Bicycling the "Florida Overseas Heritage Trail" - Day 2

The day dawned sunny and became windy pretty quick!  Of course, it was in our faces the whole 27 miles.

A fair portion of the trail is currently under construction.  This looks like it's pretty close to being ready - luckily, we're going the other way.  It was one of the nicest portions of the trail since it was actually off the road with trees and vegetation between us and the road.

This was an interesting bridge.  A highway bridge had been built on top of a railway bridge.  The whole thing was closed.

This view is typical of most of the riding: bicycling on the shoulder, but at least the shoulder is reasonably wide.  Still, in most cases, the traffic is moving at 55 mph and there was quite a few cars, trucks, and construction traffic on the road.

Scene along the way.

Creative bridge artistry: using train tracks as a railing.  Many of the short railroad bridges have been renovated as bicycle, walking, and fishing bridges.  It's nice when we could use one of those bridges rather than ride beside traffic.

For us, 27 miles on day 2 with a loaded bike is a long day in the saddle.

Our last challenge of the day was "7 Mile Bridge."  The wind was blowing us back, the sun was fierce, and the middle span was a nice little hill, but we made it at a torrid 6 miles an hour - give or take a mile an hour.

Not only that, but you can see in this photo that the shoulder isn't that wide.  In fact, we saw a car on the opposite side with a flat tire.  It was parked right against the concrete barrier and the inside tires were on the white line.  And it was a very small car.  It's a good thing people have cell phones.

Luckily, I can see over the concrete barrier.  I saw a sea turtle come up and grab a breath of air.  Neat.

Knight's Bridge RV Resort - whew! - it was just on the other side of the 7 Mile Bridge.  We got another nice shaded campsite with the "Sunset Bar and Grille" a block away for dinner.   We even got there just in time to see the sun set over the 7 mile bridge.

When I was leaving the showers, a guy started talking to me.  He and his wife had come down from Sarasota to get away from their busy retired life!  

Bicycling the "Florida Overseas Heritage Trail" - Day 1

The Florida Overseas Heritage Trail is a 106.5 miles bicycle trail in very southern Florida from Key Largo to Key West.  ML and I had read about it a number of times and we planned to go - but never seemed to set a date.  When Glenda said she and brother Bob were coming to Florida in February and wanted to bike some, we said sure and convinced them of the Keys adventure.

The other three tripsters let me do some of the planning.  I figured that we wouldn't be able to stuff one car with all 4 bikes and gear, but there was a ferry to Key West from Ft. Myers, near where Bob and Glenda were based.

All trips have some time when you're "getting ready to get ready and then getting ready."  We're loading the bikes for the ferry.

The early morning light looked nice on these shrimpers.  I'm a sucker for commercial fishing boats anyway.

One of the best parts of the whole trip was being by the water almost all the time.  The water is clear and a variety of shades of blue that makes it just pretty to look at.

The ferry was fast, but crowded.  It took about 4  hours to get to Key West.

We did have to get up early, so a nap was in order.

The sidewalk was also a bicycle trail right beside the ocean.

Ironically, we made a wrong turn and rode another 6 miles than we wanted to.  This is headed south and we were going north!!!  Should have brought a compass.

 Lunch at the "Lime Tree Food Mart."  Key West has such bright colors.

Yep, that's a bike lane.  Doesn't look too wide to me, but ML is cruising right along.

I was trying to catch our shadows on the road without getting killed by a car.

There are some outstanding Florida State Parks in the Keys but there were NO available campsites at any of them.  The hotel rates were outrageous at the time of year, so we mostly camped in RV Campgrounds.  Here's our first one.  Not bad, some shade and not too close to anyone else.

We were supposed to ride 15 miles but it turned into 25 by the time we arrived.  Seemed like a lot to me for the first day!

Expedition Wherry - Part IX - Sanding Sanding Sanding

I've been sanding . . . and sanding . . . and sanding some more.

At least, the builders manual supports what I've been doing.  In fact, it says on page 10, "You can easily spend as much time, or more, on the finish as you did in actually assembling the boat."  So far, in that statement and all the others, they are right.

Once you get the epoxy coats laid down and cured, it's time to get out the random orbital sander, ear plugs, dust mask, and eye protection and go to it.  In effect, you sand off a lot of the epoxy you just put on so that every square inch of surface is dull.

My methodology is to sand and sand.  Then I fill some of the areas that will reduce sanding.  Then I sand those areas again!

This may not look too great, but if would feel as smooth as a baby's behind if you were to run your hand over it.  The white is filler.

You can see it a bit better in this photo around the keel.  It doesn't look so good, but it should when it's painted.

I sanded both hull and deck because I didn't have to worry about other stuff getting in the way of the sander.

A couple years ago, our friend Leslie was cleaning out her dad's house and gave me the router in the photo.  It works great to round over the coaming and rail.  I have found over the years that it's the "professional details" that make the difference in looks at the end.  They don't row the boat, though!

The cockpit coaming is glued and clamped.

The hatch sills are glued in.  You cut out the deck very carefully and then glue the sills in.  The cutouts become the hatch covers with foam stripping around the inside lip of the cutout.

And lastly, the rubrails are epoxy glued, taped on and checked for looks, and then nailed on.

Whew, all the parts are in and the boat is officially complete.  Now it's time to coat all the parts with epoxy and sand some more!!!

Expedition Wherry - Part VIII - Dumb Cluck

It's been awhile since I posted progress, or lack thereof, on the boat.  Here is the deck all trimmed, with cloth and epoxy on it.

For one thing, I'm disgusted with myself.  As you may remember, in the last post the deck went on nicely by being taped down with packing tape.  It looked good.  The next day I trimmed it up and laid down the cloth with a coat of epoxy.  It looked great!

NOT SO FAST, Private Smith!  It must have gotten too late in the day and even though it looked great when I was finished, the next morning when I went out to see my beautiful work, the areas that I epoxied last were white underneath from moisture.

It's hard to see in this photo, but take my word for it, there's a white sheen under mixed in with the cured epoxy.

You can see the white much better in this photo, even though this is taken later when the cockpit coaming is already in place.

 As with most people, I had a vision for what I wanted the boat to look like: specifically, I the hull was to be a light "Largo" blue, the interior cockpit "Seattle Gray," and the deck, coaming, and rubrail was to be beautiful varnished wood.

Visions be damned, I was not going to sand all the epoxy and cloth off and start over!

Expedition Wherry: Part VII

I think, and hope, that everything is ready to put on the main deck.

First, the fun part - taking a block plane and planing the bevel for the deck.  CLC provided a board that was a copy of the deck camber.

Planing wood with a nice sharp blade is fun and rewarding.  The shavings come off with a sweet curl.  I was tired of epoxy, and it felt good to be working with wood and a nice block plane.

First, the deck needs to be scarfed together.  With the puzzle joints and available weight, it's a piece of cake.

Looks a lot better without the buckets and weight on the joints.

The boat is cleaned up and ready.

The bevel of the sheer strips looks good too as you look the length of the boat from the stern.

Mix up some epoxy and sawdust, put it in a quart plastic bag, snip off the corner, and spread it on all surfaces that the deck will touch.

I love it.  The instructions are to use packing tape and tape the deck on!!  To be honest, I was dubious as to taping as a boatbuilding method.  But, it worked a lot better than I thought it would.

First ML and I set the deck on top - it needed both of us.  Then I taped at the frames and then every foot, and then wherever it looked like it needed it.  Looks good!

Gibsonton Bike Week!

If you know me, you'd think that the "Bike" in the title above refers to a bicycle.  But you'd be wrong.  My friend and neighbor George invited me on a "photographic" expedition to the Gibsonton Motorcycle Week.  He was taking photos as part of a Meetup group.  He's a really good photographer.

Me?  I tagged along and tried to emulate him.  Here's what I got.  It was fun.

Lots of "bikes."

It was a "cold" day, in Florida anyway.  But beautiful sunny, and not a cloud in the sky. 

We even got entertained! 

This is "Galaxy Girl," who climbed 127 feet into to the sky and did some "amazing" acrobatics on the top of the pole.

George asked me if I would climb it for a million bucks.  I'd try.

There was some fine jewelry, too.  I wanted to get one for ML, but George said, "Maybe not."

VROOM!

Building the Expedition Wherry: Part VI - Straight and Narrow

Now the boat is encapsulated with epoxy and cloth, and I shouldn't have to worry about it getting wet from rain or the sprinklers anymore.  Whew, that' s minor relief.

First, I better put on the keel to make the boat go "straight and narrow," even if the owner can't.

Even though it's a lousy picture with the house roof in the back, at least the keel looks straight.  I sunk a couple sheet rock screws in the forward part and "blue taped" it off the hull to keep it straight while the epoxy set up.

I forgot to take a photo, but I also clamped a stick vertically in the middle of the transom to give me a "line" so that it was centered and vertical.

Looks good here, too.

 It's time to flip it over and glue in the support for the "cockpit" decks, which in turn also support the sliding seat rowing unit.

The frames were just a bit off so I used some tie-down straps to move them the 1/4 inch I needed to make the deck plywood flush.

The bricks are making sure the deck supports are sitting down on the glue.  The end of the tie down is just pulling the frame back just a bit - hopefully to make the edge and frame match perfectly!

After waiting for the deck supports to dry - and after epoxying cloth on the top of the plywood deckboards to protect them a bit better, I glued them in and piled up some old bricks to hold them down.  It's good I saved those old bricks!

The circle you see is the cutout for the deck hatch so you can store stuff in there if you want.  There's not really a lot of room under these decks.

 In the photo, you can see the stern deck without bricks and with some decent filets all around.  The forward deck looks about the same.  The cockpit will show for all viewers and myself, so I tried to take care to make the filets look good.  You'll have to judge for yourself when you come try it out after it's finished and painted.

I spent a surprising amount of time sanding the filets and the surfaces, with some re-fileting thrown in.  Even though I wanted to continue the progress, I knew that it would be a LOT easier to sand without the deck on, so I tried to take my time.

I'll leave you with this photo, which I just happen to like.  I drilled a half inch hole in each knee support, even though the plans didn't mention it.  I think I could put a line through it and be able to tie on the bailing can or other boating paraphernalia.  Don't you just love the colors of wood?  I do.