Author: Brian

Day Eleven in Fort Pierce, aka Thumb Jockeyburg Short work, long evening We filled the holes in the hull. Tomorrow we will sand them. Also we will put on the barrier coat. The next day we will put bottom paint on the hull. The day after, another coat of bottom paint. Then we are gone. […]

Day Ten in Fort Pierce, aka Rover Point Returns, taking turns, sharp turns Our elliptical disc sander lasted ten minutes. That was all it took for it to decide it wanted no part of our project, so it simply quit. We, fresh back from a trip to the library (which was closed) and the Wendy’s […]

Day Nine in Fort Pierce, aka San Franwanderer Holes plugged, West Marine sucked dry, obnoxious neighbors Today saw us buy the Fort Pierce West Marine’s last canister of 410 Microlight Fairing Filler, so we took a trip to the next closest West Marine, 20 minutes away in Vero Beach. Thus restocked, we finished a first […]

Day Eight in Fort Pierce, aka Fort Beggar Expensive white powder, more latex gloves, Vero Beach At West Marine, a haggard man placed his items on the counter. The woman at the register rang it up and announced the total cost. From here, it is unclear precisely what was said, but we believe it went […]

Day Seven in Fort Pierce, aka Vagrantshire Building a hull of glass, watching neighbors disappear, chimichangas By now the routine is set; we get up before eight, have cereal, and cover ourselves in potentially dangerous chemicals for most of the day. Heaven knows we’ve ingested enough acetone, acid, and aspirin to kill a family of […]

Day Six in Fort Pierce, aka Gypsy Gulch Manual labor takes a back seat to intellectual struggle Rain fell this morning, fortunately squelching any possibility of going to work on the blisters with mysterious chemicals. Instead, we went to the library (freer from mosquitoes than our boat) in order to plan the process of reconstructing […]

Day Five in Fort Pierce, aka Vagabond Village Grinding to a halt and driving to Miami and back I woke up at 6:30 am, and woke Aaron up at 6:45. We skipped breakfast and went straight to work, grinding away the last traces of the cancer in our hull and wiping the open sores with […]

Day Four in Fort Pierce, aka Drifter City Grinding in the morning, leisure in the afternoon We woke early, ate bagels with cream cheese, and set to work with industry. The large grinder left by the previous owner was a heavy and unwieldy weapon, but smoothed the gaping cavities in the hull like a dream. […]

Day Three in Fort Pierce, aka Trampton Whence our heroes discovered innumerable blisters in their beloved hull The day began brightly, with the sun, at 7 a.m. A breakfast of cereal and coffee led to a trip to the West Marine, where Aaron and Brian searched in vain for trisodium phosphate (TSP). Resolving to use […]

Day Two in Fort Pierce, aka Hoboville After a breakfast of the now familiar Kellogs’ Smart Start cereal, we got in the truck in order to run some errands. First, we offloaded the previous owner’s books at the Treasure Coast Hospice Thrift Store. Next, we returned a real marine current converter and a faux marine […]