Building The Pygmy Kayak - Part 1

10x20 Storage Unit

Last winter, out of a need to keep myself occupied, I decided to build a Kayak.  I had built a boat before, a 16 foot sailboat from a $25 set of plans, it was touted  as a $200 sailboat, in the end it cost me a great deal more and did not come out quite as planned, nothing was straight.  I had been wanting to build a canoe but the cedar strip idea, while both romantic and industrious, was a bit over my skill level so I chose to purchase a kayak kit.  After some research and pricing I decided to go with the Pygmy Pinguino Sport, a 13 foot long recreational kayak that was designed for the ocean and very stable in the water.

Epoxying panels together

When the kit arrived I was very surprised and delighted at how light the box was and how thin the wood pieces were, 3/16".  My first problem, however, was where would I build my boat  I live in an apartment and there is no space within the complex to build.  After several visits and phone calls to rather unexcited storage unit managers I found one that not only was excited but gave me the unit, a 10x20, at half price.  I moved in with all my tools and set up a shop.  This was October and the temperatures were still mild, meaning about 50 degrees.  This is important as the winter was coming on and temperature can drop in the Northwest.  The first thing to accomplish was to put the panels together, the panels are cut from 8 foot pieces of Okume plywood and the boat is 13 feet long.  I layed out everything got it all epoxied together just as the instructions stated, well that is not quite true, one of my panels slipped in the process and I ended up with a 1/16" problem. Not a very auspicious start to a grand project.  

Stitched together hull

The next step was to drill holes in each panel at 6" on center so that they could be stitched together, probably one of the easiest steps and it went off without a hitch.  After the holes were drilled I set aside a whole Saturday to stitch the hull of the Kayak together.  This by far is one of the most exciting parts of building this boat, progress came fairly quickly, I took 8 hours to stitch the entire hull together then I sat back and admired the days work and nurse the gouges and scrapes the wires I stitched the boat together with had left.  I will continue this story at a later date in Building the Pygmy Kayak - Part 2.

What is Adventure

Fossil Hunting in Republic, WA

This week I was reading another blog called Whittaker Writes, the author, Leif Whittaker, is the son of a famous Mt Everest climber, Lou Whittaker, and an Everest climber himself.  He made an interesting and I think well thought out point about what adventure is.  Adventure is an exploration of anything new to you, whether it is a walk down a new street on your way to the grocery store, the building of a new boat, or the exploration of a trail you have never been on.  Adventure does not require seeking the extremes of outdoor exploration, places yet unknown and untamed.  Yes that can be an aspect of adventure and men still seek to find fulfillment this way, like the man who just completed a two and a half year walking journey from the head waters of the Amazon to the sea, how we do love to read about and fantasize maybe even romanticize those adventures, but for most of us life and limb is not worth sacrificing for a footnote in the annuls of the Geographical Societies Library.  

I once read the book, "Voices From The Summit: The Worlds Great Mountaineers on The Future of Climbing".  It is a collection of interviews of some of the worlds greatest climbers, such as Sir Edmund Hillary, Reinhold Messner, and Yvon Chouinard.  The conclusion to the book, though, is that adventure requires the exploration of parts yet unknown at the risk of ones life.  However, for those of us without the desire to risk our lives in the pursuit of adventure, trying new things and seeing new places is an excellent alternative.

Building a Touring Bike

This winters I plan on building myself a touring bike and blogging about the experience.  My thought process on this is, if I can learn how to put a bike together then I can certain work on and repair any bike that I own.  Please keep in mind that when I have a project that is being worked on something always goes wrong, I fail to read the instructions properly or I purchase the wrong piece, or I need a new tool (This usually is just an excuse to purchase a new tool), and the cost is always more then I plan on.  Last winter I built myself a wooden Kayak, which I will talk about in a later blog.  I have already purchase the frame and front forks, for the bike, they are a beautiful dark metallic green color and the price was really good.  Below I am including a list of items I will be acquiring as the winter moves forward.

1) Headset, stem, and handle bars

2) Wheel Set

3) Bottom bracket, crank set, and front derailleur

4) Cassette, rear derailleur, and chain

5) seat and seat post

6) brakes, shifters, and cables.

Merry Christmas

For those who read this blog I just wanted to wish you a Very Merry Christmas

Chasing Rabbits

This week myself and two friend, Statler and Waldorf (not their real names) took a Thursday and headed out to one of the local ski area's, 49 Degrees North, to do some snowshoeing.  Statler had "organized" the trip.  Thursday morning we loaded up my car and head to the Mountain.  When we arrive the first hitch in our plan became apparent, you need to permit to use the trails and the ski area was closed, there was no way to buy a permit, even worse the trails were posted no trespassing.  Waldorf, thinking on his feet remembered an old logging road just down the hill that he and his wife previously hiked and we all agreed to give it a try.  Down the hill we drove and found the spot.  I parked the car in the only parking space there with the front end point uphill, this is an important point.  As we were gearing up, strapping on the snowshoes and hoisting the packs my car began to roll backwards, there was only about 5 feet between the back end of my car and the highway, Waldorf managed to jump in the car from the passenger side and push the brake with his hand stopping the car from become just another pile of scrap metal on the highway, for some inexplicable reason the car rolls, while in park, backwards.  I had to turn the car around and pull the emergency brake to make sure it would not roll onto the highway, to double insure the car was still there when we returned I place ice chunks under the wheels as chalks, where a logging truck might find occasion to display his superior size and weight in the side of my vehicle. 

Now everything was ready and we headed up the trail/road.  As far as hiking goes this was relatively easy walking.  We followed a set of moose tracks the entire day and as the title suggest rabbit tracks.  I see a great deal of rabbit tracks but never a rabbit while out in the snow.  It is more then entertaining to listen to my friends trying to identify trees, they were both Air Force survival instructors, and they could not distinguish between Lodgepole Pines or White Pines, not that I know what a White Pine looks like. 

After a day of changed plan and rolling cars, and yes snowshoeing, we stopped off in the town of Chewelah at a mom and pop deli/bookstore, what a great combination.  The books were 99 cents each and the food excellent.  There really is no better way to end a day in the outdoors.

The Joy of bike repair

This past summer the front derailleur on my mountain bike broke. When I purchased my bike I was looking for something affordable with a good frame.  The frame was the most important consideration because the rest could be replaced as more money became available.  Cost being an important aspect of every purchase and repair I chose to do all the work myself, so to that end I picked up a book on bicycle maintenance and repair and read the section about front derailleurs several times, truth be know several is really not the right word.  I thought I understood what type of bracket was used on my bike, an E-ring which requires a special bolt on location.   After the part arrive I had a friend, with the proper tools, help me take the old one off only to discover that no such bolt on connection existed and returning the derailleur for another one with the appropriate bracket type, a clamp on, was my only option.  Fortunately the company I order the part from, Excel Sports Boulder, only charged me shipping.

Move ahead one week, the new part arrived and my friend and I got the derailleur onto the bike, oh happy day.  But the next problem presented itself, the new derailleur required a thinner chain than the current one.  Can you imagine that, I never knew chains came in different widths before.  Back to the internet I went and this time through Amazon, I purchased a thinner chain, again it took about one week to arrive, I am cheap when it comes to shipping costs.  Now it should be simple enough to change out the chain, right, I wish that had been so.  First thing to happened was I broke my chain brake tool while shortening the new chain to match the old one, and had to purchase another at a local variety store.  I finally got my chain to the right length fed it through the system and put in the pin, now I am done, right?  Boy couldn't be more wrong, I fed the chain over the top of a tab between the two small wheel at the rear derailleur.  Arrrrggggg!!!!!  This time I went to REI and purchased a couple of extra pins, just in case, and restrung my chain put in the new pin.  Since it is now snowing it will be spring before I discover for sure if everything was done correctly.

I suppose the lesson here is to do a bit more research and pay closer attention to how parts were put together before removing them so that the process can be duplicated properly.

Packing for a trip

This last summer I decided to try a new way of packing my things into my pack and kayak. Instead of using the usual garbage bag to put food and other smaller items into I broke them up into smaller groupings, e.g. daily meals. These groups I placed into one gallon Ziploc bags with the zipper top. What this allowed me to do is pack more efficiently using less space and when I need to cache some food all I had to do was pull a bag or two out. For meals what I did was put breakfast, lunch, and dinner into one bag. When I was done with the meal, any unburnables were returned to the bag for future proper disposal. The other advantage to the gallon bag is that maller bags are easier to place into compact spaces. The gallon bag can also be used to pack for bike, car, canoe, horseback trips, etc...