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Fri 08-03-01 9:36pm wp0803 N53* 03.585' W129* 35.479' Came 51 miles
today, now 481mi from launch. 84 mi to Prince Rupert. Many gnats here.
Horrible. Tied to kelp- you're not supposed to do this but I'm tired and
covered with biting gnats, in a hurry to get covered and sleep. Kelp mostly
anchor below lowtide line so you know you won't ground. They flatten the
waves out. Got in my wet sleeping bag in wet goretex cover again, swatting
gnats the whole time. Repellant helped a little, not much. Dark. Slept
on wet deck in rain. Hot, clammy, claustrophobic. Wet goretex doesn't breathe
well. Woke 3am I'd unzipped the bugscreen and climbed my upper body out
in my sleep. Gnats driving me crazy. Kelp grow so their heads are below
hightide line. Couldn't reach knot. Frantic. Jerked it up, grabbed oars,
rowed still in sleeping bag til gnats weren't biting me any more. Out into
the channel. Put on red flasher, slept and drifted til 7. Dead gnats all
over deck. S.E. wind sailed and slept. Then big wind.
Nina always tells me to take my glasses off for pictures. Sure. Why
not?
Silly me, I've still got the mask on.
Splash! My glasses disappear into the water. We're travelling fast.
Sail propped on driftwood for a roof. Light s.e. wind, I could sail
well, but I'm savoring comfort and sound of rain on sail overhead. Vasoline
helps hands a bit but doesn't seem to last. Doesn't prevent or cure the
white puffyness. Maybe too much water in skin for it to stick well. Hence
Lanolin, one end is hydrophilic or somesuch. I look forward to seeing water
bead up on everything I wear. Roof not steep enough, some drips, but good
enough.
Some drops land on these pages, bead up. Writing with uniball micro
deluxe waterproof pen. Stock bic is as good.
Sun 08-05-01 wp0804 10:49am Enjoying a delicious meal of limpets cooked
over an empty olive-oil can stove. Worked great, cooked on twigs, easier
to light than a campfire. Smoke is 10" higher and burned more completely,
so less smoke inhalation. Sitting under sail set up as roof over driftwood.
Raining again of course, but not on me for once. After coming 61 miles
yesterday to N53* 45.960' W130* 28.501 I decided to be comfortable at night.
Much work carrying everything up, laying out logs, dragging empty canoe
up onto the mountains of driftwood. 542 miles from John's, 30 miles to
Prince Rupert. Yesterday stopped, drilled holes, added line to pull rudder
back down. It had gotten loose, I kept having to reach back with the paddle's
boathook handle to pull it down forward again. At the right point it was
balanced. Hardly any force to turn it, but when I released the tiller it
returned to center. To far forward it was overbalanced. Wanted to flip
sideways like an arrow launched feathers first. Later it did this and broke
off. Running and surfing down whitecaps at the time. Went to shore, got
12ft pole. lashed paddle to it, lashed this
sweep oar to rudder hinge. Back sailing downwind. With leeboard up
I just skid at speed over the top of kelp patches, sweep oar steering means
no projections to catch.
This hull is pretty clean, but it's wider than 9:1 and round-bilge. So it has wave drag but isn't the right shape to plane well. Any wind you can feel makes it go 5mph, which feels like hardly moving. A strong wind makes it go 7mph, which feels like waterskiing. 8.6mph is most I've measured, but I don't often feel safe messing with the gps when going that fast. I was really glad when they quit scrambling gps "selective availability". My skinny proa at home has gone over 17mph according to gps.
Some shellfish beaches have been closed for coliform bacteria popular with kayakers. If you crap on land it all runs down into the clams. Better to crap in the channel, where current will mix it with the ocean.
diagram: my stove.
4pm air 57* raining. I see a pattern.
The sore on my butt seems to have gone away. I put lots of vaseline
on it, have been wearing knit wool pants that are actually $2 Jantzen maroon
cardigan sweater from Sointula thrift store. I wear that bottom layer always,
under wetsuit also. Polypro turtleneck. fleece jacket with hood, fleece
cap, army poncho belted at waist with bicycle innertube strip. Geat, much
better than goretex jacket which gets soggy wet. I'm sure the membrane
is fine, and the jacket is nice, especially with poncho over it. Everything
needs a coat of lanolin. Silicone on nylon? I'm barefoot except to land.
Hands are fine in salt water, get puffy white leprosy in the rain.
I can actually squeeze water out of my skin.
Sailed all night, now in Prince Rupert. Passed in dark by hundreds
of salmon boats going out to hunt and gather. Avoided lots of collisions.
Came 38.8 miles.
salvation army 985 3rd ave. W 624-5382 m-f 10-5
java dot cup 516 3rd ave. w. 622-2822 $1.8/.5hr
Prince Rupert Yacht and rowing club. 566 mi from start, N54* 19.157' W130* 19.084' wp0805
Clark color CD 1st roll $4.95 addl $2.95
develop 3 1/2" single print 24 | 2.75 | 36 | 3.80 | |||
2print | 4.20 | 5.70 |
topo map
fix rudder
thrift store
lookat marine gear
lanolin + white soap
zipper
send postcards
goto museum
dry stuff out
Hard to describe the feeling of sailing, experience of of outrigger
canoe in a gale. I need to remember that's what I should do, and when I'm
doing that, I'm not doing anything else.
When I'm on a trip, I'm doing the thing for itself. In town all those
intermediate steps. Busywork, red tape.
Here on land I fall down from waves in my ears.
Kent Elasomer Kent Ohio makes rubber tubing
A type of restaurant not found in the US.
Japanese fishing boat from Prince Rupert's sister city in Japan. A
retired gent went out fishing, never came back. a couple of months later
his boat was found near here. Now restored as a monument to the man, the
sea, and shared humanity. His family donated the shrine.
4pm Thurs 08-09-01 Nice little bay, sand and shell beach. Looking north
to Alaska water 64* air 64*F. Clear blue sky and sunny. Caught a nice king(?)
salmon so stopped early for a feast. First the giblets and heart, liver,
large seminal vesicles cheeks and some other organ. testes? cooked oilcan
stick stove. North end of Dundas Island. Yesterday came 20.2mi, put in
2pm, sailed and rowed til 11pm, not to land yet, put down leeboard and
rudder and flasher, drifted and slept poorly. Woke hung up in kelp by island.
Woke again by rock. N54* 28.732' W130* 44.279' Rowed away to kelp, slept
more. Today AM rowed weakly til wind at noon, sailed and slept. Fish jumping.
Put gear out. Caught big salmon near end of island. Sailed around into
this great little bay at N54* 37.538' W130* 46.651' 10.3miles today. Big
island with rivers hence fishermen and salmon. 595mi from launch. 18ft
tides now 23 is high for month. Will camp on beach Ate as much salmon as
I could hold. Much left for tomorrow.
Slept in teepee with fire in empty olive-oil can.
8:15am Sat 8-11-01 Big paw prints on beach like dog. Wolf? more tracks.
Bear, otter, moose?Were these prints here last night when I got here? Last
night had a nice tailwind, looking for a place to stop. Rocky shore, no
easy place to land. A nice bay with beaches, but there were boats in it.
Next point. Waves. A couple of miles, much intricate rocky shoreline. Waves
on rocks. Put on the rest of my warm gear, might end up sailing all night.
Saw a nice beach all the way to the water in a little bay.
Landed in cruise ship wake added to surf. Carried up bags, dragged
canoe up on sticks. Pulled logs together and piled clothes on top to make
a bed, started fire in oilcan stove. It's great, easy to start, carry it
around, burns completely, no mess, no mark on the land.
wp0810 N54* 55.377' W130* 58.114' air 60* water 61*F came 21.9mi yesterday
615 mi from John's. Yesterday went to town of Tongass, hoping to check
in with u.s. customs. Almost there in channel met the town's only resident.
In a cute plywood skiff he'd built. He said no phone, customs in Ketchikan.
He's the only resident of Misty Fiords. He eats shellfish not the necks,
heard they concentrate PSP.
Me: "PSP warnings all in BC"
He: "Yeah, I don't know why they do that. They set the threshold so
low almost no shellfish qualifies. Guess a few people are really sensitive."
Elsewhere I'd heard maybe it's a conservation thing. Very nice here.
Really an escape.
If you crap on the beach, it looks like this after it rains, even if
you bury it.
If your fire is too big and doesn't burn completely, this sort of mess
interferes with the wilderness illusion for others.
Better to have a small fire in a can. No marks at all on the beach.
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