That.s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

It took me about 20 minutes to realize I was sitting right next to super star snowboarder Maëlle Ricker this afternoon in Edgemont Village.

This was doubly embarrassing considering she’d actually stopped to talk to me, inquiring about the camera I had mounted to a park bench. See, I was experimenting with shooting some time lapse photography with my GoPro camera, and I was sitting there, with the camera, when she walked by to grab the adjacent outdoor table.

She asked about the camera and mentioned she’d seen quite a few of them.  I, like a dope, totally didn’t realize who she was – and blathered on about a project I’m doing for one of my clients, and how I needed to experiment a bit with the time lapse feature on the camera.   She sat down to meet with her friend, and I sat with my coffee and muffin.

I didn’t meant to eaves drop – but they were sitting right next to me, and as I sat there, I realized that I recognized the voice.

Where Do I Know That Voice ?

It’s probably because of a long career in radio, but I always lock in on people’s voices and vocal patterns.

In any event, it finally dawned on me, remembering her countless interviews after her amazing success at the Olympics.

So now what ?

I eventually got up and got her and her friend a glass of water from inside Delaney’s (it was hot this afternoon).

I offered them each a glass, with an awkward: “Um, I feel really silly, but I just realized who you are. I recognized your voice. Here’s some water”.

I’m pretty anyone else would have run screaming the other way, but they took in in stride, and after their meeting ended, I asked if I could get a picture with her. She didn’t even hesitate.

I didn’t have my Nikon with me, so used the GoPro to take the picture.

We had a lovely chat – she’s very very nice – and that makes her even a bigger super star in my books.

Madsu Meets the GoPro from robert ouimet on Vimeo.

My little sailboat Madsu has a non-pressurized alcohol stove made by Origo.

I love the stove – it’s super hot, needs zero maintenance, and compared to pressurized gas, is super safe.

The stove is responsible for making coffee, hot water for shaving, and all my cooking that isn’t BBQ;  in short, one of the most important items on the boat !

Up until this year, I’ve been able to buy denatured alcohol for the stove at one of my local hardware stores - Rona used to stock it with solvents and turpentine – and it was relatively cheap.  It was simply called Denatured Alcohol – a no brainer.

This year, I haven’t been able to find it anywhere.

So, I did a quick crash course on alcohol for stoves.

A search on the web shows that other people in Canada have trouble finding denatured alcohol.  Other than for use in stove, apparently bike folks use it to clean gears etc.

Denatured alcohol is Ethanol – grain alcohol that’s been treated to make it undrinkable.  It burns super hot and while not great for the environment, burning it is slightly LESS bad that burning other types of fuel.   Most places I went to looking for this fuel, including my local marine store (Martin Marine in North Vancouver) sell Methyl Hydrate, which will also work in the stove.   Methyl Hydrate is wood alcohol – if you’re old enough you probably remember using it in Bunson Burners in high school chemistry.

In any event, I was bent on finding denatured alcohol rather that burn methyl hydrate.

I thought I had found what I was looking for over at West Marine. They sell something called blue flame stove fuel, and though there was very little information on the bottle, I assume this is some type of ethanol mix.  I almost had heart failure when I picked up the small bottle (less than a litre) and saw the price tag:  $30.00. Burning EverClear would be cheaper.   Meanwhile, in the US, West Marine sells a gallon of  “soot-free alcohol” for 29.00 !

I’d almost given up, when I stopped by Steveston Marine just off Granville Island. They now stock something called Captain PHAB Marine Alcohol, from a Peterborough Ontario company, Captain PHAB.

It sells for $19.99 for a 4 litre bottle (that’s 1.14 gallons) and it’s a 90-10 mix (Ethanol and whatever they use to make it undrinkable).  The staffer told me that one of the reasons denatured alcohol has been hard to find is that one of the main suppliers either went out of business or stopped carrying it.

So, for all you sailers, campers and bikers – try Steveston Marine in the lower mainland, or check your local marine store and if they don’t have it, get them to order it for you from Captain PHAB.

As for me, I’m heading down to the boat right now to fill up my stove and perk up a pot of coffee.

I’m so damned pleased with myself, I might even shave.

50% share of penthouse office on the 6th floor of 23 West Pender.  270% views of Vancouver with windows that open to allow fresh air.

Includes wi-fi, alarm system, full private bathroom with shower, boardroom for meetings with North and East-facing windows, and full kitchen.  Cleaning service 2X monthly.  Sublet will share space with another social games company.  Over 1,000 sq. ft available for sublet.  Space comfortable for 6-7 person company…developers preferred.  Available immediately and will extend to end of year.

If you’re interested, contact Andrew directly at 604-783-4962.   They’re a great bunch to hang out / work with.

The bow light is actually behind the forestay and stem head fitting – not the best for visiblity.  And if I happen to have dropped the foresail on the deck, the light would usually get covered up. (See if you can even find the bow light in this picture of Madsu at the dock)

The stern light was a bit better, though mounted on the deck port-side, and not always visible.  While legal, these old lights have always made me nervous, particularly because I love night sailing.

So, before putting Madsu in the water this year I wanted to install new fore and aft nav lights, up on the pulpit/pushpit where they’d be seen.

Finding lights at Steveston Marine was easy – I got some nice Perko lights on sale – but mounting them on Madsu’s 1 inch pulpit and pushpit rails would be the challenge.

Catalina Direct sells a pulpit mount for over 30.00 dollars, and given the shipping and brokerage, it seemed like a crazy amount of money to spend.  So I decided to make my own (and spend a crazy amount of time to save a few bucks).

A few years ago I had purchased some stainless rail mount brackets (for a the traveler setup), and still had a few extra.

What I needed was some sort of plate to mount the lights on.  So, out came the jig saw and a piece of aluminum plate I had bought when I made the backing plates for the new winches.

I cut the plates, thinking I’d use 2 rail mounts on the bow light – but later opted to simplify with one (a good choice).  A little work with a grinder, then a file, then my Dremel tool, and the plates came out looking pretty great.

Next, I tapped holes for mounting the lights, and for securing the plate to the rail mounts.  I (and others) like to sit on the pulpit on a nice summer day, and with the mounting screws tapped, there’ll be no bolts protruding.

I wasn’t really up for drilling holes in the rail tubing and trying to chase the wiring through – I ran the wiring externally and secured it with self-amalgamating (rigging) tape.  If it turns out to be a nuisance, I’ll chase the wires inside the tubing next year.

Now I’ve got an additional level of comfort sailing at night, knowing that Madsu’s bow and stern light are visible.

It was a fabulous day on Sunday down at Horseshoe Bay.

As soon as I got to the dock, I kicked myself for leaving my camera at home, and had to settle for the lame camera in my Samsung phone.

This Adirondack chair has seen better days.

One question – do you think this particular item is  flotsam or jetsam ?

I’m working with DigiBC during the games, and many of their members provided the content and technology for the gallery.  And friend  Sara Bailey, is the curator.   Sara worked on some of the earliest CBC Radio 3 designs back in 1999 (prototypes actually) and she and I worked together as consultants for a number of years.

On Wednesday, she offered photographer Kris Krug and I a preview of the gallery (it opened on Friday).

I shot a full ‘tour’ with Sara guiding us through – that will be online in a few days.  But I also put together this little piece for Kris.

He and I first met ten years ago when he was publisher of one of Vancouver’s first online magazines and we were just starting to put some definition on what CBC Radio would be.

There’s a higher quality version online here , on YouTube here, on Vimeo here

You can also see a longer, full video tour of the gallery with Sara Bailey here.

Manure.

Saturday was one of those magic “December on the Coast” kind of days.

It was sunny with the temperature around 12 degrees C.

Perfect for shoveling a big pile of manure, and converting some lawn into edible garden.

Details on my garden’s website – SunsetGardens.ca

Oh.

If you’re wondering why my garden has its own website…it was jealous of the sailboat’s website, so now it has its own.

First you get the Direct Message – this one forwarded to my email:

The link in the DM/email takes you to a  site that is a perfect replica of the (old) Twitter logon screen.

But wait.

ALWAYS check the URL before you type in your username/password.

They even bothered to include the Twitter favicon, but the url is…

And here’s who owns THAT URL, via a public Whois search…

Registrant Contact:
   jiang wen bin
   jiang wen bin jiang wen bin lixing688@gmail.com
   +86.0517757813719 fax: +86.0517757813719
   jin hua chang jiang lu 125 hao5zhuang 603
   jin hua ZJ 345634
   CN

Administrative Contact:
   jiang jiang lixing688@gmail.com
   +86.02163883527 fax: +86.02163883527
   jinghua Changjiang east street 1255603
   jing hua SH 345634
   CN

Technical Contact:
   jiang wen bin jiang wen bin lixing688@gmail.com
   +86.0517757813719 fax: +86.0517757813719
   jin hua chang jiang lu 125 hao5zhuang 603
   jin hua ZJ 345634
   CN

Billing Contact:
   jiang wen bin jiang wen bin lixing688@gmail.com
   +86.0517757813719 fax: +86.0517757813719
   jin hua chang jiang lu 125 hao5zhuang 603
   jin hua ZJ 345634
   CN

DNS:
ns1.4everdns.com
ns2.4everdns.com