dim orl quid

I received a message from Dimitri Orlov that the Quidnon project is now dead in the water, so to speak.

My idea about having a Quidnon was to retire in one with friends; sail up to Canada during the summer months and anchor somewhere within easy reach of a shoreline grocery store. In the winter, anchor somewhere in the Caribbean, doing the same.

To be in a position to do this I would first need to learn to sail; buy a smaller boat to gain experience, perhaps upgrade to a somewhat larger boat that could handle longer trips to practice longer distance cruising and then finally build the Quidnon.

One cynical definition of a boat is 'a hole in the water into which money is thrown'. So while the idea of sailing in general, and retiring to a boat more specifically does appeal, it seems I will need to sail vicariously through the few U-tubers I follow who are doing this. It may be a more pecuniarily wise decision to devote what funds I have that could have gone towards sailing to simply get invested as part of my retirement fund to eventually fund the Retirement House idea.

Part of me is still enamoured with the idea of sailing; however, I know that if it isn't reasonably easy to do this; I likely wouldn't make sufficient use of the boat to balance the cost of it. As an example, I have a kayak in my basement locker; I've gone kayaking once last summer and once this summer. It is a bit of an ordeal to get it out and make use of it. If the kayak was at the shore and I lived at the shore, I'd be much more likely to take it out regularly.

Similarly, if the sailboat was at a marina, and I could just go to the marina and sail it out; that ought to increase my likelihood to use it. This also increases the cost.

I just gogoled the boat show in my city, it is in February. Maybe I'll go just for fun.

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Last weekend from CT I bought a Pelican 100X, a 10' kayak. In addition I bought the paddle, life jacket and kayak carrier. I had measured my locker in the basement of the apartment building to be sure, first, if a 10' kayak would fit; and it does.

Here is the locker room in the basement with my locker in the center.

Unlocked the lock and opened the door.

Here you can see the kayak inside with the carrier on the floor next to it.

It is a bit awkward to get it out of there and out on to the street, but fortunately, there is a doorway from the basement to a lowered part so I do not need to carry the kayak up or down any stair wells. Once outside, I was able to secure the kayak to the kayak carrier and put within the kayak all of the supplies.

I walked the kayak through the parking lot of my apartment building complex and then into the tunnel that goes beneath the train tracks and the highway to get to the south side of the train tracks and highway. Fortunately, the entrance and the exit to the tunnel are sloped passages rather then steps, so these next two photos show the turnabout on the north side of the tunnel.

Here, in the midst of the tunnel.

Here, outside of the tunnel on the south side of the highway and train tracks.

It is straight from the tunnel exit to this street; the water can be seen in the distance, that is Lac St. Louis.

Where this street meets the water, it is thick with plant life and very steep, so it is far from ideal for launching a kayak into the water. This doesn't stop me, however, I push the kayak through the trees and bushes and it slides down into the water. Here it is at the top, partially pushed in.

This photo was supposed to show the water, through the branches, but it is so thick it is difficult to even see the water.

But finally, I reached the water at the bottom.

I had a blue cloth bag with me, sufficiently vibrant that if I knew roughly where to look to return back to it, I could find my way back to the kayak carrier and my route home. So I left the bag there, and left my mobile device in it (what I used to take all of the photos). As this was my first foray into this kayak on this lake and I hadn't been in one since the previous summer at a camp on a more protected lake, I did not want to take any chances and so took only the bare minimum with me on the kayak.

I went out for perhaps 30-40 minutes; it was nice, good for upper body exercise, but also nice to take the occasional break and just look around. Once I finally decided to return and head back I had gotten fairly far out, so I centered in on what I thought was the location of the blue bag, and came pretty close; once I reached near the shore I just had to go, say, another 10 meters or so and that's where the bag was.

If I manage to do this with more regularity, I think I'll begin to learn better the landmarks and be able to zone in more precisely on where I need to land.

The next time I go, if the water is sufficiently calm, I'll bring my mobile device to take photos from out on the water. I'll have a ziploc bag of some sort to keep it in when not in use.