Adventure Belize

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Memories... like sands through the

Birkenstocks, so go the days of our lives...

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Memory lane, looking through old emails and deleting; found this picture that RiverJohn set back in 2008. Rafted up after a very stormy night during the 2008 EC; seeking shelter from the storm.

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Another pic from the 2008 EC; KneadingWater took this shot as we called in a weather hold at Flamingo. If memory serves me right KneadingWater paddled out in 25mph headwinds, we waited it out a day till the weather clocked around.
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Ah the memories - EC 2011 is only 5 months away - start planning now!!

BOSS part 5 - dagger board and aka pins

Like a puzzle that has too many pieces, the Balogh Boss comes together slowly but surely. Today was another important "drill" day as I drilled the holes for the lee board and aka quick pins.
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The black mark identifies the angle of the ama in the optimal position. (didn't want it to move while drilling). The key was taking the whole rig apart, using the guide mark and drill-press; Pins line up perfectly.
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Yes I have the friction assembly reversed with the pin to the outside; I want the lee board closer to the hull when it is in the kicked up position. By turning it around it moves it inboard by almost 2 inches. I can then paddle with the lee board partially down with the center of effort moved aft.
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Better lucky then good! - The Captain

Adventure on

R&D Team - Destination Belize

The cats out of the bag so to speak; been working diligently with our friends down in Belize to pull together Adventure International, an adventure based travel company focusing on a variety of epic life enhancing experiences. Canoeing kayaking sailing diving fishing caving hiking are on the list.

What makes us different is we plan to personally introduce you to some of the smaller unique venues, traditional destinations where the hosts will know you by name, you will feel at home as you explore and challenge yourself to see all that is Belize. Our desire is to slow things down get you on Belizean time.

Our website went live a couple days ago, obviously a lot more content to add as we develop adventures, but non-the-less it is up and functional.

I will have my SPOT navigation on and tracking, for those that want to follow along as we stealth camp, 5 star jungle lodge and meander our way around the country. More to follow...

Just like life, a work in progress - The Capt'n

Happy 14th Birthday Marissa!!

Woo Hoo!!
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Marissa turns 14 and the crowd goes wild!!

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Weather cleared and the track was open; Marissa tearing it up on the go-kart track in the Wisconsin Dells.

Wingnutts!!

Thurday Night Gathering of Wing Club

Location location, time to change location! The summer stomping grounds of the Sandy Bar come to a close; Wing Night moves to Crogville. The question is; Is the Captain worthy?

Boss part 4 - struts

Well I drilled the first holes into the cruiser, twelve in total for today. The Balogh BOSS is coming together nicely. I have all the struts and strut mounts attached. Took about 2 hours to line everything up. Measure twice, cut once, drill once.
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Up next is the leeboard assembly and drilling out the aka's for the quick pins. I also need to drill and put in the set screws for the strut couplers.
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The weather has been so nice hard to be in the shop when it's 80 degrees - the river calls.

More events -

explorers racers and adventures alike, take note.
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The WaterTribe event, the Everglades Challenge has quite a viewer following. Another WaterTribe event(s) are kicking off this week, The North Carolina Challenge. The Website is chalked full of information, great articles, gear list check lists and a very active informative discussion forum.
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Kruger Canoe Adventures in cooperation with the Verlen Kruger Memorial Association are hosting a knock down drag out event, the Shore to Shore. A voyage across Michigan and down the coast up the Grand River to the Memorial site. We'll be tracking the voyagers on the Kruger Canoe Adventures Blog. - Click here
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Two great waterborne events to watch this coming week; paddles up!! - The Capt'n

On the river

It ended up being a great weekend on the Wisconsin River; the heavy rain and thunderstorms held off or at least went a different direction. Here is a picture of an eagle as we paddled by just south of Muscada.
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The old bridges are slowly but surely being replaced by new concrete structures that have no eye appeal what so ever. This train bridge has a section that slides to leave an opening for paddle wheelers and barges that used to make their way up and down the Wisconsin river.

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A shot of Patrick launching at Lone Rock; he's paddling a beautiful Blackhawk Starship. An under utilized launch perfect place for a put-in for an overnight.
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Islands were plentiful; we found this beauty after paddling by numerous islands that had campers and paddlers already staking their claim. Surprisingly a lot of people rolled the dice and paddled this weekend on Saturday; Paddling well into the late afternoon on Sunday, we had the river to ourselves.
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Sandy paddling her Blackhawk skirts the rock outcroppings just south of Lone Rock; if you look close you can see Mia her paddle pup peaking over the gunnel.

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Koa and Mia have become the best of paddling buds; can't believe I didn't get a picture of them together tearing it up on the beach. When these two go out on their island adventure, our only hope is that they don't roll in something when they return.

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Paddle on - The Capt'n

Is that all there is my fire-ends,

then lets keep dancing and bring on the wings...

Wing Night All-Star Line up

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The days of Fummer are winding down, Sandy Bar (Our summer destination for wing night) on Rock Lake is down to limited hours; next Thursday will be their last Thursday open for the 2010 season. We now give you Fall in all its spendor.
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Great paddling a head, the Fall colors are spectacular in Wisconsin; a little north Door County is experiencing them right now.
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What to do; I should be doing yard work, cleaning the house or down at the Rock River Canoe Company working on rigging the BOSS, but the lure of a Wisconsin river overnight was too much to pass up. The River Gods have spoken.
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Gone paddling.

Amazing... or not

Well, we've seen a lot of pictures and information come over the Internet since Vice-President Al Gore claimed that he "invented" the Internet. - which is also false as is this picture. News Flash pic is real; I stand corrected
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For clarification; Now this is a real picture, but the hot-dog is fake. I think they nailed it! Makes me wanna a Chicago Style dog for breakfast.

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Now this is real; Dr. Nic Hall showing what he is made of; makes me wonder what he does in his free time.

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And the latest in water sport adventures is this awesome picture of a kayaker gliding over a whale. Must say a great photo shop effort by its Creator; but a lass it's a fake.

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Also false but running rampant on the Internet is that I invented the "McPickle".

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Every picture tells a story - Rod S.

Boss part 3 - bits and pieces

What we have here is a bag of bits and pieces. The "thing ama bob" goes into the "dodad" and "walla"; you got yourself a strut assembly!! It's all good when you have the right tools and good lighting.
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This is what it looks like when it is all assembled. Everything seems to be going together quite smoothly; much better working conditions then last year's UFC when I met up with Bill "Snor" and had to do a refit from the cruiser to his DreamCatcher on the semi slippery slope of the grand tours boat launch.
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It's all coming together like a blended Margarita - "Ole Salts" optional

BOSS part 2 - All tangled up in glue

Scuffing the inside of the hull, for good adhesion; I hit it with some 80 grit as recommended by Kim at the shop. Tacked off...

Taped off - A Bob Dylan knock off' 'All tangled up in glue". Gloves on and the potential for gooey mess, no photos of the application of the mast step and weighing it down. Using thickened epoxy.
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Dog Days of Fummer

Fall is definitely knocking at the front door as summer exits quietly out the back; ah the Dog Days of Fummer. Great weather brought about a great day to be out on the water. Hugging the windward shore I paddled the reed grass while Marissa pounded out home work.
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Great day to be out on Rock Lake as CRAW (Catamaran Racing Assoc. of Wisc.) was out holding their annual Fummer regatta. Light to moderate winds pushed them around the course; I think they will take it; past years the weather was horrid.

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Close to 20 boats on the line; here the lead boats battled it out in spotty gusts. The lead changed hands often; if you were in a lull and others in the wind you might as well have dropped anchor and had a cold one. Conditions allowed boat to make up 600 yards in a single leg.

Rock River Canoe Company

It's oh so very nice to have a boat shop like this right down the road; a great place to hang out or build a boat.

BOSS part 1

Marissa (Boo) and I moved the Cruiser, tools and Balogh BOSS to the workshop at the Rock River Canoe Company. These wood working craftsman canoe / boat builders were quite taken by the Cruiser. I wasn't shunned to the basement, it just happens to be the building station that was open at the time.
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So after moving everything, we began to unpack the yummy goodness of the Balogh. Our goal today was to determine where the mast base (cup) would be situated. After playing with Etch's Cruiser Balogh set up I pretty much new where everything should go.

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Our plan will move the rig forward by 8"; just forward of the portage yolk. This puts the center of effort of the sail more a midships. The new Balogh designed sail has a longer foot and has a shorter luff then it's predecessor.
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The blocks of wood on the rim are there to gauge (space) the distance between the rim with spray skirt on and the center section of the Aka. The mast cup is a bit robust and sits pretty high, at first I though about replacing it with something shorter, I thought it might get in the way when sleeping in the boat, but further thought on it, I'll go with it.

More Wisconsin River Pics

Drumming on the Wisconsin River

Woman / Chaos

Like most pirates, we had to change out our women frequently; Sandy Joyce and Judy stood the test of time, the others ...
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Rena day paddled in and met up with us with Patrick's group. That's a Blackhawk Zepher she is paddling, it's a beauty.
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Can't remember this lovelies name; part of the Prairie State Paddlers that came up on us in the freighter canoe; a character for sure; what a hoot to have met up with that group.

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Olga paddled out with us on day 1 and 2; brutal paddle into headwinds steady 35 gusting to 40; cold and wet. Unfortunately she missed all the good weather and chaos on the river.

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It was another banner trip with good peeps and plenty of laughs; thanks for playing along. See ya all on the river.
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The Capt'n

anarchy vs. mayhem

Like UFC 117; a grudge match ensued, Anarchy Vs. Mayhem!
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It was three days of heated discussion on anarchy; reckless abandonment (a wild card entry) was in till the semi finals but got dropped abruptly.
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The crowd went wild, some loss their clothes and in an attempt to cool themselves; others faked like they were a sleep and watched people run around naked swimming and playing frisbee... I give you Mayhem.
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Thank goodness Patrick "river master" Cannon arrived (right) and took on Brian " drum boy" Dopke (left) down, to end the discussion; Whew we could have had anarchy!
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Anarchy on the river bad; serenity now - good.

More Bounty

Can you feel the love; more bounty was found on the river. This foam deer head became our tribal symbol; sat in on all tribal affairs,a watchful eye of the deer clan.

These carvings come in many forms of man, woman, animals and symbols. The oldest origins are from "eyes" painted on the bow of the ship so that she could "see her way". Our figure head... the deer.

Wisconsin River Remix

Thor like the Blackhawk that came before him, reaps the bounty of the river. Ah another story to add to the ever growing list.
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We came upon this rental canoe all weathered and tattered wedged in a strainer; took us about 5 minutes to free it; we drew cards to see who reaped the day's bounty. Thor claims his prize.
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Fires were a big part of our adventure; not to be outdone by what we call the encroaching FIBS (Illinois flat lander ); we built fires. This birds nest fire was a beauty. .

Labor Day Weekend

enlarge click on pic

It was a great weekend for a get away; We paddled the Wisconsin from Sauk City down to Muscuda. Sandbars were scarce, so it was a challenge to find places to camp; The nice thing about the cooler weather, high winds on Friday and high water, it kept a lot of paddlers off the river, as it was we were sharing islands and shoreline.



Though we met up with some characters for sure; Blazing through the water this voyager canoe came up on us like a freight train. The group is part of the Prairie paddlers out of Illinois; The average age is 74 years old. We stopped for lunch and I got this video of them as they were leaving.

It was a meandering trip with people joining and leaving the trip over the 4 days; Joyce and Marko found us on Friday tucked in behind an island with the wind howling; Patrick and his group found us on Sunday afternoon, they were on an over night. All in all we had about 15 in our group.

Over the next couple of days I'll be sharing stories and pictures of our trip.

Off river time; strap on the wrist watch and back to work - The Capt'n

It's funny how Koa knows we are headed out on an adventure; she watches patiently by the door as I load gear for the trip. All eyes are on me, she knows were on an adventure.
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Unfortunately it's just the pre-load before we head out tomorrow morning; Koa is under foot now, not wanting to miss a thing; like me leaving with out her. But we have another day of work to contend with before we slip away.
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See ya on the other side of Labor Day.
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The Capt'n