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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

6/22/2010 - another mat

Yesterday, after untangling massive snarls from one of the anchor rodes, I was inspired to get cracking on my cockpit mat so I can rid the storage areas of another 100' or so of 3/4" manila line.

Again using Hervey Garrett Smith's "The Art Of The Sailor", I opted to tie an Ocean PLat Knot. This is very similar to the Turk's Head knot except that it's oblong instead of round.

I laid the line out on the dock and started laying out the knot:


It got much easier as the mat got closer to done because the bitter end of the line got shorter and shorter:


Finally, all that was left was to go around and around, taking up slack:


And, an hour and a half after starting, it's done:


It's actually not completely done. I still have to sew the ends underneath and sew the outside pieces to each other so it doesn't flop apart when it's lifted up.

Sharp-eyed readers might notice that this mat isn't strictly correct. Some of the runs are 5 strands wide and others are only 4. I should have stopped at 4 but I thought that maybe I'd have enough to make one more complete round. I didn't. But I liked how it looked so I decided to not remove the offending run.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

i noticed the 4/5 runs...i also noticed you wearing slippers... retirement agrees with you... and are those your "pots" on the dock? if so...will you just toss them in when you are somewhere for a bit and what about fishing and such while on zee boat?

Anonymous said...

hey what is the deal with the key hanging loose in a post where lulu was cleaning the bedroom... oops... berth!

Steve and Lulu said...

a.) No, not our pots although we do have one collapsible crab trap. For fishing while out at sea we just plan to use a hand line tied off to the stern pulpit with a bungee as a shock absorber. When we get down to Mexico and start doing some inshore fishing we'll probably buy a couple of poles.

b.) My but you're observant. The key you're referring to is to our Post Office Box. We both had keys which we carried in our pockets. Somehow, I lost mine. So I borrowed Lulu's. But, if I could lose it once I could lose it again so I strung it and wear it around my neck when I go to town. It's next to the hatch so that whoever is going to town will remember to grab it on the way out. That's the theory. The reality is that we remember it about 25% of the time. But since my retirement check is direct deposited there isn't anything coming in the mail that I'm particularly waiting for.

c.) Yes, retirement does indeed agree with me. It seems to be what I was born to do.

-Steve

Anonymous said...

What a pretty mat. I sure could use one of those for in front of our front door if you want to get rid of more rope. We hope to see you for the day on the 4th. Love, Mom

Cody said...

That mat is super awesome! Nice work, Dad!

Mid-Life Cruising! said...

Impressive! It looks really great. I never would have thought of something like this.