erden

Hi dberdinka. With each dispatch I posted at Around-n-Over, next to the date field, I included the days at sea at the time that I posted the said dispatch. I left Bodega Bay, CA, just up the coast from San Francisco, on the morning of July 10, 2007. CHAMPION-52 light vessel of the Philippine Frabelle Fishing Corporation came on May 17, 2008 with the intent to tow me to the mother ship PRIMROSE. PRIMROSE lifted my boat and secured it on deck. The boat is now in General Santos City, at the south end of the Mindanao island until after the typhoon season. 312 days total was spent at sea, alone except in the last day in the company of the crew of CHAMPION-52. Cheers. Erden.

"We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea. The ship hath been suddenly becalmed. Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 'Twas sad as sad could be; And we did speak only to break The silence of the sea! All in a hot and copper sky, The bloody Sun, at noon, Right up above the mast did stand, No bigger than the Moon. Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean. And the Albatross begins to be avenged. Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink." .... "O Wedding-Guest! this soul hath been Alone on a wide wide sea: So lonely 'twas, that God himself Scarce seeméd there to be. O sweeter than the marriage-feast, 'Tis sweeter far to me, To walk together to the kirk With a goodly company! To walk together to the kirk, And all together pray, While each to his great Father bends, Old men, and babes, and loving friends And youths and maidens gay! And to teach, by his own example, love and reverence to all things that God made and loveth. Farewell, farewell! but this I tell To thee, thou Wedding-Guest! He prayeth well, who loveth well Both man and bird and beast. He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all. The Mariner, whose eye is bright, Whose beard with age is hoar, Is gone : and now the Wedding-Guest Turned from the bridegroom's door. He went like one that hath been stunned, And is of sense forlorn: A sadder and a wiser man, He rose the morrow morn." From Rhime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge

thanks guys. Nancy is a big part of this journey. She not only lets me go, she also believes that this is a worthy challenge. She has helped shape Around-n-Over and how we work. I was proud to have raised $19k during our Pacific crossing for iLKYAR Foundation in Turkey, for which we located a matching grant as well. So iLKYAR will receive $38k total for rural area students that come to centrally located boarding schools for their primary level education. These kids sometimes show up without appropriate clothes or shoes, let alone notebooks or pencils... Erden.

Hello friends... I am back on land since June 2nd, in General Santos City (GenSan) on Mindanao Island of the Philippines. Running out of food after 312 days at sea, with resupply impossible where I was, and being carried north by the ocean away from PNG into the path of typhoons, I had to make a quick and final decision, as difficult as it was: save the boat to row another day... the last thing I wanted was to create a rescue situation later on when desperate, and when we did not have control over our options. Frabelle Fishing Corporation from the Philippines came to help in my "orderly retreat." One of their light boats towing me to their larger refrigerated carriers destined for GenSan. After the typhoon season, we will take the boat to the same spot where the tow was accepted, to resume the journey where I left it off. In the meantime, I will do my part as a belayer to my wife to earn her permission for another extended leave. While I have not touched rock since Spring 2007, she has been climbing 12a's lately!!! For a while, I had hopes that I could reach PNG (Wewak was 136nm due S) or Jayapura (199nm due SW) before the winds turned on me, setting the seas northbound all the way to 4N, another 240nm away where the counter current flowed eastbound. Had I been able to reach New Guinea, there was a remote chance for permits to climb Carstenz. Alas, it was not meant to be. I have to spend some time perusing the winds and currents, and talking to the fishing boat captains for local information to decide when and where to go from the tow-accepted-point. Coral Sea and Australia look likely, presenting Kosciuszko as an option, all in the context of the Six Summits Project. I will look forward to joining you guys at one of the pub gatherings. Should be back in Seattle sometime mid to late June. Best. Erden.

Try rowing an ocean! I am actually trying to put on weight to reach 220lbs before my launch on the Pacific early June. The problem is I am stuck at around 210lbs. Eating stops at some point, and I feel satiated! By the time I get across to Australia, likely I will have lost weight down to 180 lbs, or so. Part of that loss will be muscle atrophy: muscles used in walking, running, especially those below the knees lose mass. Erden.

That's Zag, right of "Handsome and Well Hung" and left of "Angel's Arete" - it was usually dirty with runoff from the top. Climbed it back in the summer of 1986. You guys are tempting me to dig up my pictures! Erden.

WSUV blurb about the event

Thanks for the bump, Billcoe. You are right, that is the Washington State University in Vancouver Washington, not to be confused with the Canadian one And, yes, Ryland, it has been a looong time. Time flies!!! It will be good to see each other again. Erden.

I will be presenting at the WSUV Campus on April 12, 3pm. Meeting location will be the Auditorium (room 110) in the Administrative building. I hope that you can join us. Best. Erden.

Here is a shot in the dark: That it is not holding on to the date that you enter, and that you get a black screen perhaps tells us your problem may not be with Windows. Is your BIOS up to date, or is it damaged? I think there is a BIOS battery as well which may be depleted by now if you have an old computer. Erden.

Stood on the Gendarme and yodeled, summer of 1986. Has it been that long??? Erden.

You can import the VOB file into Microsoft Movie Maker, edit, create a WMV file, then convert... I think I did that once. That would be one way to work with what exists on a typical XP/Vista system. Erden.

Advenced X Video Converter for $29.95, you can get a lot done with this software. It has worked well for me. Erden.

That actually is the biggest challenge of the crossing: the extended solitude. The mind expands to fill the void. With the lack of stimulation, the mind tends to invent things and thoughts get stuck like a broken record out there. I had to learn to control the thoughts and to change the topic! Erden.

Actually I am looking for the better tackles/lures out there to score more of the mahi mahi. The dorato (same fish, different ocean) were all around me on the Atlantic, I did not need to fish there; I still caught one dorato, and one yellow fin tuna. But on the Pacific, I will make a point of fishing to extend my range. Maybe I should buy you a beer and you can give me some pointers on how best to fish the mahi-mahi and ahi. Erden.

Agreed. On the Atlantic I had an older model GPS unit on the boat which did not show depth contours. I will be upgrading that before my launch. I had a Garmin GPSMAP76S as a backup which provided more details. All said - conditions will have to be just right for me to try an island landing. I cannot risk this boat, I put my 401(k) into it, literally! Erden.

Rudder is fixed, controlled by a cable as in a bicycle brake cable. Rudder does not fold up on impact. The body of the boat is marine plywood, with a coat of fiber on the bottom. Given the boat's loaded weight, it will not hold up against a coral. The boat surfs OK with assistance from the rower. I had to keep an eye on the approaching waves, and control the broaching. On the front end of the wave, the boat wanted to broach (not too terribly), but on the back side of the wave, it wanted to correct itself -- the rudder provided a pivot point, and it felt like the front of the boat was lifted and flagged forward with the moving wave. I could correct course on the top side of the wave, and ride the forward rush with it. Knowledge of local tides will be necessary for me to attempt any unconventional entry into island harbors. Thanks for the input. I will confirm if the boat will be at the Seattle Bicycle Expo. My understanding is they are trying to figure out a way to display the boat. Erden.

Thanks Pat (good to connect again!), and weekendclimber. The draft of the boat is not much - about 20" - but the rudder hangs down further of course. I will have appropriate charts with me. Timing the tides and currents through those passages will prove challenging, not to mention the effect of the winds on this boat - it has a lot of windage. It will be nice to make landfall somewhere along the way, if only to have another starting point if something goes wrong later before my arrival to Australia. I would hate to sit start again from San Francisco ;-) Erden.

Likewise - it was a pleasure to share the stories. I will look forward to more presentation opportunities in the next couple months before the Pacific beckons... Erden.

That may well be in Australia - it is easier for me to find a continent than an island given the little horsepower on my boat. Besides the Pacific islands have coral reefs around them, so unless conditions are just right, or I am desperate, I will not push it. I am safer in open water. Departure from San Francisco planned for 2am on June 2, pending winds and weather. More about the boat here. Erden.

Warmer waters will not make my row across the Pacific any easier. I will leave in June, and arrive at Australia end of December; i.e. start in summer, continue in summer and arrive in summer -- hot, hot, hot all the way already!!! So any weakening is welcome news... Erden.

Wayne is going to hate me for outing him on this. He told me that Alpinist 19 will publish his article about his recent first ascent of the Mongo Ridge on Mt. Fury. Keep an eye on the upcoming issue of the Alpinist Magazine. One of ours made into the big time climbers' magazine, yey! Come celebrate with us this Thursday at the REI presentation. Erden.

Actually he is very kind and very personable. It is amazing to see him tune out all the human traffic around, and focus on the message that he needs to deliver. He hardly rehearses the content, just practices a little of it, then off he goes with the delivery. He did that more than once while we were filming at the show. A true professional at what he does. He is also an ironman triathlete - it takes a huge commitment to carry out that kind of training! And his last name is spelled: Curley. Erden.

Please keep an eye on the King5 Evening Magazine program on Wednesday. They will have footage and an interview about my recent Atlantic crossing -- 7pm on King5, 9pm on NWCN, on Jan 31. My boat is on display at the Seattle Boat Show where I will hold a presentation on Wednesday evening the 31st at 6:15, and on Saturday evening the 3rd at 7:15, if you cannot make the Feb 8 event later. Of course, on March 10 you can come visit the booth at the Bicycle Expo, and see another presentation there at 4:30pm. We may have the boat there too, waiting for a confirmation. Best. Erden.

Bummer - would have liked to attend but, Wayne and I will be at REI giving a presentation of ours at the same time... Erden.