While nutcrackers pranced and sugar plums danced,
a special magic fell upon Seeker by chance.
A dusting by fairies or mystical things,
turned the boat and the crew into gingerbread beings.



While nutcrackers pranced and sugar plums danced,
a special magic fell upon Seeker by chance.
A dusting by fairies or mystical things,
turned the boat and the crew into gingerbread beings.
The engine room hatch has a gasket. A second deadlight is cast. The rudder quadrant now has put out dowel pins as several of you suggested. Thank you! The chain to cable connectors are done for the chain and cable steering system. And you get to see me continue to fail to patch a hole in a keel. 🙂 Many thanks to crew members, Betsy, Su, Aaron S, Jack C, Jack S. Seeker crew rock!
If you love cars and motorcycles, then checkout Aaron Starnes web site and blog: www.aaronstarnes.com
We had a great weekend despite the keels. Jack Sadrakula flew in from Chicago. We successfully cast another porthole deadlight, he help me unsuccessfully patch a keel. He then completed the gadget that connects the #60 chains to the 3/8″ steel cable for the chain and cable steering system, and then help me unsuccessfully patch the keel again. He then broke and fit the #60 chain and centered up the drive shaft coupler on the helm’s gear box and helped me unsuccessfully patch the keel again. Randy Martin drove in from Denton Texas and while Jack drilled, reamed and set the pull out dowel pins in the rudder quadrant. Randy help me unsuccessfully patch the keel. All and all it was a good weekend thanks to Jack and Randy. Next week I will be patching the leak in the keel.
There’s still time to have a very merry SV Seeker holiday! Padding the USPS estimates (c’mon.. you know they’re running behind), we are pretty darn confident (no guarantees — but confident) that if you order a T-Shirt or Thermal Mug by this Sunday (Dec. 20, 2015), we can pop it in the mail first thing Monday morning and you will have it in time to shove it in your Christmas stocking.
Rates for USPS Priority mail in the USA are very reasonable. Priority shipping for T-shirts is roughly $5. For actual shipping charges, head on over to our Shop and you can fiddle around clicking the shipment buttons in your cart and see what the charges would be. Yep.. you can cram muliple items together and save on shipping charges when you go Priority.
Get your Jolly on and thanks for your support!
We haven’t seen our elf in several days — ever since we spotted the crime scene chalk outline on the shard of steel beneath Seeker. Had Rizzo the elf been electrocuted and fallen to his death? Or did somebody kill the little fellow? Why is there no body?
Where is the little guy and what’s he been doing?
Who in the world would have a motive? The Elf Police have been pouring through our surveillance videos in hopes of turning up something that will help and look what they found!!!!!
OMG!!! It’s a picture of Rizzo on Doug’s computer watching FAIRY PORN! Clearly there’s more to this elf than meets the eye!
The rain held off today and Aaron, Jack and I got the last of the welding and grinding done on cabin tops and deck. In the shop Su and Betsy worked on the art of the next deadlight casting. “Some people care too much. I think it’s called love.” — A.A. Milne
Oh NO! This is what we woke up to this morning in the shipyard. A chalk outline of our mischievous little helper. Suggesting something like an episode of CSI Shipyard, we lost all thoughts of sugar plums dancing through our heads. We’ve got Jezebel and Tinka scouting the perimeter and hopefully something will turn up.
As far as other clues, we don’t have much to go on. The last time we saw Rizzo the Elf, he was swinging on Seeker’s Christmas Lights. But a storm is moving in and there is a fair amount of humidity out there — could he have been electrocuted? He seemed so happy and carefree and though he does tend to be a bit of a troublemaker at times, he’s still a part of the Seeker Crew. What happened?
Sodium Silicate Sand Rocks! Especially for the occasional casting or big casting. Traditional Green Sand requires, skill, storage, and a sand muller to recondition your sand. And the difficulty increases with the size of the casting. Sodium silicate sand uses inexpensive fine silica sand, and sodium silicate (water glass) which reacts with CO2 to harden the sand. 200 pounds of mix cost less than $30.
I’d like to thank our local Tulsa foundries for sharing their knowledge. Especially Scott and Adam at R & D Foundry and Don Doss at Metal Dynamics.
And many thanks to Seeker crew: Jack, Su, Hugh, and Paul who helped get us through the learning curve casting our first porthole deadlight.
And finally to Betsy who has been working on our new web site. You can now buy from our Junk Store and help support our work.
Our store is finally open. Stop in and see the beginning of much more to come.
Let’s Go Shopping!
Today we added the 34 oz Thermal Mug. This is just like the mug we give our visiting crew. It stands 8″ tall and holds enough liquids to keep you refreshed and hydrated.