Hello: After going through my rough period during some stormy weather at my offshore sea trials in Ucluelet last week, I returned home to go through another rough period – this time it was psychological in nature. I was really upset that it took so little wind (25 knots isn’t exactly a hurricane) to knock […]
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Thanks everyone for your suggestions as to how I could install the Raymarine ST1000 Tiller Pilot into WiTHiN. Originally, I though that the tiller pilot needed at 15 inch long tiller lever, but after a dozen ‘backandforths’ between a tech at Raymarine and myself, I learned that the unit only has a total pushrod range […]
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Aside from safety, one of the most important design criteria when Rick Willoughby, Stuart Bloomfield and I designed WiTHiN is SPEED. Our objective was to design the most efficient human powered boat that would be capable of safely crossing a large portion of an ocean. I think we have accomplished that goal, but obviously I […]
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5 months and 2 weeks until departure and I’m almost ready to go now – well, aside from the 200 lbs of food that still need to be packed, and two more ‘educational’ sea trial trips that I need to make. An item on my to do list since the last sea trials trip was […]
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I started discussions with Ken Fortney a year ago about the possibilities of coming to work for me to build the most awesome, ocean going human powered craft on this planet. To Ken’s credit, he recognized the opportunity to expand his expertise and to be a part of this expedition. To say that he did […]
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In my last blog post, I asked if anyone had any ideas as to how I could position the propeller to vertical so that I could pull the drive leg up through the drive leg well. Normally this is an easy task, as all I need to do is align the a mark etched on […]
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Power power everywhere and not a drop to drink. This has been said about the salty sea water, but it’s also true to some extent about power in general. There is power in the waves, power in the wind and power in the sun. But turning all that power into usable, stored electricity to run […]
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After my last blog post, there was some discussion about leaving some air space below my sleeping pad to allow condensation and water to collect. I wanted to expand a bit on that with additional photos and details on an amazing find that I made of a new product from that bike crazy nation – […]
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I have been trying to spend as much training time in WiTHiN as I can. I think this is important psychological training for me. I need to get very comfortable with a 14 to 16 hour shift sitting in the recumbent seat and pedaling the day(s) away. I will slowly build up to two, 14 […]
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As if I don’t have enough on my plate these days! So I just had to go and do yet another redesign on the Adventuresofgreg.com blog. I was having problems with the old blogger.com blog, so I switched over to WordPress a few weeks ago. After I had the entire blog ported over, I still […]
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I just finished uploading 3 new videos: the story of our Vancouver Island sea trials from a couple of weeks ago which is a two-part YouTube video, and a highlights video which is about 4 minutes of footage of WiTHiN in the water for those of you who want to get right to the boat […]
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I’m back from our Vancouver Island sea trials now. Our shake-down cruise was unfortunately abbreviated, but was great while it lasted. We saw seals, dolphins, jelly fish, and were making great speed and everything was going as planned. Then we had a sudden drive leg failure, almost ran into a ferry, dealt with the coast […]
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I’m sitting in Victoria waiting for the Clipper to take me back to Seattle. Something I expected to do, but not so soon on this trip. The boat broke, or more specifically a pin that held the gear to the drive shaft. Second to the boats a That morning began with a boat shaped game […]
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“I placed my bare feet onto the white gel coat behind the drive shaft gingerly, slowly brought my other foot up and around the edge of the boat and finally in the hatch and slid down slowly into the cockpit with serviceable efficiency that is still nowhere near graceful. The tiny craft reminded me simultaneously […]
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I picked Jordan up from the airport on Friday night and we headed directly to the bar for dinner and a couple of beers. He’s a great guy and we get along very well. That is a good thing when two strangers are about to be locked into a 20 foot x 3 foot capsule […]
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If I seem a bit reoccupied with form over function these days, I’m not really. Ken and I are working our butts off here trying to get the boat ready for Vancouver island circumnavigation and choosing a paint color, boat name and logo is all part of what needs to be done and it is […]
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Well – here she is all freshly painted. FINALLY. Ken and I hauled the boat to U-wrench in Calgary where we rented their paint booth for a few hours. Typical of the kind of good luck that seems to follow this project around, when Ken was in the auto body supply shop asking questions about […]
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Please weigh-in on your choice of paint color: Choice #1: Viper Bright Orange Pearl Choice #2: Crayola Crayon Skin Color We liked the skin color idea so much, that we just went ahead and painted her skin color. Yes, this is an attempt at being funny. The photo above is just the beige colored epoxy […]
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WiTHiN hits the water for the first time! No surprises at the lake today which is good news! Loading into the water was a snap – good thing I made the 8′ tongue extender. It worked perfectly and WiTHiN slid off the bunks into the water. The drive to the reservoir was a bit bouncy. […]
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