The Dash Point Pirate

Psychology of SPOT

Finally got a chance to try out my SPoT "Satellite Personal Tracker" device the other day.  I think this little homing beacon is really revolutionary.  Everyone should have one.  I especially like that they kept the design simple with only four buttons, and it's small enough to keep tucked away in my PFD until I really need it. 

I can probably retire my VHF radios now.  I never really learned to use them anyway.  My first was a Standard Horizon.  I got a good deal on it and it is about the size of a brick but is totally indestructable.  I only tried transmitting with it once while on a sailboat.  It didn't seem to work, maybe because the rubber pad I was pressing wasn't actually the transmit button.  Then I bought a little Uniden that died as soon as it got wet.  The manufacturer replaced it but the second one died too.  They obviously weren't very waterproof.  Then I ended up with another smaller Standard Horizon, never used.

Who really wants to worry about the VHF radio's range, line-of-sight and when to say pan-pan or securite' anyway?   Have you ever thought about what you would say in a real emergency?  "Mayday Mayday Mayday  I'm in a sinking kayak bearing one hundred fifteen degrees magnetic and three point four nautical miles off blah blah blah..."  That's a lot to say when you're seriously injured or getting thrashed around in cold water.  It's much simpler to press the 911 button on your SPoT.  Sure, there will always be fans of VHF radios, like there are still a few traditionalists who listen to vinyl LPs or use ham radios in the age of the Internet. 

My wife especially likes SPoT, probably more than I do.  She can keep track of me and get those reassuring text messages on her phone that say I'm OK.  Now I feel like I'm free to go on bigger trips, you know -- longer crossings, more challenging conditions, at night, alone, with less backup emergency gear.  That reasurring 911 SPoT button may just be a license to get myself in bigger trouble!

The Work of a Master

Joe Greenley of Redfish Kayaks recently posted a picture of his latest cedar strip project, the Ursa 420, a unique rough water expedition kayak designed by and built for Robert Livingston, creator of the Bearboat Pro boat design software.  I remember seeing this project in the stripping stage in Joe's workshop maybe a year and a half ago.  Probably the most striking feature of the design is the really big aft compartment, which I think makes the boat self-righting.  There are four hatches, all secured by rare earth magnets.  Check out Joe's gallery for a closer look at the details.  As to be expected from Joe Greenley, the craftsmanship is superb!  Click here to read the original post.

While looking over Robert Livingston's site it struck me that I saw a kayak very similar to this years ago when I first joined the Washington Kayak Club and started going to their pool sessions in Tacoma.  I was struggling to teach myself how to roll and after an exhausting hour or so thrashing around, I sat on the edge of the pool and watched this guy perform slow and graceful sculling rolls in a short stubby white fiberglass kayak.  It had kind of a bulbous bow and a very large aft compartment just like the Robert Livingston design. A fellow observer told me he thought that boat was "self-righting".  Note the picture of the kid doing a hand roll with the Ursa 350 on the Robert Livingston site. 

Do you think they would let one of these boats into the Greenland National Kayaking Championships?

Sunday Morning TV

Warren took this awesome video of himself surfing in Cattle Pass in the San Juan Islands:

"...It's a 4.8 flood with a little wind.  More wind would of made nicer waves, these waves are about 3 feet. You could get some rides at the front of where they started to stack up. I put in at Anacortes, worked out in this chop at Davis Point for over two hours and caught the ferry back."

Secret Hideout Goes Up in Flames!

I paddled by that treehouse in the madrona below the Cliff House restaurant this morning and was shocked to find it in completely burned down.  The smell of a fresh fire was still in the air.  Somehow I had a feeling that was going to happen sooner or later.  It just looked like a big bonfire waiting to happen.

The Tacoma Lights and Sirens Blog says it occurred on May 7th and was probably caused by a "transient".   KIRO News even posted a video of the treehouse on fire on their website.  Looks like the fire burned a narrow path right up the hill. Apparently the fire didn't keep people from hanging out down there because I still found a bunch of fresh empty Budweiser cans scattered all over the ashes. 

Painted Hull

Just some building notes on my Joel White Pooduck Skiff: I finished painting the hull and started making the rudder.  My daughter chose the color.  It's Epifanes Marine Enamel, "light green".  At the last minute I decided to paint the red accent stripe.  I followed a masking technique I read about in the lastest issue of Wooden Boat.  After laying the masking tape down, you paint over the border with the same underlying color or varnish, before painting over with the new color.  This seals the tape and produces a crisp border when the tape is removed.  It is important to use fresh masking tape and keep the edges of your roll clean by being careful where you set it down, and by storing it in a plastic bag at all times.   

Still a lot of work to be done but now it's getting close to the point where now I have to figure out how I'm going to get it to the beach!

Sunday Morning TV

Corey Freedman of The Skinboat School in Anacortes, Washington has recently updated his website.  Once you start browsing through it you'll realize that Corey has been building skin boats a very long time.  It's fortunate for us that he's finally published his collection of photographs (some dating back two decades) and videos on the internet.  There is even a Chevy Truck commerical and what looks like an ad for a Delonghi spaceheater.  (I suspect that maybe Corey built those boats.)

A real gem in the collection is footage of the skin boat gathering at Bowman Bay hosted by the Skin Boat School in 1998 with special guests Maligiaq and John Heath.  This is truly historic footage!  It looks a lot like the South Sound Traditional Inuit Kayak Symposium (SSTIKS) does these days.  I suppose there's no reason it wouldn't.  After all, as the years go by doesn't traditional kayaking just only tend to get more... traditional?   

One more thing:  Warren sends a cool little video he took of himself messing around in Deception Pass with a little GoPro camera mounted on the bow.  It was a fantastic day to be out!

Reflections on Earth Day

I have an old minivan that’s making strange clicking noises.  It also leaks oil and there is a big dent in the driver side door.  But I’m really not interested in shopping for a new van right now.  Does it even make sense to buy a new car now that we are beginning a long slide down the terminal slope of the global oil production curve, soon to be hurtling toward the collapse of Western Industrial Civilization as we know it?

Have you ever stopped to think about what awesome stuff gasoline is?  Next time you get the chance, pour some into a glass jar and admire the pale pink-gold color.  Swirl it around and take a little sniff (I loved the smell of gasoline when I was a kid).  Then pour it over a pile of wood and throw a match on it (stand way back).  The other day I did that and WOW -- it just burst into a huge, hot fireball!  Nothing comes closer to purified, concentrated liquid energy.  Take some time to bask in the warmth of that flame, because one day gasoline will be gone forever. 

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My pressure washer sat unused in a storage shed for the past couple years before I got around to replacing the hose the other day and filling it up with some new gas.  After a few pulls on the starter cord it started right up.  YESSSS!  I spent a big part of the afternoon blasting away the slimy buildup and the oil stains on our driveway (from that old leaky minivan), washing it straight into Puget Sound.  (Isn’t that typical of our suburban lifestyle, that we squander the two important resources that are becoming scarce in the world, gasoline and fresh water, for something like washing off a driveway?)  It didn’t take much gas to clean the whole thing -- plus a deck, patio and wooden bench -- less than a gallon.  Did you know that the energy in a gallon of gasoline is equivalent to 25,000 hours of human labor?  Just imagine, for instance, how long it would take to do that job with a brush.  At only $3.60 a gallon that’s really an incredible bargain when you really stop and think about it.  When all the oil runs out and everyone is riding bikes to work we’ll all realize what a bargain it has been for so very long!  For now I’ll keep living in my gasoline-fueled dreamland and powerwash my driveway clean.  When the collapse does come and the financial markets crash, and war, famine and plague start ravaging the world (I think it’s already begun), I’ll probably end up tearing out my cherished driveway for room to plant vegetables.

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I bought a hybrid car in 2002, you know, before it was cool.  Gas was only $1.55 a gallon back then and those guys driving Hummers and Ford Excursions snickered at my funny car.  Well who’s laughing now, dumbass?  You don't see very many Hummers on the road anymore, huh?  You probably couldn't pay people to take one off your hands!

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To celebrate of Earth Day this year I’m mailing in my order for a Tango Electric Car.  I’m clinging to that glimmer of hope that in the not-too-distant future electricity will still be cheap and abundant (yeah, right) and I’ll be the first on my block have a plug-in car!  I may even figure out how to put a kayak on top.  Don’t expect pics of it any time soon though because production is still dependent on getting enough investors involved to fund it.  Plus they have to overcome the underhanded dealings of the Big Oil/Automobile Industry Conspiracy that's been working very hard to keep everyone dependent on oil for as long as possible.

If you have any serious interest in electric cars, take a look at the Tango.  As far as design and safety goes it’s a real winner.  It has a roll cage that meets NHRA specifications and even comes with a cup holder.  The company is even located in the Pacific Northwest in Spokane.  My sources also tell me that the President, Rick Woodbury, rebuilt a sailboat with his son.  During the sixties he was living in Berkeley and studying Tibetan Buddhism.  [Check out the video clip on the Tango from Evening Magazine here.]

Skin Boat Update

Ricardo sends this picture of his skin-on-frame Joel White Sheerwater.  The big box in the middle will house the fresh water supply, the 12 volt batteries for an electric outboard motor, and some steel plates for ballast.  He estimates that fully loaded the boat will weigh something like four hundred pounds.  Apparently, the Sheerwater is a scary boat under sail in so it really needs all that ballast.  Personally, I'd pick a different design (I did, in fact).  Well I can't wait to see how his sleek Sheerwater performs against my tubby little Pooduck when we go mano a mano racing up to the San Juans this summer!

Show Me The Wood!

I originally had planned to paint the entire exterior of my Joel White Pooduck Skiff, but after so many people asked me if I was going to leave the hull "bright finished" I decided to varnish the sheer strake, to show off a little of the wood.  I think that's a good compromise.  I don't want people to think that it's made of fiberglass after all that hard work!

I finally started the long slog of several coats of varnish and several coats of primer followed by paint.  When the paint is dry she'll be totally ready to hit the water as a rowboat (with the addition of a couple oarlocks).  Still, I don't plan to launch her until she's ready to sail away.

I cleaned out the shop a little, burning wood scraps in an old barbeque grill.  It's a respectful way to dispose of all that beautiful cedar, oak and mahogany.   

Browns Point Secret Teen Hideout!

 Secret no more!  I discovered this impressive three-story fortress built of scavenged flotsam within a big madrona tree just below the Cliff House Restaurant.  In addition to the game room at the back of the Brown's Point Pizzaria, this must be the place where Browns Point teens hang out.  I know because I've seen them before, walking in a group along the beach from Tyee Marina.

The interior is quite cozy. A couple benches are arranged around a little firepit for roasting hot dogs and marshmallows or whatever.  As you can see, there are a few Coors Lite and Budweiser cans strewn all over the place and even floating along the beach (there were a couple big plastic trash bags totally stuffed with garbage already, so have to give them credit for that). 

Yes I did venture to the top floor and it really is amazing.  A round piece of plywood set on a couple old tires makes for a very functional table.  There is an awesome view across Commencement Bay.  On a clear day I bet you'd have a nice view of Mt Rainier. In the summer it would be a great place to take a date.  You could watch the ships sail by as the sun sets and get wasted on Coors Lite and some weed. Romantic.