=================== Jan 10, 2011

I'm back in Florida now, I went up to my brother's in Arkansas to give my old car to the Insurance company. I got the parts from that car now to fix the one that was in the wreck.  So I came out OK, they still owe me money, they gave me a low ball amount to replace the car, it is unfortunate but it seems a letter from an attorney will be necessary to get a reasonable amount out of them.  

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there..... (to screw us, like every other insurance company)  Know any good attorneys?

===================== Mon, 17 Jan

My bother wants an amphibious cross between a motorcycle and a jet ski, I'm thinking about it and have some things to test, maybe I'll have something like that by then, that I can take with me.

The plans are not jet powered, I'm thinking float like a jet ski but powered by a front wheel tire/waterwheel (not very fast in the water) and steered by a rear wheel/rudder.  I looked at rear wheel steered bikes, but they say they have not been successful (in fact somebody offered $5000 to anybody that could learn to ride a certain bike) but center steer (articulated) has worked.

Maybe with a motorcycle tire in the center of each wheel that sticks up above the big flotation tire and some fenders to make it look more like a real vehicle.  With the motorcycle tires it should have decent road speed and travel.

I've been thinking a little about looking into big fat tires on a four wheel device with tires being the floats and paddles built into the tires.

> You've probably seen these, but thought I'd share anyway.  They're  bicycles instead of motorcycles, but have some interesting ideas.  You might be better off just putting some of those big balloon tires  from  a water tricycle onto an ATV.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiTjyj9NO5I&feature=related
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LnatUMwU_0

No I hadn't seen those, thanks, I thought it was interesting they had gps speed tests but didn't share the numbers.

I've thought about inflatable floats with an air pump attached to the engine, and then probably a worst case if they don't inflate the thing will still just barely float, so you wouldn't lose it to the bottom in a disaster. 
I've also been interested in a small diesel motorcycle and yesterday realized I had an 18 hp diesel that I bought in Connecticut that might be suitable, so I'll think about combining that into the project.  There is a guy down the road that has a fat tire ATV
motorcycle, I'll probably see how much he wants for it.

The Army has a modified Kawasaki diesel motorcycle, it would be good to find one of those.  It can burn anything from gas to cooking oil.

====================== 1/22/2011

Re: Looking for a wood burning stove for sailboat == I have set up to use an outside wood fired boiler in my cabin in the woods.

I enjoyed reading the plans you linked too and it got me to thinking. I already have 2 wood stoves for my boat, 2 cabins. Actually I have 3, need to sell one (A small Cole stove about 10x10x14) but the plans you linked to talked about a water jacket and radiators. That got me into thinking outside wood furnace, with hot water circulated inside, my brother just put one of these in his house and loves it. A smaller version for the boat would be ideal, get rid of all the dirt, smell and fire danger associated with a inside wood stove. I plan to spend a lot of time where it's cooler than most circumnavigators go, this sounds like a perfect idea.
Outside is much safer than inside in my case on a steel boat.  Since I've got a wood stove installed already and it'll be a couple years before I need it, I probably won't do much with this idea till I get the boat to my brothers in Connecticut.

===================  Feb 04, 2011

Toe nail fungus == I have lived with toe nail fungus for most of my life.  didn't want to use the usually prescribed medication for toenail fungus because of possible side effects. It's been recommended that I try Vicks Vaporub. It's slow but it's working.

Here's the Instructions found online
Things You'll Need:  Vicks Vaporub, A lot of patience
1
Before bedtime, soak your feet in warm water for at least twenty minutes. You can skip
this step if you don't have time to fit it into your daily routine, but it's helpful for
softening your skin and toenails.

2
Dry your feet with a clean towel. The "clean" is important. It's very easy to
re-infect your toenails. Make sure that you wash any towels and socks that come in
contact with your fungus toe in hot water and bleach.

3
Use an emery board or diamond file lightly over the surface of the nail affected with
toenail fungus. You can also gently clean under the nail with an orange stick wrapped in
sterile cotton and dipped in hydrogen peroxide. This will thin the nail and make it
easier for the Vicks to penetrate.

4
Apply Vaporub directly to the toenail, the cuticle and the underside of the nail. You can
also apply it to the bottom of the toe and the soles of your feet. Vaporub contains
menthol, eucalyptus and camphor, all of which inhibit the growth of fungus. There are
other inert ingredients that may also have an affect on the growth of toenail fungus.

5
Put on a clean pair of white cotton socks. The biggest reason to do this is to keep the
Vicks from staining your sheets.

6
Be patient. This is not a quick fix, but then, there are no quick fixes for toenail
fungus. It could be months before you see results - it was nearly 8 months before my
daughter's toenail was completely cleared up.

Dr. Eric Weinstein End Nail Fungus Painlessly
http://www.ehow.com/how_4719374_cure-toenail-fungus-vicks-vaporub.html

Read more: How to Cure Toenail Fungus with Vicks Vaporub | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/ho
w_4719374_cure-toenail-fungus-vicks-vaporub.html#ixzz1D0a3lUAI

====================== Feb 14, 2011  fcc@fccnaples.org

I was at your yard sale Saturday and wanted to thank you.

I am the sailor that lives on his boat in LaBelle and you donated a wireless router to
the LaBelle Library.  I wanted to inform you you did not loose anything, the router did
not work, but at least I now have knowledge on how to set one up if I do get a good one. 

I spent a few hours this morning trying to get it to work, yours was completely dead, one
that I was told was broken that a friend had gave me a long time ago, I was able to
access and setup, but it would not work, then with my new knowledge I felt confident to
attack the bad one that the library had.  I went through the setup and it still does not
work. 

My next attack shall be to take apart the two I have (one from you and one from a friend)
and see if I can make one good out of two bad, since they each have different problems.

Thanks again, and have a great day.

===================== 2/16/11

First, if you haven't heard about Watson, the IBM computer that plays Jeopardy, you
need to watch Jeopardy today, it's the last day of the contest, and it's amazing.  For
the last 2 days, it has played against the 2 best jeopardy players ever, in real time and
winning hands down.  The computer is made of 100 IBM servers interconnected and searches
through it's memory filled with information, history and facts that would take a human
250 thousand years to read (I think that's the number they gave.)  The graphic they show,
gives its top three answers ordered in percentage it thinks it's the right answer and a
variable white line threshold for ringing in to take the chance it has found the answer
and believes it will win the question.  It receives the questions (pre typed) in text
form at the same time that the people hear it. I don't know if that is immediate, when
they start to read the question, in the middle or the end, but it's still amazing either
way.  It understands slang, multiple uses and definitions of words, and interconnections
of words in the question.  And all this is in the English language with all it's
complexity.  We are seeing into the very near and very powerful future of the computer
here.  It's amazing to think in my adult life I have seen computers go from 1k of memory
to this.  I still have my original 1k computer at home, (and the many others I have had
since.)  I thought it was amazing then, almost 40 years ago, and I think my new laptop
that I am typing this on is also just as amazing. 

On my new laptop I play chess, spider solitary and hearts every day.  I win hearts 45% of
the time, and spider solitary I never give up till I beat it, sometime it takes hours.  I
also eventually beat every game of freecell I play.  It regularly beats me at the game of
chess, but I am improving my skills and do beat it about 30% of time, at least 2 games a
day.  That's the good program I found and downloaded,  Fritz 5.32.  The first one I
found, Brutal chess, I can now beat about 90% of time, but I hate the move interface on
it, it's too easy for you to make a wrong move, the piece ends up on the space next to
where you wanted and there is no way to take it back.  It doesn't ask why you made such a
stupid move, put your queen right in front of it's rook, instead of putting it where it
would be mate in 3, it just takes it and moves on, basically game over, and you don't get
the satisfaction and the knowledge to see if it could find a way out of your impending
attack.  I was chess champion in high school.  I shared that title with one other friend.
Senior year we played 52 games, and each won 26, I was behind in the series and the last
game we played behind the curtain before graduation and I won to tie the record, he moved
away the next day and I have not seen him since.  I have looked for him, maybe I should
ask Watson.  It was Jamesburg high, NJ, 1972, and his name was .....(memory lapse), aah
to be getting old, that's why I enjoy the chess games, keep the mind active. 

I've still been busy working on the boat, basically working on new items I've picked up
recently.  Last weekend I bought a roller furler for the foresail, I had one for the stay
sail, that will make sail handling much easier.  A couple weeks before that I bought a
water cooled 4kw diesel single cylinder generator, the magic thing about it is that it's
contained in a fiberglass case that is lined with insulation and lead.  It is extremely
quiet.  It's built by Fisher Panda and has a German diesel made by Farymann, model 18w, I
need to find a workshop manual for that engine, a parts engine would be good too.  It's
got a leaking intake valve, other than that I think it is good.  I might be just some
rust on the surface that will clean up with spinning it with a drill, but It's not
obvious how the rocker shaft comes apart.  Time will tell.

Yesterday I spent changing tires, I've been running on a dinky spare for the last couple
days, I've had 2 tires I got for free  from a trash pile fall apart slowly by having the
steel belt eat through the tread sides, I got a good amount of miles out of them, but it
is interesting the mode of failure, I suspect they might have been from a set that the
others failed like that too, and then the remaining ones got thrown out.   I found four
good looking tires at the metal salvage yard for $50 and  mounted three of them today, so
I should be good for a while now in that department.

I finally got around to making sourdough bread, I started the starter last week, I
haven't been making my own bread since last summer when I let the starter go bad when I
went home.  I should be heading that way again soon, the guy that is living there has got
to move back to Florida, but he did manage to find an excellent guy to take over watching
the place, a slightly disabled Vietnam vet (that would love to live in the country in a
place like mine, his sons words) with the son that lives in Manhattan.  He gets a monthly
check from the government, that will be more than enough to make ends meet, so I think
that problem is finally solved.

I think I've decided to build an outside wood stove on the boat that heats an insulated
water tank below deck, that hot water can circulate through some radiators in the main
and rear cabin and also provide domestic hot water.  This will solve lots of problems,
the main thing, keeping the fire, smoke and dirt outside.  I've also been working on the
hard dodger (windshield) for the boat, the parts I brought down from Connecticut last
fall are fitting very nicely and will look very good.  I also started working on
fiber-glassing up the sailing dingy I brought down from there too.  I've got a old canoe
that also needs some fiberglass work.  It's a free one I found floating out in a swamp
north of town last time we came back from Arkansas, somebody tried to do some work on it
but obviously had no knowledge on how to do fiberglass and threw it away.  The price was
right.

With the new generator, I now have two air cooled diesels that need to find a new home,
and lots of other stuff, like that canoe, my old dingy, a couple boat wood stoves, and
many, many other things. 

Oh, his name Karl Hildabrand, the magic of yesterdays computer and Google. 

Have a great day,  Jon
 

===================== Mar 14, 2011

From my sister, I agree, I don't forward very much. Jon
=============
I don't forward too much, but this is worthy----Sue
 

No one has been able to explain why young men and women serve in the U.S. Military for
20 years, risking their lives, protecting freedom, and only get 50% of their pay when
they retire. While politicians hold their political positions in the safe confines of the
capital, protected by these same men and women, and receive full pay retirement after
serving one term. It just does not make any sense.

Monday on Fox news they learned that the staffers of Congress family members are exempt
from having to pay back student loans. This will get national attention if other news
networks will broadcast it. When you add this to the below, just where will all of it
stop?
35 States file lawsuit against the Federal Government

Governors of 35 states have filed suit against the Federal Government for imposing
unlawful burdens upon them. It only takes 38 (of the 50) States to convene a
Constitutional Convention.

This will take less than thirty seconds to read. If you agree, please pass it on.

This is an idea that we should address.

For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens
had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term,
that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such
as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary
citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the
Healthcare Reform... in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn't seem logical. We do not
have an elite that is above the law. I truly don't care if they are Democrat, Republican,
Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop.

If each person that receives this will forward it on to 20 people, in three days, most
people in The United States of America will have the message.. This is one proposal that
really should be passed around.

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: "Congress shall make no
law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the
Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the
Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United
States ."
You are one of my 20.

Hope you have a great day!

====================== Mar 22, 2011

 I am looking for a mating plug for a power connector on the back of a  Jensen DV354 Marine DVD/CD radio player.
It has 4 pins in a square configuration with .1 inch spacing.  The "socket" (not sure which end is socket and which is plug) since it has pins inside of square holes looking much like a miniature molex  connector.  But I have no idea what the "plug" looks like or what to call  it.  There is a retaining snap centered on the top.  It provides up to 1  and 3 amps 12v dc and ground to the radio.  It is a on the back of a Jensen marine radio, dvd, cd deck.  with specs below and I now have a couple photos.

=================== Mar 25, 2011

Today I turned a rose garden into a sailboat, the boat started as a rose garden in
the yard of a property my brother just bought.  I brought it back to Florida with a bunch
of other stuff knowing that it could be my sailing dingy/ rowboat for my trip. Yesterday
I decided it was time to start work on it.  First it needed a seat and centerboard pocket
support, I built those out of plastic wood I had and used some hot melt to attach it too
the hull, the attachment is a trail solution but I think it'll be just fine with the
increased surface area I gave it and the fact that I've learned that hot melt works great
if the material it is gluing is hot enough to melt the glue.  Enter the Heat gun.  The
garden had some drainage holes cut in the bottom, I decided to really experiment with hot
melt and sealed them with the glue.  Time will tell but today I have a boat, yesterday it
was still a rose garden.  The pictures tell the story.

I've been working on other projects, the companionway locking doors and hatch and other
things, but needed a change of pace.  I now need to make or find a sail, centerboard, and
rudder for the dingy.  I've already figured it can store 3 different places, on the rear
davits, behind the Aries wind vane, crosswise upside down in front of the hard dodger,
under the main boom, or on the front deck on top of the front hatch and behind the anchor
windlass.  That's good for flexibility.  I still need to find a junk fiberglass sailboat
that I can cut some of the cabin top to build the bottom of the hard dodger, right now
it's built crudely out of plywood, but I like the way it works and looks.  Basically I
need a couple flat pieces 4 ft by 2 ft with a nice curve 90 degree down at the end and
then a couple flat 3 ft by 1 ft with a triangle up front.  The 90 degrees joins the
triangles.  All four pieces will get assembled into the base of the dodger.  I need to
build a rounded wood top rail for the windshield, It'll be either teak or most probably
this new Ipe deck wood from Brazil.  Then a fabric sun/rain and wind shade cover for the
cockpit gets built.  I'm making progress and getting closer.

===================== Mar 28, 2011

 I think the the best place to store the sailing dingy will be under the mizzen boom. That's a perfect place for it.

This morning it rained, almost forgot what that stuff looked like down here.  I went swimming crossing my
long catwalk from the boat, it was dark and the edge of my shoe sole caught the side of
the plank, the rest was a slow-mo, OOOOOHHH Ssshhhhhiiiiiitttt.  Please Excuse the
french, I needed to take a bath anyway.  I have some side ropes but they are mostly to
guide you, I haven't spent the time to make them anti O-S ropes.  It's amazing how much
help it is just to be able to run a rope through your hand while you balance walking
across a shaky board.   My cat walk is about 14 feet long or so, it's another engineering
master piece I'm proud of.  It lets the boat move around on anchor and dock lines, but is
stable enough to allow me to to get to the boat that is 14 feet from the dock.  The boat
has to be that far away because of draft and overhanging tree limbs.   While raining I
was working on more parts for the Aries wind vane rudder.  I'll include a couple pics.  I
built the breakaway connection this morning. Basically just an Aluminum tube with two
bolt holes and a partial circular cut all the way around the center of it.  A planned  weak failure spot. 

And now that I have the picture I probably need to explain.  The wing shape, started as a
piece of the PVC pipe on the left, add heat, lots of time, and redo this, fix that and
the molds shown and eventually it ends up wing shaped.  It'll have an aluminum tube added
down the middle for strength.  Basically it gets info from a vane aligned with the proper
wind direction for the course you want, If it's not aligned with the wind, a vane tilts
and this then twists the wing to the water flow, the side force from the water then
pivots the wing that's normally vertical on a horizontal axis, this pulls a rope attached
to the boat's steering that steers the boat the proper direction to alleviate the wind
info that started the whole process.

====================== Apr 20, 2011

Finally set sail

No No, not on the big boat, it's on the rose garden sailboat, that I've turned into a sailing dingy for the big boat.  I think I finally finished modification on it this morning.  I've beefed it up considerably, adding a very strong rail all the way around it, just under the plastic rail that came with the boat, I decided it needed that when I tried to use it to pull my stern anchor a couple weeks ago and replace the line leading to it with 200 feet of anchor chain I had just bought.  Sunday I spend money like it grew on trees, I went to a marine flea market in Ft Myers beach.  I found an anchor windless exactly like the one on the bow of my boat, it was priced right, so I decided I needed it on the stern to work with the new chain and always have a stern anchor ready to drop. I still need to add the anchor roller to hold the anchor and guide the chain, I've already got that, just need to attach it.  I also built a removable anchor roller for the stern of the dingy, it's basically a stainless Y with a roller that slide into a bracket mounted on the stern. That will make the job of pulling that kedge anchor or setting it much easier and much less wear on the stern of the little boat...

Speaking of setting sail, I got a dagger board for the little boat Monday so that's why I set sail later that day.  The sail didn't set very well, since it was a windsurfer sail on the straight aluminum mast of the dingy, but it did catch enough wind to make the boat go.

 A windsurfer mast is made to curve and the sail is made to fit that curve so it's doesn't set well on a straight rigid mast.  I still need to find a good sail for the little boat, but that's all.  I looked at the storm jib for the big boat but it's not shaped right. 

This morning I added the last modification planned for the little boat, I cut into the front compartment, added an access hatch, removed some of the foam, all this to get to the back of the bulkhead so I could add a bow lift point so that the boat will sit nicely in a transport position on the davits of the big boat.

Speaking of spending money, On Sunday, I also bought solar panels for the boat to keep the batteries charged and an Icom 735 shortwave Ham radio, that was real the big ticket item, not that the panels were cheap, but they were on sale.  Monday I was working with fiberglass, cutting mostly flat panels and a couple with 90 degree corners out of a junk power boat that I will use to build the base for the hard dodger.  It's much cheaper to basically glue some fiberglass panel together and finish the glue joint then it is to lay up the whole thing from scratch.  And most of it is already gel coated and white too. The boat junk yard is where I found the dagger board and worked up a trade for some structural aluminum I had, the fiberglass cost $10.  I've been feeling scratchy for the last couple days, that's the problem with working with fiberglass. 

Next project will be to install the ham radio.  Basically I've got to hook up and check the antenna.  The radio came with an  MFJ antenna matching unit.  Have a good day, soon I will be really setting sail.  Each project is one less on the list that needs to be done.

I've been getting my exercise rowing the dingy a couple miles 3 or 4 times a week in the even, I've probably rowed 50 miles now.  My blood pressure is back down where it should be.

=================== Jun 07, 2011

Heading to Kansas, bike power == I'll be driving to Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas later this month, if you know
anybody else heading that way to share gas, please let me know.  My trip is pretty
flexible, basically needing to be in Missouri for a wedding on the 25th and a canoe trip.

I rode the bike to town, this is a new bike, it has a weed whacker motor on it.  Basically
I went 5 miles with assisted pedaling in 15 mins, on about a cup of gas.  The engine is
18cc, not a big one, without pedaling every once in a while it would probably go about 15
mph, pedaling about once or twice a minute for 5 seconds gets that up to 20mph. 
I'll probably make a new power unit, 25cc or so, that can handle hills and have a higher
speed.  This one has a friction drive on the wheel, I couldn't decide how I wanted to
make the drive on mine, I found this one at the flea market, and figured I could learn
something from somebody else's mistakes and then sell it for what I paid.  It's a 21
speed aluminum frame bike.  I need to improve the clutch and the throttle, but both sort
of work.  Good enough to get me to town. Then build the new folding bike and make this
easily attach.
I've been working on the sailing dingy, basically got it done, only have to add a drain
for when it sits on the davits and collects rain water.  I've built a sail, a spritsail
rig, that uses the oars for the mast and sprit.  It's great downwind and has almost no
upwind capability,  Basically all you need to carry is the sail and rudder.  The rudder
could probably be made with a small spare paddle for down wind work.  The sail easily
folds into one of the storage compartments so you can always have it with you.
I've fixed up the davits so the the dingy doesn't interfere with the Aries wind self
steering unit I've now got mounted on the transom, I still need to build the wind vane
part of that and figure out a wheel drum to actually do the steering from it but that's
not much.  The wind vane needs to avoid the two 15 watt solar panels I've mounted
horizontally above the davits to one side the wind generator mounted on the other side. 
I'm also done painting the bilge area in the main cabin.  I still have the water tanks to
install there and paint the bilge in the engine, captains cabin, and rear storage
compartments.  Then varnish the masts, and, and, and....... 

=====================  Jun 08, 2011

330 mpg == The bike got 330 mpg, I can't believe it.  I checked all the calculations and
figured it multiple ways.  Basically it's an estimate and might be 10% off, but even at
300 mpg that's amazing.
I went about 10 miles, I've measured the distance with my car before, I started with a
full tank (the tank only holds 10 ounces) and I had previously figured I might not have
enough to make it back.   I filled the tank when I got back to the boat, from the 2 liter
bottle I used to mix the gas.  I drew a line on the bottle with a magic marker before and
after topping off the tank.  5/8 of an inch in a bottle 4 inches in diameter.
I also did some other calculations, the engine is running at about 6000 rpm, that's real
slow for a 2 cycle weed whacker.  Should be about 3 times that, that explains why the
exhaust sounds so nice and quiet.  That will reduce the power and the fuel consumption. 
It drives the bike with a 1.2 inch diameter grinding drum about 2 inches long that rides
on the 26 inch outside diameter tire.  The 6000 rpm is assuming 20mph and no slipping.
Riding into town today, I expect I am pedaling about 30% pf the time going into the wind,
but not pedaling as hard as I would if the engine wasn't there.

I redesigned and built a better clutch for it this morning, I need to do the same for the
throttle, and then it'll pretty much be done.  The clutch has a feature that can go over
center and hold the engine off the wheel for standard bike operation and has much less
force needed to operate.  The problem with the throttle is that it sticks open and needs
a better spring return.  I made a knob I ran reach down to on the engine and de throttle
it, that works but it can be much better.  I guess I would like to find a smaller
diameter grinding drum and increase the engine speed, that should increase the hp and
also the speed of the bike.  It would also reduce the mpg figure, but that would be OK, 
Typical American, I have the need for speed.

I also tried the sailing canoe again yesterday, I'm was not totally impressed, basically
the sponsons that keep it upright and the length of the hull, give it so much wetted area
that it has trouble making a tack, it sure goes nice when it's going though.  It could
probably be solved with a bigger rudder, and maybe with a fore sail, I just had a main. 
I will be selling the sponsons if anybody is interested, the rest of the rig fits other
stuff.  Mast is from a windsurfer, rudder from the dingy.  I'll put a picture on my
website, faster if somebody says they want to see it.  Instead of the sponsons, next, I
will try one outrigger with my inflatable kayak as a sponson.  No rush, that'll be a
while, maybe when I'm in Tahiti. 

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