Vintage Horn.........New Outa' the Box!

There has been one item that has been missing from the pilot house cabin top all this time......... a proper horn! I have been searching for just the right one, one that fits the boat in style and is from the right time period. Well, I found it. Where? On eBay of course! I have made it a point to search for items on eBay in obscure places where sellers may have listed items incorrectly or under descriptions that have the item misspelled. I found this vintage boat horn listed in "Home & Gardening > Patio & Grilling > Grills & Accessories > Gas Grills". I found it using the brand name search of Perko! Well, as you can imagine, only one other person placed a bid, and it was low. I got it for a screaming bargain! The best thing about this horn is the fact that it is brand new, never used, right out of the box, and it's at least 60 years old, probably older! It is a 6 volt model with the old woven cloth covered wiring, so I will need to rewire the leads and and put in an in-line voltage reducer before we can actually use it............ small price to pay for such a fantastic piece! This horn is a match for the vintage New-In-Box spotlight that we bought last year. I can't wait to get all this stuff installed!

A day on the Bay

Yesterday the sun was out and we headed out to Mystery Bay to check on the Bernadine and see how she was doing on the mooring. A little breezy, but we had N8 along to serve as oarsman to get us out to the boat and back. We replaced the mooring line, pumped the bilges, measured the windows for curtains and cleaned up "carnage"................ That's right, the otters had been massacring fish on the aft swim deck and forgot to clean up after themselves (enough said there!)......... the cabin top was covered in "guano", along with the assortment of clam shells and crab claws. To the occasional visitor to the ocean, those otters and sea birds are so cute (enough said there!).

With more days of sunshine, we are getting closer to fitting out the exterior of the boat! At the end of the month we'll have our moorage permit and we'll start the process of finishing up our rebuild projects.

"THE CREW"

Boatload of Bronze!

Every now and then we hit the mother lode of yard sales.. On Saturday, we hit that very vein of pay dirt!
We decided to go out and hit the local yard sales as the day was looking like it would turn out to be one of those wonderful Pacific Northwest Spring days where the sun actually shines! We hit a couple of sales here in town and then decided to head out to Maristone Island to hit one that opened at 10 am. The ad said that there would be "boat stuff" as well as the usual tidbits.
Well, we got there about 10 minutes after it opened, parked by the road side, and immediately noticed a woman walking out with an old fisherman's anchor and boat light in hand....... then another fellow walked out with some old bronze boat items! I could smell the old bronze in the air! We hopped out of the car and headed down the driveway...................... OLD boat stuff everywhere!
To make a long story short, we walked away with an entire milk crate full of old bronze fittings and pieces for "yard sale prices" :)
The guy who was selling all of this boat gear said that it had been stripped from a 35 foot sailboat that had been built in 1931, in England. This puts the majority of this bronze hoard in the same time period as the Bernadine!
I haven't really gone through all of it to make decisions on what stays, what goes, what will be installed, etc., but if you check out the picture, you can see for yourself, what we hauled home!

Stay tuned.....................

Engine Book.......Flip-Flop Style!

I came across an old style blank book today and turned it into a new engine and mechanical log book for the Bernadine today. I labeled it so that the engine log starts on one side of the book, and the mechanical log on the other (you have to flip it). This actually makes the book two sided and each side is flipped over when compared to the other. I labeled it in the old style so it fits the style and era of the boat.

Stone Tiles

Yesterday I discovered a stash of some fantastic stone floor tiles over at "Waste-Not-Want-Not", the local used building supply store down the block. There were six tiles there, I bought four, and paid only $3.75 each! These are destined to find their way out to, and onto the boat........... we will use these under the Navigator Stove in the galley. The color couldn't be more perfect. We are planning to use copper sheeting for the heat shielding that will be behind the stove. When it takes on that great brown copper patina, it will match the tiles perfectly! All the materials are piling up, now we just need to get out there and start putting it all together.

New Bike Tools, Ahoy!

This afternoon I made a quick trip back over to the used building supply store across the way, to see about buying a couple of stone tiles............. the tiles were gone, but I did score a hand full of old bike tools! The tools were mixed in with a bin of loose sockets in the used tool and hardware section. Sugino, Park Tools, Bicycle Research, and a couple of no-name sockets. I'm hoping that some of them are for the outdated and vintage stuff.......my fingers are crossed!

Anchor and Campy and Lock, Oh My!

This last Saturday was the long anticipated Community Yard Sale out at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds! WooooHoooo! Lots of cool stuff, great deals and just a ton of fun. All of the fairgrounds buildings are opened up and filled with tables full of yard sale stuff, collectibles, junk, and what-not-what-have-you's. In short, Great Stuff!

Three of the treasures that I hauled home were a great old anchor, a bag of old bike parts, and a vintage padlock. We also scored a great old 1940's electric desk clock, a 1930's cast elephant on depression glass tray, a silver Egyptian scarab spoon, a 2 1/2 lb bronze cleat............ you get the idea!


I noticed an old nylon bicycle handlebar bag under a table that looked like it was full of "stuff". Closer inspection revealed 2 Campagnolo rear deraileurs, 2 Campagnolo down-tube shifters, some Campy cable routers, two sets of brakes, a Shimano Derailleur, four new-old Christophe leather toe straps and a new-old set of Christophe toe clips!!!!! Four dollars and it was "Mine, All-mine!". Great stuff!


The anchor is a small one, about 5 pounds. It's pretty unique and will end up as an anchor for the dinghy. It's old. Most likely pre-1950's, and I'm guessing 1940's on back a ways. I've never seen one exactly like it.


The lock is an old 'Independent Lock Company" lock with the original key. This will find it's way out to the boat as well. I love theses old locks. If you've got a hasp to lock, you might as well use a lock that looks like it came from the right time period.

We had a great time and now it'll be a whole year until the next one........... but until then, there's the Wooden Boat Foundation Marine Swap next month! Stay tuned...............

Just one more picture of those great Campy parts :)