Paddling around Vancouver Island

L

localboy

New member
Heard this on the radio and thought it interesting. These guys are circumnavigating Vancouver Island under human power in a custom "row boat". You can follow it here:
http://oarnorthwest.com/

Quite the adventure. They also rowed across the N Atlantic back in 2006.
 
Good guys on this trip. One of them (Greg ironically) is one of my old teammates from the Mountain Rescue group. Twice over the years I have been asked to lead this trip by kayak or large canoe but I am not retired just yet. I am content biting off smaller pieces as paid vacation allows for now.

Greg
 
Thats a pretty serious row boat--more like for crossing the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean. Some folks have done this trip (as well as the entire inland passage) in small Kayaks!

Noted the Seattle YC burgee on the hull. Some big bucks behind this.
 
This boat is a serious rowing boat. In fact, it won the first ever international ocean rowing race in 2006. It was the first human powered boat to row from the mainland USA to the UK without assistance.

This trip around Vancouver Island (Salish Sea Expedition) is a "warm up" for a planned row from Africa to the Americas in 2013.

The boat and crew are associated with the University of Puget Sound here in Tacoma.

The boat and rowers, plus their educational component, were on display at the Seattle boat show. Very impressive group.
 
The last time I was in Winter Harbor off shore in the swells and big water the of the remote NW corner of Vancouver Island I met a man solo-kayaking the circumnavigation of the island. 850 miles alone in a tiny boat.
He was our guest in the cabin. a warm respite from the tiny perches that he would pull his boat onto in the rain and wind and cold of the island in early spring.
He talked of the wolves who can apon him as he walked alone on a wilderness beach and the rotten tree branch he raised for protection as the curious animals moved up the beach. I asked what the hardest part of the trip was. He said "getting out past the surf"
We drank some beers and he joked about being the "house bitch" Perhaps you had to be there but we laughed just the same.
This was a man alone in the tiny boat , a speck in a vast sea facing the swells and wind and cold.
He was not odd or boastful or loud. He was confident and able and capable. Secure in the knowledge of chart and compass and current. He was in command of the small but mighty craft. Take the day my friend and be about your fathers business I thought as he disappeared once again heading south.
Chris
 
As a kid, growing up at Sidney, BC (on Vancouver Island, is there any other Sidney? {careful that is a trick question}) I always dreamed of rowing around "the" island. And then going over to the other coast (right side) and rowing around the big island over there too. Might just make that someday. The left coast island is doable, the right side one, (Newfoundland) maybe not so much.

Dreams, What keep us going, growing and motivated. NEVER give up on your dream.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

Friends_Cal_09_10_Oct.thumb.jpg
 
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