As these ancient traditional canoes are propelled
by human power...
Howdy Folks, as my own Boating
"Adventure" begins, with this being my first attempt at Blogging from
a new locale. So hopefully it'll work Eh?
As Claudio' discovered by sheer coincidence,
when having a Chinwag' with one of the road crew which was hastily putting down
a new coat of Fog Seal outside Ye 'Ol Homestead. For which I've never heard of
before...
when asking how long they'd be doing that, he
was told they were working overtime to get it done before the Indians arrived;
Huh?
As this year's Native Americans canoe journey
was ultimately to Puyallup, and all points in-between, as Claudio sez' Thar
were 103 canoes involved, for which they arrived at Dash Point State Park in
Tacoma on July 27th.
Which features
multiple Tribes from all across the nation and Up North Eh! As last year's
event was hosted in Campbell River, British Columbia...
On our second nights visit to Chief Leshi
High School, whilst dining with others, we met a wonderful man named Jin
Ishikawa from Japan, who I totally enjoyed our brief visit with.
As Jin has built more than 250 reed boats,
for which I have zero knowledge about, as Jin was kind enough to demonstrate to
Mwah when I stuck my hands out how he fastens the massive amounts of Bamboo
reeds utilized for creating these boats.
As the "Bamboo" bunches are
fastened together with rope, and then apparently glued? As Jin simply said the
mustard goes zip-zip, as he ran his fingers fore and aft upon my two clasped
together hands. Then telling me rudder, and then opposite to the boat's bow;
which I think he was trying to tell me is where the Mast is.
Jin said the boat was thirty feet long, and
his longest voyage to date included a crew of ten persons from seven different
countries some 6,000 Nautical miles during a three months "Cruise" to
Tahiti; Aye Karumba!
With Gin noting how when you sail across an
ocean in a hull this large, you're basically being pushed wherever the wind and
sea takes you, While constantly fighting the oceans currents!
Jin's off to San Francisco shortly to check
upon the "Bamboo" that's apparently being prepared for next year's
journey to Sand Francisco.
As Jin said that the Tule is harvested from
four foot long chutes, and is buried in the ground for 2-3 days to dry, before
being used for boat building.
As he's preparing to build a 30-foot
Prototype "Sloop" for testing off Alcatraz Island during next year's Indians
journey to San Francisco's Bay, commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the
Indians of All Tribes (IAT) Occupation of Alcatraz between 1969 to 1971.
Then if everything goes according to plan,
and the prototype's successful, Gin plans to build a sixty foot "Yacht"
two years later, attempting to sail from San Francisco to Hawaii and then ultimately
home to Japan, as Jin told us he resides in Nagasaki.
As I had the good fortune of meeting Gin again a
second night in Puyallup, where this time he had made a 1:15 scale model in
Tule reeds, of his proposed 30-foot "sloop" for next year's outing,
where he gave me much more detail upon his plans and construction methods.
Gin hopes to harvest the Tule from the Sacramento
River's Delta region, which may not be possible? But he seems fairly determined
to build his boat! Whilst next year's "Paddle to Alcatraz" isn't
Official as of this writing...
After a brief respite away from Thy Keyboard, Thanxs to my Tacoma IT Boffin', I was able to find out the results of this year's HAPO Columbia Cup Unlimited Hydroplanes event, for which thankfully the Unlimiteds field swelled to what's sadly now a large Hydroplane flotilla, with a contingent of 10 Hulls being present at Kennewick, Washington last week.
Yet even with the perennial winners from
Madison bringing two Hulls for defending National High Points Champion Jimmy
Shane to choose from, the proven U-1 Miss Home Street and a new U-6 Hull. Which
Shane and the Madison Crew chose to run the U-1.
They still were unable to thwart their main competition,
the U-9 Les Schwab piloted by my Boy' Andrew Tate, who swept all four Heats,
plus just plain drove away from the field in the Final Heat's race; SWEET!
As Shane's weekend on the Columbia was a Nightmare!
Being DQ'ed from two preliminary Heats for unacceptable engine performance anomalies.
And then being Disqualified in the final for impeding Tommy Thompson's path in
the U-11!
Surely Shane and the Madison Gang will wish
to put a Dent into Tate's commanding points lead on Lake Washington this
weekend. Not to mention taking some momentum away from the U-9 by winning at
Seafair...
