Talked with two of my bio brothers yesterday about the trip.
Mike and I both have an affinity for the national parks and we discussed how I might craft a proposal based on ALM to increase access to parks without increasing impact. During the trip I made several overnight stops within the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore where camping is prohibited. I even met up with a ranger south of Esch Road, the morning after. Being on Hello World meant I had the option to anchor and sleep on the boat, so it’s not technically camping. Also, I carried a composting toilet so I never needed facilities or dug catholes on park land. In additon, since I carried my own stove, I never built fires on the beach. Mike and I discussed how a constituency could be organized around sustainable camping and presented to park adminisitrators. Beach cat sailors, kayakers and canoers with proper equipment and training could perhaps get special permits for transient camping. This would increase visitation to the park, perhaps even enabling handicap and youth access to remote areas.
Steve and I talked about techniques for making the hulls leak resistant and how to amp up traffic to the ondesire.movie project.
He suggested that hulls could be pressurized and/or vacuumed to determine their structural integrity. With a threaded connector that matched the drain hole, air could be pumped in to the hull and then soapy water spread around questionable areas – wherever bubbles appear the hulls are not air tight. Another approach would be to suck air out of the hulls and wait to see if the vacuum remains or how long it takes to equalize. A flexible seal around where the pylons meet the decks is important. This area likely opens and closes a little in heavy weather, when the hulls are subject to flexing and torque.
Of course, getting on the Hobie forums, explaining my recent experience and asking for advice about leaky hulls is a given. I might even drive some traffic to ondesire.movie, as folks from the forums follow links from my posts. This sort of effort could be replicated on all sorts of forums – post production forums, vixia forums, underwater, etc. I’ve got plenty of questions to ask!
What I need is a few more bodies to help me do this outreach.
On the subject of collaboration, I definitely am looking forward to doing a review of products and services. I had some stellar gear and a little crap, and I feel compelled to provide detailed reports. This will likely be helpful in facilitating future collaborations, too!
Today I’d like to take exploded view pictures of everything before stowing it away for the winter.