winter_practice

lets guess best
which guest lets
the door open
longest yet

on launching a canoe: Part Two

on launching a canoe

Don't drag the canoe accross rocks sharp enough that you wouldn't put them in your mouth. Or any substance that is harder than the surface of the canoe.

Canoes are manufactured from a number of materials.  The durability can be graded and what follows is a list and breakdown of canoe compositions.

Plastic
The plastic canoe rates high on durability.  This canoe is resilient to rough treatment; plastic is tough and can be scraped and scoured without developing a leak.  Plastic is also easily repaired with plastic plugs and a low temperature torch.  On the other hand, the plastic canoe leaves a wake of microscopic plastic particles everytime she touches down.  Another problem is that plastic canoes have an unfavourable strength to weight ratio.  Compounding this is the necessity of reinforcement stays or beams, in some cases, to retain shape or load rating, owing to the low tensile strength.  Plastic is also prone to relaxation. Keep this canoe out of the sun if left strained.

Aluminum
Of the constituent particles of the earth, if analysis is limited to what is termed the crust, element thirteen is is the most common true metal. Aluminum is so common that it takes a ton of scrap to buy a jar of pretzels.  What does this mean to you?  The price of aluminum has no bearing on the value of an aluminum canoe it suffices to say.  In Montreal, aluminum canoes of excellent craft and gauge are had for nothing.  In Wisconsin, the value of aluminum canoes is inflated to such an extent that you can likely afford one with bullet holes and dents galore only.  The market for boats is unencumbered by realistics.  Whether this is good or bad is hard to say.  Aluminum, as a material for a canoe, is a good choice:  Aluminum can be repaired easily; is cool to the touch, has a naturally attractive luster, is of excellent strength to weight ratio (no mystery why the wright brothers salivate at the mere mention of), is in abundance.  Aluminum, from a cost to longevity perspective, is the material of choice with which to build a good canoe that will survive the eons. 

visions_versions_6805

bailing the boat
yellow and green
with the tarp
same leafs fall
maple elduburry hawthorn
in the yard

visions_versions_gr

breaking the golden ends
and with a shake to the walk
there to be unsettled
over critical spots the yard
talks resume next year
will see if stalks take
time as well

visions_version_liv

down the steps to
sit and ponder
this is late season grass
boring and decrepit how much
of us is in it
some or more save the date

visions_versions_liii

one apple this yaer and
for what
forgone to the end
where distance isn't
anymore than a tail
 

visions_versions_lii

prophecy in primaries
the horizon becomes kinds
diamonds on those knives eyes
black and ringed with time
in spots between fingers mine

vision_versions_li

when the water leaps in bounds
binding the flowers down
asters the last after the sun
has filled with lead
setting here and there ever
further the signs in the leafs
green galvanized for next year
settles on the feet

on purchasing a canoe; part one

on purchasing a canoe

The right canoe is the canoe that gets you out there and home again.  But more important than making a clean cut through the chop is that the canoe looks excellent at your command, at your dock, on top of your car, leaned against the woodpile, or even at the bottom of the river. 

The best canoe I have ever been in is a Princecraft.  I have never felt like a prince any where else in fact.  The Princecraft is big; from bow to stern, seventeen and five eights feet.  At the beam, from gunwhale to gunwhale, she is nearly foure feet wide, wide enough to sit two medium width people side by side.  In practice she is wider with her handsome hard chines that make her ride just high enough that the bow and stern, symmetric in their ends, join plane above the water line unladen at calm.  Just barely.  She is also an exquisite battleship color and is becoming more interesting as the aluminum oxidizes and reacts with the substance and denizens of the river. As a seaworthy rating, the Princecraft gets a ten out of ten.  She really does cut, can take whitecaps without so much as pitching, and only becomes more controllable the more load she hauls.  Her seams are welded and the result is a sharp prow that makes it.  Even though, there is a tack welded keel which does wonders to keep her tracked.  I can, with the rock in the bow, take her out and build some steam, and stand and walk and fight and land the fish.  The Princecraft is excellent.  She is marked with a big Indian chief at the bow on the starboard and by a registered trademark on the port to stern.  Allinall a good boat.  I would keep this boat until my family name invariably dies out in a few hundred years or so. 

The second best canoe I have ever been in is a Grumman I believe.  Grumman canoes are characterized by their speed.  They have a good plan and are durable but tend on the heavy side.  All the same, the Grumman is a work horse.  But it does take some skill to pilot. The Grumman is sensitive to placement which can be utilized by a familiar crew to minimize the steering effort and concentrate energy into a race.  I recommend a Grumman for one who is strong and who likes a challenge.  For a beginner, the Grumman canoe will either drown you soon or put you at the top.  One last note is that the Grumman canoes are characterized by good Aluminum and heavy gauge.  This is the canoe that you can portage and cross the ice without a worry.  Highly recommended. 

on sinking a canoe; part one

on sinking a canoe

The curious thing about sinking a canoe is that no one ever sees it coming.  Because the sinking is unforeseen, there is little to no planning for the event.

Sinking usually begins in one or two scenarios and almost invariably ends in the same result.

At the start, the day usually is a good paddle; the pilot is fresh and the muscle is warmed to the thought.  The mood is bordering on ecstatic.  But at a certain point, energy is starting to wane and the hired hands are grumbling.  In the bow talk turns to mutiny, cannibalism, and deceit.  If the navigator is solid, they will have already threatened the conspirators with a drubbing.  Things get worse until they are worst of all.  It may start with the wind picking up.  Or it may be even more simply that the rapids are more violent than expected if not expected at all.  Another morale sapping scenario is the spread of disease.  Nothing can ruin a canoe paddle as fast as cholera running from stem to stern.

So the crew is dissatisfied with the course and the weather is souring.  The talk turns to turning around.  But where to head?  A wise pilot keeps the bow pointed into the wind.

Not every canoe gets a good pilot just the same as no cake is completed by the icing.  Eventually a wave crests the gunwhale.

Water in the canoe usually precipitates the sinking.  Before long you are paddling water around, no canoe in sight.  At this point, its best to throw the paddles towards shore and strike out into a practiced australian crawl.

After you have sunk that canoe, if you can see people on shore, start to laugh.  When they hear you laughing there is a fifty fifty chance they believe that you sank the canoe for a lark.  But if you see your insurance agent, don't laugh. Don't cry either.  Immediately go up on shore and start asking if anyone witnessed the steamship that did run you down.  The pretense of seeking witnesses always makes a good impression on the jury. 

on launching a canoe; part one

on launching a canoe

On launching a canoe, one should be prepared to paddle.  Or, on launching a canoe, at the least, one should be prepared to commence paddling. Foregoing that, one should be content to think about paddling and be satisfied that someone else is doing it instead.

The canoe is an interesting instrument.  And I do call it that and draw the comparison to any tuba or x-ray spectroscope in the sense that the canoe is played upon the water.  And, like any sailor's accordion, the canoe inspires a certain sense of calm and (as they say in the city) centering.  The canoe is, in short, a mechanism with which one interacts and manipulates in order to achieve the stimulation that opens up the mind, body, and soul to a higher plane of consciousness.

And conscientiousness is also the most important quality to have in a canoe. No rapids are run by the lackluster and no races are won by the hesitant.  At the paddle, one should have a solid grasp on reality and their pedigree.  What matters most is the intent; embarking on a canoe is a decision cresting waves of history.

Wait for that right wave.  If you are looking to leave from a beach or landing nothing can be more embarrassing and discrediting than capsizing at the point of departure or losing a leg.  A canoe laden with water weighs more than a metric ton and can wrap around a rock like tin foil on a baked potato.  You absolutely do not want to go into a meeting to convince your financiers not to pull out of your canoe exposition dragging a mangled leg.  Not only will it be painful, it will be bad form. 

visions_versions_sq

with what tempo does the squirrel
go there in the center of the street
erratic from toe to tail

visions_version_midge

over head the midges
took advantage of the sun
momentary they whirl
stochastic actors passing
from earth to last
same as us

Beethoven

sweeping the floor
with an adagio
straw bristles wilting

dinner is tomorrow
today I need nothing

visions_versions_bee

here comes the last bee
or second to none
and the sun sets
jeering at the effort
to get two feet
out from the other three
that succumb

visions_versions_w4

piles of dust on the border
heaps of wonder four or more
feet deep one or two or three
or in hand all at once
over an hour or so they go
from here to there and then to
kinetic implements drying
draw the the heat ou
because of janus
and the fever

vision_versions_b999

with a handfull of keys
that dont rust
automatic emblems of what
stuff opens up
have that fraction
of half thats passed in
the rest happens
unknown and unaccessed
quarter waves on plates served
phases white light and thunder
but dropped a hat at the mere
mention of the mother of
invention in the mirrors
reflection

parting lines
the painter
the stern
solid in time
fine fine fine

visions_versions_oak

lets let the wind guess
which leaf is dead last
honey brown
veins raised
a shadow cast
 a show made
worth the golden weight
to spot and blow down

tomatos

some like it hot
don't like it cold
tomatos on the vine rot
when they get old

grasshopper

ahead of the asters
behind the turns each
leafs take time turning
from green to less than
goes the grasshopper
who is all of october
slow in the low light

visions_versions_t-0

a coagulation on the vines
tangles hung with finery
the red of the sun
the orbit of a tongue
the dinner of one

bison

under leaf the bee
hangs on for not
much longer later
wash turns to frost

visions_versions_pleu

water poured out
under ground
and gone

the pollen lost
the golden rod
bows down
sopping