If I was to sail into the sun and off the horizon to fall

Would the world be flat?

If I grabbed for the edge of life

Would my end be near?

Maybe the hand that feeds exists to capture those who venture

Would the fear of letting go be less?

Maybe the lonely are really part of the crowd

And the fulfilled are home in their hearts and hands to feed others.

Moths

A twilight reflection slowly revealed a moth...or maybe a moment

Fluttering and looking to escape

A soul caught in a cloudy nightlight window

Maybe a breakup from the outside world is what it needs

A heartless cold weather world of rain, wind and sun

...oh yes, the sun

The light of the sunset and rise of the dead

I understand you now

I will break that window for you and bleed

Bleed light and dreams

An ocean of possibilities

Leaving a world confined  

Forget It

The dumb trigger was pulled today and my brains lay spattered upon the proverbial wall of thought

I watch the grey matter slide and roll...almost walk vertically down like inch worms

The red stuff used to feed my mind with oxygen and sugar

Now drips

Separated from its duty

I'll drink alcohol today in hope of its recovery so that I may join the others

It's hard when you don't wish to think, share or participate

Maybe I'll play a song or write something down on a piece of paper

Yeah...and put it in my pocket so that I may read it later and wonder what I meant

I'll burn it like my memory

Forget it and write something new

I like new

...but I miss the old

Moonlight Mile, a Tashiba 31 Project

I had the unpleasant chore of hauling out Moonlight Mile to replace the PSS shaft seal, cutlass bearing, drive shaft and coupling. I will share my discoveries and mistakes with you as I do not wish this upon my worst enemy...well maybe, but that's beside the point. Keep in mind as I share my story that there was a enough room for a squirrel to work in my engine compartment.
Step one: Remove shaft coupling from transmission flange and remove old PSS.

Step two: Pull shaft aft only to realize you have a double tapered shaft and not enough room to access retaining bolt and mount a gear puller to remove the coupling from shaft...so just get your angle grinder with a cutting wheel and cut the fucker off. Don't waste time thinking about it. There is no other way just cut it. You'll probably have to cut the old retaining ring for the shaft seal off as well (mine was 15 years old). IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not use the cutting wheel to cut off the rubber boot as you will cut into the stainless stern tube. Use a sharp knife, Xacto or razor blade.

Step three: Remove prop. You will remove the cotter pin and two prop nuts only to realize your prop not going to come off even with a prop puller. Don't think about it just go get a oxy/acetylene set, borrow one if you have to.
IMPORTANT NOTE: It must be oxy/acetylene gas, not propane. You want to heat it up fast so that the bronze metal of the prop heats and expands before the stainless metal of the shaft. Propane is not hot enough
You are going to use a rosebud tip, install your prop puller or gear puller on your prop and load it up. IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure you have the prop nut installed on the end of the shaft, lightly threaded as to avoid the prop flying off the end.
Now fire up your torch making sure you protect the fiberglass shaft log with wet rags and apply heat to the bronze prop, not the shaft. Within 30 sec or less the prop will pop violently off of the taper, hence the need for the prop nut being in place.

Step four:  Remove shaft. Order a new shaft with a fitted coupling to match from these guys http://www.marinehardware.com/. My shaft with coupling was 11/4" diameter and 40 1/2" long including coupling (total length). Marine hardware has a worksheet and are more than helpful over the phone. Just take careful measurements and make sure you have a matching coupling for your transmission. Mine was a Yanmar 3GM30 Kazaki KM3 P. The whole thing will run you about $1200.

Step five: Order a PSS shaft seal for a 11/4" shaft and 1 7/8"-2" stern tube, PSS part # 02-114-200. Follow their instructions for installation.

Step six: Remove cutlass bearing first by carefully loosening the two set screws in the shaft log. One is at 10 O'Clock the other at 2 O'Clock. It may require you to cut through the brass sleeve with a hack saw carefully as to not cut into the fiberglass log. You can use a long, wooden dowel that can act as a handle with the hack saw blade set in as a stopper. It can take some coaxing, vice grips, screw driver, hammer and patience to remove it. Once the brass sleeve is cut; get a screwdriver head between the sleeve and log then bend it up to get a pair of vice grips on an edge then twist and pull.

 Step seven: Install new bearing.

End result:

I also ordered a new prop from http://www.olympicpropeller.com/and have my old one for a back up. These guys were very helpful and timely. The prop is a 17" right handed 10 pitch with a SAE bore made by Hung Shen. Costs about $470.
While I had the boat out I bottom painted, varnished, did the lettering, replaced zincs and replaced all hoses below the waterline (about a 60ft worth).

Keep in mind that your Tashiba 31 may have a different shaft than mine, so be careful and remove everything first and take careful measurements before you order any new parts. Take your time and plan on spending three times as much time and money on the project...but hopefully the info I shared will reduce that for you by half.

Earth

Atmosphere rises from the green and separate layers to hover

To reveal more or less and cover

She lays on her side

Voluptuous woman all relaxed as she meets the water

She'll change color as the sun sets

As we rotate around our star

She'll change for the ages

Unimaginably so

Dust blows

And she adorns herself appropriately

Boatyard Blues

Stuck on the hard and watching the fresh breeze build from the Northwest I contemplate the daily fees I accrue as I wait for parts, paint to dry, and the endless teak I'll will sand and varnish only to have to start at the beginning again as I finish the last. I tell myself I will sail again. I will surf again. I will love a human again...but today and the days to come I am a prisoner. A prisoner of responsibility and choice. I will inhale the toxic dust and immerse my hands into poisonous thinners and cleaners. I will make myself into the size of a bilge rat and crank on bolts that have not moved in 30 years. I will love my boat. I am her cellmate, her bitch. I will grind her without protection......for my eyes because there is no room for glasses in the engine compartment...only room for my one hand and her shaft. For her freedom will be my freedom. I will toss her salad and spend all my commissary and give it to her. I will sing the boatyard blues and caress her keel and paint her bottom. I belong to her.

The Free Agent

Law and order is beyond the scope of practice for the free agent

She leaves that to the masses

The free agent of the mind does not comply to policy

Voted on by the classes

She understands

Patriotism of the lonely stands for one thing only.

The truth seeks out the free agent of thought

To rest calmly in the heart of understanding

To sleep as a giant

The free agent is home to opposition, the enemy of state

Fate...

It is the the "Golden Rule"

The rule of hypocrisy

Questions democracy

And knows the answer

That fear and hate by the majority is cancer.

The free agent of truth knows these things and practices bravery

Fights the mind of slavery

And understands that peace is the equilibrium to war...

Not more war