I'd been sailing all night, cold in the big dark waves, bright stars above and bright phosphorescence in the water. I was sitting on the platform between my main hull and the outrigger, with my feet over the water.
Suddenly something glowing big in the water under me.
Three dolphins swimming right under my feet in formation.Three giant shapes all lit up with glow-specks like moving windows to the stars, flowing phosphorescent galaxies.
They'd schooled up with my canoe!
Then they shot off ahead in calligraphic curlicues, thowing glow-bursts off their tails,
goofing off in the waves.
They're clicking and chirping at me. How do I answer?
And how did I get here?
This is the story of my second trip to the California Channel Islands.
At the end of the first trip I left my outrigger canoe stashed on an island and returned by ferry during a storm. A month and a half later I went back.
Suddenly something glowing big in the water under me.
Three dolphins swimming right under my feet in formation.Three giant shapes all lit up with glow-specks like moving windows to the stars, flowing phosphorescent galaxies.
They'd schooled up with my canoe!
Then they shot off ahead in calligraphic curlicues, thowing glow-bursts off their tails,
goofing off in the waves.
They're clicking and chirping at me. How do I answer?
And how did I get here?
This is the story of my second trip to the California Channel Islands.
At the end of the first trip I left my outrigger canoe stashed on an island and returned by ferry during a storm. A month and a half later I went back.
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1: Channel Islands
That line is an approximation of my outbound travel path.
I'll take the ferry from Ventura to Prisoner's Harbor in the middle of Santa Cruz Island.
Then I sail my canoe along the coast to Santa Rosa Island.
My canoe is an 18 foot long single outrigger sailing canoe similar to a Malibu Outrigger.
I'll take the ferry from Ventura to Prisoner's Harbor in the middle of Santa Cruz Island.
Then I sail my canoe along the coast to Santa Rosa Island.
My canoe is an 18 foot long single outrigger sailing canoe similar to a Malibu Outrigger.
Visit Our Store »
Go Pro Today »
Christian
wwwDOTblueherontexasDOTcom
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-remove-a-tick/
The way I've always seen tick removal done was to light a match, let it burn for a second, blow it out and press it against the tick while still hot.
It causes them to disengage and try to get away.
Please don't ever confuse the saying with the infamous "Arbeit macht frei" (I don't think I have to explain that one, if in doubt, the Wiki link above has a link).
I can't give short answers... you know, my middle name is "smart a**", according to some people of my acquaintance. :D
I absolutely loved the free boat saga, and just found this thread. Looks like the rest of my evening is gonna be taken up by a lot of reading.
Fantastic job...
I cut the sail from a trashed genoa from the sailmaker's dumpster down the street.
The sail geometry is about the same as Iroij Michael Kabua's Riwuit I measured in the Marshall Islands (MH)
1.25" S-curve edge rounding in the foot, straight along the mast, and slight hollow in the leech. I kept the leech from the Genoa.
There's a little broadseaming in the sail to give it belly. I was worried that it would be too much, but it's just about right. I guess they made the genoa pretty flat to compensate for forestay sag. The broadseaming is hmm, 1/8"inch each? and done to give max camber at 30% or so.
RIGGING:
LUFF: I rig the luff luff tension to just a little more than gravity.
FOOT: I rig the foot with lots of slack belly along the boom right at the tack, that feature is "bwij" or belly in marshallese. Same word as a matrilineal clan. I infer it's a very important feature, and it does seem to make the sail pull well.
LEECH: I pulled the leech line to hook the leech until it stopped flapping.
I like a hooked leach. I spent many days beating into the wind in the fjords to Alaska watching VMG on my gps and tweaking with my sail to get max progress upwind. Hooked leech works well for me on this sail.
That's against standard western doctrine, but it seems to work. The race sails I saw in the Marshall Islands tended to have a hooked leech also.
MAST RAKE: It's raked back just a hair from vertical.
Some sails go to windward better closer to vertical, some like to be raked back a lot more, boom almost horizontal, which can trip the boat and makes it hard to see where you're going.
For this sail, I lean the mast forward until the boom doesn't hit me in the head on a tack. If the boom is any higher than that any sail tends to flog when drifting with a slack sheet.
MAST LEAN: I lean the mast to windward in strong wind, to just over the windward rail. I lean the mast to lee in a weak wind. That's standard MH doctrine.
It's a triangle sail on 14 ft windsurfer mast spars.
The mast has another mast jammed inside it to make it stiffer.
Two questions: Does wearing a wool sweater as pants really work? And, did your offer on the land get accepted? (hope so)
what kind of nut trees can you get me for my tree orphanage?
re: sweaterpants: it works really well. Pants as a jacket takes some modifications. I learned the sweaterpants trick from a homeless guy.
Speaking of homelessness, there's a phenomenon "elasticity in housing demand" which is a powerful concept. With much practical utility.
Nut trees often don't self pollinate, so you need male and females, like in pistachios, or two varieties, like in almonds. Do you want all edible trees? Do you have water for irrigation?
Mexican think skin avocados do well in northern california, highly recommended, if you like avocados. I can get you some cuttings of an amazing mulberry tree. Its the only one of its type (I know of) and I would love to see it propegated. The taste is mind blowing berry licious and fruits in Aug.
Thanks for the encouragement!