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The One Ring Forums: Off Topic: The Pollantir:
there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats
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Poll: there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats
Anything that gets me out on the water
sailboats
motorboats
jetskis
sea kayaks
whitewater kayaks or rafts
windsurfing/sailboarding
canoeing
an inner tube or air mattress in a pool
cruise ships
ferries
I get seasick just thinking about getting on a boat
I'm afraid of drowning
not sick or afraid, just not my thing
I'd like to but I live too far away from open water
View Results (81 votes)
 

Annael
Immortal


May 17 2015, 6:40pm

Post #1 of 40 (3042 views)
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there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats Can't Post

or so said the Water Rat in "The Wind in the Willows." Do you agree? If so, what kind of messing about in boats do you enjoy?


Kim
Valinor


May 17 2015, 7:04pm

Post #2 of 40 (2946 views)
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I love being out on the water [In reply to] Can't Post

Mostly motorboats or big sailboats (those teeny ones are a little too rocky!) Will be hopping a ferry next weekend heading to a friend's cabin for Memorial Day - I love the ride and looking for sea lions, jellyfish and other sea life. There is also something to be said for floating in a pool too (or down a river...) Cool


SirDennisC
Half-elven


May 17 2015, 9:05pm

Post #3 of 40 (2942 views)
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I spend a lot of time near water - [In reply to] Can't Post

usually sitting on the shore, soaking in the sound, the smell, the cool airs, the reflected light, and of course the ever changing surface. My favourite conditions are when the water is dark, covered in white caps, beneath cobalt clouds in a steady wind. I live near the head of the St. Lawrence River, at the bottom of Lake Ontario - actually this entire region is dotted with lakes and rivers of various sizes.

A canoe is handy for trek camping but I prefer a sea kayak for day trips/exploring. One day I hope to have a sail boat large enough to live aboard from spring through autumn.


BlackFox
Half-elven


May 17 2015, 9:23pm

Post #4 of 40 (2936 views)
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Boats and water have never been my thing [In reply to] Can't Post

I can't swim, so I'm better off staying away from them. Not that it would trouble me -- heck, I haven't even been to a beach for a decade or so. Laugh


Brethil
Half-elven


May 17 2015, 10:27pm

Post #5 of 40 (2927 views)
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I voted 'anything' [In reply to] Can't Post

because I will take it all. But fishing is one of my favorite boaty things to do, particularly with my guy BFF. Freshwater on a river or lake...or we go wreck fishing in the Atlantic just off the south shore.


But canoeing, kayaking, just taking a ferry for fun: its all good. I love being by the periphery of water too, exploring tide pools and under docks.


zarabia
Tol Eressea


May 17 2015, 11:59pm

Post #6 of 40 (2922 views)
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How about coconuts? [In reply to] Can't Post

When I used to visit my mom in Samoa we used to use coconuts - the whole thing, not just the nut itself - as floaty toys. You can pull a strand of husk from two coconuts and tie them together, put a nut under each arm, and you have the best water noodle. Laugh I tried canoeing in an outrigger canoe, but that takes a lot of practice and/or skill. Tongue

I have also enjoyed canoeing down peaceful rivers and have sailed on a catamaran on the local lakes. I think kayaking, especially ocean kayaking, looks fun, but I've never tried it.


sevilodorf
Tol Eressea


May 18 2015, 1:32am

Post #7 of 40 (2915 views)
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no experience with any boats [In reply to] Can't Post

swimming pool yes....open water no....


Meneldor
Valinor


May 18 2015, 2:53am

Post #8 of 40 (2911 views)
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The boat is one of God's greatest gifts to mankind. [In reply to] Can't Post




Bracegirdle
Valinor


May 18 2015, 2:58am

Post #9 of 40 (2911 views)
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I have always stayed away from [In reply to] Can't Post

large bodies of water since Drogo and Primula drownded on Brandywine.

Lesson learned! SlySly


Ethel Duath
Half-elven


May 18 2015, 3:28am

Post #10 of 40 (2907 views)
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Ha! Yay, another Wind in the Willows reader. [In reply to] Can't Post

Recognized the quote instantly. "Dear old Ratty!"Smile

And I love canoeing down rivers. I like not knowing what's around the bend, and that "travel-adventure" feeling.Smile


Aunt Dora Baggins
Immortal


May 18 2015, 4:23am

Post #11 of 40 (2914 views)
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It's been a loooong time [In reply to] Can't Post

About thirty years ago, Uncle Baggins made a kind of catamaran from trash he brought home from a construction site where he worked. The pontoons were styrofoam, and the deck was a door. He called it the Door-deck-a-hedron. I think that's it on the left edge of this photo The occasion was a pirate treasure hunt with several friends and several sailboats on a local reservoir. Eventually they shut the reservoir down to visitors; our skinny-dipping may have been a contributing factor. Anyway, we had a lot of great times on that funny boat. But when we moved out of the trailer park into a house, the boat didn't make the move, and we haven't really done any boating since. I still love visiting the reservoir (a different one) near our house, but the closest I get to messing about in boats is standing on the pier.

Oh, and also about thirty years ago I had great fun taking my toy pirate ship to another reservoir. I even wrote a little picture book about it.


(This post was edited by Aunt Dora Baggins on May 18 2015, 4:30am)


Darkstone
Immortal


May 18 2015, 2:17pm

Post #12 of 40 (2895 views)
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Always wanted to be... [In reply to] Can't Post

...a tramp steamer master/captain in the South Pacific.

There's just something about being in a boat on the water that's soothing.

Wifey and I did enjoy pedaling the paddleboats (pedalboats?) out on Lake Arrowhead until the drought. Now the drought seems to have broken maybe the park will bring them out of storage.

Don't really like fishing cause we had to do it for food when I was a kid so it's like hunting: reminds me too much of work. Plus I also caught "bambi-itis" as I got older. (Not so much I've gone vegetarian, though. Yeah, I'm a meat-eating hypocrite.)

BTW, are you part of the "Shell No!" kayak-tivists doing the "Paddle in Seattle" protests in the Port of Seattle againt Shell's Polar Pioneer drilling rig on its way to the Arctic? Sounds both fun and meaningful!


Annael
Immortal


May 18 2015, 3:38pm

Post #13 of 40 (2887 views)
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he would love our Kinetic Skulpture races [In reply to] Can't Post


Quote
A Kinetic Skulpture is a human powered, artistically enhanced vehicle that must go through sand (Kwick Sand), mud (The Dismal Bog), float on water (The Great Bay), and transverse hilly, silly neighborhoods. Some skulptures are engineering marvels while most are a mixture of bicycle parts, styrofoam, duct tape, imagination and prayers. Awards are given to each racer whether they want it or not, but the most highly prized award is the "Mediocrity Award", the skulpture that finishes in the middle of the pack. Kinetic racers as well as glorious spectators must be kapable of having fun without taking the event too seriously.


Some entries are little more than bikes with styrofoam attached (or kayaks with wheels):
http://ww3.hdnux.com/...961994/3/960x540.jpg

but some are amazing feats of engineering:
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kLbpTqklqoo/0.jpg
http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/...event_230108012.jpeg


Annael
Immortal


May 18 2015, 3:40pm

Post #14 of 40 (2885 views)
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should have added paddleboards! [In reply to] Can't Post

Stand-up paddling is getting very big around here. Anyone do that?


Aunt Dora Baggins
Immortal


May 18 2015, 6:19pm

Post #15 of 40 (2878 views)
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They have those here too, in Boulder. [In reply to] Can't Post

I've never been, but he went years ago and had a great time.


Kim
Valinor


May 19 2015, 5:15am

Post #16 of 40 (2860 views)
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Door-deck-a-hedron [In reply to] Can't Post

OK, that's the best math joke I've heard (although I'm sure you've got a million). Angelic


Dame Ioreth
Tol Eressea


May 20 2015, 12:19am

Post #17 of 40 (2820 views)
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Rowboat [In reply to] Can't Post

My Grandpa built the rowboat that is kept at my uncle's cottage. All I need is a walking stick, a water bottle and a snack and I'm good for 1/2 a day out on the water exploring around the different islands. It's different every year because of the water level. This past year I was able to get back into places that were blocked by dry land last year. The water level was higher and I was able to navigate back into some places I hadn't seen in years. Lots of fun!


Annael
Immortal


May 20 2015, 3:45pm

Post #18 of 40 (2796 views)
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how'd I forget that? [In reply to] Can't Post

My younger brother could also spend HOURS in a rowboat. We used to sail a 42-foot ketch into the San Juan Islands, anchoring each night in a bay of one of the islands, and as soon as we anchored, he'd get into the dinghy and row all around the bay.

Me, I'd jump off the stern & swim. I had no thermostat when I was younger; I never minded cold water, I just wanted to be IN it.


RosieLass
Valinor


May 20 2015, 11:26pm

Post #19 of 40 (2789 views)
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I'm not a strong swimmer. [In reply to] Can't Post

So I'm not keen on water sports.

I spent a couple days many years ago with a friend's family at Lake Palmer (I think?) and sat in their motor boat while they water-skied. I didn't get seasick, but it did take a couple days for the ground to stop tilting after I got home.

I've been canoeing and white water rafting. And I've been to a "real" (ocean) beach once in my lifetime. It was okay, but I'm quite satisfied remaining on terra firma.


(This post was edited by RosieLass on May 20 2015, 11:27pm)


Ciars
Rohan


May 22 2015, 4:20pm

Post #20 of 40 (2743 views)
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Motion [In reply to] Can't Post

I love the water and water sports but boats are a no-no. Anytime I've been on a boat (apart from a gorgeous cruise liner or a larger ship) I've gotten sea sick. If only someone could stop the waves from moving around so much then I'd be fine!


swordwhale
Tol Eressea


May 23 2015, 4:49pm

Post #21 of 40 (2687 views)
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great quote! [In reply to] Can't Post

the best thing in that book....

I always wanted to learn to scuba dive since watching Lloyd Bridges in Sea Hunt back in the 60s (Flipper and Jacques Cousteau didn't help either, I was going to go live underwater or else...).

I did not have much use for floatin boats, they were to jump off of to look at the sunken ones (including the pool raft that I backrolled off of, just like Mike Nelson, with my snorkelling gear on).

My family and all the farmers who live in my county are very Hobbity, or Dwarvish, not much at home in boats, they go to the Mountains when they go.

The mountains are fine, but when I went to the sea for the first time (at 12, with an aunt) I was mezmerized. Or mermaidized...

I finally learned to scuba dive in my 30s, but couldn't afford any warm Caribbean vacations, only the local quarries (set up for diving), the odd clear stream or lake, a trip to the St. Lawrence, and a couple of off shore dives on shipwrecks. I canoed with friends a few times (I still hate canoes... bah, bleah, they don't go straight!!!!), including running some minor rapids on a PA creek in March when the waterfalls were frozen. I canoed the backcountry of Assateague Island MD with a then boyfriend... the mosquitoes only attacked when we approached within 15 feet of shore, the boat was laden with canned food and supplies for camping and had about 3" of freeboard... this in a tidal bay with wind and chop.

I had spent a few years mucking about with the Longship Company, a sort of outgrowth of my interest in living history which was all the fault of D&D and JRRT. And a friend's interest in Vikings. We had a 32' longship that we sailed...er... rowed mostly... on a weeklong voyage down the Potomac River (yeah, the one in DC). I loved it, diving off the bow into the river (not...actually... the cleanest river ever), rescuing a waterlogged bird floating by us, amusing crabbers as we floated out of a morning fog, or slipped by in the dark of night in our black, dragon-bowed ship, green lightning flashing on the horizon, oars flashing green bioluminescence as they hit the water.

Still, rather be underwater.

Then a friend took me to her friend's cabin in the mountains, with a lake, and kayaks.

Bah. Taking snorkelling gear, gonna be underwater all week.

The vis was to my elbow.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh...MadPirateFrown

So..... what about those floatin boats?

I got in one, weebled, wobbled, finally got it to go in a straight line... and didn't get out of it all week.

Must...

have...

one....

Next spring, there was a paddling demo. tried various kayaks, fell in love with all, nothing in my starving artist price range.

Met this lady... who told me about a canoe/kayak club.

Joined, because, you know, people have spare boats and things and stuffs...

And someone had one for sale.

it was much longer than I had in mind: 18 feet, a true sea kayak. It was $600 (a good price for a good sea kayak, used).

Hmmmm, hommmm....

A day later, my income tax refund came in.. and it was that much.

A Sign From The Sea Gods.

I bought it.

And haven't got out of it for decades.

Mak-eh-nuk's Fin (a Kwakiutl word for swordwhale) has carried me on streams, creeks, the Chesapeake Bay, offshore of barrier islands, in the mosquito-infested backcountry of Assateague and Chincoteague Islands, up tiny brackish guts, into marshes, into the rocks and currents of the Susquehanna, through the lotus fields of the Sassafras, to Big Indian Rock with its pictographs eons old.

You see things you don't see any other way: a skimmer unzipping the bay, the decidedly cartiliginous fins surfacing by your paddle blade (turned out to be cownosed rays), dragons and damsels emerging from their underwater nymphs, cormorants, pelicans, dolphins breathing a paddle length off your bow.

It's a simple boat to use: you can float in a wide "bucket that floats" in a pond or quiet lake, observing the hidden coot, the diving tern, the fishing heron, the baby owls. You can dance the waves and tides and wind of open water in a long boat shaped like a cutlass blade, slicing through the currents of air and water as if they weren't there.

My other favorite is the historical recreations of tall ships, common here in the Bay and east coast. Some are small, like our present 40' longship (yes, it's technically a tall ship, a full-rigged square sailed vessel), or the Schooner Sultana, only 60' long (the original crossed the gale-infested Atlantic several times). Some are wicked fast, like the pungy Lady Maryland, or the privateer Pride of Baltimore II. Some are fantastic faerie tales come to life, like the Kalmar Nyckel, a reproduction of the 1600s square rigged "pinnace" that brought the first settlers to Wilmington DE, with its blue paint, its carvings, its fighting tops and cannons.

They take us on two hour tours (I dare you not to hear the Gilligan's Island song now)... they immerse us in a time when wind and tide rules our schedules, not clocks. We haul sails and steer with tillers. We learn pirates had rules, and they were more than "just guidelines".

My friend was more into this than I was, until Pirates of the Caribbean. Like most films I love, I wanted to go live in that world, at least for a little while. We went to a tall ship festival in Baltimore, toured a ship or two, bit steel schooners... kind of interesting...

...and then we went around the corner in the water taxi and I fell in love with a ship. She sat there, tied to a dock, but her cutlass shaped hull and her raked masts made her look like she was doing warp 11 right there.

She was the Pride of Baltimore II, and I've sailed on her several times, including a two day guest crew passage where you sleep on the ship, eat their good grub, and participate alongside the crew. And once... just once... they let you steer the ship.

You stand by the wheel with a real sailor (a tall girl who looked like she could have easily joined the Avengers), and turn the wheel... and the big black unicorn horn a hundred feet ahead of you, the bowsprit, swings in absolutely the wrong direction. You frown, turn the wheel a quarter turn, a half turn, (conversing like a mariner)...

...and finally the bow sloooooowly begins to move the other way. You observe the compass, the shape of the sails, you feel the wind.

"There, did you feel that? the way her head came up into the wind."

She is more like a living thing, her wooden hull creaking with the waves... you press and ear against her side, below, and hear the water slooshing up and down the strakes. You lean on a shroud, tight strung standing rigging, and it sings like harpstrings with the wind. She leaps like a galloping horse. Like a wild black mare running through the woods at night.

If Pride is Elvish, the doughty little Sultana is a Hobbit ship, solid and round and sturdy as a Shetland Pony. She rolls through the waves like that pony trotting through tall grass. She's safe as that pony, her ancestor braved several Atlantic crossings, and four days of gale (the crew survived by dumping the drinkables stored in barrels on deck: the beer). This one educated 50,000 people, lots of them kids, a year.

I don't like cruise ships. You couldn't pay me to get one one of those awful floating hotels... it'd be like being trapped in a New York City hotel for a week. UGH!

I also think Jet-skis need to be severely restricted. They waste fuel, they tear up the bottom (if used, as most are around here, in shallow water), they make my day off a noisy mess, and most of the jet-drivers seem to only want to scream around in circles. And they pay no attention to the paddlers or sailors. They're fine for rescue operations, they can quickly get into places other boats can't. But I really hate them as "recreational vehicles". At the very least, one should have to pass a captain's test to even sit on one. I had one incident where I had taken a friend out kayaking, he tired, and we had to cross the river back to the put-in. Partway out, a jet-ski with two teens on it screamed between us, not even seeing us...

I had thought of putting him on a tow line, and if I had, there would have been a wreck putting the special effects of Avengers to shame.

I wrote a letter to the newspaper using some colorful yet politically correct language (I think I may have said something like sauropod brained neanderthals with testosterone poisoning). Hopefully someone saw it.

I've noticed that legitimate boats (for which you have to learn something before you can drive one) tend to be more polite. There is an unspoken law of the sea that real sailors, no matter what boat they are "sailing", follow. I got lost on some backcreeks of the Potomac one year, I was following the longship, taking pictures and video, went out to Blackistone Island (aka St. Clement's Is), lost sight of the (very slooooooow compared to the kayak) longship, and returned. I had set a compass course, and could return on the reciprocal (the opposite heading). I was confronted with two bodies of water (small bays), and the compass indicated the left one... so yeah, there we go.

A good hour into the paddle back , I was not sure of where I actually was. I stopped by a buoy, and called someone's cell. This, in an area where cell phone coverage is spotty at best. Floating by the buoy, I heard the rustling of paper as friends on the ship consulted the charts (which i foolishly had not brought).

"That buoy doesn't exist..."

"Yes...it...does... it's right here."

rustle rustlerustle

"Oh. There."

I got vague directions, go thataway (westish) and something about a creek.

After more searching, and the sun getting ever lower, I hailed a passing sailboat with my whistle. I paddled up and asked where the creek was. More vague directions from people who have lived there all their lives. The treeline I needed to follow to find the creek looked all the same. If there was an opening, for a creek, I couldn't see it.

One of the sailboat's crew said "Want a tow?"

Stranded in the middle of nowhere, tired, getting dark, no idea if these guys are legit or pirate or what...

"Sure."

"Don't worry, we won't get her up on plane or anything."

Motor boats get up on plane, half their hulls out of the water. Sailboats don't. Hah hah hah.

They dropped me off at the mouth of the creek, and I found the dock, the longship and my friends by sunset.

The guys on the sailboat were typical of the Unspoken Law of the Sea.

Once a group of friends and I were paddling the upper reaches of the Bay. We passed a catamaran, at anchor. Hours later, we passed it again.

"I think it's stuck." my friend observed.

"No, probably having a, ahem, party or something."

"No. Stuck."

This is the Chesapeake, sandy, wind, tide, shifting shoals, shallow, easy to get a 60'' sailboat stuck, even a catamaran.

So we hailed the ship, and indeed, they were stuck.

"We can tow you off." We being three kayaks.

Right.

We did get their anchor, carry it out, and use a technique called kedging to pull them off (we drop the anchor away from the ship, they reel themselves off the sandbar toward their own anchor).

Law of the Sea. Water is the most powerful stuff on earth. We're all in it together.

Sailing ships, and small paddle powered craft bring us closer to the water we all depend on, to the lotus and cormorant and ray, to wind and tide and current and shoals and deeps.

We all live upstream, we all live downstream.

Turn off the engine and listen.


swordwhale
Tol Eressea


May 23 2015, 4:50pm

Post #22 of 40 (2688 views)
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have dived the St Lawrence [In reply to] Can't Post

near Prescott. Awesome town, great river, very clear, warm in Sept, 80' vis, shipwrecks on the bottom.


swordwhale
Tol Eressea


May 23 2015, 4:53pm

Post #23 of 40 (2685 views)
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wait, there's more [In reply to] Can't Post

if you want to see some pics from various expeditions:

little floatin boats:
http://www.swordwhale.com/kayak.html

big boats with sails and cannons:
http://www.swordwhale.com/pirates-and-privateers.html


SirDennisC
Half-elven


May 23 2015, 5:25pm

Post #24 of 40 (2688 views)
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Prescott [In reply to] Can't Post

That's not too far from here, about an hour east by car. There's some wrecks around here as well, most of them scuttled after the 1812 War.


Annael
Immortal


May 23 2015, 7:01pm

Post #25 of 40 (2683 views)
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I grew up on an island [In reply to] Can't Post

We were taught boating safety rules in elementary school. My family always had a little sailboat for us to play with and we were trusted to rig it and take it out by ourselves early on (I learned to swim at 4 - actually taught myself; later I taught my niece & nephews). We borrowed another family's 42-foot ketch for vacations. In high school, a friend was given an 18-foot "flattie" as a birthday present and took sailing lessons, but when we took the boat out together she was all theory and no practical knowledge, so I took over and tried to explain how it was supposed to feel when the boat was trimmed right.

I had a sea kayak for years, dabbled in whitewater kayaking & rafting (with some exciting flips in rapids), and windsurfed for a while.

My in-laws had a big motorboat and we did overnight trips in it in the southern part of Puget Sound, but I'm not fond of "stinkpots" in general.

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