Adventures in Paddling the Pacific Northwest

Yesterday, April 25, 2009 at 2pm we launched the muthah-ship at the Oak Harbor, WA marina on Whidbey Island. This marina is only about 15nm from Deception Pass and 20nm from the San Juan Islands (unless you count the island Anacortes is on as one of the San Juans – as some people do). We [...]

As an official “ol’ guy” I’m more-or-less supposed to be computer illiterate. Unfortunately for my kids I had kept up with the computer revolution and kept ahead of my high-school-age children. My son, who works with me now in our network engineering consulting firm, once went with me to a talk I gave on network [...]

As some of you may already know, my mothership (better known as the “muthah ship”) has been a project for the past 15 months. Three weeks ago we trailered the boat to Oak Harbor where we had a marine mechanic go through the engine/outdrive and get the power systems ready to go. Tonight Sue and [...]

My paddling partner Pam visited yesterday (April 22, 2009) and we ended up out on the lake for some reason. The day before was sunny and 84F but yesterday was cloudy, windy, and 60F. Goes to show ya what happens if you’re not in time.
Moses Lake can work up a nice froth when it’s blowing [...]

Just a few short years ago I would have had to drag out paper charts in order to plan a kayak trip. As a retired merchant marine officer I have a collection of charts gleaned from those we would have normally discarded from our ship’s navigation library. However the charts still had value for planning [...]

Many people assume that the entire state of Washington is “evergreen” but in reality the central portion – between about Ellensburg to the west and Cheney to the east – is a true desert with sagebrush, some cactus, coyotes and lots of sunshine. This dryland band extends from north of the Canadian border down through [...]