 2 an amiable north wind pushed us from Elberta down to Arcadia. Getting Hello World up on the beach was slightly less of a struggle than Elberta had been and I managed it alone. The plan was to rendezvous with the Bear Lake support team for essential modifications, including trips to Traverse City and Crystal Lake. I slept at the team dorm that night and then got a ride back to my house the next day.

I had left the bike and some other gear behind because of the heavy wind at Point Betsie. Minimizing variables helped get us launched. A couple of days feeling the groove was enough to be ready for the full load.

Ideally all this would have been worked out prior to launch, but there are so many details to manage on this project that I’m spread pretty thin. When funds and labor are tight, everything takes more time. Fortunately I’ve got a gang of Kelly’s to whistle up in a pinch – Steve,. Jonathan, Patrick and Luke.

I frittered away much of day 4 helping Stephen Addy debug Wordbooker, his Facebook plugin for WordPress. This may not seem all that relevant to getting underway, but ALM has a decent following on facebook.com/ondesire. Posts from ondesire.com are fed with RSS and get ‘liked’ or commented on. The problem is that Facebook comments never make it back to the blog and so all this awesome interaction isn’t available to the Facebook free. Wordbooker was supposed to save the day. It has all these glowing reviews and I really wish I could write one too, but after screen captures, advanced diagnostics, SQL exports and even a special update just for me… no dice.

Giving up on Wordbooker, I drove the Odyssey over to Shop and Save. Along with some cheese and apples, i grabbed jumper cables to build a lightning deflecting Faraday cage. With a van full of booty, i jaunted down to Arcadia and Hello World to pick up the cargo plates. Thier sharp comers cpuld easily open flesh and like the bailing pins of old, the stainless steel plates might have intriguing potential for an enterprising martial artist. However, sharp corners and sailboats don’t mix generally, so I ground them off in the driveway of the dorm. I crashed in the edit room there after mandatory episodes of Invader Zim.

Signs Signs... Is it really trespassing if you have permission?

Though I got to Arcadia beach at around 8:30 am, we didn’t push off until 3:00 pm, what with all the tinkering and tweaking. We lolled Iin a fitful wind for an hour plus, then caught decent puffs east and north for about 6 miles of overall southern progress. Finding a wildish landing was almost blown when I saw how disturbed the beach sand was with prints, but they turned out to be deer prints. About a hundred yards down the beach a tiny cottage not yet opened for the summer nestled with an 18 foot Hobie in storage. Good omen.

Just missed the deer party North of Portage Lake

100 yards south, the neighbor cottage waits for summer

...and a Hobie 18

Two outhouses?! My kind of folks!

Got Hello World parked in 50 minutes, set up camp and took a wetsuit swim in the Big Lake. Then into the tent for that whole cozy wozy thing.

Baby flies joined me for the sail to Onekema – so cute!

Morning of Friday May 28, three weeks after the original launch date. If I can get on the water in the next few days, I’ll likely be sailing into late August early September. I’ve still got a 3 month window, September is an entire extra month. I may have to skip the wedding in California and cancel my summer guests though. It’s all just blow and bluster – there’s no telling what will happen.

This morning I’ll raise the mast and get her on the water, then disassemble and into / onto the van for the portage over to the big lake. Finish packing and go.

I admit to feeling a little daunted by all this. There’s nothing accidental in building up the momentum – it’s a decisive effort, a force of will. The journey could remake me, that’s really why I’m going. Dipping into my media feed to catch the news of the day, I feel the call to activate. I am ready to live my gifts, to be what the earth needs. My time has arrived.

Yet there’s the inertia of the familiar. Leaving behind what I am for a deeper experience, even a more enlivened and capable Dan Kelly – it’s scary. Also, It kinda sucks to vacate my happy little beach squat for the whole summer.

Ha! Well, there’s not going to be a terrible accident that provides an honorable retreat. Destiny is my decision.

Ready for shakedown

Oops! Rudder trouble...

There’s a terrible tragedy at this end of this post, so if you’re the weepy type close your browser and check back tomorrow.

How to glue pennies to the bottom of a Hobie Cat, the completion of Hello World’s armor deployment.

Including the 8 layers of powdered aluminum running along the entire keel, I wanted plate metal to protect the hulls where they would start to run aground. Matching hull curvature with a single sheet of metal seemed daunting. I imagined a corner or an edge of a single sheet being peeled back in an impact – nearly impossible to fix in the wilds.  In contrast, if the metal sheath consisted of many small plates or tiles then an impact might tear away one or two tiles and leave the surrounding tiles intact. The tile approach was inspired by the space shuttle’s thermal protection system. I had sheets of scrap copper laying around, but I didn’t really like the idea of cutting them into little squares. Pennies are just about the right size, and they are readily available everywhere I’ll be.

The copper in US pennies comes from the Keweenaw Peninsula, which is the thumb of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. US pennies minted on or after 1982 have a zinc core coated in a thin condom of copper. Before 1982, pennies were about 95% copper. A roll of pre 1982 pennies is worth $.50 cents as coin, but the value of the copper is $1.00. In doing this project I found that about 10-30% of pennies in circulation are  pre 1982. That means that if you had $1000 worth of pennies, you’d actually have about $1100-$1300 dollars. Of course you’d have to melt and sell the older ones, which would probably get the Secret Service on your ass. It might not be a bad idea to sort and stash your pre 1982 pennies in a safe place until such time as the federal government collapses and you can melt them without fear of arrest.

A preliminary cleaning – bathing the pennies in dilute muriatic acid	Rinse
Dry	Remove all oxidation to attach
In formation with attach side down – these need to be flipped	Tape fixes the pennies in formation. Slicing along the edge of the rows so they’ll articulate and follow the curvature of the hulls
ready for pennies	West Systems 404, resin and fast hardner

x

The rentry system is complete. The tiles on the starboard hull had drifted off the edge slightly,  but otherwise looking good!  Hello World’s hulls were almost ready – all that remained to do on Sunday was hatch installation and caulking the pylons.

I use plywood props to support the hulls to keep them upright during hatch work. A couple of nails where the plywood meets the picnic table keep them from slipping. I had the plywood in place to support the port hull and was about to tack the last sheet down when the hull rolled away and almost fell off the table onto the concrete. Though I was able to catch it, I didn’t save the day.  It had rolled right over the claw hammer and broken the fiberglass in two spots. Fahgk!

Quel damage!	The broken fiberglass removed.
The pressure from the claw almost busted the inner skin, note the slight shattering in the center	At least the hatches are in

x

I could have fixed the holes right then and there if I had more of the magic West Systems 404 powder but West Marine had already closed. So I am off to Traverse City this morning and will walk in just as they open the doors.

That’s how much fun I’m having right now. Hello World’s first finish coat was applied this morning. Speaking of Malcolm X (today’s his birthday, he’d be 85) here’s an insidious bit of racial marketing I came across.

The VOCs from the Interlux Brightside White paint are intense!  As replacement filters for my old respirator are hard to find I decided to buy a new respirator. My local Ace Hardware stocked several models from AO Safety. They all used the same filters and ranged in price from high $20 to mid $40. The highest priced had a picture of a serious looking middle aged white male with iron gray hair. The lowest price looked like this…

Is that subtle or what? Here’s the embarrassing part – I instinctively reached for the expensive one first because I assumed it would provide better protection, until I noticed that the filters were identical. Was I choosing based on price (inference of quality), or racial affinity?

I ended up buying the brown people respirator. You know what? It pretty much sucks. After painting for couple of hours this morning I had a headache. WTF? Tell me there aren’t aliens running the planet. You can sell us the crappy respirators, but you can’t kill us.

Here’s Hugh Hamilton’s show Talk Back on WBAI FM New York for May 19, 2010, (local archive is here). There’s fundraising during the first 10 minutes or so, but after that are excerpts from some of El Hajj Malik el Shabazz’s most amazing speeches.

Here’s the back page from the vintage Hobie Cat brochure that came with Hello World. Hobie had an intriguing angle on catamarans in 1979 – camping. Perhaps being a subsidiary of the Coleman Company had something to do with it. I don’t know whether this was a significant factor in sales back then, but this photo sure made an impression on me. Sailing Around Lake Michigan was not in my head when I bought her – so let’s hear it for the power of antique lifestyle marketing!

As the groovy copy explains, Hobie 16s can navigate very shallow water and can even be sailed right onto the beach – sandy preferably. They can go where few other boats can with minimal impact on the environment. That’s why Hello World is ideal for wilderness camping – in theory.

A spiel reminiscent of Adam Curtis's Century of the Self documentary series.

In practice, rocky shallows and sandy shores scrape away the hull bottoms. An lightly loaded Hobie bounces off rocks, deflecting the force of impact and minimizing damage. Add tents, sleeping bags and other cargo (like tripods and scuba tanks) and inertia increases, making direct impact and serious damage more likely. Landing a loaded Hobie on a rocky beach requires a slow approach. When the water is shallow enough to wade, it’s best to get off and walk her in, off load the bags, place Bao longs (solid fenders) under her hulls and then roll her up.

Even with such careful handling Hello World’s bottoms were pretty chewed up after last September’s trial run. To survive 3 months requires armor.

The highly worn areas along the bottom have already been protected with 9 layers of epoxy mixed with 10% powdered aluminum, an additive sold by West Systems for abrasion resistance.

Powdered aluminum is also a component of thermite – a steel cutting explosive used in building demolitions. Traces of thermite like residues have been detected in the dust from the Twin Towers. It took me two days to armor up the keel with the powdered aluminum, and each batch I mixed was a sort of meditation on dark history. My two beautiful fish, the feet of Hello World shod in sleek gray gloss. Perfect paradox.

Applying armor

Originally, Patrick and I had discussed installing thin steel plate along the keels. To conform to her complex curves, the plates could either be curved to match her contours or be placed as tiles, like on the space shuttle. In a worst case scenario, tiles could be torn away without taking a great chunk of hull with them.

Lining both keels with steel would have added a lot of weight – so aluminum powder was the choice. The most vulnerable section is between the bow and the mid section, the point of first impact below the water line. I repaired damage there when I bought Hello World and smashed it again myself last September.

Armor detail on port hull. Roller texture will be abraded soon enough.	Port hull from inside. The most vulnerable area is defined by the width of the filing cabinets

x

I’m currently investigating plating the most vulnerable bow/mid section with pre 1982 pennies, which are 95% copper.

…and by the way, Happy Birthday to Me!

When Hello World came down from the rafters I was dismayed to find she was still wet. Before lofting her last October I had drained the standing water from the hulls. Though I suspected her fiberglass / foam sandwich was still saturated, I assumed that 6 months hanging in a warm house would dry her out.

I had forgotten about the 10 lbs of sand that had washed into the port hull during the Point Betsie surprise. The water did migrate out of the sandwich but rather than evaporating it mixed with the sand and pooled. There was about a half gallon in there!

The starboard hull had been breached, probably during the emergency landing to secure Zilliax’s bike. I had drilled the damage clear so it could drain – which it did – drip, drip, drip all winter. Yet the sandwich was still saturated when I opened the hatch hole.

Removing the wet sand and facilitating evaporation required hatches to be installed in both hulls. Love suffused my methodology. Deployment of the other essential modification – keel armor – was accompanied by a melange of emotions and associations, including the events of 9/11…

Why does powdered aluminum remind me of September 11, 2001?

I know the journey has started when I don’t know when it’s going to start.

The moment when the handcrafted Hello World slides into surf cannot be predicted. I’ve been back in the water since the year flipped. I’ve shared my process nearly every day for the last month. Even with the dust of her body clinging to my clothes, her curves all atangle and in disarray, we search. The important part is how we start – not when. This project celebrates assembly after all,  the awakening of the way.

August 09 same thing. Time was a fiction,  deadlines a conceit. Jackie Ankerson made it plain yesterday. Do I want the sun to fly across the sky, am I in a hurry to get to my grave?

Here’s how I’m changing. No time on wind river, (computer / phone) she’s ready when she’s ready. I too may only be half baked / boiled – though last night’s tub could have been the hottest ever.

Now that we’ve settled that…

While returning from yet another pilgrimage to my local West Systems and Interlux dealer, I realized that I only had to have interesting conversations. I only have to interview people who fascinate me. Does any part of this adventure need to suck? Not on purpose!

The way to make this project (and life in general) amazing is to dare to be who I am. If this movie is going to be watchable then I have to push through to me. Naked on camera – glorious, confused, grinning, dashingly scruffy, fierce, introspective, full of shit, fabulous!

You’re either down with the Dan or not. All those Facebook scribblers – pshaw! Why, I’ve been gushing my secrets without a by-your-leave since before Mark Zuckerberg was cozying up to the shadow government or stealing his clients’ ideas. Who remembers tractor feed paper?

Look, I know nobody’s reading all this, ok? I’ve got better things to do than read my ramblings too. All this bluster is a sort of encryption. God is always in disguise, otherwise there can be no cosmic game. You get it now? If not – no worries! It’s likely the Rev. Victoria Weinstein didn’t even make it this far – and she’s a divinity professional.

Despite precautions, when I crawl into bed I feel the prickle of tiny glass fibers on my naked skin.  I mingle with Hello World, we become one flesh.

Hello World is more than my production platform, transport and home. The ‘boat as planet’ analogy is especially relevant – if my boat’s messed up, I might die.

Do I mythologize when I say it’s a cinch for me to feel her presence?  Like me, she is made of star stuff. A lot of energy and intention went into her design and manufacture. In her 31 years of existence she’s been a facilitator of much joy and excitement for the Vigland family. She’s been cared for with pride and guiltily neglected. Now she’s collaborating with a mad genius and his wild tribe on a world saving Search for Sustainable Civilizations.

When during this sequence of events did sentience arise? Is she alive and deserving of love only because I’ll be counting on her?

It’s fun to wonder about. What I can report first hand is our rapport, especially when sailing. She moves with and speaks to me, she is aware and involved.

Mere cybernetic transference? Advanced visualization technique? Dan smiles….

What does all this have to do with today’s progress report? The fiberglass work is stretching because this boat is a being.  I have to do my best by her. Attend, please.

When hatching hulls, the standard procedure is to cut a hole and screw the hatch on. That’s not for me. The Viking hatch I bought from Murrays doesn’t mate well with the surface of the hull and removing structure compromises Hello World’s strength and integrity.

My solution is to create a ring of new structure around the hatch hole and build up the hull surface for a nearly perfect fit. This manuever made an afternoon’s project into 4 days!

Love keeps Serenity in the air says Malcolm Reynolds. I’m so down with that. Knowing I gave Hello World my best attention will keep me grinning when we’re miles from shore and a crazy wind is howling. I’ll remember that I loved her enough to take the time, and she’ll fly true.

A cup of ginger tea before donning the yellow hazmat suit and starting the day’s fiberglass fun. The Brunton inverter is whirring away somewhat creakily as it charges this iPhone. Most of the gear has already been checked for solid operation, the Brunton solar power components are among the last on the list.

How am I changing? I’m preparing for nomadic life, for wandering within. It took Loreen Niewenhuis over a year to walk around the Big Lake, so the distances involved are imaginable, human. The scheduled duration of our sail Around Lake Michigan is about 3 months.

I get to go faster than Loreen because I’ve got technological infrastructure and a larger carbon footprint. Though powered by paddle and sail alone, Hello World is an industrial child. She owes her existence to oil drilling and petrochemistry, (polyester resins, dacron sails, nylon rope) not to mention mining and smelting, (aluminum frame and mast, steel fittings). Add in the filmmaking electronics we are carrying (rare earths, heavy metals) and suddenly this project isn’t quite so bright green.

The price for 3 months of environmental documentary in a romantic mileau is a diminishment of our collective destiny. I kill all of us a little by making this trip. I’m not an impact idiot either, I work to minimize the consequences of my daily actions – fairly small footprint as far as 1st world lifestyles go. Even so, the way our civilization is set up, I can’t help but hurt.

Jor-El packed his infant son into a spaceship and sent him from the doomed planet Krypton. Moses was placed in a reed basket and launched on the Nile. The stories keep coming back. We make another variation today – an artifact of industry launched to transcend industry by reminding us of what we already know. Into the shadows to search for light. I am the man who asks the child’s questions.

Are we ready? Not quite yet. Fiberglass repairs will take another few days. An ordering snafu has delayed the arrival of some gear. Chuck is fabricating cargo plates that need to be tested. This weekend’s weather forecast is not beach friendly.

It’s official! Launch has been pushed back to May 15. This Saturday’s party is canceled.

Progress is otherwise stellar. Dan Kelchak did a beautiful job on the Larrivee and It’s first coat of armor is on. The body tone still seems to be quite bright. The 1720 Pelican cases are ideal for both guitar and the new 30 cubic ft scuba tank. Winslow’s self silencing torus has arrived and it’s voice is reminiscent of indonesian gamelan and himalayan monasteries.

Here are some fiberglass components fresh from their molds. The collar is intended to reinforce the hull access ports. Note the black stitching showing through where the strips of glass cloth were sewn together – Patrick’s idea. The 5 foot strip was saturated with resin and then wrapped around a circular form to form about 1/4″ thickness. The S shaped bit is a casting of the hull lip and was passed on to Chuck to be used as a guide for the stainless steel cargo plates.

The Larrivee with armor plate. The overlapping edges have to be carefully sanded flush with the guitar’s body.

Winslow’s fabulous torus. Loud! Movie…

Hello World in the rain. Not quite dry dock.

Driving in to Traverse City for another round of errands. Fiberglass repairs are in process. Could wrap primary hull repairs this evening, with fairing and paint by Wednesday (2 days). That’s when I’ll decide whether to launch as planned or push it back.

Here’s today’s to do…

West Marine – 206 hardener (just in case)
Chuck or other fabricator – build cargo plates
Dan Kelchak – Larrivee pickup
Scuba north – 30 cu tank fits Pelican 1720?
Ace Hardware on Front St – sander heads and disks
Oryana – lunch
Aluminum powder?

Yesterday Hello World had a soft landing and went into drydock. Movie!

10-04-28 Hello World soft landing and drydock variable / full screen
10-04-28 Hello World soft landing and drydock fixed size

Notice how calm I appear? Tomorrow gear should start arriving via ground shipping including the voice of Hello World, Winslow’s Torus. I’m a Taurus too!

Hello World has yet to go into the shop for fiberglass patching, but I think I’ve got everything I need to do the job. We’ll start today.

Total pre launch expenses for services, parts and materials should be under $2500. Deft deployment of the indy filmmaker’s friend – low APR credit cards – makes it possible.

We’re also enjoying amazing gifts and discounts. Patagonia has offered their corporate purchase program to the project, Dan Kelchak is giving a break on the repair of the Larrivee, Winslow is contributing a bell for Hello World, Julie continues to hook us up with pro bono social media guidance and the tribal citizens are activating their networks, both real life and virtual. I expect the generosity and collaboration will continue – it’s awesome and thrilling.

We are not doomed, my friends. Acting together we can turn this around.

Will Around Lake Michigan make it to Cannes or Sundance? It doesn’t matter. The success of a project isn’t measured by critical acclaim or money made – that’s so 20th century. It’s measured in how much hearts open and awareness expands. ALM is already blowing me away because of the resources, humor and love flowing to it.

I put myself out there as the ambassador of an idea – we can discover a sustainable civilization. It’s whacky sure, but doable. The idea basically asserts that humans are not doomed, nor are we inherently toxic. We can be a benign and eventually benevolent presence on the planet. Let’s roll up our sleeves and figure it out, let’s redefine what matters, redesign our desire.

Holy ship that’s huge! What else have you got going on today? Crazy job, messy divorce, health issues? Ok, we’ll give u a couple weeks to square away your troubles and wrap up what’s not working, then you’ve got to come out and play!

Whether or not you dig my clown pirate schtick, we can each ask ourselves what we REALLY want. If we accept suckiness as our destiny, that’s what we’ll get by default. I’ve got nephews, nieces and cool friends who are breeding. I cannot accept suck as their future. I myself want to have a good reason to dance, sing and make an utter fool of myself. “Aw, leave him alone, he saved the planet!”

Be a human for heaven’s sake. Our destiny isn’t supposed to suck!

As Jim Allegro used to say, ideas are alive. This project begins to breathe. We are all coming back to life.

A day driving around and hooking up with experts.

I dropped in to see Chuck of Northern Welding Specialties first, but he wasn’t there. He told me via cell that he was teaching at the college and perhaps we could meet after 3:00. I didn’t get back to his shop until 5:30 and missed him. We talked again and agreed that I can email him some drawings of the cargo brackets I’d like him to fabricate.

Next I swung by the indy Apple store City Mac to pick up a spare power supply for the Macbook Pro. I got to see Zeb and Greg. I also got to touch an IPad. They’ve sold a couple dozen already and Apple is not able to keep them stocked, but that’s typical for new product introductions.

1. √ Macbook Pro power supply [Apple] $80

Rolling down 31 toward town, I pulled into West Marine, a big box vendor and our local supplier of West Systems products for fiberglass repair. Bob sold me 2 x 200 feet of thin anchor line for Hello Word’s double anchors. He had given great guidance last August but I could only afford 2 x 50 feet of line then. The longer lines will allow Hello World to safely anchor in water up to 30 feet, greatly expanding our overnight options. Andy asked me about the trip as I hadn’t seen him since early September 2009. By coincidence he had moored his boat next to Hello World when she was anchored in Grand Traverse Bay. He had also recently come across a scrap of paper in his wallet with the ondesire.com url scribbled on it. A friend saw it too and assumed it was some kind of porn site.

“Hey Andy, what’s that all about, eh?” Nudge, nudge, wink wink!

“On no, it’s this guys sailing blog, honest!”

We also wondered about the guy who had been rigging a 40′ cat for kite sailing and a big ocean trip. He had eventually launched, but neither Andy nor I had heard what happened to him.

1. √ 2 x 200 anchor rope $200

Oryana food coop was the next stop. The managers there let me buy a stack of thin plastic containers provided for bulk nut butters. These and yogurt containers are ideal for mixing fiberglass. I also bumped into Christie and invited her to the launch on May 8.

1. √ x2 paper towels [Seventh Generation] (fiberglass)
2. √ plastic bulk containers [Solo] (fiberglass) $5
3. √ bandaids [All Terrain]
4. √ non deet insect repellent, [Badger]. Green Ban is nor longer stocked.
5. √ x2 ribbon floss [Toms]
6. √ apples, bananas, ginger, carrots, liquid soap [Bronners], bread [Pleasanton Bakeries], cheese [Organic Valley

Down 8th Street from Oryana is Brick Wheels. They had worked on Zilliax's Miyata bicycle last September, but their mechanics were booked up until after My 8th. They recommended City Bikes, so that's where the handlebar replacement, tuning and brake work is happening. Should be ready by 5/6.

I ate some hot rice and beans from Oryana's deli on the ride over to Scuba North. Captain Jack was there, he and Charles Craw had originally certified me as a NAUI diver in the late 80's. Jack recently sold Scuba North but is continuing to work there, in his words, "Now I am making money instead of loosing it!"

My big 80 cubic foot tank is just too bulky and heavy to bring on Hello World. At Scuba North I checked two sizes of pony tanks, 19 cubic feet and 30 cubic feet.  I originally wanted to go with two 19's and Jack explored hooking them together with discontinued fittings. Twining tanks is more common in Europe these days, so there are no USA distributors for new parts. Two small tanks would be easier to fit than one big one, but to use them together during a dive I would either have to buy a 2nd regulator or twin them, European fashion. With the gear Jack had on hand both tanks would have to be empty to break them apart - not a good solution.

Jack also explained that the water accumulation would reduce the capacity of the 19 faster than the 30 and that it would be a good idea to dry the small tanks before every fill. Here's the specs...

19 cubic feet

height = 21"

diameter = 4.5"

wieght = 9 lbs

price = $125

estimated dive time at 30 feet = 19 minutes

30 cubic feet

height = 22.5"

diameter = 5.25"

wieght = 14 lbs

price = $145

estimated dive time at 30 feet = 25 minutes

With a diameter of 5.25", the 30 would just barely fit in the Pelican 1720 rifle cases - .25" to spare. This is probably the way to go, a good balance between the 19 (short dive time) and the 80 (too bulky to carry). I'm going to ponder this a few more days.

1. √ extra backpack strap for small tank [Seaquest] $20
2. √ shoulder pads for backpack [Dive Rite] $16
3. √ repair kit for skin out wetsuit [Aquaseal] $20

I bought a strap to fit a smaller tank to my backpack, padding for the shoulder traps, and aquaseal kits to to fix repair the dings in the Gul skin out wetsuit.

A sweep past along east bay gave me a chance to drop off the thumb drive Jeff had loaned me and to visit Interlochen Guitar and Dan Kelchak, the project’s luthier. My Larrivee parlor guitar was stepped on at a party right after I got it -  almost broke my heart! Dan patched it up, almost good as new. Since then the Larrivee’s been west to the beaches of Hawaii, east to the canyons of NYC and even camped on North Manitou Island. To survive sailing Around Lake Michgan, the Larrivee needs love. Dan and I came up with a plan for rehabilitation. He’s going to reinforce the internal structure, securing delicate wood struts and panels that have broken loose or split. After that, I’ll sand her back and secure the vulnerable injury with fiberglass. Her sound might not be as bright, but she be solid for years to come. His part of the project will run about $200.

1. √ repair Larrivee guitar $200

I dropped off the drowned iPhone at the UPS store for return to Apple. Out of warranty replacement is $200, I should see it this week.

1. √ out of warranty replacement iphone returned to Apple $200

Finally I drove down to Bear Lake to borrow the grinder and fordham tool for the fiberglass repair. Me and the men spent the evening finishing the Firefly TV series on Netflix.

Take my life
Take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don’t care, I’m still free
You can’t take the sky from me

Much ordering, inspections and organization. I’m driving up to Traverse City tomorrow or Tuesday for a shopping day.

Fiberglass work has not started, I expect to prep the garage for Hello World today and maybe even get her in there. Structural damage is spread over 5 spots totaling 1 square foot in area. The hull bottoms need to be faired and all repairs painted.

Compared to last fall’s rebuild, this work should take about 5 days from prep to paint. As long as there are no surprises once repairs start, launch will be on schedule. I’ll be posting progress.

I’m introducing a new variable to the equation – saddlebags. The idea is to deploy uncrushable waterproof storage so the Larivee parlor guitar can come along. One scenario involves strapping Pelican 1720 rifle cases between the hulls and tramp. I could also keep them on “on deck” and eliminate one of the big dry bags.

The cases weigh 20 lbs each. Hello World can carry 500 lbs but I want to stay well under the max and only carry 400 lbs. I weigh about 180 lbs + 40 lbs of cases = 220 lbs total. That leaves 180 lbs for gear or the equivalent of three decent sized backpacks – 1 for wilderness camping, 1 for production / power and 1 for scuba. Don’t forget the bike. Doable.

On the Master Checklist, orange text is for items that need to be inspected, tested or acquired. Green text is for items ordered. Checked items are on hand and ready to go. Monitor our progress towards launch on the Master Checklist… like watching spring shoots poke up out the dirt!

http://www.ondesire.com/2010/04/18/master-checklist-alm-2010/

revised 10-05-19

This is based on the 09-08-31 Master Checklist, posted only 5 days before the September launch. We’re posting this 18 days before launch – that’s progress.

revised 10-05-31

Launching 23 days late and this will be the final review. Yikes, so much for progress.

1. Survival
   1. warmth
      1. shelter
         1. √ tent, poles, stakes [The North Face]
            1. check
               
         2. √ sleeping bag [The North Face, Cats Meow 2001]
         3. √ sleeping bag [Montbel, Ultra Light Alpine Burrow bag #3 2008]
         4. √ foam roll /  yoga matte [Gaiam]
         5. √ x2 tarp 4′ x 8′
         6. 20′ rope, 30′ drawstring, 200′ twine
      2. sailing wetsuit / drysuit
         1. √ skin out wetsuit[Gul]
            1. repair
         2. √ booties
            1. replace w/warmer
               
         3. √ hood
         4. ASK *** drysuit
      3. clothes – link
   2. water
      1. √ water bottles x4 [Nalgene]
      2. √ ceramic filter pump [MSR]
         1. check
      3. √ dual use – see Hello World/righting/big bucket
         
   3. cooking
      1. √ locking pot with lid
      2. √ big family pot
      3. √ 4 x bowls
      4. √ 4 x spoons
      5. √ dish soap [Ecover]
      6. √ scrungy
      7. √ wooden spoon
      8. √ paring knife
      9. √ white gas stove [MSR Whisperlite]
         1. check
      10. √ x2 fuel bottle large [MSR]
          1. fill
   4. √ food
      1. √ grains (make link)
   5. √ sanitation
      1. √ portable composting toilet
         1. √ prep
      2. √ sawdust bag (waterproof)
         
   6. sundries – link
2. Hello World [Hobie Cat]
   1. checked and repaired
      1. hull structure
         1. √ starboard bottom hole from rock impact, possibly near dune buggy blowouts UP
         2. √ starboard hull ratching hook dents under lip ~5
         3. √ port dent from stump pre 2009 launch
         4. √ ratcheting hook dents under lip ~5
         5. √ install hatches
         6. √ fair hatch surround
         7. √ reinforce inner hull under hatch
         8. √ fair and armor keels
         9. √ plate first impact
         10. safety patch
             
      2. inspect
         1. √ frame
         2. √ lines, shrouds
         3. √ mast
         4. √ rudders
         5. √ sails [Whirlwind]
         6. √ remove Hobie logo
         7. √ shock cord for trapeze (10-05-13)
         8. √ main traveler (10-05-13)
            1. thread lock main traveler
         9. √ big bucket righting system
            1. √ test
         10. √ ditty bag
         11. toolkit
         12. spare parts
         13. √ paddle head or new paddle (10-05-13)
         14. √ harness with back support and spreader hook [Murrays] (10-05-13)
         15. √ hull graphics
         16. √ x4 baolong fenders (10-05-13)
   2. Tools
      1. tools – link
   3. Legal
      1. √ Passport
      2. √ Hello World registration
      3. √ x4 vds – water proof flares [Orion]
      4. √ air horn with bike pump [Ecohorn]
      1. √ torus bell [Winslow]
      1. √ x2 life preservers for trapeze [Stohlquist]
      2. √ x1 white light
      3. √ x1 red/green light
      4. √ x2 light mount and safety line
      5. √ x2 anchor, 6 feet chain with buoy
      6. √ x2 200 ft of anchor line (30 ft depth x ~5-7)
      7. √ x2 45 ft of line (5-7 ft depth separate or 12-18 ft combined)
   4. Navigation
      1. √ gps and charts iPhone application [iNavX]
      2. √ x2 compass [Engineer] [something that won't explode or fog up]
         
   5. Production and Power
      1. production and post kit – link [Canon] [Apple]
   6. Communication
      1. √ submersible VHF – [iCom M72]
      2. ASK *** iPhone 3GS [Apple]
         1. √ dry bag [Aquapac]
            
      3. √ iPhone back-up [Apple]
         1. √ dry bag [Aquapac]
      4. √ Mifi [Verizon]
         1. √ Mifi interface USB
         2. ASK *** summer connection
   7. Bags and straps
      1. √  backpack – [The North Face Snow Leopard 1991]
      2. √ backpack – [The North Face Technical 1995]
         1. needs repair
      3. √ dry bag backpack x2 [Seal line 115 2009]
      4. √ fanny pack dry bag x2 [Seal Line Sealpack 2009]
      5. √ messenger bag with shoulder and waist strap [Tenba]
      6. √ compression stuff sack [Granite Gear]
      7. √ x6 large stuff sacks [Granite Gear] [Sea to Summit]
      8. √ x7 small stuff sacks [Outdoor Research] [Granite Gear]
      9. √ x2 Pelican 1720NF Long Case without Foam Black 20lbs w/foam ~$400
      10. √ x8 climbing carabiners [Black Diamond
          
      11. √ x4 climbing carabiners locking [Omega Pacific]
      12. √ x12 H16 cargo plates [Dan Kelly and Chuck Hunt]
          
   8. Scuba and Snorkle
      1. ASK *** waterproof enclosure for Vixia [Light and Sound Bluefin] [Gates]
      2. √ waterproof enclosure for Vixia (shallows and light duty waterproof) [Aquapac]
      3. √ pony scuba tank 30 cu ft [Luxfer]
         
      4. √ pressure gauge [Cessi]
      5. √ harness
         1. √ adjusted straps removed shoulder release
         2. √ compatible with dual ponys?
         3. √ padding for pec/bicep
      6. √ regulator [Seaquest]
         1. √ purchased 87 rebuilt 7/09
      7. √ mask [Mares]
      8. √ snorkel [US Divers]
      9. √ x2 fins [Mares]
      10. √ x2 weight belt
      11. √ x4 dive weights
      12. √ flag
      13. flag mount
      14. √ NAUI card
      15. √ bag for mask and snorkle
      16. √ check mask for leaks
          
      17. √ mesh bag for all gear
   9. Landing
      1. √ bicycle [Miyata, Steve Zilliax]
         1. needs service
         2. replace handlebars
      2. √ aircraft cable (cargo)
      3. √ ratcheting straps (square ends not hooks)
      4. √ heavy duty chain and lock [American]
      5. valve adapter
   10. Art
       1. √ jbells
       2. *** ASK soft chaulk [Prang]
       1. √ Parlor Guitar [Larrivee] 36.25 x 13.25 x 4.5
          1. needs repair [Kelchak]
          2. armor [Dan Kelly]
             
   11. Logistics
       1. √ trailer

44 days until the scheduled launch. In 3 weeks I’ll look back wistfully and think, “I remember back when there was plenty of time.”

The logistics of sailing and camping for three months are significant. There’s the boat itself which includes spare parts and repair supplies. For those who haven’t sailed, know that it takes lots of rope, pulleys and metal doodads.

Navigation is handled mostly on the iPhone with compass and chart applications, but I’ll carry actual compasses for backup. There’s also safety equipment required by the Coast Guard like flares and lights.

Food and shelter is handled with a wilderness camping kit – backpacking tent, sleeping bags, tiny stove, pots etc. Don’t forget the CNA or Composting Nitrogen Accumulator, aka Poopomatic TM.

On top of getting around and maintaining life, remember we’re making a movie here. That means at least one camera, cables, tripod, microphones, hard drive, laptop, batteries and solar panels for charging it all.

All this stuff has to weigh less than 250 lbs and be sealed in dry bags. There’s no cabin on Hello World.

Boats, islands, spaceships and planets are related – they have finite carrying capacity, specific conditions (gear) are required for life and long term survival requires attention and careful planning. Around Lake Michigan explores this idea, it is the project’s inherent artifact.

How do we realize sustainable civilizations? We find artifacts and figure out what they imply.

Seemed like I’d stayed for days and days, but it was only four days. Easy to get in the groove on Beaver with so many friendly folks around.  I’m off to pack the boat and launch. With luck, Naubenway today.

I bought gear and parts at Power Hardware – washers to make a new pulley to replace the one I lost on the main sheet traveler, a new compass, anchor bag… so many things vanish on the water, securing gear is an important discipline that comes from hard experience. The list of things lost is long. Not to mention things ruined – iPhone from trusting untested equipment. I mostly mourn the lost things because now they are in the lake where they just don’t belong, it’s a double badness, I loose useful stuff and the lake accumulates more crap.

I also sent rent for my Brooklyn crib to Phil Charles in Brooklyn. The post office lady gave me a free postage paid envelope ’cause I only had my ATM card and there was a minimum $10 charge. Is this a groovy place or what?

I didn’t make it off Beaver until 5:00 pm, so I popped over to Garden Island and camped, ready for an early morning depature between Whisky and Squaw Islands.

Even a sailboat has an environmental cost. Rebuilding Hello World was intended as a low impact project, not a sustainable project as I defined it a few days ago. Not only was electricity and petroleum poured into the tools, lights and vehicles supporting the repairs, but waste was produced. The steel paint and acetone cans can be recycled and the 30 year old grinder can be dropped off at an electronics recycling box. The big bag of garbage and the vacuum cleaner bags full of fiberglass dust however are destined for the landfill. About 35 lbs of waste was generated to renovate 300 lbs of 30 year old sailboat. About 4 – 6 ounces of fiberglass / mineral dust and and a gallon of VOCs escaped into open air.

Once the entire budget has been tallied I’ll be able to make a wild guess at the carbon cost of the project.

Big Bear makes the point that wind turbine and solar panel factories are powered by coal fired and nuclear power plants and therefor wind and solar power are far from sustainable. Is anything we do sustainable? Do we have any technologies that are in accord with the global life support system?

That it should come to this. The dreaded pre-travel checklist, lifted from a post a few days back, except this one gets updated right up until launch. Underline items need attention. Last updated 08/30/09

1. Vision
   1. Search for sustainable civilization
      1. design and implement sustainable civilizations ASAP
      2. the project is internally consistent, an exercise in footprint reduction and measurement
      3. I have (or can acquire) the diverse competencies required
         1. fabrication
         2. sailing
         3. swimming
         4. film making
         5. stewardship
         6. open source distribution
         7. curiosity
         8. etc.
2. Budget
   1. financial requirements about $10k total, gear and expenses, assuming some collaboration
   2. excellent health and physically fit principle players
   3. other projects on standby or automatic – summer / fall schedule cleared
      1. client needs simple changes to video
         
3. Survival
   1. warmth
      
      1. shelter
         1. tent
         2. sleeping bag
         3. foam roll
         4. yoga mat
      2. sailing wetsuit / drysuit
         1. Traverse City pick-up, arrives 9-4-09
            
      3. √ clothing (link)
   2. water (Lake Michigan)
      1. 4 x nalgene bottles
      2. ceramic filter
      3. carry
         1. large righting bag
         2. collapsible jug
   3. food
      1. grains – pack
      2. cooking gear
         1. locking pot with lid
         2. big family pot
         3. 4 x bowls
         4. 4 x spoons
         5. ecover dish soap
         6. scrungy
         7. wooden spoon
         8. metal spoon
         9. alcohol stove
         10. fuel bottle small
         11. fuel bottle large
         12. grain alcohol (wisconsin)
             
         13. lighter
   4. sanitation (portable composting toilet)
      1. need sawdust bag
   5. sundries (link)
4. Safe boat
   1. checked and repaired
      1. hull
      2. frame
         1. grind new rivet heads to remove excess post
            
      3. lines, shrouds
         1. new 17 shroud as backup pickup Traverse City, arrives 09-04-09
      4. mast
         1. rivet base
         2. rivet step
      5. rudders
         1. reverse bolts and nuts on starboard
         2. lock down cams adjusted
            
      6. sails
         1. install main downhaul
         2. repair jib downhaul
         3. batten tips on main
      7. sailing gloves
      8. uphaul rope
         1. big bucket system
            1. pickup Traverse City, arrives 9-4-09
      9. ditty bag
      10. toolkit
          1. spare parts
          2. basic tools
             
      11. paddle head or new paddle
      12. epoxy uphaul schackle
          
      13. harness with back support and spreader hook
          1. pickup Traverse City, arrives 9-4-09
5. Legal
   1. registration
   2. vds (flares)
   3. sound device
   4. life preservers
      1. pickup Traverse City, arrives 9-4-09
   5. lights (for night running)
   6. anchor and chain with buoy
   7. 200 ft of line (30 ft depth)
6. Navigation
   1. gps and charts iPhone application
      1. Mike Kelly collaborator
      2. iphone 2gs GPS is broken, cost of repair = cost of new 3gs iphone. Solution? Punt.
   2. compass
7. Production Dry
   1. dry bag Seal line 115
   2. Canon Vixia kit (link)
   3. Apple Macbook Pro and Fusion hard drive (link)
   4. Applications
8. Communication
   1. submersible VHF – icom
   2. Handheld CB radio
   3. cell phone – iPhone
      1. dry case pickup Traverse City, arrives 9-4-09
   4. collaboration on key resources
   5. blog revisions
   6. press release post launch
      
   7. hull graphics
      
   8. record iphone conversations
      1. contacted Adam the Maker, maybe he can make me one of his homebrews
         
   9. web connection – Verizon mifi
9. Power
   1. extension cord – marina or house borrow
   2. Belkin surge protector (see Vixia HFS-10)
   3. tupperware container for Brunton Solo 15 with aquarium caulk
   4. Brunton Solaris 26 solar panel
      1. pickup Traverse City, arrives 9-4-09
   5. Brunton Solo 15 battery and inverter
      1. pickup Traverse City, arrives 9-4-09
10. Itinerary
    1. where am i landing in TC (labor day weekend)
    2. final schedule before launch
    3. call north manitou rangers
    4. post TC – randy mcmillian, michael the lawyer
       
11. Production Wet
    1. backpack – North Face Snow Leopard
    2. enclosure for Vixia
    3. scuba tank – hydrostated 07/09
    4. pressure gauge
    5. harness
    6. regulator – rebuilt 7/09
    7. mask
       1. suddenly leaking, try shaving
          
    8. snorkel
       1. needs new diaphrams?
          
    9. booties
    10. hood
    11. fins
    12. 2 x weight belt
    13. dive knife
    14. wetsuit
    1. rope
    2. dive weights
       
    3. flag
12. Clean and prep house
    1. garage
       1. vacuum, vacuum, vacuum
       2. clean and organize tools
    2. grounds
       1. van
          
    3. laundry
    4. refridge
    5. bedroom
       
    6. mr boy cat – arrange for care until Melonie comes to pick him up
       
    7. dishes
    8. reassemble tripod and pack
    9. recording cable for iphone
    10. isolating earphones
        
    11. composting toilet
        1. sawdust refill
13. Art
    1. Prang soft chaulk
    2. charcoal
    3. Larrivee Palor Guitar
       1. need another dry bag
14. Logistics
    1. Jim Barnes trailer
       
15. Something else
    1. miscellaneous
       1. print location and talent releases
       2. weigh and take pictures of trash
       3. move needed files to portable drive
          1. all vixia files for editing
          2. ru movies
       4. bills and such
          1. prog 9/28 $170
          2. Chinatown postmaster
          3. ATT
          4. charter cable
             
       5. press release post launch

Reassembly complete and who needs the fancy thread fixing tool when Patrick’s around? Give him a triangular file and 30 minutes – viola! Working threads.

Here’s the last geeky maker shot – a whazit I invented to keep the threads from getting smashed up again when the striker bar gets hammered and tugged through it’s holes. Lesson learned – don’t bang on exposed threads!

We’re going out for a sail now to test of the trapeze and whether I can right her by myself if she flips.

Patrick and I had a fantastic sail, out there yelling and whooping it up. Later in front of the house we did a controlled capsize and total turtle. Turns out she’s too much for me to right alone, unless I drop her sails and even then I’d need some help. We got cold while I was futzing with her alone so Patrick added his girth and we got her back up, but not before two smokers came out to offer help.

Murrray’s sells a righting bag and pulley system to give me the extra weight I’d need should I ever have to right her solo, plus tying a Baolong to the top of the mast keeps it from totally turtling. Lovely sunset after an exhilerating day.

I’m into this WordPress for the iPhone thang. Now outhouse reports can go directly to the big screen.

It’s not polite to talk poop in public, unless you’ve been liberated by Joseph Jenkin’s Humanure Handbook, a fantastic tome that’s now available in it’s entirety as PDF at humanurehandbook.com. I had my consciousness raised oh so many years ago by the paper incarnation of the HH, and when thinking about how to deal with my you know what during ALM, I yearned to once again for it’s inspiration. Let’s face it folks, we are shit machines. That’s a great thing, if we take responsibility for it. The HH is the truth to set us free! While rereading it, I imagined restructuring the whole ALM project around poop, making poop more prominent. That’s the power of poop, my friends.

Oh yeah, today’s the day to figure out how to fix the threads on the striker bar.

Just activated WordPress for the iPhone, and that’s where I’m posting from. Who needs Twitter?

A set back today in the reassembly of Hello World. I bunged the starter threads on both sides of the dolphin striker, so I’ve got to fix ‘em before I can rivet the mast step and raise the mast. I’ve tried grinding off a bit of each end and bought fresh nuts to reestablish the threads, but no dice. My plan is to find a small concave grinding stone tomorrow and round off the ends of the striker so they’ll be more likely to accept nuts. If that doesn’t work i’ll have to find a set of Murray’s thread chasers and pull the whole striker apart. Another busy day ahead.

Patrick and Luke just stopped by with cake.

Look Ma, pictures! A very handy little blogging utility, the iPhone.

This morning I pop riveted the stern/port trampoline casting that Chuck welded yesterday. I’ve got more riveting to do after I apply some adhesive to the mast base, but it’s wet out there – raining. I’ll go into town to buy the adhesive and bring the mast into the garage to dry, or most of it anyway – it’s huge.

Today’s post is a sort of thinking out loud, a rehearsal for what I am about to do.

Yesterday, I heard on NPR Science Friday that multitasking actually impairs the brain permanently – yikes! I’ve mulled that over and have since refined my approach to this project. There are scads of things to do before I go, and up until yesterday I’ve been into several of them at once. This is generally essential because the tasks are interdependent – one task can only progress so far before it begins to blend into another. The insight is that I can physically handle only one task at a time, so it’s best to try and focus on one thing exclusively until it’s time to switch, avoiding distractions. This requires developing a quality priority list showing which tasks are dependent on others. If that list is well constructed, the process of doing and switching is very effective.

I scribbled a list around mid July as a riff on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs… survival, safety, etc.

Here’s a revised hierarchy from the shamanic perspective…

Hello World hit the water Tuesday evening after a month of renovations. Wednesday saw her across Crystal Lake, ready to fly. The ALM expedition is on track for a September launch.

Curious collaborator – “Hey DK, I thought you were planning to be outta there a couple of weeks ago?” Boats launch when they are ready, and not before. The decision is not up to me, all I can do is make wild predictions. She’s raring to go though, practically sails herself.

A short list of recent renovations and fixes – welding for the rudder castings (Monday) and the mast base, mast step and the port stern trampoline corner (Friday), graphics for the hulls (in process), loads of little replacement shackles and pins, rudder rebuilds, rigging tunes and the clearing of a parking space for her. Left to do… reassemble on Saturday, preliminary pack, sail her loaded up, clean house, final pack, order additional parts to be picked up in transit, update blog, etc.

There’s catch-up posts in the queue, but we’ll have to make do for now with her press release picture. For the sailing geeks – unloaded, her helm is ever so slightly weather.

It’s the day before launch, or at least the day before the launch party. Putting a final coart of paint on the hulls today and perhaps a second injection on the decks. There’s a slew of parts arriving via UPS, including (theoretically) the jib from Whirlwind, just about 3 weeks late.

Work in progress images from a couple of weeks back, examples of problems solved towards getting a $400 Hobie Cat ready for the big lake. In hindsight, full documentation of the restoration would have been great, but getting the boat ready was my focus.

Simple patches and more trouble

The damaged area (blister, crack, impact) is exposed (darkish middle) along with some surrounding solid structure.  A patch of biaxial glass is cut to overlap onto the existing structure, then the patch and the solid structure are wet out with catalyzed resin. Some 406 ‘mayonnaise’ is applied to the structure, followed by the patch and finally a sheet of wax paper (brown) to facilitate removal of air bubbles and excess resin.	The wax paper is removed and voila! Note the inner oval of biaxial glass doesn’t entirely cover the exposed structure, just enough to bridge the damage.
First bow patch after the wax paper was removed. New glass is flush with the gelcoat as it overlaps the existing glass.	The compound curve was a little tough to match with one layer of glass, thus we got a tiny air gap at the aft end of the patch that had to be reopened. There was plenty of practice doing bow patches.
Late in the game, Patrick found other issues of concern on the port hull bow. Red crayon marks a suspicious crack, which turns out to be a through hull repair.	Here it is opened up. Multiple layers of biaxial glass built up the curve, followed by an icing of 406 ‘peanut butter’
Another late in the game discovery – rippling hull. We had extensively assessed the hull weeks back, but after several simple repairs our eyes became tuned in and we could spot more subtle clues.	An area of weak glass and delamination, just below the delaminated deck area. Could this have been caused by stress from the weakened deck? Deck delamination ignored can eventually result in the hull snapping in half.

A through hull repair, inner and outer skin breached

To fabricate a backing plate to heal the port breach, we needed to match the curve of the hull for a close fit. The hull provided a handy mold. First plastic is laid over a big swath of hull and stretched tight with tape.	Wax paper was laid on the plastic and the hull was rotated to bring the surface closer to horizontal. Then biaxial glass was cut and wet out. Gravity insures the patches conform to the shape of the hull.	We built two pieces because though the curve of the inner skin closely matches the outer skin, the inner has a ridge where the foam meets the keel. Rather than try to rig something super fancy to take the ridge into account, we just left a gap that could be bonded later.
Here the two plates are placed inside the hull. Of course, all surfaces were sanded and cleaned with acetone first, then wetted out and 406 mayonnaise applied.	Fishing line tied to the backing plates pulls them against the inner hull. Our innovation was to include wooden blocks so that the line is pulled at nearly right angles to the hull rather than to the sides. This really locks the patch in place until it cures.	From the other side, note the fishing line almost wrapping around the hull. That kept tension on the line while decreasing load on the tape. The fishing line was as taught as guitar strings.

More patches and deck injections with guest appearance.

The rudder breach was big enough for a light bulb, but not the right shape for a backing plate patch.	The hole had to be expanded into a more elliptical shape so the backing plate could be slipped through.	We patched most everything in two days of frenzied work.
The injection map. The outside fiberglass skin has separated from the foam core creating a void or empty space between them, compromising strength. This can cause the hull to break in half in high winds. A pattern of holes are drilled Holes are drilled and catalyzed resin is injected to fill the voids.	Unfortunately, about 30% of the holes I drilled went through the outer and inner fiberglass, both because I was a little careless and the inner skin was somewhat compromised. I drilled slightly larger inspection holes to check for cracks in the inner skin.	Finding no significant cracks, I used 404 peanut butter to seal off all the inner holes in preparation for injection.
Injecting resin into one hole forces resin out the adjacent holes. Moving from low to high points on the grid allows air to escape, theoretically filling the void.	Injection complete. Extra resin has oozed out over the tape. The tape kept the cured resin from bonding to surface of the hull.	James Kudlak, local windsurfing legend, stops by to survey the progress.

Breaches in the Hobie hulls are sealed, structural damage is remediated. At 10:00 pm UTC – 4, August 12, I completed the injections of the decks. Only cosmetic and finishing work remains. I know y’all have been starving for pictures, so a gaggle follows after this public service message.

It’s hard to imagine anyone NOT getting excited about the nitty gritty details of hull integrity and fiberglass repair, but believe it or not, a few people might actually be bored by my current favorite activity! For their sake, I’d like to explain why I’ve taken such trouble to document it.

First is the breadcrumbs. I’ve learned a lot doing the hull work that might come in handy on future projects. My swiss cheese like memory will not retain these details for very long, therefor extensive notes are a must. I use the web because the drudgery of mere note making is relieved by the potential of an audience, and that kicks in my showboating circuits. Can I make notes that will be fun to read, that will be engaging even to someone who couldn’t give a flying fuck about fiberglass minutia or even boats?

Second is the give back. To do this work, I relied heavily on community postings about Hobie Cat repair. I’ve made a few mistakes and had a couple of breakthrough’s that could help a future Hobie restorer, so it’s only just that I share the wealth.

Third is visitors. The key to getting plenty of traffic to a website is to provide relevant information that folks need, sometimes desperately. Hobie renovators checking out the content might wonder about the context, and then – they are mine! Links to random stuff like sailing around Lake Michigan, sustainability and the like will snag and beguile them. Of course, sustainability is already be on the radar screen of most Hobie sailors who, (for the most part) are highly evolved spiritual beings in contrast to say, owners of personal watercraft – Jetski, Waverunner, etc.

Now – check out that last paragraph. Because I mentioned “jetski”, that word becomes a searchable tag for this post, hooking directly into search engines like Google. Imagine some dumbass jetski dude / dudette who’s looking for new and interesting places to go around and around in circles searching for “Lake Michigan” and “around” and “jetski”. This post could easily be in the top 10 links. If a dumbass jetskiier clicked into ondesire.com they would be exposed to the concept of sustainability and small footprints for the VERY FIRST TIME! Maybe they would read this text and have an epiphany, a conversion experience, swearing off petroleum powered gluttony and coming over the side of righteousness and light! Or not. Probably not, but maybe…

Enough distractions, let’s see some pictures!

Check out the sand harvest from the starboard hull! The Viglands must have left the drain plug out with the Hobie still in the surf, how many years ago? She was last registered in 2002, and the Vigland’s were sticklers for keeping their reg up to date. Maybe 7 years of wet sand? This is why the rudder foam was saturated with water, sand doesn’t dry out very well trapped inside a fiberglass bottle.

I hosed her out through the breach for a good 15 – 20 minutes, sand was way up in there.

sand

I keep ragging on the Viglands because Alan lost my blocks! I’d also like to interview his son Todd who works for the Land Conservancy as part of Around Lake Michigan. One of the questions I plan to ask him is, do you ever lay awake nights and regret your ill treatment of my boat? It’s not fair really, my family neglected our 14 too, just ask my buddy Dave Crowley who worked on it last year. Where is Dave Crowley by the way?

Here’s the basic steps. Grind down the damaged area, removing gelcoat and broken fiberglass to expose solid fiberglass structure. Clean the area with acetone. Lay a sheet of clear plastic over the area and draw the outline of the repair on the plastic with a crayon. Cut out the shape from the plastic, this becomes a pattern for cutting glass fabric to the same shape. Do a bunch of plastic patterns first and then use them to cut a bunch of glass patches all at once, this will maximize how many patches you get from the glass and minimize the amount of glass fibers released into the air. We used biaxial glass which is tightly woven glass stitched to a layer of glass matte. This makes a very strong repair but the fabric tends to release lots of tiny fibers when cut. Which reminds me, here’s a picture of two scientists investigating a UFO crash site…

Actually, that’s Patrick and moi blessing the beloved hulls, dressed for success. Glass fibers and grinding dust are not compatible with lung operation or bare skin, eyes can be put out with flying debris, ears go deaf if subjected to endless hours of power tool noise. Isolate your work area and your clothing. This stuff sticks to cloths and will go with you, so when you are done or breaking for lunch, vacuum yourself off, strip your outer skin and wash skin with cold water. Keep children and pets far away, they don’t know better.

I did 95% of the sanding indoors and even when outside I kept my HEPA vacuum handy. Don’t even think about doing extensive renovation without a solid HEPA vacuum and plenty of replacement bags / filters. Standard vacuums and shopvacs just put the dust back into the air.

Kai was telling me that in Europe, you have to be certified to do glass work, the materials are not even available to the average Joe. The Europeans aren’t dumb, this shit is not to be trifled with. Sanding outdoors is generally a bad idea. I used a sanding tent in my garage and was able to capture most of the dust. Even so, some objects near the seams of my tent got a light dusting and had to be carefully cleaned. I am not kidding here, don’t skip the preparations. A slick boat is not worth your health. Small footprint!

Patrick and I patched up the sides of the hulls pretty nearly now – all that’s left is sanding, fairing and painting. There’s also epoxy injections needed for both decks a couple of feet forward of the front pylons. It’s usually a straightforward operation, except… I marked the soft spots and drilled holes for the injections, but in about 30% of the holes my bit sank right through both layers of fiberglass. That’s not good.

Hobie hulls are constructed with two layers of fiberglass with a layer of foam in between. It’s hard to imagine that foam could provide strength, but it does, as long as it contacts both the inner and outer fiberglass. If there’s a gap between the foam and the fiberglass, it’s not nearly as strong. If sailors stand on the deck the foam gets crushed, creating a gap. Design flaw, but whatever. Epoxy can be injected through the external skin to fill the void unless the internal skin is also ruptured. Injection won’t work then because the liquid epoxy will leak into the inside of the hull rather than fill the void between the two skins. That means removing the entire sandwich and repairing the breach in several stages, like like we did with the starboard rudder and port side.

Now, I was careful not to drill too deep, but maybe I was just careless on 30% of my holes. If so, I could create a thick epoxy plug for those holes and continue with the rest of the liquid injection. If the inner skin was already fractured and broken before I drilled, then plugging won’t help, I’ll just be squirting epoxy into the hull. The word for this is setback. So close… worse case scenario is opening her up tomorrow, carving out the broken inner skin and patching it – two more days. Best case scenario is a few more exploratory holes near the deep holes to see if the inner skin is totally broken, and if it’s not then continue with thick and thin injections – 1 day. For now sleep and the activation of the unconscious for problem solving.

A $400 Hobie Cat, eh? That’s what I bought it for in May, with a trailer! A week later, (after a full inventory), it turned out there were no blocks for the main and jib. The seller, Alan Vigland, had no idea what happened to the blocks when I called to inquire. Ok, so already the budget is creeping up. Preparing a 30 year old Hobie Cat for a 1000 mile voyage on a great lake has already cost more than 6 times the price of the boat, not including labor. The total budget can be useful for estimating the project footprint, like the calculations for the carbon cost of making a 747 jet – what If we spent the cost of the 747 on gasoline and burned it all up, how much carbon would that produce? This method is probably very inaccurate for estimating the carbon cost of materials, but at least it can get us thinking about the multiple costs of the things we buy. There’s the price we pay in dollars and then there’s the price the earth pays for mining, drilling, manufacturing, transport, etc.

Hull repairs and restructuring
07/15/09 Sears – vacuum cleaner bags $11.65
07/15/09 West Marine – West Systems guide books, Gel Coat and Fiberglass boat repair $11.64
07/28/09 Fiberlay – 3 yards of 38″ biaxial and matte glass knit ~$60 (2nd day air)
07/30/09 West Marine – West Systems epoxy resin, hardener and support products $235.73
08/05/09 Shop and Save – surgical gloves 30 pair and latex 1 pair $5.30
08/07/09 Shop and Save – paper towel and wax paper $2.50
08/09/09 Sears – nitril gloves, 100 pair $15.89
08/09/09 West Marine – Interlux primer and 2 quarts white, tape and collodial silica $183.85

subtotal $526.56

New sails and rigging
07/15/09 Whirlwind Sails – X2 Main and jib $1300
07/15/09 Baolong fenders x 4 $120
07/21/09 Bluewater Sails – Trampoline and hiking straps replacement $90
00/00/00 shroud set $100
00/00/00 blocks $100
00/00/00 tiller $40
00/00/00 spare rudder $200

subtotal $1950.00

total 2476.56

Even though I am not using any gasoline when I am sailing around the lake, I have produced some carbon in fixing up the boat so I could sail around the lake – and a bag of garbage too. Reduced footprint maybe, sustainability no. Dave Hart is doing some serious sustainability research. With a little luck we can get him to talk about it.

There was a bon voyage party for me last night that I missed because I was scatter brained over these repairs and couldn’t remember where Gretchen said it was. I almost sprained my ass riding 11 miles at top speed on Steve Z’s road bike to get to Jim and Gretchen’s, only to find nobody there but their dog Doris, barking, barking, barking. They were all at Elberta beach but even though Patrick showed up and we drove down there, I didn’t recognize any cars. Shite. I’ll have another party at the house after the jib arrives next week.

Here’s a done list on the glass work. Pix coming.

√ build backing plate for new enlarged hull breach by starboard rudder
√ epoxy exposed wood near rudder, three coats
√ sand interior of midsection hull breach in preparation for backing plate and out facing side of backing plate
√ install backing plates in port hull midsection breach using fishing line technique, add peanut butter to half level
√ wet out areas with partially filled excavations
√ use rest of peanut butter to top off partially filled excavations
√ wet out patches for now completely filled excavations and install
√ sand and wet out rudder breach backing plate and interior, install using fishing line technique, fill half with peanut butter

wet out all excavations excluding rudder and midsection breaches (3 remain)
wet out patches for all excavations except excluded and install (3 remain)
wet out bottom jobs and install armor patches
top off midsection breach backing plate patch with peanut butter, install outer patch
sand midsection breach, fair with peanut butter
sand and wet out rudder breach backing plate, top off with peanut butter and install patch
sand, wet out and fair all repairs, minor gouges, bottom scratches
rebuild ridge by rudder
inject soft areas fore of front pilons
UV paint

Though I had thought the grinding was completely finished at 2:00 pm today, it wasn’t. I was prep sanding on the port hull’s bow when I broke through to a big void under the glass. That meant more grinding and eventually breaking though into the interior of the hull. This is the smallest hull breach of the three, perhaps 1 and 1/2 inches long. After prep sanding all the excavations and washing them down with acetone, Patrick and I were finally ready to handle the smallest dings and divots. I mixed up some peanut butter (structural epoxy paste) and following Kai’s recommendations filled to a max depth of 3/16 – 1/4 depth. Most of the repairs were nowhere near that deep and were topped off immediately. We are ready to put in a full day tomorrow, breaking in time for Gretchen and Jim’s evening bonfire up at the cottage art installation.

Here’s tomorrow’s list…

build backing plate for new enlarged hull breach by starboard rudder
epoxy exposed wood near rudder, three coats
sand interior of midsection hull breach in preparation for backing plate and out facing side of backing plate
sand peanut butter in all holes repaired on Wednesday
install backing plates in port hull midsection breach using fishing line technique, add peanut butter to half level
wet out areas with partially filled excavations
use rest of peanut butter to top off partially filled excavations
wet out patches for now completely filled excavations and install
wet out all excavations excluding rudder and midsection breaches
wet out patches for all excavations except excluded and install
wet out bottom jobs and install armor patches

next day

sand and wet out rudder breach backing plate and interior, install using fishing line technique, fill half with peanut butter
sand all repairs
wet out and fair sanded repairs with peanut butter
top off midsection breach backing plate patch with peanut butter, install outer patch

next day

sand midsection breach, fair with peanut butter
sand and wet out rudder breach backing plate, top off with peanut butter and install patch
inject soft areas fore of front pilons

next day

UV paint

next day

reassemble hobie

I decided to skip foam replacement all together. It’s such a minor component of the repair, structural epoxy paste is perfectly adequate, IMHO. With luck will be able to finish closing the hulls up on Sunday.

Even laid up in the intensive care unit, the hobie hulls are still things of beauty. Touching them you can almost feel the physics, they are hydro dynamic sonnets. They long for the water, they sing to me with their shape. These pictures are hardly worth the electrons they’re posted with, you need to run your hands along the profiles…

The reason the starboard rudder excavation was not drying out was because the interior was full of sand! There’s a reason this Hobie Cat only cost me $400 (with trailer). No matter, I cut a hole big enough for a hose to rinse her out and then later a light bulb to dry her. In a few days, good as new! Crosses fingers… Here’s a message from Chip of Whirlwind Sails. He’s making a new main and jib for the Hobie. Looks like there’s going to be slight delay in delivery… The original sails have been hanging in my improvised loft since we cleaned them. They need minor repairs and I was going to hand sew them as a project along the way. It seems like a good idea to have a spare set, I’d also like to carry a spare rudder and a second set of shroud lines.

The originals have been cleaned but need minor repairs

Another day of prepping the hulls for repair. Here’s the latest pix.

Why document the mundane and tedious?

Unless I struggle, you just won’t care what I want. Five days until launch and there are big holes in my boat. Do you care yet?

I like this work, the problem solving and visualizing the steps needed for an effective repair. To remember the techniques I am learning, I’ve got to leave a trail of breadcrumbs.

before	after
Mystery impact with drip	Upside down, "drip" is on the right with stain running up

more…

before	after
1 Starboard rudder damage	2 Still not quite ready

still more…

before	after
Delamination...	Becomes a port hole

fun…

Twice as much fun	Delamination just under the deck	Port hull outside bottom job
Blister constellations are now very lovely	Port hull inside bottom job	Gelcoat ding goes a little further

Future Sailors of America (Dan, Patrick and Jonathan) met this week for disassembly and inpection of our pre owned Hobie 16. We removed the hulls, washed off surface oxidation and crayoned the problem areas. Here is the most problematic problem… a rear impact, my guess from backing into something when the boat was on the trailer. The impact was hard enough to crack the thick fiberglass lip (bottom arrow) and not only bust the gel coat under the rudder hinge (top) but shatter the supporting glass too (not shown). There are probably about 15 other areas requiring glass and gel coat repair along with a couple of soft spots forward of the front pylons, but none so significant as this. This is a must do.

hull boo boo

jonathan scrubbing trampoline

We also cleaned the main sail with Everclear, somehow managing to not drink any until the job was done.  A day or two before Patrick and I had cleaned the jib – both sails had smears and splatters of an odd greasy paint. Jonathan went to town on the trampoline with a little biodegradable Ecover dishsoap and elbow grease.

After disassembly I did an extensive parts inventory. It looks like we are missing blocks for the main and jib. Alan Vigland, the prior owner has no idea where they are. Alas, another expense.

We could almost sail this boat as is, but the hull damage from the rear impact shouldn’t be ignored. Goodness knows how long the Vigland’s and their friends sailed her like that. Project consultant and fellow Hobie 16 owner Jim Barnes agrees, he opined that it shouldn’t be ignored. Since I’ve gotta do fiberglass, I might as well handle the rest of the hull issues. Besides, Patrick is frothing at the mouth to do fiberglass work, he’s mad for making.

Buy a $400 Hobie Cat and spend another $1000 to set her straight. That’s parts and materials only. Thanks goodness for nephews and sweat equity. I keep telling them it’ll be great for picking up babes, I trust that’s true.

That’s an additional $1000 of carbon footprint as well. This old Hobie was built in 1979 with a carbon cost. One of these suckers new will set you back about $10k in 2009. Using our jet fuel analogy, if we buy burn 10k worth of gasoline, here’s how much carbon we are adding to the atmosphere…

$10,000 divided by $3.00/gal = 3333 gallons x 20 lbs of carbon = 66,666 lbs of carbon.

Back in 1979 Hobie 16′s did not cost 10k, but then again gas was a lot cheaper too, so less money could buy more gas. These are very rough estimates just for discussion, the point is making anything generates a lot of carbon, even a sun powered vehicle like a sail boat.

Now I’ll be responsible for more carbon by fixing her up. I’ll try and track that as I go.

Moon over Crystal introduces Tuesday. An oft snapped scene ever entrancing.

Another week in full tilt at the water temple. The Hobie renovation support team arrives in about 3 hours. For the moment, sweet silence and the moon.

Been doing a little strategic shoving of local allies, helping to deploy web presences mostly while tapping into the thriving tribal exchange. Mike Murphy traded me Hobie 16 transport for some snaps of his Nature of Stone spokesmodel, Amanda. Artist house provided space and quinoa upama for partner dance lessons, though I am not sure whether I trading with Mykl Werth or Gretchen Eichberger Kudlack.  That’s the people’s economy here in Northern Michigan. Love it. Ties in nicely with holes and On Desire collaborators.

Amanda, spokesmodel for Nature of Stone

We’ve assembled a pretty nifty project with some auspicious holes. Holes are the places collaborators and their products / services go. It started out feeling like magical flim flam, but with a little practice it has shaded into a jamming pragmatica. Ok, a little miraculous and gratitude certainly, gotta have it. What the heck am I rambling on about? Read on.

I’ve designed the production kit around Canon’s Vixia HFS10 / 100. This is a tiny camera that records onto SDHC cards as opposed to tape. Future Kid, “Tape, what’s that?” Old Man, “Well back in the day, cameras used to record sound and images onto spools of tape, ok? I know it sounds wierd, but that’s how it was. Soda jerks. Gasoline powered cars. Monetary based societies.”

Anyway, so the HFS100 is under $1000 -  before you buy all the lenses and XLR adapters that fussy filmmakers feel compelled to have. It’s ideal to have more than one camera, in case one goes over board or to get fancy with multiple angles. Even a modest budget could support 2 or even 3 Vixias. Even though the price is right, buying more Vixias doesn’t necessarily enhance the project. If possible, it’s better to borrow those Vixias. By borrowing, other folks get invested in the project’s objectives and the filmmaker. The project has to be in alignment with collaborators outcomes.

Initially, I had objections to making holes. Here’s one…

Question – If I ask for help to fill my holes, folks might get the impression my project is low budget and not worthy of support.

Answer – First of all, well funded projects do not insure a quality outcome. Variety is chock full of crap movies funded by mega budgets. Second, using money for everything is like banging on screws with a hammer, it’s clumsy and imprecise. Third, no budget is infinite. There’s always a point where the money runs out. A savvy Director understands that a project’s success is not determined by the amount of funds available but rather it’s outcomes, people, and structure. Fourth, money is a very limited (some might say impoverished) method of exchange. It’s more natural for my buddy Mike Murphy to ask me to make photo art with a pretty woman, stones and magic hour. The next thing I knew I’m buying a 1979 Hobie cat with a trailer, but I don’t have a vehicle with a hitch. Mike does and we drag that sucker to my place. Mike and I have known each other long enough to enjoy a robust exchange that includes humor, friendship, favors, and fun. Money is in there once in awhile but affinity is the basis of our relationship. It’s my experience that even in business, robust relationships are never limited by the bottom line.

Morrie Warshawski talks about magnetizing the field. Our mission and the objectives of our project point us towards appropriate collaborators. On Desire collaborators are selected because they jive, there is affinity.

I approached Apple, Inc. first because I’ve used their gear like crazy since 1991. I seem to sense an inherent message in thier products – you are smart. It’s true I am, but how many products realize that about me? Computers are nasty things full of toxins and big footprints and Apple seems to working to minimize this.

Affinity works both ways, something about On Desire magnetized Apple. Did I mention that our loaner Macbook Pro shipped today? Kai will be tickled, the big galoot.