Off to sea
Friday Harbor Labs to Griffin Bay
Although the rain made the logistics of loading the boat more difficult and Todd faced 25 knot wind as he departed Bellingham, the Gato Verde made it to the FHL dock just afternoon and we departed just a few hours later. Everyone got a chance to steer as we worked our way south into Griffin Bay where we anchored for the night and enjoyed some award-winning chili and corn — no wait — oatmeal bread for dinner.
A highlight for me was watching the skipper of a 20′ scow row his boat past us using a yuloh — a stern oar that is swept side to side like a fish tail. Made of Douglas fir and almost as long as the boat, the oar was mounted in a horse-shoe shaped oar lock on the transom and the end of the loom was held down by a lanyard. Without working hard (not even holding the end of the oar) they made 1-2 knots past us and then set an anchor and boom tent.
The yuloh is another nice way to move oneself sustainably across the planet, one that is simpler than our biodiesel-electric propulsion system, but certainly less powerful and able to make a schedule. Of course, it might be hard to keep up with the southern resident killer whales using yuloh power… and our 12 kg electric motors and 14 kW biodiesel genset are a grand improvement over the dual 27 horsepower inboard diesels that we started with in 2005!
Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook
Kathryn
September 14th, 2010 at 06:14
Sounds like everything is off to a great start. Have a wonderful time at sea, Beam Reachers!
Kathryn