Rails to trails in Western Virginia (10/8/2014)

A little bummed out, in Abingdon tonight and I had hoped to be able to report that I had biked all four rail to trail sites I western Virginia that I know.  Taking my bike out the trunk of my vehicle I noticed my tire was flat and pretty darn past repair.

Oh well, time to at least walk the Creeper (for the second time). The Creeper is an abandoned railroad that was converted to a bike trail.  Others in the area are the High Bridge Trail (subject to last week's post), the New River Trail, and the Huckleberry Trail.  Of these four trails, the Huckleberry is accessible to both road bikes and off road bikes.  I would do the other trails with a bike with fat tires.  The most scenic one (of the areas I've seen, walked or biked is the New River Trail, although the view from High Bridge is spectacular, and I have only seen 2 miles of the 37 mile Creeper.  Maybe I can get my bike repaired tomorrow and try it.

I took these pictures during my walk this afternoon, it was fun.  The walk back was right into the setting sun, so that was bothersome.

Seaford 10/5/2014)

Although the weather was decent for sailing this weekend, I decided to put in another port (window) into the boat.  All my ports were leaking and in very bad shape.  It was so bad that a previous owner had lined the outside of the with duck tape and on top of that even blue painter's tape.  Try getting that stuff off after it has been on a hull for a couple of years.  To add insult to injury they had put some dark colored plexiglass on top of the entire window frame and fastened them with some kind of silicone.  Finally, the boat has one missing port, where the previous owner had just put a garbage bag over the hole (which I replaced with a sheet of plywood).  The boat was a mess.  Over the past few years I have been slowly replace the ports (probably to slowly for the admiral, but I want to sail the boat as well and enjoy it).  So I know it is time to do the windows, being a member of a yacht club, being the first boat on the dock (and thus the first boat everybody sees), and considering I have had the boat for four years now.

2010 picture, just after I took possession of the boat (note the plywood cover over the window opening) I just arrived for the first time at my new skip.

Knowing I had one missing window, I jumped at an offer on the Catalina-Capri 25s International Organization for the purchase of a complete set of secondhand ports.  I got the for a decent deal, and they have been sitting at my home for the past year.  So I knew it was time to start with the replacements.  I bought a new port resealing kit from Catalina Direct and read all that I could on the message boards of the Catalina Association.  From all that I read, it seemed that it was almost better for me to try to get butyl tape and set the windows in that, instead of putting them in the silicone that came in the kit from Catalina Direct.  Butyl tape is relatively inexpensive, and I took the plunge, although I knew nothing about that stuff.

Out came the first port, it was located above the head (toilet) The port that was in there had a sliding window, and I painstakingly tried to restore it.  I also had the restore the opening.  The wall of the cabin at this location is a sandwich of a balsa plywood core between two layers of fiberglass.  Over the years and because of all the moisture, the core had deteriorated, and after letting it dry for a few weeks, I injected penetrating epoxy into the core and then, at a later time used the West System Epoxy Adhesive that you can put unto a caulk gun to inject epoxy into the core.  I clamped the opening with small C-clamps of get an even thickness in the opening.  After building the opening up and sanding it the opening was finally ready to receive the refurbished port.  Well, disaster struck, The sliding glass port leaked like a sieve.  Taking it out was easy with the butyl tape keeping the port in place, I cannot imagine how I would have accomplished that with fresh silicone.  Finally, I got the new port in using using fixed glass, and it does not leak.

We yesterday we did the fourth port (of the six total), and here are a few pictures of the work.  I am happy to say that we are done with one side of the boat now.

This weekend's opening, ready to do a final sanding and then the fitting of the port.

The fourth port is in!

The three ports on the port side of the boat are in, you can still see the mess that years of adhesive tape have left.I'll eventually will have to sand and paint the entire deck part of the boat.  E few weeks ago I put a non-skid coat on the botton of the cockpit so I have started that as well.

Seaford (10/4/2014)

I have been working on my sailboat today.  I am rebuilding one of the port (window) openings of my boat, and tomorrow I will be putting a new port in.  I will do a separate blog posting on that tomorrow.
Coming back to close up my sailboat this afternoon I was taken by surprise that the water was so high.  It is not spring tide (yet); that happens with full and new moon, when the moon and the sun are either in opposite sides of the sky or in the same general area.  I hope it was the wind, which was coming from the north and might be piling the water up in our creek,.  I think and hope it is too early to see the results of sea-level rise.
Either way it was fun getting in and out of the boat especially since we do not have any floating docks.  As you can see, the access to the dingy dock is shut off and you would get wet feet if you would like to go laser racing.

Richmond (10/2/2014)

Every day when I drive home from Richmond I pass by this wonderful mural/graffiti.  Richmond has a few and I see two of them on a daily basis.  Not sure if this one is offensive to some, but I love it.  To me it is a mixture of a caricature of a large superstore that uses the smiley face as their symbol and really neat avantgarde art.  Today I had just read the new challenge by Cee Neuner that I so now and then participate in.  This week's challenge was the color yellow and I thought this fits.  The photo was taken on the fly, through the roof of my car so pardon the quality; I just thought it was fun.  I just wish there was more art like this around where I live or travel, but I always smile when I drive by there on the way home.

Farmville (9/29/2014)

After a weekend of traveling and cycling on the eastern shore, it was "on the road again" but now for work.  My job took to me Farmville, about an hour and a half southwest of Richmond.

I really think Farmville is a great little town, with Longwood University.  I applied for a job at Longwood two time, but obviously was rejected, and the only other thing I know about it is that one of the dorms burned down the year we moved to Virginia.  In addition to the University, Farmville is famous for it's (now mostly defunct) furniture manufacturing and the famous High Bridge Bike trail. The photo for today was taken on High Bridge on Monday night.

The bridge it self is an amazing 2400 feet (730 m) long and 125 feet (38 m) high.  It was constructed over the Appomattox River and flood plain in 1854, and it is a site of one of the civil war battles.  Currently, the rail line has been converted to a rails-to-trail site and it is wonderful biking in the area. My round trip from Farmville across the bridge and back was just a little over 10 miles and the trail is flat. I took the photo below using the HDR setting on my cell phone near the middle of the bridge.  For this occasion I obviously brought my mountain bike.  The trail is fine gravel and a normal bike with wider tires is needed.  My road bike with very narrow tired might have worked, but this was great.

Farmville has other attractions too.  I particularly like my lunch spot, "the Bakery", which has a European flair and great sandwiches.  I had a good visit.