Boxing up Desire

Fall update from Seattle: After ariving in Kona and working furiously to get Desire ready to meet my weather window, I discovered that NOAA had issued a proclimation that they had just figured out that they were still seeing conditions that last year's la ninia weather conditions were still in effect in the Pacific.

What that ment for me was that instead of a 35-40 day sail back to Seattle I would most likely encounter a 45-55 day journey. I spent the next few days thinking about my boat and my own capabilities and realized that it just didn't make sense to expose myself to that level of risk in terms of being able to carry enough provisions for such a journey as well as the long term effects of fatigue, sleep depravation and exposure to the unpredictable nature of ocean travel.

I then made one of the toughest discussions of my life. Given that I had expended lots of time and resources the previous year (as well as this year) to bringing Desire back to my home waters, and that I was committed to spending the next few years trying to make a success of my new company, it would be next to impossible to mount another effort of this sort any time soon.

I realized that instead of looking at this as a rescue mission I needed to think of it as a salvage mission. I built a sturdy crate and boxed up all of the books, momentous, tools and gear that I wanted to keep from Desire and arranged with an oceanic freight company to ship it back to Seattle. I sorted through the stuff that was left and gave away a bunch of it to friends in Kona who could use it and I organized the stuff that should stay with Desire. I spent the rest of my time sprucing Desire up as best I could and then flew home to Seattle, entrusting Desire to Craig's List and friends who would look after her until she was sold.

The crate of stuff (all 687 pounds) arrived safely here in Seattle a few weeks ago. I've had a few looky loo's (keel kickers) interested in Desire but no serious takers yet. Meanwhile I'm charging ahead on several fronts to grow my budding company out of the dirt.

I made it to Kona and moved Desire from the storage yard to the work yard the next morning. I spent most of the day washing and cleaning the spiders, dirt and oxidation off of her. (No bees this time!) Afterwards it took me a while to figure out why I was feeling so spent. The VOG around here from the volcano is really heavy right now and my throat and sinuses are raw. I need the clean air of the open sea!

Do you have a flag?

Do you have a flag?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTduy7Qkvk8

Why, yes we do.

Mash Werks - Mobil Army of Sustainable Housing

While we are on the subject of related holokai links,

we are proud to have figured out the most effective way we can ad value to various disaster relief housing efforts around the globe.

http://www.shelterkraftwerks.com/SKW-Container-Designs/mashhousing

One of the components of ShelterKraft Works and ShelterCraft Designs is to build an on site response team to provide a housing triage center at any disaster relief location in the world.

The idea here is to be able to set up a mobile ISBU fabrication facility anywhere in the world to aid in the reconstruction of an affected area where the housing stock has been decimated.

With the Red Cross and various other disaster relief agencies, the initial crises can be met. Food, medical supplies and tents are usually air lifted to affected areas. Once the initial needs have been met and the area begins to stabilize and recover, port facilities and other infrastructure are repaired for the next wave of relief, coming in the form of shipped goods and materials.

SKW will arrive on the docks with their Mash Boxes full of tools. A local work force will be gathered and trained to turn arriving cargo containers into temporary dormitories, medical facilities and food centers. From there permenant housing and support structures will be built. The efforts of this new 'cottage industry' can remain viable long after the area has been helped to normalcy.

By concentrating efforts on the site of the disaster, funding and effort is maximized by invested parties.

The efforts of Mash Housing can be beautifully dove tailed with many of the current relief agencies to maximize their own efforts on the ground where it is needed most.

~~~

Big news for holokai.org fans!

you can also get here by typing rustybarnacle.com and the newly acquired, holokai.com. At some point these will be separate sites with holokai.com linking you to long distance pelagic charters/voyages, holokai.org linking you to our efforts of oceanographic preservation and the metamorphosis reef restoration project. Our beloved filter feeding crustacean, Rusty the Barancle ( or Rostig der Barancle) will return on his own site chronicling his continued adventures.

Skyline Snake Balls

Skyline Snake Balls

Dirk and I have a healthy respect for snakes. Trancas Canyon rattlers gave us our introduction. Then we moved to the burbs of Mobile and dad wanted us to learn golf at the Skyline Country Club. We soon realized that it was much more fun to whack balls than chasing after them. But in chasing after them, though the dense southern woods, we discovered a treasure trove of miss-shot balls. We developed a business plan. We would harvest the lost balls, clean them up and sell them back to the golfers. Our business thrived and soon the woods were cleared out. That left the ponds. We knew the water and we knew rattlers so we thought that water moccasins wouldn't be that much different. The ponds were brimming with lost balls and we couldn't understand why our competitors didn't tap in to that resource...

So one day we're leaving the house to go work. As we're headed out the back door mom stops us to ask us why we're taking one of her kitchen chairs. Before I can elbow Dirk to let me handle it, he blurts out "It's so the snakes don't bite us!"

We had developed a strategy to deal with the water moccasins. They lived in the banks of the ponds. I had constructed a raft made out of pallets and chunks of styrofoam we found at the dump. We would drag the raft out of it's hiding place in the woods to the pond of the day. I would pole out into the pond with long sticks of bamboo. From there I would whack the bushes and tall grass all around the pond. If a snake jumped out I would stand on the chair, precariously perched on the raft as they swam past (or sometimes over) the raft. I'm not entirely sure where they went but after waking them up they left us alone until we were done.

The other kids thought we were crazy but we harvested more balls than anyone else and we never got bit.

I boxed up Desire and set her safely on the back lot in Kona. Now I've returned to Seattle sailing in a whole new direction with the eminent rollout of

ShelterKraft Werks.