Message Forum

Jeanine,
Bravo!!

07/28/19 11:54 AM

#5830

Mike,

Plant life definitely evolves...sort of makes one wonder what the Cretaceous Period ancestors of the Venus Fly Trap plants ate! Pterodactyls???

Jim

07/28/19 12:25 PM

#5831

Mark Schweickart

Dave -- Thanks for making us all feel bad! Just as we are beginning to acclimate to retirement years, and hopefully finding something somewhat productive to do in our free time, along comes Dave and friends to show us that we might want to muster a little gumption and try something like building a boat in our back yard. And then trust it to be seaworthy enough to sail around the open seas just for fun. So, Jim and Bob, put away your nature photograghy. Larry, put away your pencils and brushes. And I will put aside my scribbling (can one scribbe on a computer?) and let's all head out to Home Depot. Meet you in the lumber yard! Let's build something, something big. And then let's figure out a way to transport it somewhere else. All kidding aside, Dave, I have to ask-- how did you get that monster out of the backyard, and through all those trees, down to wherever the launching point was?

07/28/19 12:33 PM

#5832

Fred Clem

Jeanine,

As a person who has battled a weight problem for over 50 years, I'd like to echo Jocko's bravo.

If they ever figure how to disconnect the president's Twitter account they should then go to work on Dave's internet service.

Fred

07/28/19 02:23 PM

#5833

Yeah, Dave, how did you all get that ark to the water and how many cubits long and tall is it?

Jim

07/28/19 02:23 PM

#5834

Words of wisdom.

Never, ever believe anything you ever see on television! Specially if you are young and gullible and haven't a clue what it takes to make a video or a film or a motion picture of any kind.
This advice I suggested to my sons many many years ago.

I had a film professer who once asserted that if Jesus were alive today (1974), he would be a filmmaker. I hardly agreed, but it was an interesting assertion. As we move forward today without the benefit of too much written news available, I'm standing by my belief about what is on TV. Truth in advertising is a big lie. Try as I do I still cannot get my truck airborn in the woods in a stream, nor climb a 45° incline with ease. It's amazing what can be suggested with a quick cut or subliminal image juxtaposed with a sexual suggestion. Some cases of violent scenes in films are so believable yet are not ever explained to a child who observes them. In the child's mind it's real. In the world of fakery and misdirection it's relatively easy to mislead the most sophisticated of us into believing utter falsehoods. It's like that world has been taken over by liars and money grubbers. You want truth? Get on your knees, bend at the waist and look down. There before you is, the truth. I don't really have a point I guess, just wanted to say what a guy like me has thought about where I learn things nowadays, and what I think about those sources. And when a conversation occurs I am curious about the sources and influences on the information I'm ingesting, because I'm so easy to lie to. Ahhh the hazzards of being gullible. What do you think? Do you think Jesus would have been a good filmmaker?

07/28/19 03:10 PM

#5835

Jack, don't you think Matthew, Mark, Luke and John would have been the documentary film makers?

Jim

07/28/19 04:01 PM

#5836

Lawrence Foster

Mark, Dave, et al...

Let's see ... boats are made of wood that is cut up. So earlier today I went out and honed my skills in wood cutting (yes, pun intended). Here are 3 pics of before, during, and after of my afternoon work with my axe. Not sure I'm the best guy to be around boat building, but I think Dave should make the final call. Now, boat tearing down? Yeah baby...I'm in!!!

07/28/19 04:06 PM

#5837

Lawrence Foster

And here are two pencil sketches of boats that I saw in a book and I copied them. The book is called Soundings. It deals with people and the sea and was published back in 1966.

07/28/19 04:48 PM

#5838

Fred,

Again my sincere apologies!

but if I lose my internet connection, you won't be able to send me your steady barrrage of poliitical cartoons by email.

07/28/19 04:50 PM

#5839

Jack,

I doubt if He could have done a better job than Cecil B. De Mille. Film School was another educational opportunities He never had.

07/28/19 04:52 PM

#5840

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dispatch/obituary.aspx?n=eleanor-walker&pid=193495256&fhid=12137

Mark, Jim, and Larry,

There's more to come on the boat photos. I just thought the "weather" was getting a bit rough for now.

07/29/19 01:57 PM

#5841

Fred Clem

Eleanor Walker, the wife of coach Dick Walker, died last week. May she rest in peace.

Brian McNamara & I have volunteered at St. Lawrence Haven over the last several years. Eleanor was also helping up until about 6-8 months ago. What a nice lady.

Here's a link to her obituary:

07/29/19 08:46 PM

#5842

Jeanine Eilers (Decker)

Thanks, Fred.

07/30/19 11:59 AM

#5843

Nearing the cut off date to enlist in the Ford Museum event. So dust off those walking shoes and find that broad brimmed hat and get ready for a real taste of history. Currently the list is short, so there's plenty of room for more. If you're on the fence, jump. This opportunity is going to fade fast once August arrives. I'm going to find a nice, moderately priced, conveniently located hotel and I am working on the party menues. It will be a lot of fun. Games and surprises for one and all. Hurry up and decide you want to come and hang out with Henry, Thomas Alva, Noah Webster, Stephen Foster, Harvey Firestone, Charles Lindbergh, the Wright Bros., Tesla, James Watt, Rosa Parks, and Lincoln, who had a whole car line named for him. All in one place. Come on up and see what's in Henry's attic...his birthplace, his first factory. This trip will be historic, and who knows maybe we'll make history. Bye bye, so long, see you in September.

07/30/19 03:58 PM

#5844

Michael McLeod

Just noticed your leaf-raking comment, Dave.

Yes. Piles of leaves were fun. Just jumping into them made it a good day.

I swear, being a kid is the next best thing to being a puppy.

07/30/19 06:15 PM

#5845

Rake 'em and JUMP IN!

Rake 'em but DON'T JUMP IN!

Jim

07/30/19 09:32 PM

#5846

Mark Schweickart

Dave (and everyone else for that matter) – Given your fascination with building a boat, I guarantee you will be blown away by a documentary I just saw today in my local art-house theater. It is called Maiden, and is about the 1989 Whitbread Race – 33,000 nautical miles, nine months, around the world, from South Hampton, England and back. For the first time, an all-woman crew, in a second-hand boat entered the race to achieve something quite harrowing and spectacular. (Not mentioned is how they managed to assign one or two crew-members to film much of the ordeal, but somehow some of them obviously did, which has made this documentary possible all of these years later.) Here's the trailer. You will not be disappointed if you get a chance to see this. Extraordinary. I don't think I will ever want to get on a boat again.

07/31/19 12:06 AM

#5847

Mark,

This sounds really exciting. I will look for an opportunity to see this if possible. Years ago, I saw a documentary on the legendary "Whitbread" - incredible! Especailly the part where they cross the Indian Ocean, one of the roughest and longest sections of the race. My friend Roger asked me to sail around the world with him about 40 years ago. I could not leave Mary and the kids for several months and then he had to cancel anyway. He has since built about 4 boats - two for other people. (and dozens of houses ranging from $2 million to $52 million)

--------------

You or Jim asked the question, "how did he get the boat into the water from his back yard"? Yesl, there is more to explain. Roger thought of everthing from the beginning as he always does.

Roger lives on a cove. It is a tidal cove - a creek that feeds right into the May River (which rises and falls about 8 1/2 to 10 feet every six hours and 13 minutes (and some odd seconds) - which in turn feeds into Calibogue Sound (that runs behind Hilton Head), then runs out to the Atlantic. When launch day came, the boat would have to be able to slip into the cove at precicesly high tide. Otherwise, it could not float in that part of the cove. And the trees in the back yard were low hangaing large Oaks with huge branches that rested very close to the path of the boat as it slid into the water below. Then the boat would be floated out into the river and "motored" to a nearby dock on the river.

Note: there is a curious red stripe on the floor of the boat shed. In the early years of construction, tthe two hulls wre built side by side and spaced appropriately, long before the creation of the the center section. They were built upside down, and later rotated in place. But before this happened, Roger and Laurel were married and the wedding was held in the boat shed. One of the guys painted a "red carpet" for them to walk down from one end to the other as we lined both sides of the aisle standing between the two hulls - each of us holding candles.

In the second photo below, Roger consults with a friend, Francois, (black and red baseball cap) who sailed over from France in a 30-foot sailboat with his father. He came to help Roger get the final details of the launch process correct. Francios will re-appear later.

So the plastic cover and roof structure were removed. But the boat would now have to be turned 90 degrees toward the cove. I missed that day, but he had about 15 of his guys (crew from his homebuilding operation) come and help turn the boat, which took about a day. And to make it (all 10,000+ pounds - light for it's size) mobile, he had placed it on four home-made heavy duty "rollers". (those are 4 glued layers of one-inch "marine" plywood).

More to follow.

07/31/19 01:37 AM

#5848

To launch the boat into the cove behind the house, it had to have a ramp built to litterally slide it down the bank. And it had to be pushed (jacked, ever so slowly) forward to the edge of the ramp. They built the ramp to drop the 25 feet over a length of about 60 or 80 feet - pretty steep, but it's all the room they had. You see the beginning of some guide edges to contain the hulls as they slid down the ramp. The job of pushing teh baot forward took about 8 hours - slow and meticulous so as not to damage the hull.

More of the process

Another view for some perspective. And *** see my notes at the bottom of this page.

*** This last shot I threw in for some personal fun notes. Ths guy facing us is Roger's good friend (and mine) George Heyward. George sailed with Roger years ago to get his boat from the Azores to Kinsale Ireland, and the next summer from there to Scotland, where Roger later sold that old boat. George aldo sailed with Roger a few weeks ago to take this boat up to Maine where he and his wife are now at anchor until about Thanksgiving. But here is one of the fun parts about this guy. George's great, great, great grand dad, one Thomas Heyward, signed a little document with a bunch of guys up in Philladelphia, one hot July afternoon in 1776!

And George's wife Lillian, is the graffic artist for many films shot in and around Beaufort - "The Big Chill", "The Notebook," "The Great Santini", and others. Any store window sign, bus decal, menu, road sign etc..is her creation. I don't think she did Forrrest Gump, but some of the scenes of the childhood home (a fake, hollow structure ) were shot on property near Bluffton owned by George.

07/31/19 11:19 AM

#5849

Michael McLeod

Dave.

Wow.

Wish I'd been around to write a story about this.

07/31/19 08:01 PM

#5850

Mike,

It is an extraordianry story, even if you have no interest in boats, or craftsman skills. And yes, I know I carry on about him, but my friend Roger is an extraordianry person. He's from Mansfield, though we never knew each other before meeting in our Company in Vinh Long back in Christmas of 1968. He was the second, and I the third youngest pilots in our "Troop" at that time.

He's a walk-on Varsity Swimmer at Clemson, and an unbleiveably skilled Cobra gunship pilot (you'd have had to have been there), then best maintainence officer we ever had - after he objected to a certain mission we flew - stupid night missions that ended one night when he threw a fit over the radio from his cockpit and refused to continue. After 3 days deliberation our commanders agreed with him and ended those missions. And did NOT reprimand him for his insubordination! That night on a little airfield at Sa Dec (a littel ways up the Mekong from our home base) at around 3:00 a.m. was one of the most a bizarre emotional episodes I have ever witnessed !

Later, he became a gifted professional musician and song writer (sort of in the "James Taylor" mode) - who cannot play his guitar much any more since he sawed off three fingertips on the table saw in his woodworking business - something I tried later to out do working in his shop, but failed. (But his first wife made him look around on the shop floor and find them before she raced him to the hospital and have them sewn back on - by a local "magicain" of a plastic surgeon on Hilton Head).

Then his incredible homebuilding business, after everyone around here already knew he was the best woodworker on the East Coast - and could charge an arm and a leg for it. You should see the Arthur Blank house (Owner Atlanta Falcons, and co-founder of Home Depot**), his first project, a $23 million gem of craftsmeanship and good taste. And you should see the $52 million house on Hilton Head that is NOT gorgeous! Or Al Gore's $30 million house outside of tiny Carthage, Tenn that is the ugliest house I have ever seen! (He would not permit me to take photos of this house - he's covered with non-disclosure agreements)

** Mark made a comment about going to Home Depot - - well, Roger had a Home Depot credit card with the worlds largest line of credit - $500,000, I think. But when he took me there to buy me some tools, it never worked because it was so badly bent and beaten up.

Oh, and he's only read every single important book and famous author I have ever heard of - from Hitler to Saint Francis. And he's one of these people who gets up at 3:00 am and starts reading or studying, or planning his day. Kind'a makes ya sick doesn't it.

We could not be more different from one another yet we are truly brothers (and brothers who can even have some really nasty serious arguments).

I think you will enjoy the remaining shots. I'll try to get them on here soon.

07/31/19 08:06 PM

#5851

I acknowledge that this stuff amy be of no interest to many of the ladies - and for that I apologize.

But I really think you might want to show some of these photos to your husbands, or sons, as they may enjoy the magnitude of this "litttle" boat project.

And I do hope Charlie Kaps, Tommy Swain, and Al Judy can tune in.

07/31/19 08:42 PM

#5852

Dum te dum ti dum toodle do.

Dave,
Planning a sea cruise? Got bit by the Magellan bug. My youngest son circumnavigated the globe while at Pitt. Program called semester at sea. The ship they cruised in "Explorer" was a lovely ship. It was a late model ocean liner. I met him in Bangkok, and we toured Vietnam and Cambodia together. That was 2004. The Vietnam guides were curious about my time there, and I met with several other vets running fish hatcheries there. A business they opened prior to Clinton's visit officially opening trade with the two countries. A bold move on behalf of the vets. Also, like Mark I too have a film suggestion, "Hopeless". Not a documentary, but a feature film by Robert Redford. Enjoy.

Mary Margaret,
Thanks for noticing. Decided to retire Colo.
I have such fond memories of working on that rock pile. I think it affected a few of us. Larry told me his memory of it, and it impressed me. I also saw the grotto is registered on the list of historic sites in Columbus. Good to know we had a hand in making a little history. Hope you are well. Sorry you can't be here for the Ford Museum adventure. Door is open anytime. And that goes for anyone headed this way.

Jack

08/01/19 12:02 AM

#5853