Live report from the Captain

[Captain Goddammit]

Today Savannab was aboard the Yacht, and I met Simon of the Playa.
The Land Yacht took on water today, suffering a few mechanical issues.
It's 3-something AM and I've been wrenching all evening and all night; finally got it patched up and seaworthy.
I WILL be showing up at the M&G at Doc Pyro's in that goddamm thing come hell or high water, goddamm it.
There is a LOT of art on the playa and really impressive camps.
Burning Man is still worth attending, but the dust is sure flying.
The bugs are gone.
I'm wiped from the all-night wrench session, I'll give a report on the M&G when that comes up.

[Token]

Your "Admiral Fuckit" alter ego is in serious danger of loosing street cred.

Good to hear from you. Burn Hard o Capn' my Capn'

[Captain Goddammit]

Still working on boat, fabricating metal parts and brackets belowdecks, in horrible conditions.
But, this is *fun*....
Shit like drilling a 1/16" hole sideways through a 9/16" bolt, with a hand drill WITHOUT breaking your last tiny 1/16 bit (try that at home even!) - that's what makes this so, uh, great.
I had a design flaw; when the front suspension is in full compression, like when hitting a playa dune with a heavy load of people, a bolt on the portside front leaf spring hits my 1" metal conduit that contains the brake cable and throttle cable.
That crushed the conduit, pinching the cables, breaking the throttle cable and making the brakes stick on. In other words, boat no move. It's a custom 14 foot long cable, no one out here has one so I have to make something.
Tiahaar is coming by with some parts in a while and I've got a trailer full of tools, hand electric and air.
This boat IS going out under its own power, soon.
Thats why I'm the Captain, goddammit!!!!

In other news, still dusty as fuck, and no bugs.

[RedHeaven]

Awesome report, thanks!!

[The Rod]

Field repair work IS fun!

Sorry to hear about the troubles, gotta love the flaws that aren't noticeable until deployment. I hope you can get yer boat to float..

[JayBobBoy]

I could have sworn I saw you go by on the Live Feed just a minute or two ago!

I sure hope it was you!

Have fun and be safe. Then forget about being safe and have some more fun...

[Captain Goddammit]

I've got a pretty recognizable silhouette so it was probably me.
I wrenched just about all night but I did get it back up and running.
Yep field repairs are part of the game.
The conduit was mounted where it was when the boat had a different front suspension, with only one leaf spring in the middle. When I went to twin leafs about a foot apart, that caused the interference with the conduit.
I hung out with Ygmir and Grey Coyote today. Took Grey and Sunbeam56 out on the boat, we had fun although we were in total whiteouts a lot.
Tonight was very nice and clear, but it got really cold.

[HeatRash]

Starting to think camels would be a good idea. If there are LNT camel diapers, and spit diapers for the front end. Good luck getting those on!!

Hopefully a less dusty rest of the week for everyone. Glad you got the boat working again!

[RedHeaven]

Great tidbits
Thanks for updating!
Love me some Ygmir.

Chilly Man! I saw it was 31 degrees this morning at 7am, thats what the weather sites said.
The forecast said today would be windy, and the weekend more mild. Looks like the temps are staying low. I bet thats the big talk of town? Shivering Man? Are people getting more sleep? I bet the fuzzy coats and cuddle puddle areas are popular. I guess it hasnt been this cold out there during the event since 1999?

[theCryptofishist]

Most important: Did Anti M and Tamarakay get what I mailed them?

[Captain Goddammit]

I think I may have heard something about them getting something, but I'm not sure.
I'll ask if I see them. I'm going to try to take Anti M out to see all the art.
Today's midday mission is to get over to Robbidobbs and take care of her car window, it's electric and stuck open.

[Token]

Starting to think camels would be a good idea. If there are LNT camel diapers, and spit diapers for the front end. Good luck getting those on!!

Hopefully a less dusty rest of the week for everyone. Glad you got the boat working again!

Done and banished. Too much crap. No camels alowed.

[HeatRash]

Aww. Ok no camels. How about elephants??

Seemed very windy and dusty out there today.

[Thecatman]

Tonight was very nice and clear, but it got really cold.

Saturday and Sunday morning are supposed to coldest, high 30s, low 40s according to weather.com, the weather channel. That's for Gerlach mind you.
I typed in Black Rock City, NV and nothing showed
KOLO news channel 8 in Reno says the same only they do specify BRC.
Hope everybody stays warm and dusty for the remaining days.

[Captain Goddammit]

It felt chilly as fuck today, during the broad daylight afternoon. I don't remember that ever happening.
Got Robbidobbs electric issue handled. And we had our requisite conversation via bullhorns from across the street for the year. It's just not a complete Burning Man unless you have at least one conversation with Robbi via bullhorn!
I spent a lot of today escaping the rather nasty dust storms in Grey Coyote's dome, eating cookies and drinking wine.
Right now it's Friday night and I'm at Eridu Society. I'd be out on the boat but it's just fucking nasty out.
It's taken a lot of blowing out with compressed air hose and vacuuming to maintain the boat in the dust this year.
Conditions have been primarily shitty.
I may have to say fuck all this HUGE effort time and money next year and just go back to Hawaii next year again!
I mean, yeah it's fun being here even in ultra-shitty conditions, but the time-effort-money to fun ratio isn't really that high.

[Token]

Cold Playa happens once every 10 years or so, on average. 1999 was bitter cold. 2005ish plus minus one year thereabouts was also about wearing a jacket or sweater during the day.

Part of the crazy ride but I can see it getting old fast when most days get dominated with whiteouts.

Always have a bag of mulling spice and head over to Doc's place

[trilobyte]

I'm giving this thread over to the 2015 Stories board, and look forward to reading through it after I get back (I'm just hopping on now to get the L&F boards build and take care of a bit of housekeeping). The Captain's not kidding about cold as fuck, last night was 2004 levels of fucking freezing. Best spot of the night was inside Serpent Mother, surrounded by fire...

[some seeing eye]

Thanks for the updates! Unfortunate the playa broke the boat!

Maybe the cold wind and dust will discourage virgins?

[Captain Goddammit]

The playa is hard on machinery, but I know that and come prepared for it.
I had another parts casualty tonight (burn night), dead alternator, however I have redundant systems and the boat continued to function on the other alternator. There's a switch on the control panel that connects either alternator to all systems, I just had to dim the main lights a little and shut off a few less important ones.
This does mean more wrench turning tomorrow, but I've got a spare alternator so it shouldn't be too big a deal.

In other news... the reason I'm back at camp and not on the playa now isn't the minor electrical glitch, it's that it's FUCKING COLD!!!! Shit, we're all out here burning shit this year just to stay alive !
To all of you who couldn't be here and are members of Camp Envy - you lucked out. It's a great year not to be here. 2015 kinda sucks! Great people, great camps, great art, certainly. But Black Rock Desert itself is quite a lousy place to be this time.

[RedHeaven]

While some might think that being spared the 100 degree days is a good thing, I find cold more intolerable when celebrating. I'm 4 hours away and its been cold as fuck here, too. Freezing IMO is a bigger buzzkill than heat. At least the heat you can just lay back, spray yourself with water, keep hydrated and be aware of heat stroke. The cold slows people down. I used to do this 4 day halloween fest in Yosemite and the years it got real cold were kind of bummers, as people tend to shelter up and not move as much. Probably was a great year for daytime exploring and a good year for getting sleep at night.

Thanks for the honest report from your point of view. You just made Camp Envy a little less rough On the bright side the playa looked really nice and smooth from the stream. Made the art look really nice and looked nice to bike on.

[skibear]

Thanks for reports from the playa Capt'n Goddammit -much appreciated. Bet it was very dusty last Saturday and midweek during event.

Red, YES, it was quite cold in Nevada City near Pioneer Park (about 40 last night) but BRC would be colder -Freezing ?
Today & next 3 days will be warming up.

[Captain Goddammit]

Today (Sunday) is a terrific day. Mild warm temp, little wind, clear not dusty.
Pretty much what we needed last week!
At least it's nice for teardown.
Everyone is bugging out, seems like most have had enough of this place.

[RedHeaven]

I bet. I camped in Nevada City last night so I wouldnt have to drive home after a few drinks from a little Live Feed burn party my friend had last night. It was cold, I had to bundle up a bunch. And yes, its colder on the playa than in the Sierra foothills.

Some burners from off the road pulled in front of my friends house at 3am, unable to find lodging anywhere in the area. They would of had to drive to Sacramento, so they stopped. We thought they jumped out of our TV set! We were all pretty blown away. They had a great week but had had enough for sure. We fed them chamomile tea and pizza and let them shower. They were completely stoked. That was some very cool serendipity.

Glad that tear down has some nice temps. Although bummed the week was tough, especially for people like you that have to keep art cars running and the likes, the town definitely needed an enema.

[theCryptofishist]

I think I may have heard something about them getting something, but I'm not sure.
I'll ask if I see them. I'm going to try to take Anti M out to see all the art.
Today's midday mission is to get over to Robbidobbs and take care of her car window, it's electric and stuck open.

Ooops! That wasn't meant to be a serious comment. I guess the Captain caught the Fish...

[RedHeaven]

It felt chilly as fuck today, during the broad daylight afternoon. I don't remember that ever happening.
Got Robbidobbs electric issue handled. And we had our requisite conversation via bullhorns from across the street for the year. It's just not a complete Burning Man unless you have at least one conversation with Robbi via bullhorn!
I spent a lot of today escaping the rather nasty dust storms in Grey Coyote's dome, eating cookies and drinking wine.
Right now it's Friday night and I'm at Eridu Society. I'd be out on the boat but it's just fucking nasty out.
It's taken a lot of blowing out with compressed air hose and vacuuming to maintain the boat in the dust this year.
Conditions have been primarily shitty.
I may have to say fuck all this HUGE effort time and money next year and just go back to Hawaii next year again!
I mean, yeah it's fun being here even in ultra-shitty conditions, but the time-effort-money to fun ratio isn't really that high.

Just saw this post of yours. I hear ya. Plus, it's quite a body load. While in some ways I think it's cleansing out there, in other ways its pretty abrasive. Playa lung is real, even if you use a mask it still affects you.
I'm sure this is hard to fathom, but what if when you go back you make it a minimalist year? Sounds like you have done so much, keeping up an art car seems like no joke. Perhaps scale it down so the cost isn't so much? I'm sure you have "earned your keep" so to speak by being so involved in so many ways. Or is it too hard to take those steps back?
This was my third year of taking a break, and I think I want to just go back once more to check in, and then let it go. It's so hard to not obsess over. Even when i try to go minimum, it still takes a lot of effort. Its like a fractal of desire to get involved, and it sweeps over everything. Sometimes the absurdity we know and love can also seem so daunting and crazy at times.

Token, for trivia's sake, I think the year you are describing was 2004. My first year 2005 was warm. That was a great year for weather. Semi dusty, 90 in the day, chilly but not cold at night. Not too boring but not too crazy. I had heard from others that the previous year (2004) was cold perhaps?

2008 was the harshest conditions I have experienced, and I had my favorite year. However that had to do with my company, so didn't matter what the weather was like.
This year looked harsher than 08 but a better playa to ride on. That year was a mess.

THanks again for the thoughts, capt.

[fireheadwhale]

Want to thank the Captain for this report. Enjoyed it.

[pink]

Token, for trivia's sake, I think the year you are describing was 2004. My first year 2005 was warm. That was a great year for weather. Semi dusty, 90 in the day, chilly but not cold at night. Not too boring but not too crazy. I had heard from others that the previous year (2004) was cold perhaps?

2008 was the harshest conditions I have experienced, and I had my favorite year. However that had to do with my company, so didn't matter what the weather was like.
This year looked harsher than 08 but a better playa to ride on. That year was a mess.

THanks again for the thoughts, capt.

You must not have been there Monday & Tuesday night of 2005. Days were warm, and the rest of the nights warmed up, but Monday & Tuesday night were fucking freezing. I ended up going to sleep at 10:30 because I was so cold, and I had on thermals, a t shirt, a couple of flannel shirts, a sweatshirt, a fucking parka, knit hat, ski gloves, wool socks and boots.

Didn't have the parka or any winter coat this year, nor gloves (though I wish I did have gloves). Made do with a tshirt, leggings, thermal shirt and coat. Even went out biking on Friday night, though I was happy for the hot coffee stand I found at the man base!

[Captain Goddammit]

I'm home... at the end of it all, one of the biggest differences between going to BRC and going to Kauai was after a week and a half in BRC I wanted to go home, and I never wanted to leave Kauai.
Cost was lower to go to Kauai than BRC (at least the way I do it) and the other big BRC/Hawaii difference was that when I go to BRC, I lose my WHOLE spring and summer. We barely do anything but prep work and draining money like dirty water.
When we do Hawaii, it doesn't also blow every other spring and summer weekend. Prep is five minutes.

I love going to BRC... but god damn...

[Dr Helix]

It was great fun seeing you out there Cap, and driving the land yacht for a bit. Hope you enjoyed driving the semi as well. Tried to run you down a couple more times but you went left and i went right.

[Admiral Fukkit]

Your mini-semi is awesome!!