Ginger aka Green Eyes 1995?-2011

Our hospital cat, the one neighbors left in a box on our front yard last November, has passed away.  We don't know her birth year but the vets told us she was 15-18 years old.  When we got her, Ginger was diagnosed with many problems but the biggest were severe (6 of 6) Arrhythmia, and kidney failure.

For the past five months she has thrived and had been gaining weight.  But about a week ago she stopped eating despite being plied with all kinds of fancy cat and human foods though she continued to look happy and still purred contentedly around her adoptive litter mates.

Friday she went with us for a weekend on Horizon and she loved it.  The aft stateroom was perfect for her - the port holes on the stern are inches above the berth and she spent the nights peering out at the water and all the goings on around us.

She was failing rapidly though and yesterday exhibited labored breathing.  Today we made the difficult decision to prevent her further distress and had the vet send her on her final journey.

Ginger had endeared herself to us and will be missed greatly.

ACT's Facebook photos of Ginger

Horizon is in her new home

Saturday was a really great day.  It started with the JSI Marine Flea Market where we scored two treaures I have wanted for quite a while: a pair of Dahon Stainless Steel fold up bikes!  They are in immaculate condition and we got them for a really good price.

After the flea market we met up with Eoin and Devin for breakfast at Skyway Jacks then we all headed off to Maximo to get Horizon.  She looked great and we spent only a little time getting the gear ready for her maiden sail.  The first 2 hours were motoring through the inland waterways, then motor sailing until we rounded the point at Fort Desoto.  At that point we started to get some breeze so we shut the motor off and sailed most of the rest of the trip to the marina.  She sure sails nice!  The most wind we had was probably 15 knots but the GPS showed she held 7.3 knots for long periods with less than 1 kt flood.  We had a beam reach to the Skyway, then were hard to after the turn north.  I am actually really happy with the way she sails.  I was a little worried about the lack of feedback with hydraulic steering but didn't miss it a bit.  She balances well with the 135%, main, and mizzen - and with the hydraulic steering I didn't have to touch the helm for minutes at a time even with pretty significant changes in wind speed.  Anyway, everything worked great and I was happy as a pig in ... well, lets say I sported a SEG ...  lets say I was happy!

On Monday we got the new LED anchor/tri-color light and the anemometer mounted at masthead.  Now to figure how to run those wires to the engine room...

So this entire week we have been busy scrubbing and working on Horizon, trying to quickly get her ready for whatever her future holds.

Red, White and Black

Yellow was also in there as masking paper when I arrived this afternoon which made for a set of very loud but interesting colors!  It felt a lot like Christmas watching Bob, the paint maestro, unveil his work.  The time and attention he took to fair out 30 years of stressful life resulted in a really smooth underlay for the Awlgrip paint and the results are fantastic.  Thanks, Bob, for making her so beautiful!

I just talked to Patrick, the artist doing the boat name.  So long as the front that is due here on Thursday is not early, he should have Horizon and port emblazoned across her butt by tomorrow afternoon.  He will be working on the stern while yard workers give her bottom a fresh coat of bottom paint.

 

Assuming that all goes as planned, Thursday she gets a thorough scrubbing from top to bottom.

The ulterior motive here is we hope she will be ready for us to sail her away on my birthday this Saturday.  Don't ask how many years...

 Update 3/9 - Splash time!

The planets must have been in alignment because all the painting is done and she looks beautiful.  Tomorrow they mount the boarding ladder then she gets a thorough scrubbing.  After that she sees sea water for the first time in 2 months.

My she has a wide butt! I think the red pin striping around her name is a really nice touch.

Community minded criminals

In November 2009 our 18 year old cat died and we had to replace her.  We were considering pet adoption when we realized how huge the feral cat population was in our neighborhood and looked into a community friendly approach of Trap, Neuter and Return.  TNR humanely reduces the feral population over time at a cost of only about $25 per cat.  So far as we know we are the only ones in our neighborhood interested in actively controlling the feral cat population. Now we can see why, but I get ahead of myself.

In December 2009 a feral cat had a litter of kittens somewhere in our yard and over the New Year's break we put our plan in operation.  That first time we trapped momma and 4 kittens; we had them all neutered at Animal Coalition of Tampa, adopted 2 kittens for ourselves then released the rest.  We started leaving some food out for those cats.

Over the next year we continued to feed the neutered cats and what strays came around looking for handouts.  When the current problem started we were ready to do another TNR, hoping to catch at least 5.

In November 2010 an older, maybe 15 year old, cat was left in a cardboard box in our front yard with the inscription: "We know you like cats and hope you can help this one".  We took in that cat, our third pet, and she became the abused cat of the month on ACT's web site due to extreme malnourishment with attendant heart and renal problems.  Vets have now seen her several more times and under our care she is now looking much more healthy and happy.

On February 22, 2011 we received a notice of suspected violation that stated in part: "we have been informed that your pets are roaming loose in a neighbor's yard.  If these are your pets you must confine them.  If these are not your pets please ignore this notice and you do not need to contact us."

We verified that our 3 pets had not clawed through a screen and were still inside our house then complied with the instructions and ignored the notice. We did not realize that Hillsborough County now considered all neighborhood cats to be our pets.

On Friday February 25 we were talking to our neighbor when she brought up the feral cats and said "cats are burying poop in my yard".  We asked what she expected us to do about that and she replied "stop feeding your pets". We told her "our pets" were securely locked inside our house and reminded her that the cats in all of our yards were feral neighborhood cats that had been there long before we moved in.  We tried to reason that with our TNR efforts, the huge local feral cat population would decrease over time and everyone would benefit.  That reply made her more irate and she started screaming that "she would make us sorry" and "this will get ugly".  We disengaged and went inside our house to ponder the problem - her screaming continued for quite a while.

The next day we decided the neighborly thing would be to move feeding from our back porch to a station we erected on the side of our house away from her.  We tried that for two days but each night raccoons destroyed the feeder so we gave up.  At that point we really didn't want to risk antagonizing our volatile neighbor further so by February 28 we had stopped leaving any food outdoors but left the feeder enclosure as a shelter.

On Tuesday March 1 Animal Control Officer Luis Garcia came to the house.  We talked for quite a while and I told him about the cats we had neutered and how huge the local feral cat colony was and that we were going to do another TNR.  At that point I still did not realize that it was illegal for us to do that.  That was when Mr. Garcia informed me that under the Hillsborough County statutes, having a feral cat neutered makes that animal a legal pet of the person who has it done.  Mr. Garcia said he had not expected to come into contact with people working to help control the exploding feral population and said he could see we were actively working to help his agency with the feral problem.  Mr. Garcia gave me his business card and told me he would talk to his supervisor and to expect a call that afternoon or the next day.

Late the next afternoon I had not heard anything so I called the number on his card and gave my case number.  The officer who answered iterated that by neutering or even feeding them, those cats became my pets.  Pets are not allowed to roam free so she said we would be fined $240 per pet and that the officer saw many, I think she said 10, cats in ours and adjacent yards.

She suggested there were only two courses of action available:

1. We could trap and hand over to Animal Control all cats from the neighborhood but, with adoption rates so low, we would effectively be handing them over for euthanasia.

2. We could erect a fence around our yard to corral all the neighborhood cats but that fence had to be high enough to keep them from getting out and roaming the neighborhood.

Not liking either of those options I asked what would happen if we paid the fine as a "my bad for not doing diligent research on legal ramifications"? She replied they would happily take my payment but they would still periodically recheck and if any cats were seen roaming free in our or adjacent yards, those cats would be assumed to be ours and we would be fined again.

I am an easy touch and have often donated food and money and invented "make work" projects for those in need, never once worrying that altruistic actions would expose me to litigation.  When the woman who made this complaint came to me last month to ask for a loan, I even gave her more than she asked for.  I am certainly not rich and I have no idea what exit strategy to take.  The 3 options the county is allowing me: killing all the neighborhood cats, taking them all into my home, or periodically paying thousands of dollars in fines, are unacceptable and impossible.  Is there no middle ground that would be inclusive of community friendly approaches?

Update 3/6:  In the week since we stopped leaving food out, the feral population that comes around our house has quickly dropped to almost zero.  The good news is that our neighborhood has lots of cat lovers and none of the ferals ever looked the least bit hungry even when we had been gone for several days :)  We have also not yet received a formal citation but it could arrive at any time.  Meanwhile we have had contact with the Hillsborough County Animal Services Director of Operations and the Humane Society of Tampa.  While wheels have been put in motion there is nothing concrete to report yet.

We realize we caused our own problem by not fully researching the TNR issue especially when it came to local regulations.  Any more you have to be a lawyer to just live.  While all learned reports show the advantages of TNR, none mention that in many parts of the country the practice is illegal.  Besides the obvious lack of new offspring, studies have shown that neutered feral cats have less tendency to fight or howl.  Also, nature abhors a vacuum so when a colony of cats is removed, another colony quickly fills the void.  In this case the neutered cats would be taken away and killed and a new set of fertile feral cats would take their place.  In our reading early on we relied on the local TNR web sites, not realizing that almost every one had disclaimers like "any inquiries are kept in strict confidence".  That should have been our cue to read between the lines.

More as the saga unfolds.

Hull is painted!

She is starting to look really nice.  Tomorrow if weather holds will see her with new black boot stripe and Sunset Red coach stripe.  Then the artist paints her name on the transom and she can splash!

Almost ready for paint

Her hull is mostly faired, sanded and taped, but we have had dense fog each morning for the past few days so the first coat has yet to go on.  

I stopped by her new slip and met one of our neighbors Matt.  Her slip is one dock away from our old Horizon (just visible above the davits of 'Terra Australis II' to the right.  She is also directly across from another quite nicely maintained and outfitted Morgan 41 'Braveheart'.

Hopefully it will not be more than another week or maybe two before we can get Horizon tucked away in her new slip.

Our new sailing vessel 'Horizon'

 

With everything else going on, we needed a diversion and eventually finalized the deal for the 41' Morgan Ketch.  Of course at the time we were inundated with too much to do with other problems and too little time to think about the boat, so we took the easy route and documented her as 'Horizon', the same name as the original 35' Rafiki that sold in November. 

Our new Horizon has just had some critical items fixed (prop shaft and bearings, exhaust, etc.) and is now at Maximo Marine for hull paint, stripes, and name.  She is going to have her dock rash faired then her hull will be painted Awlgrip white, her boot stripe will be black, and coach stripe Imron Sunset Red.  We hope to have her back and looking really pretty in 3-5 weeks!

We already have a pile of gear to start installing once we get her back: a Rutland 913 wind generator and Village Marine LWM watermaker that have been stored in a back bedroom for a couple years, a new automatic fire extinguisher (for the engine room), and a LinkLite battery monitor to name just a few.

Our maiden motor in the Intracoastal to get her to Maximo went great.  I had some slight trepidation that the extra 6' in length and 3' in beam would cause me handling issues after all those years with the Rafiki.  It turns out that the view from the center cockpit 41' Morgan is close enough to the one from the aft cockpit 35' Rafiki that everything felt very natural.  Well, natural so long as I forgot the extra 10 feet dangling aft that the Rafiki did not have :)

So now we take a break and dream about all the fun we will have once Horizon is out of the paint shop.

I had to throw this in - it is a sister ship looking pretty!

Gene Hopper 1927-2010

Gene Allen Hopper, 83 of Tampa died at 11:15 a.m. Saturday, December 18, 2010 at Arden Courts Assisted Living.  He was born December 5, 1927 in Windfall, Indiana of Guy and Bertha Hopper.

He is survived by his brother James Hopper, North Carolina; a sister Caroline Stevens, Kokomo, Indiana; and a son Michael Hopper, Tampa, Florida.

Norma Hopper 1930-2010

Norma June Hopper, 80 of Tipton died at 8:15 a.m. Friday, December 3, 2010 at Miller's Merry Manor.  She was born October 18, 1930 in Tipton to Edward & Nora (Smelser) Doversberger.  She had lived in Brookville, Indiana most of her adult life, returning to Tipton five years ago.

Norma worked as a legal secretary for attorney Roger Smith of Brookville. She was a 1947 graduate of Tipton High School and graduated with honors from Indiana University East with a Liberal Arts degree.  She was a member of Emanuel Lutheran Church in Tipton and formerly St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Brookville.

Norma had been active in all areas of Brookville community life and received the Sagamore of the Wabash from Governor Robert D. Orr.

She is survived by one son, Michael Hopper, Tampa, Florida; a half-sister, Hermine Bauchle, Southport; two sister-in-laws, Maxine Doversberger, Tipton and Helen Doversberger, Columbus, Ohio.  She was preceded in death by two brothers, Gene E. Doversberger and V. Charles Doversberger.

Norma's funeral will be at 11:00 a.m. Monday, December 6 at the Emanuel Lutheran Church, 1385 S. Main Street, Tipton, with Rev. Robb Roloff presiding.  Burial will be in Fairview Cemetery, Tipton. Visitation will be from 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. Sunday at Young-Nichols Funeral Home, Tipton and from 10:00 - 11:00 a.m. Monday at the church.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Old St. John's Lutheran Church c/o Emanual Lutheran Church or to the charity of the donor's choice.

Transformation

Horizon is growing - from a 35' Rafiki sloop into a 41' Morgan 415 Out Island ketch!  A lot has happened the past few months but the bottom line is our previous Horizon has been sold and her new owner is excitedly restoring her to respectable liveaboard/cruiser status.  That sale was a good thing for Cate and I because Horizon carried quite a bit of emotional baggage from her 23 year history with me; with a new boat comes the promise of freshly new memories.

One basic criteria for a replacement boat was to have enough room to fit lots and lots of shoes and the search quickly narrowed to a ketch or yawl in the 40-45 foot range.  I wanted a ketch or yawl because the mainsail tends to be smaller and is less likely to be too unwieldy for a not-as-spry-as-we-once-were crew.  Shorter than 40' would not have the second stateroom we wanted, and longer than 45 feet the boat starts to be more difficult for 2 people to handle easily.

My first choice in that range was a 42' Westsail ketch but there appear to only be two of them on the US east coast and they had both just been sold by the time I started looking.  There was also a yawl, purported to be Walter Cronkite's Westsail, but that needed far more restorative work than we were prepared to do.  What endeared me to that specific style boat was the walk-in engine room with workbench!

Our search led through a series of lower priced used boats until we zeroed in on the Morgan OI ketch series.  Inside, they have two staterooms each with head, a roomy main salon, and a large though only crouch height engine room.  The exterior is fairly bland with center cockpit and large flat decks with only a toe rail - I sure will miss the 6" gunwales the Rafiki had.  Built here in Clearwater Florida for the charter trade, Morgan boats used simple construction and were designed for easy and low maintenance; there are no tricky special systems like V-drives or centerboards, and accessibility to most all components is excellent.  The OI 41's are shoal draft, drawing only 4'6", making it easier for island hopping.

The one we are buying (the deal is not yet closed) was built in 1979 and shows a general lack of upkeep.  We have quite a list of work to do once financing is in place but she is definitely curb appeal challenged.  The hull has a couple dock rashes and the shear and coach stripes are mere faded suggestions of their former selves so new hull paint is at the top of her required todo list.  Luckily I found an excellent painter through coworkers.  Now, will we have the stripe painted AwlGrip International Orange or Toreador Red?

At the survey haul we found the cutlass bearing, intermediate shaft bearing, and shaft log hose all needed to be replaced.  I will add a new prop shaft to replace the pitted and rusted one and we will have a whole new drive train.  Her Perkins M60 was installed in 1995 and runs like a top so that shouldn't need special care but we will have to replace the exhaust hose and do other plumbing and engine room sprucing up.  We are not going to worry yet about the inop genset or the forward stateroom A/C unit, at least the aft A/C unit works fine and can cool most all the living area.

To those immediate and major cost drivers, we will shortly be adding "niceties" including a Raritan PHEII head and Electro-san for push button convenience, and a mast head wind instrument. 

Okay, that is as much as I can type out now.  More later as the purchase progresses.