Showing posts with label Great. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Great. Show all posts
Thursday, 14 July 2016
Great Heart Great Book
Great Heart: The History of a Labrador Adventure is one of the best Canadian canoeing adventures I've read. Also one of the most unusual.
Written by James West Davidson and John Rugge (coauthors of the justly well-known Complete Wilderness Paddler), Great Heart tells the stories of three related expeditions and, especially, the principals involved. The expeditions -- the first, disastrous one organized by Leonidas Hubbard Jr., and the second and third organized, respectively, by Hubbard's widow and by a survivor of the first -- are not unknown to students of canoeing history, having been covered in various books by the principals and by other later historians. What makes the book unique is the authors' approach to their subjects, and their sensitive depiction of the principals' personalities, based on good documentary research leavened with persuasive but frankly speculative extrapolation.
Hubbard was a writer for Outing, one of the most popular outdoors magazines in the early 20th century (and having nothing to do with the exposure of homosexuality). Having only a moderate level of experience in the outdoors and feeling the need to prove himself to his demanding and more experienced editor through the completion of an impressive expedition, Hubbard organized an expedition in northern Labrador -- "one of the last blank spaces on the map" -- that proved too ambitious and not sufficiently carefully planned or outfitted. Launching from the Northwest River Post on Groswater Bay off the North Atlantic, the trip would would visit the seldom-seen Naskapi Indians in the interior of Labrador on its way to George River Post on Ungava Bay, a distance of about 550 miles. The first half of the trip was upstream all the way on rivers that were only slightly known by a small number of local trappers. Hubbard chose as his companions his friend Dillon Wallace and a halfbreed Cree guide, George Elson, who was not familiar with the area, but who had substantial wilderness experience.
The expedition was beset by bad planning, poor provisioning, and bad luck from the very start. The wood/canvas canoe was too small to carry sufficient provisions, and Hubbard decided against carrying shotguns, which might have helped in supplementing their food stocks later. The expedition got too late a start, and was overtaken by snow, then blizzard. Food ran out. Most gravely, it took off up the wrong river and never discovered the fact until the very end of its retreat. Working from diaries, previous publications by the survivors, and news reports, the authors describe a truly harrowing ordeal from which Hubbard did not return. His coexpeditioners did, but just barely.
After his return to New York, Wallace, with great reluctance but at the widow Mina Hubbard's request, wrote a book-length account of the expedition, published as The Lure of the Labrador Wild. In it, he portrayed Leonidas Hubbard in nearly heroic terms while still acknowledging his faults by way of explaining the expedition's failure. Mina was incensed, however, at any implication that her husband was in any way to blame for that failure or for his own death. She decided to launch her own expedition to prove that his plan was a good one, and that it was only his companions -- specifically, Wilson -- who had failed him and the expedition. At the same time, Wallace mounted his own expedition, essentially to prove the opposite proposition -- that a properly-mounted expedition would have succeeded.
Mina enlisted George Elson, and the two expeditions set out at the same time in 1905, manifestly racing one another while refusing to acknowledge the others' existence. The authors, writing in a highly novelized style, tell the somewhat speculative but highly touching tale of how Mina romantically manipulated George as part of her plan for the expedition's success. George, terrified of even the slightest implication that he, as a half-breed, would dare to look at a refined white woman, was vulnerable to the sophisticated Mina and, ultimately, heartbroken.
Both expeditions succeeded in reaching the George River Post -- Mina's much sooner and more comfortably; Wilson's only after much travail. But Mina's expedition had not, in fact, replicated her husband's plan -- hers was better provisioned, better manned, and understood the wrong turn that Mr. Hubbard's trial had taken at the start. So while she won the race, she failed to prove her point. Wilson came closer to proving his point of view, but just barely -- his expedition nearly failed for some of the same reasons that Leonidis Hubbard's did.
What sets the book apart is its novelistic treatment of fact, and the storytellers' willingness to extrapolate from sometimes ambiguous journal entries in the interests of telling a tale full of adventure, hardship, intrigue, romance and, of course, canoeing. The 1988 Viking edition that I read included fine historic photos of all three expeditions, plus maps that are important to understanding the race -- marred, unfortunately, but having Mina's and Wilson's separate courses mislabeled, which caused some confusion until I realized the simple nature of the problem. I would hope that the 1996 Kodansha Globe edition, the link to which I've included below, has retained the photos and fixed the map problem.
Davidson's and Rugge's earlier, excellent (but now somewhat dated) canoeing technique book was so excellent that it shouldn't be entirely surprising that they might succeed as coauthors to a second book, but this one is so entirely different from the first that it surprises nonetheless. They succeed not only as historians, but more, as storytellers. The events themselves are probably of no real historic significance -- one man died out of three expeditions that didn't really prove anything or reveal any new geographic knowledge to the world -- but the the personalities and the motivations of the principal actors make it a valuable story in purely human terms.
Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Discovering some limits Island Head Creek to Great Keppel Island
November 28, 2015
We followed our previous day’s track on the chart plotter downstream in the pre-dawn light to clear the mouth of Island Head Creek before the lowest of the tide. We were surrounded by four other boats including our friends on Seabreeze and Howzat clearly with the same idea in mind. Sticking very close to our track made exiting the creek much less stressful than the entry had been. The theory being, if we didn’t hit the bottom anywhere we went yesterday we shouldn’t hit it there today either. We did see some readings in the two metre levels again inside the mouth but successfully cleared Island Head without bouncing off anything. We love a theory that works.
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| The sun rising as we depart Island Head Creek |
Again the seas just outside were quite rough and confused and we were very happy that our Leisurefurl in boom mainsail is so easy to raise from the safety of the cockpit. The mizzen can also be reached from the back of the cockpit so with those both raised we soon had the genoa unfurled and set course for Great Keppel Island 60 nautical miles to the south.
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| Rick and Howzat disappeared into the distance again in the downwind conditions |
The coastline here is all part of the Australian Defence Force’s Shoalwater Bay Exercise Area and as such is completely uninhabited, unless the Army, Navy or Air Force are there blowing the place up again in which case we cruisers are forced to sail by well offshore. The geology is quite dramatic with many small, rocky islands rising vertically out of the water to quite significant heights. As soon as the sails had been trimmed and the boat was settled on course, Karen had her sketch pad our recreating a number of the more dramatic looking scenes along the way.
The modest wind blowing around ten knots from the Nor Nor East through the morning saw us edge away from the coast to maintain a workable sail angle so progress was comparatively slow. We gybed back and forwards a couple of times but eventually settled on a long run further offshore in attempt to keep the boat speed somewhere near respectable. The breeze was forecast to strengthen later in the day so we were hoping to pick up the pace in the afternoon or we may be arriving at Keppel in the dark.
Well offshore from Cape Manifold we gybed again back towards the coast. The wind was picking up at last but also swinging around for a while before finally settling in the mid to high teens from almost due North. With our destination now almost due South we poled out the genoa on the opposite side to the main and mizzen and began sailing wing on wing directly downwind consistently making better than seven knots.
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| Our Dreamtime charging downwind wing on wing approaching North Keppel Island. |
With our sails well filled and Our Dreamtimecharging along nicely as ever bigger swells rolled under our hull it was far from the perfect time to hear the ratchet on our game rod suddenly start screaming . We had hooked a large fish that was reeling line off at a scary rate while it was impossible to even slow down the boat let alone stop and back it up on the fish the way you would on a game boat.
Rob grabbed the rod and progressively increased the drag until the speed at which the line was disappearing slowed to a trickle. The fish managed another couple of decent runs but each time Rob was able to manage and then finally stop the loss of line. Eventually he was able to start retrieving line but whatever it was, this fish was not going to give up easily and would try to run again. The battle ebbed and flowed for a few minutes before the stern of the boat was picked up by a good sized swell which we surfed down the face of at nine knots or so putting too much strain on the line. Goodbye fish and goodbye favourite lure. Bugger. Fresh fish for dinner at Great Keppel Island would have been nice.
Mid afternoon the wind began to strengthen further and by the time we were approaching North Keppel Island we were seeing regular gusts over 20 knots. These conditions began to test Ben & Gerry. (The nick name for our new B&G Autopilot) The big swells often swung the stern which presented much more of the mizzen and main to the wind overpowering the genoa. This pushed us off our dead downwind course. The Autopilot was then overwhelmed a number of times as it tried to correct finding the weather helm too strong to overcome.
Reducing sail or even dropping the mizzen completely would have balanced the boat up more but that would mean turning around into the wind and seas to reef and or drop. With the shelter of Great Keppel Island in sight just across the waters we decided to leave things as they were but with Rob taking over the helm from Ben & Gerry.
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| David on Seabreeze got this photo of Our Dreamtime wing on wing as we sailed side by side towards Great Keppel Island. |
By the time we approached the passage between Middle and Miall Islands about an hour and a half later he was questioning the wisdom that decision. The wind was now a steady 25 knots and gusting above that quite regularly. The swells were also standing up steeper and higher in the shallower water. This combination made hand steering physically hard work.
As he constantly worked the wheel back and forward countering the best efforts of wind and wave to send us off course, Karen had the camera out snapping photos of our friends David and Nerida having their own fun and games aboard Seabreeze in the spirited conditions. Marc meanwhile was sitting back engrossed in solving the cryptic crossword in that day’s London Times he’d just downloaded when we regained Wifi service after our days in black hole territory since we reached Digby Island. Rob’s comments about it being hard to get good crew seemed to fall on deaf ears all around.
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| Our friends on Seabreeze hull down between swells near North Keppel Island |
Once in the lee of Middle Island, we were able to turn to wind in reasonably flat water and drop all sails with Rob letting out a huge sigh of relief as the helm resumed its normal feather light feel. We were then left with just a short motor around into the well protected bay at Long Beach on the southern side of Great Keppel.
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| Island Head Creek to Great Keppel Island - 62.7 Nautical Miles – 11 Hours 25 Minutes Average Speed 5.5 Knots – Highest Speed 9.6 knots |
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| The run from North Keppel Island through to the passage between Middle and Miall Islands was spirited to say the least. |
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| Nice and calm in the anchorage off Long Beach on the southern side of Great Keppel Island |
This was always intended to be a shakedown cruise to learn our boat and we had definitely discovered some new limits. Our autopilot problems and experience hand steering in the strongish, downwind conditions convinced us that in future we would probably be better off leaving the mizzen sail in the bag when we sailed wing on wing if the wind was likely to get up.
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| Sundowner drinks on Long Beach after our spirited passage. |
Later that afternoon we hit the beach for sundowner drinks with David, Nerida and Rick where we compared tales of the days passage and told other tall stories. That’s what cruising is about isn’t it.
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Saturday, 9 January 2016
Through the Great Sandy Straights and on to Mooloolaba
December 10-15, 2015
Transiting the Great Sandy Straits on the inside of Fraser Island requires planning if you want to avoid running aground or battling strong adverse currents. Regardless of whether you are travelling north or south, we have found the ideal strategy is to time your departure so that you reach the shallow and skinniest channel north of Tooth Island on the high tide. This gives you no adverse current but rather quite a favourable flow all the way.
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| Eleandro and Pappa Joe on Wahina were our traveling companions to Mooloolaba. |
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| Looking at this photo it's hard to believe most of the water pictured is less than a metre deep. The yacht on the right is about to turn the mark at the narrowest and shallowest part of the passage through the Great Sandy Straits. |
With Eleandro and Pappa Joe on Wahinafollowing along, we left Kingfisher Bay about 90 minutes before the scheduled high and motor sailed south in calm conditions riding the last of the incoming tide the 10 nautical miles or so down to the pinch point of the passage. We turned the mark and within minutes the current began running south as the tide flowed out towards the Wide Bay Bar.
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| You can see the strength of the tidal flow around this marker |
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| These guys can make things uncomfortable in the narrow channels of the Great Sandy Straits. They smile and wave as they blast by with no idea of the mayhem rolling they inflict on yachts. |
This approach provided a trouble free and quite fast passage down to Pelican Bay inside Inskip Point where we were anchoring for the night before heading on.
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| Kingfisher Bay to Pelican Point – 31.3 Nautical Miles – 4 Hours 35 Minutes Average Speed 6.8 knots – Max Speed 8.3 knots |
We enjoyed a relaxing day at anchor entertained by the prolific bird life in the bay. We also had plenty of company as there were a number of boats there waiting to cross the bar on the morning tide.
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| The BBQ got a work out again. Yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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| Karen preparing to tuck in. |
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| The Army provided a chopper fly past for us. |
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| Just a few of the boats waiting to cross the bar. |
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| Pelican Bay provided another awesome sunset to add to the collection we'd experienced on our trip. |
At dawn the next morning the anchorage was a hive of activity with boats everywhere preparing to head south. The conditions were near ideal with very little wind and virtually flat seas a conga line of yachts made their way over the bar at its best. Once again with Wahina following behind, we simply followed the track we had come in on back in August and had plenty of water under us all the way.
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| Heading out to the Wide Bay Bar in perfect conditions for the crossing. |
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| Wahina stayed close as we followed the GPS track from our last crossing |
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| Here we are mid bar with no inkling displayed of how treacherous this spot can be. |
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| Passing by the coloured sands of Rainbow Beach |
We then motor sailed across to Double Island Point as the wind slowly built from the north. By the time we rounded the point and set our course for Mooloolaba we were able to silence the engine at last. Then it was a full day of downwind sailing in the strengthening breeze.
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| The boys on Wahina flew their kite before the conditions picked up past Double Island Point |
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| Approaching Double Island Point |
After a slow start to the day, Our Dreamtime really began to pick up her skirts and recorded a highest speed of 10 knots as we surfed along. It was a lot of fun, unless you were Karen trying to prepare lunch in the galley in the spirited conditions. She still managed to produce an outstanding effort as always much to Rob and Marc’s delight.
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| The wind picked up nicely for our run down the coast |
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| Karen emerging from a very bouncy galley with fresh baked bread and goodies for lunch |
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| Surfing downwind with full poled out genoa and full mainsail at up to 10 knots was lots of fun. We left the mizzen sail in the bag in these conditions |
Approaching the breakwaters at the mouth of the Mooloolah River, we turned the boat into the wind to drop the sails. Marc was on the stern lowering the mizzen as Karen furled away the mainsail. Rob at the helm when about halfway through the process he spotted a huge set of freak swells bearing down on the boat almost beam on. Shouting a warning to Karen and Marc to “Hang on!”, he pushed the throttle all the way forward and spun the boat and only just turned in time to meet the waves bow on. Our Dreamtime climbed the first like George Clooney’s swordfish boat in Perfect Storm before dropping straight over the back into the trough behind. The bow punched into the front of the second wave which ran over the boat reaching all the way to the cockpit before her buoyancy lifted her to meet and ride up and over the third and final of the big set. Nothing like a bit of excitement to end a day.
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| On our zoomed in track you can see where we turned to wind and had some excitement. |
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| Pelican Point to Mooloolaba – 62.0 Nautical Miles – 10 Hours 9 Minutes Average Speed 6.1 knots – Max Speed 10.0 knots. |
It was a very tired and relieved Our Dreamtime crew when we cracked our post passage beers after dropping anchor inside the river half an hour later.
Mooloolaba is Rob’s old hometown and we were very happy to spend a few days here enjoying the vibrant resort town it’s now become before moving on closer to the end of our shakedown cruise to the tropics.
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| The Christmas boat parade sailed by on our first night in Mooloolaba. |
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| Lunch at the Mooloolaba Surf Club brought back great memories for Rob |
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| Rob, Karen and Marc at the Mooloolaba Sailing club |
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| Officially live aboards are limited to four nights in the Mooloolah River but some stretch the point. |
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| Karen with Linda Frylink Anderson and Erica Hammond enjoyed a 'Women Who Sale Australia' mini get together. |
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| Good night from Mooloolaba |
To stay right up to date with what we’re up to and see lots more photos check out and 'like' our Dreamtime Sail Facebook page at Dreamtime Sail
If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway.
We hope you enjoy reading the previous posts to catch up on our story.
Wednesday, 21 January 2015
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Wednesday, 19 November 2014
Cala Portals Porto Veile a great place to waste time – Around Mallorca beach by beach
September 3-4 - 2012
To be assured of a good anchoring spot in Cala Portals you either get there before the day tripping boats arrive or as they're leaving so we were up early on Monday morning to beat the crowd. There was very little wind so we motored the short distance around the corner with Marc and Karen winging about early start. They’d obviously got too accustomed to the sleep ins of the last week or so.
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| We arrived at Cala Portals before the hordes that followed. For some reason it was the day of the massive motorboats. This is only a portion of what were in the bay. |
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| Beautiful Cala Portals next morning before all the day trippers arrived |
We were beginning to feel like locals here this being our third visit. We were able to drop anchor in our favourite spot just off the beach in the most sheltered corner of the bay. The only difference to our previous stays was a heavy rock breaker and excavator working on a construction site on the hill. So much for the serenity.
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| Nothing like a massive rock breaker to enhance the ambience |
This time the wind did what was predicted and while we had some rain and overcast in the morning the sunshine took over for the rest of our stay. As always in Cala Portals it was a case of swim, read, snorkel, tan, a bite to eat, a glass of wine and most of all, relax.
We got word on Tuesday morning that our radio was back at last so we made arrangements to go back to Palma the next day to get it fitted and to have an insurance assessor have a look at the boat so we could arrange repairs.
It may have been a short stay in Cala Portals but it was another good one.
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Saturday, 4 October 2014
Great Sailing Image
Image Courtesy of Suzann Fulbright
This image was snapped during Classic Week in New York Harbor in 2008. The photographer, an artist, contacted us for the plans for these two beautiful boats as she will be painting this scene and wants to make sure the painting is correct from a technical standpoint.
That's Blackwatch in front, design #218. In the chase is the 12-meter America II (US46), design #2500. America II is footing a bit, probably trying to get the boat upright as she looks a bit over canvassed here or has too few crew members in general to get some weight up on the weather rail. Also of interest is just how much sag these older boats carry in their headstay. Just hold the edge of a piece of paper up against the image along the headstay to see it.
You can see just how powerful Blackwatch is (for a boat that was launched in 1938) up against a 12-meter racing yacht (launched in 1984). Here's a comparison:
Principal Dimensions
Blackwatch versus America II
LOA 68'-0" vs. 65'-0"
LWL 48'-0" vs. 45'-0"
Beam 14'-7" vs .12'-0"
Draft 9'-3" vs. 9'-0"
Displacement 76,700 lbs vs. 54,216 lbs
Sail Area 2,125 sq ft vs. 1,846 sq ft
Blackwatch versus America II
LOA 68'-0" vs. 65'-0"
LWL 48'-0" vs. 45'-0"
Beam 14'-7" vs .12'-0"
Draft 9'-3" vs. 9'-0"
Displacement 76,700 lbs vs. 54,216 lbs
Sail Area 2,125 sq ft vs. 1,846 sq ft
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