Hey everyone. Sorry for the quietness. I’ve just sort of been re-grouping here and focusing on some other things. (The photo above is me in WiTHiN during the Okanagan lake trials trip. This excellent image was shot by Mark Brett from the Penticton Western Newspaper)

The Finances

Helen did a rough accounting of PedaltheOcean project, and I have exceeded my budget for building WiTHiN by over 300% !! I had no idea I had spent so much money!! I was shocked and a bit embarrassed to be honest with you. A sizable chuck of our family resources ended up being invested into achieving this dream of mine – far more than I thought was reasonable. In retrospect, I’m feeling a bit selfish to tell you the truth. I have decided to devote more of my time to earning income again. I do get the odd speaking job (which I really enjoy), but they are few and far between and I think building that business into something really profitable for me is going to take years. I am still plugging away at that, but in the mean-time, I need to focus on reversing the flow of capital.

The Dream

The dream is certainly not dead, as the general sentiment in my last blog post may have alluded to. I am heading back to Ucluelet on the Pacific coast of Vancouver Island with Clive and his yacht Theodora for a 10 day sea trials trip during the first week of July. Our goal will be to follow the same route I would be taking if I were going to Hawaii – directly west into the open Pacific ocean for 5 days, turn around, and head back to Ucee. It will be a great chance to test WiTHiN in a much safer environment than being so close to shore as I was during my last trip to the west coast (read about that trip here). I will have the option of being towed while riding crewing for Clive on his sail boat, or staying in WiTHiN and pedaling along on my own – as weather conditions and the modifications we are making to WiTHiN allow.

The first modification Ken and I are making is a drogue that I can deploy from the safety of inside the cockpit without opening any hatches or ports. The drogue line is a 150 feet of cord wound around a trailer hitch reel that will be fastened to the arm rest in the cockpit. The cord will exit through a small hole in the cockpit wall and run through a tube mounted at the stern where it will terminate on a 10″ diameter aluminum disc – as I have shown in my sketch.

I will be able to push a lever on the reel and easily let out 150 feet of drogue line with the disk provide enough resistance to keep me aligned with the waves and wind and also provide some breaking power. WiTHiN is so narrow, that a 9′ parachute sea anchor is probably over-kill. A parachute anchor would probably hold me stationary in adverse winds, whereas my 10″ disc will only slow my backward drift. The trade-off is worth it however, as I cannot imagine having to stand up through a hatch to mess around with 150 feet of line and a 9 foot diameter parachute. During sea trials on OK lake during the wind storm (read about that trip here), I realized that when conditions get rough, it would be very dangerous to stand up through an open hatch, as I could easily be tossed out. When it is time to retrieve the drogue, I just crank the handle of my reel and retract the disc – very easy. One of the benefits is that I can use quickly, safely and conveniently deploy and retrieve the drogue for short periods of time where I might feel that WiTHiN is in a precarious position to the wind and waves.

This doesn’t mean that every time the wind is blowing at my side I have to deploy the disc drogue. The other modification we are making is adding a ‘T’ wing to the rudder as shown below. When the wind blows astern and causes WiTHiN to heel, the ‘T’ wing will rotate up and the lateral surface area astern will increase – thus allowing the bow to blow up wind. Well, at least that’s the theory. Personally, I’m not certain that it will work, but it’s worth testing.

The Summer

Since Hawaii is out for this summer, I have planed a few other adventures to keep me busy this summer:

June 6: San Diego Marathon
Helen and I, along with another couple of friends are heading to San Diego to run the 2010 San Diego Rock and Roll marathon. Since Helen is already qualified for Boston, we think we would like to race Boston again next April, so I need to get myself qualified. I’m lucky because I’ll be 50 years old in April, and my qualifying time is now 3:35. However, since most of my training has been on the bike for the ocean crossing, I haven’t been running at all. Plus, I gained 10 pounds for the ocean crossing, so getting that 3:35 marathon time is NOT going to be easy. I doubt I can do it. My training program has consisted of 3 long runs, and as many short 10 k’s as I could fit in. This will definitely be an experiment! And I should be in for some serious pain!!! You can follow our progress on your cell phone via sms text messages here: https://www.competitorwireless.com/

enter our names: Greg Kolodziejzyk or Helen Kolodziejzyk

July: 4 to 13: 10 day off shore sea trials trip in WITHiN with Clive and his sail boat Theodora

July 16 to 25: family cycling trip through Zion national park

Late August or Early September: I would like to complete an ultra distance cycling race – something like 500 to 1000 miles. I’m not sure what race, or where just yet.

Sept 25th to 26th: Virgil Crest ultra marathon!! Helen is registered for the 50 mile race and it will be her first ultra. I am registered for the 100 miles race and this will be my 4th ultra, and third attempt at completing a 100 mile ultra marathon. Read about my first attempt at the Sinister 7 ultra, and my second attempt at the Lost Soul ultra.