Yesterday I mentioned going to Google for directions for making an eye splice. Well, I decided that just wasn't right. Here I am living on an island with a long seafaring tradition. I needed to be reminded first hand how to splice. It didn't take me long. I mentioned my quest to that old salt William Nathan (actually, he's a few years younger than me), and he told me to bring the rope by and he'd help me out.
It didn't take very long. Making a splice isn't all that complicated. Dan Robinson, former Coast Guard chief, stopped by to inspect my work, and he approved. Here's a photo of the finished product:
(Click on photo to view larger image.)
Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter celebrates colorful islander Don Wood (1936-1998). You can read it here:
http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news042610.htm.
What are we looking at ? What is a splice? when does one use a splice? What good is a splice when the ocean is covered by an oil spill?? Is not the Gulf of Mexico debacle -- debacle in the fact it is 5X larger than they thought and the FEDs were content to let BP "handle" the spill. It is nice to know the president will make a W flyover.
ReplyDeletePogo said it best "we have have met the enemy and it is Us."
As they say in the British Navy (and in the United States Navy and in the Flaghoist Signal Book): "SPLICE THE MAIN BRACE!"
ReplyDeleteI learned to splice rope way back in my Boy Scout days and got pretty good at it! It is an elegant skill.
ReplyDeleteA splice is a way of joining two ropes together (or in the case of the eye splice, joining the end of a rope with itself to form an "eye") by interweaving the strands.
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