2009-07-11 49 -123

Sat 11 Jul 2009 in 49,-123: 49.3206566, -123.1604565 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

Kayak hash in the Burrard Inlet! Possibly even a transit-kayak hash!

Participants

• Elbie
• Robyn
• Wade
• Rhonda
• Xore
• yangman
• Plypkie

Planning

See Talkpage.

Expeditions

The Sailboat Expedition (Plypkie, Yangman and Elbie)

Plypkie and Yangman met up at 10:30ish, and rode their bikes across town to jericho beach. They met Elbie there and rigged up a small sailboat from the sailing club.

• 

  At the sailing club

• 

  Three panniers barely fit into a locker

• 

  Getting the boat onto the cart

• 

  Carting the boat to the water

• 

  Getting the sails set up

• 

  Dealing with the last sail

We then set out to sail across the bay. The winds were great, and it seemed like we'd make great time. Somewhere near Stanley Park we ran into an area with very little wind, and slowly made our way the rest of the way toward north van where the others were.

When we were almost across, we started looking around for the inflatable yellow kayaks of Xore and Rhonda, but we couldn't see them anywhere. We then received a phone call from Xore and headed straight toward the beach where they were inflating said kayaks. On the way, we spotted what looked like a kayaker and someone rowing an inflatable dinghy (while towing a large inflatable toy of some sort). As we got closer, we realized that the inflatable toy was a large airplane, and the "kayaker" was actually paddling a raft of logs. We decided we had certainly found Robyn. Elbie stood up and waved, but no response was observed.

Before we could reach them, however, a boat came speeding up with flashing lights on top. The coast guard arrived and began talking very sternly to Robyn and Wade. We kept our distance and pretended we didn't know them ;). At that point, ANOTHER coast guard boat sped in and also began talking with them, and eventually escorted them back to shore. It turns out they were in the shipping lane, and there was an enormous freighter about 5 minutes away and coming in fast. The hash point was right in the freighter's path.

After the crisis was averted, we all gathered on the beach. The three of us set off again in the sailboat to attempt to hit the hashpoint on the way back across the bay, with Xore and Rhonda quickly catching up in the kayaks. There was still very little wind there, so we mostly bobbed around and watched Xore and Rhonda paddle happily away. They reached the hashpoint while we bobbed uselessly a few meters away. Wanting to get there too, we had them ram our boat with their kayaks so that we would drift in the right direction.

Once the festivities were over, Xore and Rhonda returned to the beach while the three of us...stayed in the same spot for a long time. We eventually flagged down a passing power boat and got them to tow us out of the shipping lane. We briefly found some wind...and then lost it again...and then got some more!...and then lost it again. We ended up calling for help from the sailing club at the beach, and they sent a zodiac out to rescue us. Several times Plypkie was sternly talked to, although for some reason the nice people did not charge him the rescue fee. \o/

Elbie quickly left, horribly late for her evening plans (sorry :( ), while Yangman and Plypkie sat around in the shade going "zomg" for a while. Eventually tacos and tequila were had, and thus ended an exciting adventure.

The Raft Expedition (Robyn & Wade)

Ever since the invention of the MacGyver achievement Robyn had pictured the ideal conditions for this achievement. It would be in the water off Ambleside Beach, which was "her" beach when she was a kid. When the conditions were right, she would construct a sailboat out of beach materials and sail out to get to the geohash. It would be epic. And then it occurred.

Wade accepted Robyn's invitation to build a pirate ship on the beach. Robyn had figured a nine in the morning start would be sufficient to produce a driftwood pirate raft with a precariously stepped driftwood mast, a tarpaulin sail, a rudder with a tiller, just like her imagination. The meetup was moved back in time from four to one p.m. so that was asking for compromise. And then the day before, Wade declared an intention to sleep in until nine. So we hit the beach at ten-thirty, with a launch deadline of noon. It wasn't going to be quite as good a driftwood boat, but it would be a boat. MacGyver had to compromise sometimes, too.

Construction equipment consisted of everything that was lying around in the garage when we packed the car. Specifically: lots of nylon webbing and polypropylene rope, two worn out bicycle tires, a punctured air mattress, an inflatable Boeing 747 ("to be used only under competent supervision"), a hammer, a tarpaulin, an old bedsheet, a leatherman, several rolls of duct tape, plus of course anything we could find on the beach.

We found a parking spot, unpacked our construction materials and set to work collecting wood. We started with your basic raft of two metre chunks of driftwood logs, and lashed those together. Then we had the first buoyancy test. Hmm, needs more wood. Wade designed a raft sandwich with cross pieces and we lashed those on, meanwhile cheerfully proclaiming the incompetence of his knot tying. There was a smooth slice of the outside of a big peeled log for a deck, and we covered that in the uninflatable air mattress as protection from splinters. The bicycle tires went around the whole thing as extra cohesive power, and a base on which to secure hashscot T-Rex and the figurehead B747, with duct tape.

There were many curious onlookers on the beach, and we explained geohashing to anyone who asked. Favourite question, "Did you draw up plans for this?" We're talking about a pile of beach logs held together with bicycle tires and string. Is that something one can plan?

At about eleven o' clock, a sailboat with a pirate flag at the top of the mast showed up near the launch ramp of the nearby sailing club. Plypkie! Robyn called out to the buccaneers on board, "Avast! Are ye from the Internet?"

The reply came back, "No, we just go geohashing." Splendid. I was a little surprised that they didn't come over to marvel at our boat construction, the way the people who didn't know us were doing, but I guess geohashers place the bar for insanity so high (and I guess he's been expecting me to turn up by parachute), that it didn't faze him.

The next buoyancy test revealed that we had built a one person raft. But that's okay, because we had brought extra boats. Wade rowed the rubber boat that made its debut at the sunrise water geohash and Robyn would paddle the raft.

At the noon deadline we returned our valuables to the car and posed for a launch photograph (by a spectator named Linda who promises to mail us prints, because it's a film camera), and set off at 12:07.

More later

Ribbons

• water geohash for Elbie, Plypkie, Rhonda, Xore, Yangman
• MacGyver honourable mention for Robyn
• Pirate honourable mention for Wade?
• Transportation failure for Robyn & Wade?
• Police Geohash!?