posted 08-15-2000 12:43 AM ET (US)        

See: http://continuouswave.com/whaler/rendezvous/

More pictures coming. Also, if anyone has any good shots from the trip to Baie Fine, please let me know. That roll was spoiled due to a misload in my camera.

posted 08-16-2000 07:11 PM ET (US)            

Great picture. Enjoyed your company on the boat.

John and Katie

Thanks for being such great hosts.

posted 08-16-2000 07:48 PM ET (US)            

I can't tell you how delighted Katie and I were to be a part of this way cool event; it is still hard for me to believe that we all really did pull it off. I'm going to leave it to Jim H. to do the chronicling (he was taking notes all weekend - I'm confident of great and entertaining stories!), but let me say that having had the opportunity to meet and make the new friends we did, to see up close and personal the AMAZING care, thought and ingenuity that have gone into each of these Whalers, and to have had it all happen in an area of the world that I consider to be unsurpassed in its natural beauty and impact, was a rare experience, and one that Katie and I will treasure for a long time.

We just got home last night and are not yet decompressed; we will be looking at 0our own photos in a few minutes for the first time...can't wait!

Short note: While disappointed that we missed Don McIntyre and Walt Steffens on Saturday (I think you all know that they spent some time out at Neptune chatting with Katie while we were on the way to Baie Finne), I'm really pleased to be able to say that I came across White Water en-trailer in Little Current on Monday past, hung around until Don M. showed up, introduced myself, and he and his wife followed me back out to Neptune where we had a chance to visit and look over all the neat work Don has done on his vintage Outrage. Only continuing regret: not having the opportunity to meet Walt Steffens and thank him for the great hint about the half-twist in flat nylon lines - works pefectly on my trailering cover at highway speeds.

More later-

posted 08-18-2000 01:34 AM ET (US)            

Manitoulin Island takes its name from the Manito or "Spirit", and it literally means "home of the Manito" or home of the spirit in Ojibway.

After many years (14+ years) of visiting there, I am of the opinion that those old Ojibways were right: there is a spirit there, a special magic.

Glad to hear that you found some of it in your visit. We'll put Lake Kagawong on the list for next time.

Best regards,

--Jim Hebert

posted 08-19-2000 12:48 AM ET (US)            

I was pretty amazed at how fast an 18-foot Whaler could travel in some pretty good waves. The ride was not particularly comfortable, but I kept thinking about how fast we were going and how short the trip was going to be compared to doing it at 4-knots in a sailboat. That made it easier to tolerate getting banged around a bit!

Once we got clear of Club Island, both Tom and I were keeping an eye on the gas gauge--it was sinking pretty fast toward "E". We had about ten miles of open water to cross upwind, with about 75 miles of open water to drift into downwind if we ran out!

When we finally got into a calm spot behind Flowerpot, the ol' gauge settled down to an accurate reading of "1/4" and we relaxed for the first time in about an hour :-)

posted 08-19-2000 05:39 PM ET (US)         

With a spare portable tank along, run your Whaler 'til the engine runs out of gas on the main tank, then fill it up at a marina, boat at normal rest in the WATER. Start putting in fuel until the gauge
first starts to move off "E". Record gallons taken. Then continue filling until gauge hits next 1/16th mark. Record total gallons taken. Do this all the way to completely full. You will probably note that tank will continue to take gas after gauge shows "F".
Record this amount also. Then make up a nice chart and keep it in the boat. This practice could save your life someday!

The Outrages/Revenges always had a sticker on them indicating "gauge only reads reliably (not accurately in terms of gallons) when boat is at rest in the water". The sender is in the front part of the tank, so when you're running, the gas tends to accumulate in the stern, giving you a bad reading.

The gauge in my 18 Outrage still reads "F" when up to 15 gallons (1/4 tank) have been used! And when it hits "E" (at rest), there is still 15 gallons remaining. But at least I know what I have, even though I don't like the inacurracy of 15 gallons at the lower end. (probably because the boat is a little stern heavy) On my 25 Outrage, the gauge still reads "F" when up to 25 gallons have been used, but at "1/4" it only has 20 gallons left (out of 140) and as it hits "E" it's totally dry! So when I see "1/4", I head for a gas dock quickly!

posted 09-08-2000 08:42 AM ET (US)            

Reading your account of your first day of the NC 2000 Rendezvous, my first reaction was, "Gee, those guys were really having a great time...I wish I had been there on that leg of the trip with them.". Then as I read further, I recognized the same feeling come over me sitting here at my desk that I would get when heading out for Neptune from Little Current. I was transported and spellbound as I finished reading your account of the first day.

I can't wait to read about the rest of the rendezvous, even though I was there for most of the rest of it. Thanks for your fine work.

posted 09-08-2000 01:11 PM ET (US)            

Your insight and recollection is simply amazing! I too was spellbound reading your narrative of that first day. Thanks for leading our group over to Little Current and for the kind words about Backlash. I look forward to many more such trips!

posted 09-11-2000 10:47 AM ET (US)            

If you have some photgraphic contributions, please send them along! I am missing all the pictures from the Baie Fine trip.

The saga will continue with Days Three and Four in a few more weeks.

posted 09-13-2000 10:29 PM ET (US)            

Larry - you were needling me somewhere along the line about the pace I was setting on the Baie Fine trip, or the Whitefish River trip, or both, I don't remember for sure, but I do remember you chiding me (graciously) about the 35 mph pace. I was reminded about it reading Jim's account of the second day; he mentioned the 35 mph speed, too...(confession time) I was confused when you mentioned the speed, because I had been using my gps to monitor my speed, and except for a couple of bursts to burn the carbon out, I had been religiously keeping it between 25 and 30...I thought you were nuts! Well, a couple of days after you guys left, I had some time on my hands and was going through the various menus in my gps to get a little more familiar with the myriad of things it can do, and guess what I found? I had the speed and distance set to nautical miles! So I guess maybe we were going a little faster than I thought...

Cheers,

posted 09-20-2000 01:02 AM ET (US)            

Thanks for the kind words about the Day-Three narrative. You found one of the links I forgot to remove--I was still in the process of writing the article!

But it is finally done--for now--and I have addded links to it throughout the Rendezvous Section.

I also added new photographs to Day-Two. And I have some more photos just received to add to all the sections, but for now, please enjoy reading

posted 09-26-2000 12:58 PM ET (US)            

You can read about the return crossing of Georgian Bay in "Day Four".

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/rendezvous/dayFour.html

Most of the gang stayed an extra day or two, and I have some wonderful pictures from them, so we'll have to have a "Day Five" and "Day Six" segment, too. But someone else must write the narrative, or else it's just going to be a photo gallery.