The Seaweed

With the fleet reduced by the loss of the Ghetto Fabulous in the winter, It became clear that we were going to need a new flagship if we were going take over the coast that summer (we try at least once a year). We needed something fast, like yesterday, and fast, like 20 knts, So with a modest budget, and a competent crew of beer drinking buddies, we set about whipping together a proa in the alley before they tore our house down. Behold !! the S E A W E E D !!!

At 32 feet, in length but only a 2 foot beam of the main hull, She actually paddled alright with three people before Naomi and I loaded her down to her lines, and motored out of the bay in late summer. Of course when the engine died (swallowed by a wave) it was just the two of us, and the first leg of our journey was marked by dark entries to the log book. Oliver fell over board, it started to rain, and i dropped our best enameled cast iron frying pan into 30 feet of water, not necessarily in that order.

We made it up to Cortes, and spent a couple of weeks basking on the beach gorging ourselves on oysters and experimenting with sail rigs. We couldn't seem to correct our weather helm, and every time we sailed we frightened ourselves due to not being able to control the vessel with our steering oar. We need to haul her out and install a proper rudder hung on a skeg. She made fine time under power though, (overhauled the evinrude), and we still made a summer of it. Andre cought a salmon, Max cought a Sheep, and even though it is challenging to sleep 4 or more adults and one chihuahua, (where do you put 40 pounds of sheep meat) on a 32 foot canoe in the rain in late summer on the pacific north west coast, id say we had a pretty good time.


Also, I got to see the house that Naomis Mom and Dad built in Anderson Bay on Lasqueti, where we loaded up on fresh veggies and plums from Michelles garden there.

And we got to hang out with Captain Dan on the SAMSARA, a beautiful atkin design ketch.