Virtual Ship's Log from Captain Hammer

'Cause I don't have enough to do already

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Team Zissou!


It's that awesome time of year again. Here's my Halloween costume- just needed a 24ft. racing sail yacht for the perfect accessory.

On a very, very sad note, here is just one tragic story of what is sure to be hundreds more from Sandy. I chose this one because of its classic, nautical theme.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

One-Hundred-One!

This is my 101st post! The first pic here is of a swollen Colorado River at Little Webberville Park. The trip from here to Big Webberville Park is about 5.5 miles by river. It's a nice quick trip, and a calm section of the river (even when the water level is up). We have a cool wet winter predicted, and I'm hoping it bodes well for next year's Texas Water Safari! Although the rain recently was good, it wasn't a Charleston kind of rain (see pic 2). I've been to that market before and can assure you that it is NOT usually kayakable.


Friday, September 14, 2012

Ol' Blue

A good friend (and semi-neighbor) just inherited a beautiful blue Old Town 17 footer. Now with 2 canoes (and an extra interested paddler) in relative proximity, there should be more river time in the near future!

Friday, September 7, 2012

Casey's New Orleans SnowBalls


These are the only snow balls you're likely ever to see in Austin. Of course, in Texas, we call them snow cones. But these are New Orleans style, and Casey's is THE BEST place in town to get them; it's one of my favorite things about summer. I get the orange with whipped cream (real) on top, the wife gets sour apple with caramel on top, and the boy gets something new every time (tiger blood? they got it). Labor Day is the last day they're open each season, so we had to get one more before they closed. We have had such good Casey's kharma this year. Everytime we've been, we get there and there's 1 person in line. When we leave, the line is around the building. Here's to you, Casey's - until next year.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Castle Hill

Up on Castle Hill, where the thugs meet. I discovered this place a couple of weeks ago in a neighborhood I haven't been driving through in a while. It's a great find, and more reason cell phone cameras rule! Check out the slide show here

. PS- If you go, wear close-toed shoes, or risk contracting HepC.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Last of the Summer Weekend Projects


As I got home today, and set my groceries down to fish for my keys, I could hear the local high school marching band practising in the distance. Makes me think of that White Stripes song about going back to school. Anyways, here's a short of my last weekend project of the summer: a guitar I made out of an old neck and a couple of brownie tins. Many thanks to cigarboxnation.com for tips on how to wire it for use with an amp. I will definitely be making more of these!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

As the Summer Winds Down

The temps are still in the hundreds, but the days are noticeably shorter and the talk of football is back. A nice weekend with not too many responsibilities left me no choice but to brew and bottle, and sail in the last race of the Summer series. It's been a while since I was under sail and without a paddle, and it felt good. Projects are limited with the number of hours I will be taking at school this Fall semester, but I'll see what kind of adventure I can cook up for the Winter break. Any ideas?

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

A 10 Foot Trailer for a 40 Foot Boat -

Hmmm... looks like some balancing will be in order. Here is the new (used) trailer platform for Long John Silver (name is not official) and a stack of lumber. We will soon begin building up a trestle on which to carry the new 40 foot aluminum. Wish us luck.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls...


step right up, step right up. Two bits is what it costs, just two bits. Witness a spectacle... nay, an aberration of nature. A freak of the canoe world. Behold: FRANKENCANOE!
What you are looking at is Team Marines' 2010 Water Safari entry - a home built forty foot aluminum canoe for 6 paddlers. Forty. Feet. Made from cutting an Osagian canoe in half and welding 23 feet of metal in the middle, those guys finished the race in 60 hours.
Team Cuatro Sinko planned to race the CR 100 in it, but about 24 hours after our team captain bought the thing, race officials finally returned our emails and informed us that the race was limited to solo and tandem boats. Wow. Oh, well - their loss.
We will be racing instead in the Jr. Safari, the first 16 miles of the regular Texas Water Safari (familiar territory). Will this mean we get competitive? First let's see if we can even steer the thing!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Cool TWS Vid

Not as elegant as a pod of dolphins, but here's some nice underwater footage of the Texas Water Safari race start.
And here is some neat time lapse of Palmetto (one of the checkpoints) at night.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

July!

That month usually doesn't have an exclamation point on the end of it for me, but it's been almost a week since I watered my plants - or needed to. We've had a cool front bring us several inches of rain and highs in the low 90's. Wow! Summer is 1/2 over, and I haven't even thought to myself, "when is this going to end?!". It's a shame the rest of the country has been having record heat waves.
Team Cuatro Sinko, it seems, is up for another canoe challenge: the Colorado River 100. You guessed it - it's a 100 mile race down the Colorado River. Happens on Labor Day. Just enough time to get good and flabby if I don't continue training.
Also, it looks like the team is in the planning stages of the Texas 200 (these events have very clever names) - the 200 mile sail up the Texas coast. We have two options: sail a Catalina 22 (a very capable shoal-draft boat with a swing-keel) or rig our canoe Tinkerbell with a Sunfish rig and fit it with amas (pontoons) to make it a trimaran. In true "go big or go home" Cuatro Sinko style, we are currently considering both. Heck yeah!

Friday, June 29, 2012

Last on the Topic of TWS: Inspiring Individuals

Alternate title for the post: Cojoneros. I'm not sure that's a word, but what I mean is 'Folks With Cojones'.
There were a lot of inspiring folks out there in the race, but these are my top 3 favorites:
1. Old Man and the Sea - solo paddler in his 60's (maybe 70?), plugging away, portaging over dams and jams. Awesome. Lucky he had a light composite canoe.
2. Not So Lucky: The Reluctant Solo Paddler - this guy's partner wanted out. He didn't. So he stayed in, found an old tire/rim on the river bank to use for ballast in the bow of his aluminum 2-seater. He finished not long after we did (and under the 100 hours). This is surprisingly not the first time I've heard of this happening, but it was cool to see.
3. El Cojonero Mas Loco - this guy is the first to try (and first to finish) the entire 260+ miles on a stand-up paddle board. Not really much more to say about that. Simply amazing.
pic: stand-up paddle board guy displaying withering hands, around mile 190.

Update (written 7/02/2012): well, it looks like there's mutual respect amongst all us folks who were told we couldn't finish. And speaking of the devil! Check out TheStandUpGuy blog!

TWS: Lessons Learned

There are a multitude of things I've learned while training and running the Texas Water Safari. Not least among them is the importance of a good team. But the following is advice for folks not running with such a large pack, and some for general paddling:
1. dry bags
2. take care of your hands and your butt, and they'll take care of you.
3. almost as important as hydrating is taking in enough salt and electrolytes. This year was the first ever fatality of the Texas Water Safari, in the 50 years it's been going. The cause: water intoxication - too much water intake and not enough salt/electrolytes.
4. listen to veteran's advice, take what you need and disregard the rest. Many veterans told us we would not be able to finish in the boat we chose. I'm glad we didn't listen. We dared, and we did. We practiced, thought, and trained, and had a GREAT time. Don't let others tell you that you can't- instead, keep your head down and keep paddling (practicing and training, that is).

Monday, June 25, 2012

The Bay, and... Finish Line?

After the Salt Water Barrier was several miles of canal: calm, calm water with no wind. We were racing the sun to get to the bay, but night fell before we made it. We pushed on. The excitement that we were likely only a few hours from finishing was tempered by drowsiness. Half asleep, I almost hit a crushed aluminum can floating up to the bow before realizing... it was alligator eyes! What must have been at least a 4 ft. gator darted off a few inches before the blade of my paddle came down on his head. We were all now perfectly awake and alert.
The lack of sleep and the dark continued to play tricks on our eyes, making faces out of trees. Finally at the bay, we chose a bright light on the opposite side and paddled hard. We were pointed dead into the wind, and the boat felt stable plowing straight into the waves. After about an hour, we changed our strategy: we would wade and walk the boat in shallow water along the banks of the reed-covered barrier island. We didn't get far. Back in the boat, and this time taking the waves at an angle. The boat was still steady, but the wind was rising and the waves were growing. We slowed to a crawl. Palm-sized fish were jumping around, over, and into the canoe. I saw what would be the last of my TWS nighttime misperceptions: a race official standing in the bay with a reflective windbraker and a clipboard, observing our progress. It was really a channel marker buoy, which meant we were headed generally in the right direction.
But with the wind and waves increasing, it made sense to get out again and try walking along the coast. It seemed like forever before we made contact. Even though it was midnight, an enthusiastic spectator on the shore yelled an encouraging "Almost there! Only a few hundred yards!".
Touching the finish buoy, picking the boat up the stairs of the sea wall, and dragging it under the arch felt surreal. Two hundred and seventy miles. Excitement and relief- fireworks on the inside and outside a collapse and sprawl onto the grass (after pictures, of course).
Official time: 87 hours and 43 minutes. Not bad for four canoewbies and a 20 ft. Old Town canoe.


Pic: team with captain

Day 4- the Home Stretch

After successfully negotiating the hazard that swamped and pinned us in the Marathon (we got there just before dark; all part of the plan) we took another hour-and-a-half nap just past the Victoria park/checkpoint. The rest of the night was uneventful, except for a very large alligator gar that jumped up and hit the boat broadside, just at the gunwales. Another few inches and that sucker would have been in the boat!
This last section included some very cool bridges... and some very big log jams. These were the kind that were not sitting on the banks majestically, or cluttering bridge piles with only a four foot channel by which to slip through. No- these were the ones we'd been warned about, the ones we could see on Google Earth. The ones where people have marked takes outs, because these ones spanned the width of the river, and went on for 1/4 mile or more. Now it was getting interesting again. The four of us had to think, reconnoiter, and use muscles we hadn't used in a few days to lift 8-10 feet up a bank, carry, and drag the boat around. We were lucky to hit them during the day.
Passing them made us feel invigorated, and conjured images of African or Amazon safaris. If we threw some more coal into our steamers, we may make the bay before nightfall, and have the advantage of a daylight navigation. We hit the Salt Water Barrier (last checkpoint!) and unloaded all of our unneeded gear and uneaten food to make us as light as possible. The wind was calming down, and everything seemed to be in our favor.
Pic: extraneous gear.

Third Day- The Cuatro Sinko Way



Third day and all was still going well. Time started to become meaningless; if it weren't for the pressure to bank time and make checkpoints, the only thing that would have mattered would have been the position of the sun. I must have asked a dozen times what day it was. We passed log jams the size of large houses. With fingers, shoulders, and butt all getting used to the grind, I was getting into a rhythm and started falling asleep while paddling. I've fallen asleep standing before, but never while I was still moving.
The pic is of the team preparing for a portage. The strategy was to carry most gear and over half our water in individual backpacks. As we approached a dam, we would take turns dropping out to unclip our pack and put it on. This made the canoe a lot lighter and easier to pick up, carry, drag, and put in. That's the Cuatro Sinko way.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Texas Water Safari, Day 2

The day started well with a good portage around Gonzales Dam, and a check stop that included a sock full of ice for the shoulders (a MUST for each daylight check stop), and a fresh wrap on the fingers. I found during training that gloves keep my hands from ever drying. If they get wet, the skin softens and makes them more prone to blister. Instead of gloves, a good wrap with medical tape, then duck tape, does the trick.
It was a few hours past the check point that we decided to stop for a hot meal (MRE) and a siesta. We each got about 30 minutes sleep, then back to paddling. everyone was still in good spirits, and we managed to have another dry stretch. By nightfall we had banked enough time for another 1.5 hour nap. All was good: another weird but uneventful night, then

day was breaking.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

The Texas Water Safari 2012, Day 1

I figured I'd wait until the river dreams stopped before writing about our adventure, but a week later I'm still having them. Maybe I need to purge to stop the dreams- so here it goes, Day 1 Texas Water Safari:

Feeling pretty good on the river at the starting line in Aquarena Springs: well hydrated, bowels evacuated, and a calm restful sleep the night before. It's as if my mind finally just gave up all the anxiety. I tried a Gestalt method of just riding the anxiety whenever I felt it the previous week, and it seemed to work. There was a lot of excitement on the river, and a record number of boats (136, I believe). This first day would include the most technical part of the course, and our first night-time paddling yet.
All went smoothly. We cruised by our checkpoints, stayed afloat in the rapids, and portaged like pros. Folks said we'd have trouble portaging such a large, heavy boat around the dams; we practiced this part of the river, though, and had a technique that actually jumped us ahead of a few other teams. Feeling pretty confident by dusk, we attached our bow light, donned our PFDs and headlamps, and decided not to sleep until after Gonzales (which we'd hit the next morning, if all went as planned).
We came to a few major obstacles this first night: Palmetto Bridge, Ottine Rapids, and Ottine Dam. We took them all slow and safe, and it paid off. Our movement in the water at night was swifter than had been anticipated, so the extra time spent being safe was more than compensated.
Lack of sleep and the almost pitch black played tricks on our eyes. One of our crew was convinced there were "murals on the walls". Fact is there were no murals... and no walls. Only trees. Other boats way ahead of us looked like lights from a spelunker exploring caves of trees in the distance. Another boat came up behind us, their bow light casting our shadows on the bluffs and banks. It was a surreal vision, but daybreak found us safe, dry, and in good spirits.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Here We Go...

We leave in a few hours to check Tinkerbell in at the race start. She'll stay overnight, and we begin the race at 9AM (almost 24 hours from now). Check out the GPS website that will update our location every 10 minutes, www.tinyurl.com/cuatrosinko .
It's already been so much fun getting ready for this thing. I look forward to seeing all I can see, and conquering this passage. Not looking forward to the sleep deprivation, exhaustion, and monkey butt. However, I have to keep in mind that we don't have all that much to complain about: check out this story.
Hopefully next post will be filled with stories about how we made it!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

A Good Solid Run



The first 40 miles of the river are some of the most technical, and a quick time is needed in the Texas Water Safari to make the cut-off. We did this run last Sunday, and made it 2 hours ahead of the cut-off. We all feel pretty confident going into the race this weekend, and are all too excited to sleep very well. Every time I close my eyes I either see a sweeper or a vision I've conjured from one of the many stories I've read about others' experiences of this thing. One of the best I've read was not from a Water Safari racer, but from Robert Louis Stevenson:

I was aware of another fallen tree within a stonecast. I had my back-board down in a trice, and aimed for a place where the trunk seemed high enough above the water, and the branches not too thick to let me slip below…. The tree caught me about the chest, and while I was yet struggling to make less of myself and get through, the river took the matter out of my hands and bereaved me of my boat. The Arethusa swung round broadside on, leaned over, ejected so much of me as still remained on board, and, thus disencumbered, whipped under the tree, righted, and went merrily away down stream.
I do not know how long it was before I scrambled on to the tree to which I was left clinging, but it was longer than I cared about…. The stream ran away with my heels as fast as I could pull up my shoulders, and I seemed, by the weight, to have all the water of the [River] Oise in my trousers' pockets. You can never know, till you try it, what a dead pull a river makes against a man. Death himself had me by the heels…. And still I held to my paddle. At last I dragged myself onto my stomach on the trunk, and lay there a breathless sop, with a mingled sense of humor and injustice…. On my tomb, if ever I have one, I mean to get these words inscribed: He clung to his paddle.

God save us!

Friday, June 1, 2012

Another Paddle, Another Miracle


A 47 mile paddle last Monday (Memorial Day) and not one spill. But that's not the miracle. On our way out to Luling to put in, we discovered the speed limit is NOT 65, but actually 55 MPH. A very kind DPS officer brought it to our attention with her lights and siren. She sidles up to the car, informs us of our discretion, and takes our driver Johannes' license and registration. Small world: it turns out about a year ago she bought a car from him. He's not a car salesman - just had a car he didn't need anymore, sold it on CraigsList. They don't even live in the same town. What are the odds? Luckily the car has behaved well for her. She let us off with a warning. We also did not have the ass-end of the canoe hanging off the van flagged, per Texas law.

I don't know what we've done to rack up so many karma points, but we seem to be redeeming them pretty quickly!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Schooled By the River Again: Witness to a River Miracle

A superb day for paddling: a high of around 80, mostly cloudy, and a low but favorable wind for Saturday's training run. Three to four inches of rain in the area 1-2 days prior made it a bit hairy, though. After negotiating a tricky portage around Staples Dam (picture), we felt pretty confident and were cruising fast down the swollen river. Kicking back at mile 22 of the 23 mile trip, however, was a bit overconfident.

We were done in by a strainer that should have been easily avoided. Swamped, we kept our heads, and things happened deliberately. The water was swift, and carried us and the boat at a good clip. I recovered the only missing paddle as we were swept 1/4 mile down stream, bobbing in our life vests and keeping feet crossed in front of us. I eventually made it to the canoe and held on with the others, but even when there was a small bit of ground underfoot, the water was too deep and swift for the four of us to stop ourselves, let alone the boat. So, we figured we'd ride it out to the next sandbar. But with the river in this condition, at this level, there were none. We eventually came to a log jam in a tight bend in the river next to a steep bluff about 15 tall. No way for me not to get scraped off the side of the canoe, I let go and floated around it, expecting to meet the canoe on the other side of the logs. Of course the boat didn't make it to the other side of the logs - it got pinned. #Flashbacks of the week before. I scrambled to the bluff where I hung on to tree roots about 30 feet downriver from the boat and my 3 teammates. There was no way to make it back to them in that current. They could see me, but not hear me, due to the rushing water around them. I could hear them shouting to each other just fine. They tried to get the boat up onto the logs and emptied, being careful not to get pinned between the current and the logs/canoe. It took them what seemed like forever to manipulate the craft up to relative safety, while I hung on to two paddles in one hand and a tree root in the other. Relieved that the boat was no longer swamped, they started brainstorming on the second half of the problem: how to get it over and off the jam safely and without getting it pinned again.

That's when I witnessed a river miracle. As they were precariously standing on the jam holding the canoe and discussing, a huge chunk of the top part of the soft bluff 10 feet away from them eroded due to the current, fell into the river, and caused a small tsunami. The relatively calm discussion quickly turned into yells of "Jump in!". The three got into the boat just as the wave lifted the craft up and over the logs, clearing them of the small jam. As the boat passed I sprang from bluff and grabbed the stern and rode another 1/4 mile until we finally found some footing, and beached the craft for a quick reality check. It actually happened.

Pics: 1. A mean river critter outside Black's BBQ (the beef rib is now a tradition). 2. Below Staples Dam, NOT looking its usual self. 3. Safe and dry before we swamped. Sadly, the mounted camera ran out of juice before the miracle. Typical.



Sunday, May 6, 2012

Texas River Marathon


Yesterday we ran the Texas River Marathon. It's the preliminary race before the Texas Water Safari, and it determines pole position amongst the more serious racers. Team Cuatro Sinko, of course, ran it because it was a chance to get out, get some more paddle time in, and scout 40 miles of the race course. We did great, and were shooting rapids like champs. It took us just over 9 hours, averaging 4.4 mph overall, including break time and a 20 minute debacle in which we got caught up in a log jam.

It was my turn at the helm, and as we approached a chute through the logs, we noticed an abandoned Alumicraft canoe pinned by the current to fallen trees - a clear warning sign that the river wasn't messing around. It looked like it had been there a while. Determined to steer us straight through the chute, I squared us up and felt pretty good. What I could not see over the heads in front of me, however, was a smaller stump sticking out just above the water. We hit it, went sideways, and the four of us went overboard in an instant. The canoe was quickly swept into the logs, and pinned by the current with the inside of the canoe facing up river; it was a cup with water continuously spilling in. We assessed. It looked bleak. Flashes of losing this new boat went through our minds. Muscle alone was never going to move the boat away from those logs. We unclipped all the gear and took it ashore, fighting the current to and from the jam. Nothing was missing but one very expensive paddle. We wriggled and shoved. I thought. I got us into this, I had to get us out. I directed the team to all stand with our back to the current, towards the middle of the boat - the place with the most leverage. On three we all lifted the bottom gunwale up, so that the boat was level (although still below the water line) and no longer like a cup facing the current. We continued to lift and rolled the boat up onto the logs, emptying the water and revealing the lost paddle. The boat saved and still intact, no one hurt, and no gear lost, we all cheered and sighed in relief. One more lesson learned from the river.


The pics: 3 of the 4 Cuatro Sinko Team making the checkpoint 50 minutes before cutoff, averaging 5.2 mph, and feeling pretty cocky (before the log jam); Flip, our team captain from the shore, enjoying "the best beef rib [he'd] ever had" at Black's BBQ in Lockhart after the race.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

A Taste of What We're In For

Last week was a 17 mile run down the first stretch of the race. Despite our noobishness, we finished it in a time that would have passed the first checkpoint and kept us in the race. We were pretty beat at the end, though, and the next checkpoint requires an even faster pace. We had a camera mounted to the bow that took a picture every minute (until it ran out of juice)- hope to have a time-lapse video soon. Until then, enjoy this picture of me underwater 5 minutes into the trip. We learned quickly to respect the river.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Tinkerbell

She's here, and she's not small. Old Town makes an XL Tripper: 20ft LOA (length over all) and 41" beam (41 inches across). But although she's big, she still seems lithe, and she carries her 105lbs well. We had her outfitted with 4 seats instead of the factory 2 seats (thanks Austin Canoe and Kayak!). A day trip to Houston to pick her up gave us plenty of time to talk strategy - and there is plenty to talk about. Portages, when to sleep, if to sleep, what to eat, gear... the list goes on. But now, with Tinkerbell in our possession, we can start training and figuring everything out. Two weeks to go before the Texas Water Marathon, a preliminary race of 40 miles between Gonzalez and Victoria. There will be only 3 of the team members going on this one, but for us it's more of a scouting expedition than a race. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Texas Water Safari is Happening

It's been a number of years since the idea of competing in the Texas Water Safari starting circulating amongst myself and a couple of buddies. Every year there is an excuse. This year, there is none. I'll be out of school for 2 months, son at Summer Camp, and just enough vacation time at work to make it happen. And the best part: a team captain that is every bit as enthused as I am. We're not taking the Lil' Longhorn, my burnt orange Coleman canoe. No- our captain has commandeered us 2 other paddlers and has sprung for a 20', four person canoe (or, one that will be outfitted for 4 paddlers anyways). Billed as the "World's Toughest Boat Race", the Texas Water Safari is an annual race via the San Marcos and Guadalupe rivers, from Aquarena Springs in the college town of San Marcos, to the shrimping village of Seadrift on the Texas coastline, a total distance of 262 miles. Check out testimonies, pics, the route, etc. at the website. Keep checking back to see how the training is going. We have about 8 weeks to get ready for 262 miles of dams, sweepers, log jams, rapids, heat, sleep deprivation, snakes, and gators. This will be one for the books.
Picking up canoe this weekend from Houston. It's finally sinking in: what have I gotten myself in to?

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Holy Mole...

has it been that long? Well, it's not getting any easier to start posting again, so I'll just jump in. The absence is surely not because there hasn't been anything going on - quite the opposite. I have started graduate school at Texas State University for my Master's in Counseling. It's been great, but growth does not come without anxiety (as I've learned). Things are well: Spring has sprung, lake levels are up, and hops are hoppin'. The video is of my son's and my Spring Break project. Some building, some learning, and some teaching of the classics. It was a great time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zIH2UfT3bQ