Nature’s Takeover

September 19 – 25

I’m sitting on our deck with my first cup of coffee this morning looking out at Rejoice sitting calmly on her mooring. With every sip of coffee a steady stream of acorns hits the roof from a neighboring oak tree. The pelting the roof is taking reminds me of all the yard clean-ups in falls past and the bushels of acorns collected and deposited in the nearby woods. Not this year. Nature will slowly take over and plant seedlings where it wants. The signs of fall are everywhere and I’m becoming just a little wistful that I won’t be here for my favorite season in Maine. This upcoming trip and eight month adventure elsewhere have been an  almost a singular focus the past year, but I’m observing that no matter how hard I try to drive a schedule or agenda, nature has a way of saying  “not so fast.” More acorns fall and I’m happy for the reminder to pause, breath, and take it all in.

Another marker of fall is the arrival of the cormorants. I don’t pay much attention to them during the summer but come September 1^st  like clockwork they decide to sign on as crew and roost on the boat wherever they can find a horizontal surface. Two hours of precious preparation time are taken up every morning cleaning-up an unholy mess before I can even get to what I had planned that day. Nature clearly has its own timetable and could care less about mine. Cormorants will not be dissuaded either and I’m pretty certain, despite my many efforts to convince them otherwise, they now think it’s their boat. I’ve absolutely covered the boat with bright orange and green streamers along with shiny things  as countermeasures.  They have kinda worked  but the boat looks more like I’m engaged in an airflow study and preparing for high-speed wind tunnel tests than creating effective bird deterrents. 

My knot log has stopped working for the second time since we launched the boat at the end of July. The knot log is a little paddle-wheel in a cylinder that goes through an inch and a half hole in the bottom of the boat (more on that later in the upcoming blog “Preparing the Boat for Big Blue – Part II”). It drives the instrument that indicates your speed through the water. The general cause of it not working is marine growth that accumulates on the paddle-wheel that keeps it from spinning freely and transmitting speed information. It is an easy fix, but it is an early indication that there is more to look at underwater, namely the condition of the bottom and propeller.

It is amazing how quickly every underwater part of the boat becomes fouled with marine growth that, if left unchecked, would turn a slippery 7 knot boat to one that would barely move. The propeller appears fouled too and we might not go anywhere under power with it in that condition. Its efficiency could be altered to such a degree by barnacles and other growth that it simply wouldn’t be able  transfer our 51 horses to the water to propel us forward. In just a month and a half nature has been quietly working on its timetable doing what it does. Fortunately for me a CrossFit friend  is a diver and he agreed to dive on the boat and scrub-down the hull and propeller on Tuesday in Blue Hill. He ended up spending an hour and a half in some very cold water in what had to be some pretty awkward and uncomfortable positions to get the job done….did I mention, underwater! “You are a better man than I am, Gunga Din”  (Rudyard Kipling). All I can say is thank you Justin! I now  have high confidence that we’ll actually be able to move by sail or ships propulsion once the local effects of hurricane Fiona are a distant memory and we part the mooring for points south.

I’m sure there will be other cycle of nature reminders and surprises  along the way. Some will be frustrating and some amazing. Either way, it is clear  that as our plans and activities come and go, nature is an ongoing constant that provides a steady reminder that it’s in charge and has everything under control in its own way. All is just as it should be (cormorant crap notwithstanding).