I’ve never been much of a fan of Christmas, except perhaps when I was a kidlet in the nuclear family of mom/dad/me back in Kentucky, long ago and very far away from other relatives. Back then, the tree glittered and new toys appeared, just as they should (nothing has really changed). Here is a little…

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This freezing week has been a time for system design work, the start of a new book, waterworks fabrication, and preparing my office for use as a ship simulator during the software-development phase. We did make one brief run to the boat last week, then got stuck in a nasty snowstorm enroute back… which turned…

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Note: this was written in 2008, while I was trying to make sense of the network architecture of the boat. Both Shacktopus and Datawake have since been re-used for other systems in my life. Sorry for the confusion! Real physical tasks are queuing up, but it’s a rainy holiday weekend and I find myself more…

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The modular approach to ship system fabrication is starting to manifest itself as little pools of parts in the lab… good thing we resurfaced those crusty old particle-board workbenches a few months ago! The current lab-based projects are: Console (communications gear, audio, geekstuff) Waterworks (fresh-water processing) Bow Module (steerable spotlight/video/sensors & LED navlights) Field Radio…

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Note: My Shacktopus neologism has had three meanings. The first one was designed in 2005… a sort of paleo-smart phone of backpack scale, bringing lots of resources into a single system for substrate-independent technomadics… I called it a “communications laptop.” The second use of the term was never well-defined, and was a temporary name for…

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In what is probably going to become something of a routine, I’m now on my second “winter work session” aboard Nomadness, blogging as I go. Since the last installment, I’ve done a fair bit on the home front, and also posted an introductory walkthrough of the boat… the first of what should be a large…

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I can already see how the winter is going to take shape, and it’s going to take a major exercise of will to get through it. “Next steps” bubble to the top of OmniFocus and get flagged, I make a first-pass approximation of stuff needed and load up the truck, then drive far away and…

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Nomadness has completed her shakedown cruise — covering 621 miles in 2.5 months. This is a languid pace, in geographical terms, but the experience gained was considerable… enough to induce a near-total inversion of the project priority list, satisfy a host of initial learning curves, smoke out the weaknesses of the ship, and advance to…

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The season is turning, that’s obvious. We’re pinned down in Deer Harbor with a frontal system coming through… 30-40 knots tomorrow, a brief respite on Sunday, another blast on Monday. We parked here to rendezvous with Andrew of Navigator Stove Works and get the black-enameled Little Cod wood stove installed. The timing couldn’t be better.…

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Nomadness in Montague Harbor

We are now in Deer Harbor on Orcas Island, back in the US after 2 convoluted weeks in the Gulf Islands of Canada. This photo is from Montague Harbour on Galiano Island… we were hiking among the glacier-worn rocks, shell middens, and ancient madrona trees of Gray Peninsula, and Sky snapped this candid moment with…

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