Arctic Solitaire

R

RogerJuntunen

New member
The book Arctic Solitaire by Paul Sounders is worth the money! If you like adventure, photography, and C-Dory boats this might be for you. The C-dory 22 got him through it all as he explored up in Hudson's Bay along with too many cameras and polar bears for company. Roger Juntunen
 
Hunkydory wrote:
Following two SE Alaska cruises in 2003 & 2004 with prior to that towing a inflatable boat to the Yukon & Northwest Territories, I put on my would like to do list, towing our CD22 up through Manitoba to the Nelson river & then making for Churchill or further north. With work preventing the actual attempt then & after retiring the logistics & dangers to high, gave up on actually doing it. Then to my amazement out comes this book “Arctic Solitaire” about it actually being done with a CD22. Even without any knowledge of C-Dory boats or photography this would have been to me a wonderful read. Paul Souder’s writing is riveting & the adventure told, the equal of the more extreme undertakings, I’ve enjoyed reading about throughout my life. Icing on the cake was my being able to personally relate to his experiences, through my own extended time spent on our CD22 watching & photographing bears in SE Alaska & on the upper Yukon River. At twice the price it would have been money well spent.

I was surprised in a couple of technical details that was missed by Paul, that being, him saying, the boat was 8.5 feet wide instead of the actual 7.5 & the one twin Honda motor took 4 quarts of oil instead of 2. Yes trivial, but noticed due to very good detail in other aspects.

In the ole twins vs single category & It’s not revealed whether the twins vs single with kicker was planned in the purchase, but in several of the conditions & situations described, I don’t think he would have made it through without the more powerful spare twin.

Jay

I read Arctic Solitaire in one sitting & then wrote the above, so after a couple days of reflecting on it, I decided to make this further comment on this thread instead of the one about the book reading.

To my knowledge there have been only three books written in which, a C-Dory 22 boat was a large part of the story & they are “Halcyon Days” by Bill & El Fiero, “Riverhorse” by William Least Heat-Moon & Arctic “Solitaire” by Paul Souders. As good as the Halcyon Days book is, I preferred the more detailed blog. I liked the blog so much that I copied off & printed 600 pages from it to give to Jo-Lee as a Christmas’s present years ago. It is a an extreme example of the many places a C-Dory 22 can take a couple, but not a extreme physical use of one. I read Riverhorse shortly after purchasing our CD 22 in 2003 & our owning the boat is the only reason I made it through the book & then was just left aggravated by it. I think some C-Brats may well feel similar about Arctic Solitaire, as if one stays with a horse analogy the C-Sick was definitely rode hard & put away wet throughout Paul’s quest. I learned very little from reading Riverhorse, about the true capabilities of a C-Dory 22 & over the years have found it’s bounds by my own experience testing its limits. For anyone interested in the purchase of a CD22 or owning one & more than just curious to its extreme capabilities, you can do no better than read about Paul’s solitaire arctic adventure.

I would have loved to check out the C-Sick, immediately following its return from the Arctic to see the actual physical damage & how it matched with the written account of what it substained during the quest. I’m also curious to know if Paul still has & uses it & if not who does.

Jay
 
In the book Riverhorse, the use of a C-Dory is pretty much incidental to the story. Any number of boats would have sufficed. Very little of his trip took advantage of the particular
characteristics of a C-Dory.
 
Jay, I have had several exchanges with Paul after his initial introduction here on C-Brats site. He is a very interesting fellow and I hope to meet him soon. He does not still have C-Sick, but sold it rapidly and (I think, cheaply) after his final photo trip to HB. He did not, again in my opinion, recognize the value of his boat or consider the strength and integrity either. He currently has a steel hull motor sailer somewhere on Canada's east coast with near 2000 mile range capability, and another boat in the 40+ foot range in Seattle with similar range. He is looking to longer open water passages. Sounds like he is much more looking at vessels to provide a photo platform than cruise for cruisings sake. His commenting about the C-Dory was that it did provide a good platform, just didn't have enough room. (Now there is a surprise, right?).

I have the book but have been saving it for a long, cold winter spell to vicariously go boating again. I have both of the other books you mentioned and agree wholeheartedly. I'm now waiting for your book.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
Harvey, thanks for the update on C-Sick. From the story it appeared C-Sick endured quite a continuous beating, along with very little up keep during the years spent on his Hudson Bay quest. This along with both motors in very bad shape & one not running at all, makes me think a low selling price was about what it was worth. In his encounters with the rocky bottom, he treated the boat more like an extra tough aluminum type boat, though to be fair in order to accomplish his quest, there really was at times no other choice. That is why, I would have liked to have seen it, upon his return from HB. I believe, he realized how hard on the C-Dory & it’s motors, he was being & was surprised at how well they held up. They got him through the quest, even if the last 100 or so miles was with one motor not runnable & the other barely running, while dealing with extreme weather conditions for a CD22. He was very fortunate “lucky” to have the boat & him survive just the first few days going down the Nelson River to Hudson Bay, let alone the following 4 summers of encounters with pack ice, raging gales, equipment failures, many extremely hazardous up close bear situations & being lost, while separated from his drifting C-Dory in Pack ice with fog, currents, wind & waves or even approaching gales, while alone in his barely floating & running Dingy, numerous times. If he continues on with similar quest, while using the same maintenance routine on his present boats in my opinion his luck will run out, but Paul is no doubt a true solitaire adventurer & I suspect he would have attempted this quest even without an Epirp if they weren’t available.

No book from me. I’m a non driven realist, at least when it comes to writing & have observed many who have real talent with good stories & still very difficult to get published & even if that accomplished, sales much more often than not, don’t match the effort required. If I ever do consider some of my life’s wanderings worth passing on, it will be most likely just for a family record.

Jay
 
Jay, I think your assesment of Paul is pretty right on. And, I think, had he been in most other boats it might have been a very different story -- or no story at all :disgust Thanks to the brute strength of the C-Dory, it brought him and the photos back. I agree, a post-Paul survey coukd have been enlightening.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
Hunkydory":115xs1wv said:
If I ever do consider some of my life’s wanderings worth passing on, it will be most likely just for a family record.Jay
Click to expand...

Jay, havn't you already done that? I have always enjoyed your pictures, videos and narrative here on Cbrats. Aren't we family? :P :P
 
Bob, yes you’re right. My blood family seems to show less interest in our adventures than the C-Brats, other than my now departed Dad. After taking care of JoLee’s mom in our home for 12 years, we finally had to put her in a rest home. During the process she talked to our sons & famlies saying someday they may have to do the same with us. There response was, you will never end up in a rest home as Dad will get you both killed on one of your adventures & JoLee surprised them by saying, that’s not such a bad thing & I agreed

Jay
 
Jay...Some of your adventures looked as if they almost killed you...yer a lucky guy... I really would love to read any book you would write...yer an interesting person and impress me with your adventures....stuff that peaks my interest...amazingly kool...

Joel
SEA3PO
 
Jay, about your unwritten book I’d like to argue with you on two points.

First, I think you have an obligation to other c-brats & C-Dory owners to tell of your experiences and what you learned. Your videos come close to that but there is a dis-connect between what we see on the screen and what you are saying in the narration. The zoom lens on the camera sees things differently that does the human eye. Your voice is telling us what your brain is interpreting from what your eye is seeing, but our eyes looking at the video see something different. As you discussed in your comments on Arctic Solitaire what is needed is the impartial judgement of the brain to explain what is (has) happened. If you don’t write that down it will be lost. This of not just the loss to the c-brat community but also a loss to your family about what grand-dad did.

Second, you speak to the difficulty of publishing. You are talking about the printed books which is all that has been available since writing was invented. However, we live in an age where digital is rapidly changing our world around us. For you the main issue is the dogged part of writing. From what I’ve seen of your writing you do have a flair for getting complex thoughts into understandable written language. If the physical part of typing is difficult there are ways to dictate and have the machine type for you. Finally, finding a publisher is changing also. Up until recently the huge overhead cost to bring a typewritten manuscript thru all the edits and the cost of printing mean that 1) only sure sellers got published, and 2) the books with a small audience did not get published or they ended up being very high cost books (think college text books). Books with photos and maps are very high cost. But now you deliver a typed manuscript with photos and maps to a publisher like Amazon and they can turn it around fast at a fraction of the cost of a printed book. The cost is really dependent on what you as the author need as payment. I suspect that financial return would not be your driving need. Some of the stuff Amazon sells for a dollar or so is poorly written and without editing, but it is available on line at a small percent of the cost of a printed book. The real control on the quality is the author, not the publisher. So, think tablets, not books. For your book what is needed is the photographic record that you lament could not be included in Arctic Solitaire because of the printing cost. Doing a digital book removes that cost barrier.

As some of you know I’m a Lewis and Clark history nut with a focus on the crossing of the Bitterroot Mountains across Idaho. Two years ago, I would not have considered writing any kind of a guide. However, the new world is digital, the users are changing and they all have phones or tablets in their hands. Several people have dumped on me as I am the last of the “old breed” who has tramped the mountains and know where things can be found. If I don’t write it down it will be lost forever. I’d say the same thing to you. You owe it to the rest of the C-Dory owners.

Chuck
 
It feels out of place for me to have this thread turn to more about me, than Paul & his quest as his adventures go well beyond mine, but his book & a good part of my life are about adventuring & without his comments & others who have read the book & so far not commenting much, the thread will wander. I hope more of the C-brats will read this book, as it’s one that should start many discussions beneficial to the group.

I appreciate the very positive comments about me & of those who think, I too could put together a book worth reading, but at the present lean to the point made by Bob Wilkerson. “Jay, havn't you already done that? I have always enjoyed your pictures, videos and narrative here on Cbrats. Aren't we family?” It seems very strange to me to go from someone who didn’t think, he really had anything to contribute to the C-Brats other than a adventures spirt to share, to being told, I owe it to the C-Brats to write a book to share what I’ve learned. I’ve written up & shared every extended cruise, we have made with some originally including photos & video interspersed in the writing to clarify & would have added video & photos to them all if the only “30 minutes to edit” hadn’t been activated. Unlike in a book, where it’s difficult to question why, the author writes what they do, in all my writings, video & photos here on the C-Brats, any questions of why, when or how have been answered with only wishing more were asked. Chuck, some examples of the disconnect in the videos between my verbal explanations & your view of the scene would be interesting for me to know & fun to share an explanation, if I can.

Concerning Chucks 2nd point. Yes, the dogged part of writing is a big concern. I can type with just one finger fast enough, as I’m doing now or I can type with both hands. Slower typing, actually helps to also slow my thoughts, which most often come like pellets from a shotgun blast. The overdoing of sorting out the best images from the continue blasts is what most likely becomes as you say my flair for sometimes breaking the complex to understandable language, but this takes time & isn’t easy to do, especially with my own lack of knowing the rules for proper English. To compensate for this lack & to prevent the dismissal of shared ideas, I work hard at making it understandable.

When looking to buy Arctic Solitaire on Amazon, it was the Kindle version that was unavailable with photos & only $2.50 less than the hardcover, well done version, which had many beautiful colored photos. The hardcover in this case is the much better overall deal & well worth the slightly higher price.

Chuck, as another Lewis & Clark enthusiasts, I do hope you write a guide book & will purchase it if you do, but somewhat differ in thinking you owe anyone to do so.

Jay
 
When looking to buy Arctic Solitaire on Amazon, it was the Kindle version that was unavailable with photos & only $2.50 less than the hardcover, well done version, which had many beautiful colored photos. The hardcover in this case is the much better overall deal & well worth the slightly higher price.
Click to expand...

Jay, I am not sure where you got the impression that the photos are not in the Kindle edition. Paul confirms that there are all 35 images which are in the hardback are also in the Kindle version. I vacillated about the hard cover vs the Kindle--and as much as I love paper books; I find that I am far more likely to read a book in the Kindle edition. I have only started the book: got sidetracked by the "Praying Towns". But the phots are stunning in the Kindle "Fire".

Ah about writing one's life stories--some are writers, some are adventurers--and a very few--Like Paul do both well!
 
thataway":afflre0w said:
When looking to buy Arctic Solitaire on Amazon, it was the Kindle version that was unavailable with photos & only $2.50 less than the hardcover, well done version, which had many beautiful colored photos. The hardcover in this case is the much better overall deal & well worth the slightly higher price.
Click to expand...

Jay, I am not sure where you got the impression that the photos are not in the Kindle edition. Paul confirms that there are all 35 images which are in the hardback are also in the Kindle version. I vacillated about the hard cover vs the Kindle--and as much as I love paper books; I find that I am far more likely to read a book in the Kindle edition. I have only started the book: got sidetracked by the "Praying Towns". But the phots are stunning in the Kindle "Fire".

Ah about writing one's life stories--some are writers, some are adventurers--and a very few--Like Paul do both well!
Click to expand...

Bob, I got the no photos from the reviews of both kindle & hardcopy versions of the book. Those reviews are on the bottom of this links page.
https://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Solitaire ... merReviews

I too would have the Kindle version for the photos if not for the shown review. I’m glad to have you correct me on this.

I sure agree with you about Paul being both a true adventurer & wonderful writer & that added to his award winning photography.

Jay
 
Jay, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do a real "hijack". I have enjoyed your photos and posts since I started checking in here some few years back. Your photography is excellent, and your writing here is not just enjoyable but captivating. Maybe it is because I understand the boat and the complexities, and one day hope to maybe do something as remote as you do, but you have the skill and the gumption and I have not worked up to that level yet.

Thank you for your sharing as you have, and if you keep sharing with our C-Brat family I will keep following, and enjoying.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

JC_Lately_SleepyC_Flat_Blue_070.thumb.jpg
 
Harvey, nothing to be sorry about, as I really respect you & appreciate your compliments. Overall, I enjoy threads that wander around the primary subject.

Jay
 
Just bringing this one back to the top.

For those in the Portland area, this could be a fun get together. The book is worth the price if only to get some good laughs. It is filled will good humor, and humor experiences.

C U There 4 Sure

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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