Phase 1 of Around Lake Michigan is complete. The overview – 300 miles of sailing in about 30 days, 50+ hours of video recorded including travel and interviews, plenty of low/no impact camping, many new friends, 20,000 hits on the blog and no arrests, tickets or injuries.
It’s a few days since my return and I’m unpacking gear, sorting out the video and deciphering my notes. In the next couple of weeks I’ll review what I’ve accomplished and learned in detail. Specifically, I want to look at equipment – what worked, what didn’t and what was missing, such as a waterproof housing for the camera with fixed mounting points for hands free recording in heavy weather.
The overall approach to documenting is worth looking at too. I’ve an enhanced appreciation for the amount of effort needed – planning and scheduling a documentary film, shooting the film, sailing between 4 – 8 hours a day, packing and unpacking a boat and blogging. That’s a lot of stuff to do. It will be fun to discuss how this all flowed.
Packing and cargo strategies are significant – where does everything go, how quickly can the boat be packed and unpacked, do items need to be dry, how can packs be shifted to balance the boat while sailing? How would cargo be recovered if the boat flipped? I often spent hours getting ready to launch in the morning, is there any way to speed this up?.
Looking over the blog, it’s fairly skeletal. It’s a little tough to follow along, a chart showing my route would have been ideal. 90% of the video has yet to be posted.
So while the computer churns away, turning Vixia video into something I can edit, there’s plenty to think about.