Apology due.....to you all.

Sorry for the tone and language in my last post. I was so infuriated by the ad hoc endorsement of Shark Finning by this guy on TV that I went berserk............sorry.
"I believe in God, only I spell it nature."- Frank Lloyd Wright
take care my friends.......

How can we be so stupid to buy into this.............??

Did you ever watch that fat, bald headed, numb nutts who has that TV show Bizarre Foods? What a clueless dork this dipshit is.......I am watching his stupid show as  I am writing this and am getting livid...... he in some Chinese restaurant shithole somewhere  in China and extolling SHARK FIN meals....soup, soba....rice....whatever........DO YOU KNOW HOW THEY GET THAT SHARK FIN????  If not, let me tell you.............those Chinese fishing boats either long line the sharks or net them,  they, the sharks are  usually alive when caught and the fishermen cut their fins off and throw the still living defenseless mobilelessness sharks back into the ocean alive  to be devoured by whatever !! Why? these little penile presenters think its aphoristic..........aphoristic!!! ....theres a friggin zillion Chinese already.....Despite what you might think, SHARKS are necessary to the health of out planet.  Email me if you want an elaboration on this issue. You want to learn a little more about the rape of our oceans??? read up on what the Japanese and Norwegians are doing to the whale population of our world. Getting back to this dipshit on Bizarre Foods, this guy is a clueless idiot and the people who produce his show are even more clueless. If you care about our oceans, don't watch this nonsense................ 

Broken promises..............!!

I'm a sucker...and melt....and drool.....and pant....and  lust .....and will do just about anything for a fabuloso varnish job..............Oh! why do we do it? put ourselves through this agony of varnishing? This ritual of pain...and frustration ....and and and  COMMITMENT...yes that COMMITMENT....to the varnish...once you start, you can't stop without severe penalty!!!  We all know this....Our teak would do perfectly well if we just let it alone in it's grey dead-meat looking unattended state.....!  OH! how I envy these guys on my docks that hire those little bikini clad vixens who cater to the varnishing needs of their boats  .....waitaminute!! scratch that...if a man or woman can't varnish their own boat...they shouldn't .....never mind.      I'm a sucker for three things......traditional sailboats , traditional sailboats with lots of wood and little dogs. This is a sailing blog so forget the little canine bundles of love. Looking back 25 or 30 years at my various sailboats....one thing is indelibly etched in my memory....WOOD!!  the beautiful Honduran Mahogany on my Lyle Hess designed Falmouth Cutter, the exquisite Burmese Teak on my Phil Rhodes Offshore 27, the creamy, aromatic teak cap rails ,eyebrows, boomkins, handrails, sea hoods, bow sprits, and boom gallows of my Westsail 32 and now my Westsail 28. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.....lets, for the moment disregard, ZOSHA, my new boat.  A few years ago when I sold my W32, Cupid, and vowed, and promised myself, and took an oath to myself.......that my next boat will have NO WOOD!!  Give me a plastic clorox bottle vessel ....you know, the clean, modern, 21st century rocket ship look....just hit it with some bleach water and rinse her down and go home..............YEAH buddy!! no more washing, bleaching, brushing, sanding, filling, thinning, re-sanding, re coating, re, re, re, .....you got the idea here.....my boat wood caretaker days are OVER ....NOW....stick me with a fork as they say!!
Well.....here it is today and that promise lay broken on the dock....that vow failed ....that oath rejected ............Zosha has got more wood on her than than an Oregon lumber truck and it all needs attention. Have you ever tried that Ephifanes Belgian Varnish?
Take care my friends....................

A problem solved......?????

Gallivanting around on a sailboat or a powerboat for extended periods of time presents many challenges to the captain and crew. The primary ones are probably  water conservation, electrical generation, trash management, and the dreaded human waste disposal. It was once pointed out to me that if one is on a boat, they can stand on the gunwale and pee over the side in front of a Zodiac full of US Coast Guardsman and this act of elimination is perfectly legal, but if one cycles that same whizz through an installed marine head and deposits the same untreated peepee in coastal waters, they are in trouble and can be fined or worse. Probably none of us have an issue with depositing one way or another untreated, beer diluted whizz over the side. The problem is what to do with you know what...#2..?? This is a big problem for all of us boaters unless you have a treatment system on board. We probably all agree that holding tanks are nasty and stink and full of who knows what kinda chemicals and the thought of that tank sloshing around under our v-berth as we sleep is ...is....is...disgusting! Just going for it and flushing the untreated poo into the water and telling ourselves that one whale deposits more into the water in one single crap than we could possibly do in a lifetime is not right either unless you are really offshore. Porta-potties.....NO WAY-JOSEPH.  Holding it for a day on the bay is a possibility. Holding it for a weekend on the bay....highly unlikely without serious repercussions to your colon. Holding it for days on end while meandering thru some tropical paradise.....you know thats crazy.....so what do we do?? 
As some of you know and some may not, right now as we speak, I am in the process of trying to get my Westsail 28, Zosha, ready to go cruising in those tropical paradises that we all drool over on the Travel Channel and in the mags......and one thing is for certain....no despoiling paradise by the captain and crew of SVZOSHA...period! OK...what about #2 ?? you ask.....Composting heads are a real viable option.The cruising blogs have many references to the remarkable, odor free, ease of operation, benefits of these devices.....Their concept and science personally appeals to me....one problem though for me is....they are expensive - a thousand bucks!!  ....and as the veteran reader of this blog already knows or new visitors might not know is that the captain of this magic carpet to paradise, Zosha, is, at the moment,...."sparse of purse."  What to do???
The greatest invention of all time has got to be the Internet-Google...........just screwin' around one day and came across a company that seemingly has the answer for this serious problem. They manufacture a human waste disposal system in a bag which contains a proprietary powder that neutralizes the obvious problems with #2 and transforms it into a benign gel that is  along with the bag and toilet paper totally biodegradable and OK for deposit in landfills. This product seems to be endorsed by many Eco friendly organizations and is widely used by alpine climbers and adventurer types in ecologically sensitive areas. So...what the hey.....you can drop the bag into the dry head, put the lid down and use the head in a normal fashion.. like always...when the bag is  done...seal it up, stow it, the affluent is in a totally benign state,  until you can throw it in the trash which is PERFECTLY LEGAL....the system is relatively inexpensive....$250 for 100 bags that each can be used 3 or four times... so under normal conditions on my boat...one bag every other day or so for the two of us......Montezuma disregarded....I'm gonna try it....and will let you know the outcome....if you want the contact info for this company, email me  and I will be happy to forward this to you.
Take care my friends............

We're makin' progress.....aren't we.....??

The hard part of rebuilding the sea hood is completed...all the glassing and laminating is completed. All thatz left to do is clean it up, refinish it and put-her-on.....easy enough....right!.. you say?....I thought so too....well, there might be another "minor" issue that will interrupt the speedy re-install.  Is there ever a minor issue on a boat?..........what is it you ask?  OK here it is.....Since I've owned Zosha, 2 1/2 years now, it was always my opinion that the sea hood, hatch boards and all accompanying trim pieces were varnished so as they weathered and deteriorated, I just let the finish go knowing that a total rebuild and  refinishing was in the grand scheme....today, after a  real hard look at the now crappy looking "varnished" pieces a startling revelation!!  what, what? you ask......its not varnish at all!!...this wood was finished with one of those two part epoxy systems like Bristol or Awlgrip........"its cryin' time again." Don't have a clue as to how to get that stuff off.....Upon a real close inspection....it appears that this stuff was sprayed on!......you know what that means...dontcha? ....professional application!!                   MAMA-MIA!!!... as they say.............check back for updates and pics in the next blog......    "nothing recedes like progress"  - e.e. cummings

What the heck is happening??....is this the end of Zoshas Wake??

I don't know whats happening but when someone clicks on Zoshas Wake in a Google search, a warning from someplace called eulio comes up and states that my site might do harm to your computer??? I did a Google Webmaster Diagnostics scan on my site and it came up clean....no malware, no nothing?? but the warning still remains....don't know why?? I don't want to shut Zoshas Wake down.....but I also want people to visit my site............I'm inna huge quandry as to what to do????? can anybody help???

It willl be all right.........don't worry...

Zosha has teak decks.........this was almost a deal breaker when we first met 2 1/2 years ago....but her obvious charms won me over and  like so many of us who fall in love have a tendency to do we disregard and minimize small imperfections in our beloveds otherwise magnificent countenance...however, sooner or later, it seems, that these small  peccadillo's that we discounted at the onset of our relationship too soon present themselves once again and this time we take notice! ...........you know whats coming..don't cha??? a BIG problem!! Oh Yeah!.......we all been here....AARRGHHHH!!!!....we scream at ourselves..... "Oh Crap" we say..."what in the friggin' blankety-blank-o-blank was I thinking?..........."I knew this was going to be a problem"......"aren't you ever going to learn numb-nutts?" .......do any of these phrases strike a chord with you?....if not, You are sooo lucky...........I noticed the other day when washing the bird crap of the decks that water is bubbling up from under the teak deck in many places on Zosha....this is .no good!!...the decks HAVE to come off..........no question about it...period!!......but you know what....its not her fault that a part of her has finally worn out......she is a noble lady and I love her and will not abandon her under any circumstance......this deck deficiency will be taken care of and our plans to dance together under the  Caribbean sky are not diminished............"Don't be afraid to see what you see." - Ronald Reagan
Be well  my friends.......................