There are lots of ways to have fun. For example, I have found a group of Bluegrass Pickers here in Morgan Hill near where we are staying. They get together a couple times a week and play Bluegrass together. Other times I have fun by volunteering at a small local Air Museum at the airport in San Martin called Wings of History. One of their restored airplanes is a Peitenpol Air Camper, a kit plane from the 1930’s. It is powered by a Ford Model “B” engine. It is nearing the end of its restoration effort. Recently a debate has been raging in the hanger around the adequacy of the oil lube system and a new improved Model “A” oil pump was secured. Last Tuesday I helped remove the engine from the Pietenpol one more time. We flipped the engine and removed the pan. We extracted the oil pump and the crew decided we needed to test the old pump compared to the new pump and see if it really was able to pump more oil. I more or less agreed to design and build a test apparatus for the pumps. Ideas were flying back and forth while I took some basic dimensions from the pumps. Continue reading The Oil Pump Tester
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Skipper Emeritis
I have officially adopted the title of Skipper Emeritus. That is Skipper as in the master of a small vessel and Emeritus as in Retired but retaining the title and honors of a professional position. As Skipper Emeritus of the Regal Jug I get to stand around and critically review the performance of the new Skipper and Crew.
On Saturday we all took the Regal Jug to Anderson Lake. Since the last time we went sailing we did some repair work on the main sail, so it took us quite a bit of time to put on the sail and get ready for launch. It would probably be unfair to mark the crew down for this performance, but there is certainly room for improvement. Launch went perfectly; no runaway boat and no one got dunked. I stepped up and did the official starting of the auxiliary engine. We dropped our moorings and left Patrick stranded on the float. After circling back and running a landing we were able to retrieve our AWOL crew member. Continue reading Skipper Emeritis
An Adoption:
Regal Jug is our 23 foot sailboat. It has been in the family since 1974. For many years we had an annual vacation somewhere in the San Juan Islands of Washington, or the Gulf Islands of Canada. The last couple years we have not done any major trips in Regal Jug.
This year Regal Jug was adopted by our son, Glen’s family. Two weeks ago they met us in Oregon and picked up the boat. They spent last weekend cleaning and updating the maintenance on the boat. This weekend we arrived in Gilroy and we formalized the adoption by going to a local lake and launching the boat and having an inaugural sail. Continue reading An Adoption:
Tourist Destinations:
Yes, we often show up in odd ball destinations like Wickenburg, AZ, visiting obscure attractions like the “Jail Tree.” This week, however, we set our sights on a top tourist destination, Mackinac Island in the Mackinac Straits between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron in upper Michigan. By the way up here it is pronounced “Mackinaw,” the “c” at the end of the word is silent. The name is a shortening of the original Indian name Michilimackinac which means “place of the great turtle.” Continue reading Tourist Destinations:
The Attic:
Here we were drifting around the nation’s rust belt, Detroit and Dearborn Michigan, when we stumbled into America’s attic. Maybe not exactly stumbled, more like encouraged by long time friends Jim and MaryKay and their daughter Kati and hubby JT. We arranged a rendezvous in Tipp City, Ohio and enjoyed a long visit. Continue reading The Attic: