Van Alchemy

 Rough day in the boatyard today. Temperatures in Richmond hit 105 at our house, in the boat in Deltaville it felt the same. Might be the closest I've come to having a real heatstroke. At one point I just laid down on the cabin sole with the battery powered fan on my chest aimed at my face. While I thought I was struggling with the heat, a British gentleman walked by and while chatting I learned that not only did they live on the boat currently on the hard with no air conditioning but they were having to take their entire deck off to re-core, yikes. Common Sabre 28 issue, the compression post sits on a "step" under the floor which gets water into it for various reasons and rots. Then the mast pumps up and down causing all kinds of mischief.  Marked for cutting Rotten wood. Not sure why they didn't cap this from the factory, or just seal it entirely, there is a hold drilled through for bonding wires to the keel...odd choice. Step removed completely. Wil...

  Free Radical Over the last year and some change I have taken a deep dive into the world of boats. It seemed like a pursuit that combined my love of vannin' with the thrill and repetition of surfing. As usual I had no ability to pace myself and have now bought and sold five boats in the last two years.  What a collection of boats they've been. A West Wight Potter 19, Compac 23, O'Day Daysailer, Flicka 20 and finally a Sabre 28. A lot of hustling and selling off shit or taking carpentry gigs helped finance each of these boats and each one was sold to buy the next, kinda. Each boat helped me understand a lot about boat work and even more about what I was looking for in a boat. Which is why (for now) we've settled on the Sabre 28 "Free Radical". We want the ability to spend more time on the water, in a more comfortable boat, that we also can afford to maintain ourselves. 28 feet these days is a sweet spot in terms of slip fees and maintenance versus accommodatio...

  Sarah, my wife, on returning to the U.S. found herself with some GI illness that with the help of her existing ulcerative colitis made, and continues to make her life hell. She has to go to work, but has cramping and unpleasantries I won't mention, gee isn't capitalist healthcare the best! As such I made a mad dash back across the states from Guerrero Negro in five days to help hold down the fort and make her life better in any way I can. Although lets be real, I also missed the dog. Heres a photo dump of some of my last few weeks in Mexico. My biggest struggle in the days I've been back in the US is how insular and cold Americans are. In six weeks of being on the road I can't recount a single vehicular or human based interaction that felt sketchy or life threatening and since my return I've found myself in situations that genuinely frightened me almost every day (I've been back less than a week)...

Hit the three week on the road mark today. This is when my brain typically really understands I am on a trip and calms the fuck down.  My buddy Raymond flew in and spent the week working remotely from the van. He took occasional breaks to surf or go seek out tacos and great snacks.  We were also fortunate to witness the first full moon of the year, the "Wolf Moon". It was spectacular.

  Seven days from Richmond, Va to La Paz, BCS. Over three-thousand miles. This pace plus extreme remoteness in the middle of the Baja peninsula left little time to upload anything. My stereo broke driving into "The Wall" but the silence paired with the vast open spaces has been nice.  Baja is wild and remote. The roads are slow. The Mexican people are amazing.