June 5th, 2009
To the great dismay of all in tents and porpoises, it’s a rainin’ here in Venezia! Tonight’s show is now officially CANCELLED for fear of electrocution via rented musical equipment and well, bad weather for an outside audience. We are still taking the boats for a ride around town and will be docking for feasting and fiesta-ing.
The show must go on….but not until tomorrow.
June 2nd, 2009
Please check our Flickr account for more photos and videos from our voyage!
June 1st, 2009
We pulled out of Marano and headed out into the lagoon and soon found beautiful milky turquoise water – narrow channels banded with tall grasses. It was a short relaxing day of monotony, as Porter (our navigator) reported back from his scouting vessel, “Stinky” – a rented Slovenian fishing boat – that there is a drawbridge up ahead that won’t open till early the next morning.
So we tied off to the grassy banks, just a few yards from a quiet road, and slept on the boats. Earlier we had spied giant circus tents off in the distance, and during the night some of the crew doubled each other on bicycles to go check it out. They returned with a couple stuffed animal prizes and one of the knife-thrower’s knives.
We made for the bridge in the morning and hoped to make for the open sea and Caorle, but were cut short at the mouth of the canal when Porter back reporting three-foot swells on the sea. So we all made camp on a piece of concrete wall just outside the reaches of a ritzy marina.
Earlier that day, a swan had followed Alice for some time, close enough to scoop it up right out of the water. In the morning, the ridiculously early morning known as pre-dawn, it visited us one last time and we were off… or so we thought until Maria busted the pillow bearing on the drive shaft of Toby, the only veteran engine of the fleet, which made the trip down the Hudson River last year. The drive shaft had to be removed for the repair, and Paul heated it up on the kitchen stove to expand the metal and separate the the press-fit components, which deserves a boat-people merit badge in my book.
The weather was beautiful and sunny but otherwise conditions had not changed and we heave-hoed through three-foot swells for a few hours. We try to avoid this sort of thing usually, as hitting such waves head-on makes the boat tilt forward and the stern flies up, lifting the prop out of the water. This results in the engine revving to 3000 rpms in the air before it hits the water again and is forced back to 700 rpms or so on a heartbeat by the water. This puts significant torque on our drive shaft-prop shaft junction, where all our pin-shearing troubles happen. These troubles may be over, thanks to Chicken and our friendly neighborhood auto-marine mechanic back in Marano. Somebody knock on wood.
Even so, Alice’s engine teeter-tottered and slammed down on the boat enough that it’s roller wheel, which allows for easy steering, popped through the decking on the transom, doubling Doyle and I’s workout for the day. We reached Caorle at the mouth of the lagoon and were greeted by swans, scores of tourists, and berthed at a broken dock – crumbling into the water.
We’ve camped here for a couple of days now, found an abandoned building filled with treasures, and worked on the show – building props and playing with shadow puppets. Nona, Marshall, Todd and Jonathan arrived yesterday. They are the musicians and music for the performance (accordion, banjo, piano, upright bass and cello), you may know them as Dark Dark Dark. They played for us on the rafts after dinner for a much needed break, before returning to Vicenza, where they have been writing and rehearsing new songs in anticipation of our arrival and performances in Venice. It’s a damn shame they won’t be with us until then, but last night Captain Connie fed a swan from her mouth, so we’ll make due. And continue making time where there is none, as Dark Dark Dark would say.
– Ben Burke, First Mate/Tillerman on Alice, signing off.
May 29th, 2009
Please check our Flickr account for more photos and videos from our voyage!
May 26th, 2009
Please check our Flickr account for more photos and videos from our voyage!
May 23rd, 2009
Please check our Flickr account for more photos and videos from our voyage!
May 22nd, 2009
Please check our Flickr account for more photos and videos from our voyage!
May 21st, 2009
On this day we made our one-time crossing of a large expanse of
unknown sea. It is possible to see across the water for 16 miles
before the curvature of the earth becomes a factor, obscuring whatever
land may lay beyond. Today’s voyage was to be 21 miles – so that’s 5
miles of bonafide seafaring with an empty horizon. Which is exciting.
A storm was brewing that day, and we soon found ourselves rockin’ &
rollin’ upon two-and-a-half foot swells for most of the journey. In
the middle of it all, Ol’ Hick & Alice both sheared their pins (5/16″
stainless steel bolts) which attach the prop shaft to the drive shaft
of our modified Mercedes engines. Both ships began repairs as the
weather picked up and things got fairly interesting for a couple of
hours.
Alice got back up and running as we lashed her wobbly toothpick
superstructure to itself for piece of mind and Ol’ Hick got a tow from
the Austrian film crew’s catamaran. We all landed a few miles short of
our destination, where we licked our wounds on a stinky, slimey, muddy
bird sanctuary for an extra day, awaiting a fairer weather forecast.
In the meantime, we busied ourselves with writing out the show,
showering, and taking a couple trips into Grado, the nearest town, for
supplies. One such trip netted us two much-needed items – Harrison and
Monica, who magically appeared out of nowhere. They had no idea we had
broken down and missed actually arriving in Grado, where they were to
meet us, and had just bumped into Conrad on a random street. Of
course.
The day we finally left gave us dreamy-smooth water in the early
morning and clear skies all day. A pause for a celebratory swim team
dance party and we left the sea and headed into the canals and a
massive stretch of lagoon, with countless pylons marking the narrow
channel for miles and miles. Lots of local boaters everywhere, wide
eyes and smiles, and we were eventually welcomed onto a small island
hunting & fishing cabin, built by our hosts grandfather 20 years ago.
Some much needed rest for an hour or so with wine and fresh-picked
cherries, then we were underway again, finally arriving at an island
restaurant just after closing time. They stayed open just for us and
we feasted on fresh calamari, sardines, grassfish and a fried starfish
which Callie put in her pocket. Conrad and Monica captured three
scorpions, two centipedes and a beetle in an abandoned building where
they explored with some of the crew. The little devils are with us
still, hanging in an empty syrup bottle in the kitchen of Maria.
The next day we broke down again, as Ol’ Hick ran aground and Alice
sheared another pin during an attempted rescue. Hell briefly broke
loose, but then lunch was served, a pin replaced, and Ol’ Hick’s crew
dragged him out of the mud. Onward through the ever-narrowing channel,
navigating this watery road system to Marano, our loveliest stop yet.
The mayor welcomed us with a case of wine and then 23 5 & 6 year olds
lined up and sang us a song. Moses returned the favor with some
spur-of-the-moment clowning, scrambling all over the boats with prat
falls, red nose, bozo hair and all. Their maestra later brought us
drawings they all had made of the boats and crew, with one especially
accurate illustration of Moses. One child returned later that afternon
with “Dove e el payaso?” – Where is the clown? And Moses jumped into
clown mode once more.
We made a small sign explaing some of our humble needs, one of which
is a plethora of white bedsheets for a giant dress we are making for
Alice for the performances in Venice. We eventually had to take down
the request after receiving countless bags and boxes of sheets from
the townsfolk’s closests. Beautiful fresh clean bedsheets, enough to
sew Alice a dozen prom dresses. Some of us took the excess sheets back
to our tents, wrapped ourselves up, and slept like well-loved drunken
babies.
We’ve stayed a couple extra days and used the time to unload the boats
onto the dock, set up shop, and bang out some work. Ok’ Hick is being
outfitted with a cabinet of curiosities as promised, which includes
the spookiest dollhead I have ever seen (blue-faced with rusted-out
eyes) which Iris found on the beach at our last stop. Also a stuffed
hedgehog and crow in flight, gifts from a local taxidermy lady whose
house is FILLED with the stuff. Bags of bird feathers were collected
on the island across the canal from our dock, where hundreds of
seagulls are making their home.
We’ve also begun puppet construction, and Paul took apart our broken
pop-up awning to make a bicycle-powered cuckoo bird from it’s thin
metal bones. Captain Doyle, still in the throes of a severe love
affair with Alice, is in the midst of making a detailed model of her
from our flea market scrap wood. Tonight we put on an impromptu
variety show for the people of this impossibly adorble town which has
showered us with gifts for 48 hours straight. Even before we had
begun, a surprise air show took place above our heads in the form of
fan-powered parasail daredevils buzzing our boats and thrilling the
crowd (who could ask for a better warm up?).
Also of note is the machine shop which is a stone’s throw from the
boats, where Chicken will be able to get a prop shaft appropriately
modified – a most welcome convenience. And also also – we ate
cheeseburgers last night and coconut chocolate pancakes this morning.
Tomorrow we set sail again, countless sheets to the wind.
