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y connecting with route 94 in north dakota decorated with what s billed as the largest collection of scrap metal sculptures in the world despite spending 30 years crisscrossing the united states as a long haul trucker vlad doesn t recall having been on route 94 so 2 3 of the trimorons decided to take the northern route to port townsend they didn t take the enchanted highway but came close enough to have a look at one of its most famous sculptures geese in flight farther along they passed by the theodore roosevelt national park a section of the north dakota badlands cruising through the badlands it turns out that when you re hauling a collapsible trimaran you end up with more than just reduced mileage and a fair amount of wind drag you get bugs lots of bugs whose short lives sadly become still shorter upon contact with the amas bug cemetery as our intrepid heroes drove into montana they encountered something they hadn t expected all watercraft must be inspected it turns out that montana land of 3 227 lakes is fiercely protective of its waters any boats entering the state must be inspected for the presence of invasive species which includes mussels plants and ummmmm barnacles montana boat inspection apparently the boat was launched in high risk waters fortunately for all involved it had been thoroughly cleaned dried and painted since it last touched water i feel a lot better about having spent a saturday morning last month scrubbing barnacles off the bottom johna scraping barnacles in april of course vlad also thoroughly cleaned scrubbed and painted the boat afterward in any event our hard work did the trick and the trimorons were rewarded with this cleared to proceed onward trimorons inform me they re planning to stop for the night and rest up before tackling the mountains tomorrow 3 comments posted in art culture life nature sailing tagged badlands flying geese sculpture montana north dakota r2ak race to alaska trimaran halfway there posted on may 29 2023 by johna till johnson 3 comments halfway there actually a bit more nothing much has changed here at pomestye in a day and a half the sky s still cool and overcast with drizzly to rainy patches the earth smells fresh and the strawberries taste sweet the birds chirp and the rooster crows but in the just under a day and a half since team trimorons left they ve made it to the dakota badlands this sounds a lot more exciting than it is as evidenced by jeff s video sailing through the badlands fortunately the trip thus far has been uneventful the next big event after arriving in port townsend will be chris s arrival from the uk once the trimorons are together watch out world 3 comments posted in life nature sailing travel tagged badlands r2ak race to alaska sailing trimaran and they re off posted on may 28 2023 by johna till johnson 5 comments mast and stern tip disappear it s 0800 sunday morning the faraway sound of the star spangled banner filters through the air somewhere the base across the river someone plays the recording every morning at 0800 it s cool about 60 degrees and overcast with drizzle earlier in the morning vlad walked me through the garden showing me which plants need to get fed staked or benignly ignored i picked my first harvest of strawberries and pineberries which taste like the platonic ideal of strawberries despite being white the running of pomestye is now in my hands ready or not jeff and vlad woke up early this morning around five they ran a few last loads out to the van did a few last minute checks who has what in the first aid kit followed by a hearty breakfast out on the deck potatoes scrambled eggs and sausage with not quite enough coffee but is there ever enough coffee inspecting the rig then it was time to leave we locked callie inside to keep her from chasing after the van and trailer they did the requisite checking of the hitch and confirmed the lights worked taking about 20 minutes i told vlad to keep the windows open but wouldn t say why vlad ready to go as vlad stepped on the gas i hit play on my phone and blasted the ussr national anthem the race to alaska traditionally starts with that for unknown reasons this year they ll be playing the ukrainian national anthem which seems fitting they both grinned and laughed then with a wave and a smile they disappeared their race has begun at 0818 am sunday may 27 stay tuned am i really doing this 5 comments posted in life nature sailing tagged f 27 r2ak race to alaska trimaran team trimoron heads west posted on may 26 2023 by johna till johnson 11 comments captain vlad we should do the race to alaska it didn t sound like a big deal particularly after we d just completed the everglades challenge my second time vlad s ninth we think still 750 miles in the cold waters of the pacific northwest is very different from 300 miles in the warm sunshine of the gulf of florida 10 kt currents 30 foot wide whirlpools two coast guard planes covering 700 miles of coastland there s a fantastic documentary that describes the r2ak as aficionados call it we watched it and it went into my mental file for maybe someday someday turned out to be june 5 2023 not for me i ll get into that later but earlier this year at the everglades challenge vlad and i connected with old friend jeff williams and new friend chris forrest vlad and i got to know jeff as a fellow catamaran sailor in 2020 who gave us a literal helping hand when we had to get vlad s inflatable catamaran 007 to the starting line in a hurry a canadian jeff is unflappably cheerful i can t picture him without a smile on his face jeff williams chris and i spent a couple of nights on the beach at checkpoint 2 which sounds way more risqué than it was as we chatted we discovered that neither of us were fazed by sleeplessness barking dogs or marauding hordes of mosquitos a brit chris had several solo ecs under his belt already chris forrest chris also turned out to be a world class cyclist who completed a 700 mile race in under a week that complemented jeff s marathon experience including the boston marathon both of which are likely to come in handy when the wind dies as it inevitably will and they ll need to pedal their way north but i m getting ahead of myself long story short vlad chris and jeff decided to become team trimoron so named because they plan to sail vlad s corsair f 27 trimaran not coincidentally the same one that vlad and i escaped from new york on the f 27 trimaran at sunset near solomon s island the scheme came together over a couple of months and team trimoron hammered out the logistics first was the challenge of getting the f 27 from solomons maryland to port townsend washington that s 2 877 miles thank you google maps then there was getting her crew members from maryland canada and the uk to the us pacific northwest pnw then there was all the usual stuff food supplies safety gear checking the stove and heater making sure the compostable head was fully stocked with cedar chips checking the boat for all around seaworthiness that was the easy part the tricky part was figuring out some means of propulsion for the boat other than sails the r2ak rule is simple no motors when the wind is blowing a sailboat can sail but in a dead calm which happens frequently in the pnw there has to be some way to move forward oars can work but the f 27 is too big for them to be effective the clear solution is a pedal drive vlad bought two and mounted them on the f 27s s amas the arms that connect the outriggers to the hull pedal drive child model not included with that modification the f 27 is ready to make the trip or as ready as she ll ever be vlad and jeff leave for port townsend on sunday and if all goes well they arrive june 1 or 2 and chris will join them there my plan is to monitor the race from afar and keep everyone apprised of team trimoron s efforts stay tuned go team trimoron a note to readers if you re a regular reader of this blog and have gotten this far you re probably wondering a few things like maybe who is this vlad what is johna doing in maryland where are the kayaks and what s up with the sailboat i started a sort of answer back in 2021 before getting sidetracked by life i still plan to finish that story 11 comments posted in nature sailing tagged alaska r2ak trimaran trimoron sheltering at sea part 3 staten island to atlantic city posted on june 28 2021 by johna till johnson 8 comments moon over atlantic city sunday april 5 2000 hr 8 pm it s not too cold i m not wearing my wool cap and my nose and hands are warm i m in the stern cabin through the thick plexiglass port i can see a blurry moon we re starting our second night in great kills harbor in staten island we arrived midafternoon yesterday to vov s delight we were able to anchor in the same spot he d kept nemo the mooring field is empty ish there were a few boats moored but most haven t come out of their winter quarters yet we could see a few people in the spit of land surrounding the mooring field but they were distant and far off we used the time to catch our breath and do some basic housekeeping vov fished and caught five shad we boiled them and ate them with mayonnaise they were delicious despite the mouthful of bones fishing in staten island it was surreal watching vlad fish within the borders of new york city technically we didn t need to of course we had plenty of food but it was a sort of test drive for times to come as was our laundry routine today was sunny and we hadn t had the opportunity to wash clothes for a week before we launched so we washed laundry on the wings of the boat and hung the clothes up to dry to wash we used buckets filled with seawater and biodegradeable soap with our limited freshwater reserved for the final rinse vov also repaired the rudder on my kayak he d brought his tools and fiberglass repair kit along with not something i would have thought of meanwhile i curled in my tiny cabin and worked the aft cabin isn t large enough to stand up in although i can sit up straight with crossed legs in the middle on the cushion that covers the entire floor most of the time i brace myself with my back against one wall and my feet against the far wall balancing the laptop against my knees it s more comfortable than it sounds and mully often likes to crouch in the cave under my knees today mully explored the boat a bit more he also ate and by all appearances greatly enjoyed the shad now he s with me in bed alternately sitting on me walking over me and perched in very unlikely positions on the slanting walls vov is asleep already in the main cabin we haven t really talked about where we re headed next other than that the next sheltered anchorage is atlantic city a 90 to 100 mile straight shot down the coast vov thinks it shouldn t be too difficult to do all in one go with the right wind which should arrive very early tomorrow morning between one am and three am that sounds grueling but he s up for it and not so long ago during the everglades challenge we were both sailing through the night as a matter of course so he s gone to be bed early to catch a few hours of sleep we both have a strong strong sense of urgency to get down south staten island to atlantic city partly it s the weather which can be variable this time of year supposedly we re getting snow again in the northeast and high winds are on the way partly is that we we won t be into a really comfortable harbor until we re in the chesapeake bay and partly it s the same uncanny premonition that s driven both of us since before we met the feeling that something bad was going to happen and we needed to be prepared what exactly that preparedness entailed we were still discovering but heading south seems to be part of it mully is restless i need to let him out a bit more but not just yet it s quiet except for the sound of tires someone is driving on the spit of land close by and the whir of the air vent that sounds like crickets the boat rocks in someone s wake it s the last thing i feel before falling asleep staten island sunset tuesday april 7 2138 hr 9 38 pm sound of tiller scraping across hull lines slapping gently against mast beautiful full moon rising over the water wind blowing in background yesterday was difficult we sailed 95 miles from staten island to atlantic city it was sunny and clear ish but cold with chop vov woke up and and launched at 0230 hr i couldn t sleep much after we launched so i got up and tried to work that didn t go so well i felt seasick staring at the screen so i abandoned the attempt and clambered into the cockpit to keep vov company we arrived in atlantic city around 1730 and moored it had been an exciting ride we d averaged between 6 and 7 knots due south but gone faster over the water when you factored in the jibing jibing is like tacking except you do it downwind not into the wind when the trimaran heels only two of its hulls are in the water the other one slices through the air above the waves and i would later learn jibing is the most dangerous type of sailing so all in all it was exciting today we rested i worked depleted all the batteries while v napped showered and strategized about the trip for dinner tonight we had sardines and rice salad garlic onion corn dill rice and mayo i m calm not yet sleepy i work until midnight until my laptop runs out of juice atlantic city sunrise weds april 8 0900 hr 9 00 am cool overcast light wind preparing to take shower out on the wings there s enough privacy where we are anchored to shower we will heat water on the stove and pump it through the 1 gallon manual pressure sprayer this morning when i woke up there was a feeling of sunshine in the world beyond even though it was gray and cold outside it felt like the sun was rising somewhere i felt mully warm and solid against my stomach a warm weight between my ribs and hipbone he sleeps inside the sleeping bag in the mornings we plan to sail to cape may today then anchor for a few days to wait out the winds a strong storm front is coming 50 knot winds are predicted it will be my first storm at sea on a sailboat at least mully and sky 8 comments posted in kayaking life nature new york city sailing travel tagged atlantic city fishing new york city sailing sheltering at sea staten island sheltering at sea part 2 escape from new york posted on june 14 2021 by johna till johnson 6 comments christina rose lower left with sail passing manhattan photo by a a we wake early so far so good christina rose had handled fine during the 7 mile hudson crossing to croton point we d travelled at a speed of 8 10 knots with a gusty 20 kt wind it was bouncy but manageable mully hadn t enjoyed the trip he spent the crossing in his hull tunnel a tunnel that ran about 10 feet from the stern cabin under one of the shelves in the main cabin we couldn t reach him there but we could hear him he would occasionally emit a quiet miaow in response to our frantic calling he must have been cold and terrified but after we anchor...
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