Thursday, April 24, 2008

TurtleToo is a kayak

Hi-
Here's a first- making a blog entry.
There are 800,000,000 (eight hundred million) humans always hungry, and more than a Billion without decent drinking water...by whatever standard, so they say. The population of the USA is about 350,000,000, and that's a whole gang of people but less than half of the world's hungry people.

But people ain't what this is about - people aren't the canaries in the coal mine we call planet earth- they're the ones to suffer after everything else has suffered. We're the smart, capable, adaptable ones in the mix. We mess up, we adapt/mess up...at the expense of the planet.

So amid all the human variables and vagaries, we're off to see what's really left of the absolute - the coastline, the islands and birds and fish and crabs and waterways, salt and fresh, rivers and lakes...and first we're headed up the US east coast, north from Wrightsville Beach NC. We're planning on leaving May 1.

TurtleToo a 21' triple-hole kayak: http://www.clcboats.com/shop/boats/kayaks/touring_kayaks/CLC-CHESAPEAKE-3.html

with Vickie in the bow running the sail:
http://www.pacificaction.co.nz/models3a.htm

...and me in the stern,

...and most of our camping, etc stuff in the middle (watertight compartments/hatches bow and stern for more sensitive items)

...and with a solar collector to power the electronics:
http://www.brunton.com/product.php?id=420

...and a laptop with a wireless data card, well see how it goes
Now, none of the power/electronics are yet ready - awaiting the solar collector shipment, and upon it hinges everything, but that's the plan.

All else is pretty much ready. Pictures will be included before too long.

I have kept a few diaries while on long trips on bike and kayak - paper that gets lost, photos boxed away or lost - same thing. This blog will hopefully work better and serve a better purpose. It is free to me and you, and for that I am thankful.

The point to the TurtleTooBlog is to document what we see and experience with as little personal stuff as possible. I figure we are vehicles for a purpose, and self-indulgence is not the point.