Certainly we know Australia is a great place to kayak. Certainly on my top 5 “places to paddle” list. Given recent conversations it may not be a bad idea to rush down to Sydney right away for the “World Sexology Conference“, brought to you by the World Association of Sexual Health and the good people at Lilly, Johnson & Johnson to name a few. Lectures include; “The neurobiology of Sexual Desire,” “Forensic Sexuality, and “The Benefits of Being Queer in Tasmania.” I’m sure we are all happy to learn that the scientific program will include hands-on workshops, and a wide variety of oral presentations. . . Something for everyone I dare say. . .

Suddenly it makes sense why everyone’s running south!

Ok, with due deference to my favorite kayak manufactures who do not make poly boats. I pose this question; If you were going to open your own little kayak school and guide company AND could only afford poly boats, and only could choose one company & style. . . . Let’s say you’d get a great deal if you bought a bunch of the same thing. . What one poly boat would you buy? Yeah, I know we’d want some of this and some of that. . but for the sake of argument, what’s the single best all around, fairly inexpensive, seaworthy plastic boat that you would feel good teaching and taking tours out in?? I’m not sure myself but I think the Valley Aquanaut Cub has to be right near the top of the list. READ MORE.

Bloody Hell! Ever think of just running away and not coming back? Yeah well, I was thinking Peurto Rico might be nice. Then of course I read a journal from a scientist at the Aricebo Observatory. . . Lines, delays, delays and lines. Ok, Forget that!! But then again, I live 90% of my life out of the system. So the occasional queue shouldn’t bother me. But the truth is I always feel like one of those guys in Star Trek waiting for their turn in the disintegration booth. I feel this urge to run!! “RUN Boy!!! NOW, while you have a chance!!” I can hear the zapping sound as each person in line disappears. . One thing I learned though, was that the lines for public services in PR probobly ar’nt all that much longer than here. Only here we can’t pay someone to stand in line for us.

Well, I finally gathered all my papers and went into the antique marble county courthouse and walked past all the people in the hallways waiting for their various trials. Most of the time the people outside the courtroom don’t look like thugs. Usually they just look like they’ve suffered a lot. County court is usually more a humiliation or inconvenience than anything. I’m sure it feels often like just more oppression from the system. As I walked by I smiled at a mother doing her best to keep a toddler entertained in this dark golden austere atmosphere.

At the Clerk of court’s windows they put up big signs telling you that you must go to window #4 or they won’t talk to you. Of course at window #4 they told me that although they were there, they werent there and I’d have to come back tomorrow. Fancy that!?

So the next day found me up early and driving again to the seat of our county government to again attempt to get my passport dealt with. All the paperwork had been filled out and identification was in order. Stalin would be proud. At the window the woman worked with dedication through all the paperwork until it came time for me to give her a check for the Department of State. “Hey,” I wondered, “Will any of this money go to buying Condelessa Rice a new swimsuit??” Lord knows she needs a vacation! I suddenly felt a bit of a niggling about sending them a personal check. I could see delays. So I said I’d like to get a money order. She sent me to the bank across the street. Ok. Well, they were very helpful until they realized I didn’t have an account with them. “Leave Scum, we don’t serve your kind here”. Wells Fargo are a bunch of chumps if you ask me. So off to the post office.

I waited in line with a particularly pretty and friendly young woman. She would smile and look at the ground then glance up again and flush. Ok, then. I turned away and got money order. As I turned to leave she gave me a slight wave and stepped up to the counter. As I walked out I heard the woman at the counter ask her, “How, are you today?” The woman flatly replied. . “Loveless”. . .

So I returned to the courthouse and handed over my money order which went in the envelope with my nasty 2×2 pictures, and various forms and copies of Birth certification and drivers license. Then she handed me the whole pile back to take back again to the post office where they would stamp it all and expedite it out today. As I left the courthouse I approached the high marble stairs and tripped. Never touched a step. I flew through the air, packages in hand, and dropped the 7 or so feet that the steps were meant to mitigate. I landed on the concrete walk way and with 2 quick rolls I popped back up standing holding my paper work. After a moment I realized that all that high jumping off cliffs was a good thing. What sucked was that there was no one there to see my amazing recovery prowess. Blast!!

Back to the post office I went. By then the “loveless” young woman was long gone. I went to the counter and finally was able to get the neat little blue and chrome stamps and see the package go into a canvass basket behind the counter. The woman assured me that it would be in the hands of the US Department of State first thing in the morning. Being that this was a last minute thing I was happy to hear that. Just under the wire. But it’s done.

So this is what it takes to be a world traveling kayaker??? Now where’s that whiskey. . . .

In another unrelated moment in 2000, derrick says,
“well about like this. . . . ” Yeah, pull the other one!!

Now here’s where a seakayaker can envy a river expedition. “2400 miles in 30 days” . Paddles faster! Paddle faster! Seriously though I did want to mention this slightly more local expedition.

This from their website;

Starting at Lake Itasca, Minnesota we will be navigating through the headwaters of Mississippi River and continuing along the river to the end where he empties into the Gulf of Mexico south of Venice, Louisiana. The trip will be made in expedition grade kayaks and the River Team will be comprised of four individuals. The length of the trip is approx. 2,350miles taking us through 10 states and we expect to complete the trip in 30 days or less.

Louis Breckenridge and John Dubina will be starting out May 13, 2007. They hope to raise $500,000 in donations from individuals and companies for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, focusing on children’s cancers.

Well guys, look out for those mosquitos. If you can survive them, the gators and poisonous snakes will be child’s play.

To learn More about the Kayak for a Kure Expedition visit their website at: www.kayak4akure.org. Of course, we’ll be pulling for ya!

So I was reading at CNN this morning San Francisco city legislator Ross Mirkarimi created and got passed a bill to ban all those plastic bags from supermarkets and chain stores. Great! We get ditch loads around here. Interestingly Mirkarimi stated that just in San Francisco alone the ban would save 450,000 gallons of oil a year and remove 1,400 tons for debris now sent to landfills. Ok, this is something simple. How long will it take to get the rest of the US to follow suit? Bloody forever I’ll bet. It’s good to see people come up with good ideas and then fight the fight to get them through. Especially if it’s for the good of the people of their community and offers no obvious profit to the individual.

Then of course on the other end of the spectrum is the environmental damage caused by US companies in places they feel can be swept under a rug. Places I’m learning, like Peurto Rico. The picture above is in Ponce which is on the southern coast of the island. I’m told pharmaceutical companies did their “dirty” business in Peurto Rico for quite some time until of course it became more profitable and less restrictive to move their plants to Africa or elsewhere where environmental laws were almost non-existent. Of course this is true of many companies and not just Pharmaceuticals. These days in PR the plants just sit and rust. The sites are not cleaned up I’m told because it’s much cheaper to pay the fines than actually clean up the site. Interesting that. In the end the people who live near these squalid, abandon sites continue to ingest the poisons and carcinogens because neither the government nor the companies care one bit for the people. Shareholders of course prefer to know nothing other than the way to the trough. It’s all a numbers game where those at the top keep an eye on the profit margin and the body count. You can reap the profit until someone notices the growing number holes in the ground. Of course then, you just shut down and move on. All the while keeping the piggies pleasingly plump.

Photo by Carrie Medina. Used by permission. Thanks Carrie!

So here I was planning to write this nice long intro all about Justine Curgenven’s crossing of the Bass Strait coming up soon. Launch is expected to be April 2nd. I was going to share with you that this crossing is no small task. I was going to tell you a bit about Alun Hughes who is doing the trip with her. I’d also thought of mentioning how Andrew McAuley had done this crossing 3 times and that in 2003 he made the first non-stop crossing by sea kayak. I was also going to mention that thinking of Andrew does remind us that these journeys are not a ‘given’. That there is a certain level of risk that we must respect. But I found myself needing to rush a bit to tell you about the new podcasts. . . So to Justine & Alun I say, good luck, have fun, and be safe!

To you I say, Check out Justine’s first Podcast leading into the trip.