Bottomless pit of human stupidity Part?

Now I know I said I was going to keep you all posted on the bottomless pit, but everytime I read the one entry, I don’t really want to go back there. I don’t feel like revisiting that whole experience, let alone sharing it even more. And there’s really not that much more to add really. So I thought I’d go with our little summer paradise that me and Carl shared after this ridiculously dubious affair!

We went back to my home, in Québec. We were planning to chill there for a little while, waiting for my visa to be able to work on the Kalmar Nyckel, a tallship in the US. Unfortunately, we got into a little pickle with this one too, mainly my visa not being ready in time and Carl being refused entry into the States. Because of course, every Swede in the world wishes to illegally enter the United States of America and become an alien worker... Of course, Sweden is such a poor country, ruled by socialists, equal thinking people, terrible. And the health care system is free, that’s not good and they promote laziness of course with their terribly efficient social care system. Now of course, any free-thinking capitalist would want to run away and illegally work in the States. Indeed, why aren’t all the Swedes in the States, now THAT is the question!


Beyond all the sarcasm, this added wound, after the bottomless pit of human stupidity, was very maddening to say the least! So we got an extension for Carl’s stay in Canada and tried to mend things up. Bottom line, can’t really mend things even with good connections and a lawyer. Anyway, we got a little depressed and morose about the whole situation and then, like a miracle, we found this little wooden sailing dinghy this old man was selling because he was moving out of his house. About 12 feet long, made of plywood, big nice cedar mast, almost new sail (synthetic of course) and the only thing missing, some rope! That's it! A little work to do, there was some rot, but really not much. Guess how much he wanted for it? 50 bucks!!!


So we spent about a week and half working on it, scraping took forever since it hadn't been done since like 1970! The number of coats of paints were incalculable! But, after replacing the transom, a little fiberglassing on the seams and some painting, we had a brand new boat!



During

Hull finished


Got some sisal rope, only natural rope we could find around at short notice, and to crown the whole repairs we then proceeded to experiment with making our own pine tar. That was a great project! It took a few tries because at first we kept melting the pots in which we were trying to do so! For the unlearned on pine tar, it is a very basic concept. Tar, derived from pine trees has been used for thousands of years to preserve wood, make paints, keep metal from rusting, make soap and other numerous uses. In the boat world, it was used to preserve wood, ropes, and waterproof clothes... It’s like the number one ingredient for everything and anything aboard a ship. To make it is also a very basic concept, basically, warm up the wood, without burning it, therefore turning the resin into tar. Unfortunately, this process has been slowly disappearing especially on the small scale. In Sweden, some farmers actually still do it, with cast iron pots. But we ended up experimenting.



Essentially, you chop up some pines, preferably roots, since they have more resin. Then you jam them in a cooking pot, until it is completely filled. Now, the installation is a little recipient for the dripping tar, like a can. Then a pipe or carved out log, or stone from the tar catching can that drains into a bucket. The idea is to bring the tar away from the fire and cooling it in your container. You put the lid of your cooking pot on the can. Make a little hole in the middle so that the tar can fall into the can. Then turn the cooking pot upside down and unto it’s lid. Seal it with mud, or slightly bury the pot so that is is airtight. Then start a fire around the pot and let the heat, by dry distillation, turn the resin in the pine wood into tar. Our first few attempts didn’t work so well because they weren’t airtight and so the fire caught inside the pot as well as outside and burned our pine wood as well as melted the pot beyond recognition! But we got the hang of it by half burying the pot and all the rest of the installation, so no cracks for air to go in. After about a few hours, you get a peanut butter container full of tar and charcoal for a BBQ with your pine wood! Quite nice.


Then we used the tar for our rig! We tarred our sisal ropes, which needed a little coaxing since that fiber is not so keen on tar. Hemp would of been ideal, but we didn’t not have any at the time. And then, we went sailing a bunch on the Lakes close to my home! And camping and sailing and fishing... It was great... There was this little island, on Lac Lablanche, which has a dock so we could sail right up to it and moor the boat. We’d spend the sailing around and fishing at the same time, then dock the boat and spend the rest of the evening fishing. To finally make fire and cooking ourselves a feast! It was a little piece of heaven right there, where no more problems with visas, jobs and money existed...


It was very nice while it lasted.