On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 12:31 AM, rebyl_kayak < rebyl_kayak_at_energysustained.com> wrote: > > Of course I wouldn't dream of encouraging controversy or tangential topics > :~) but if anyone wants to take this up off line! > > > I'm not at all sure it's tangential. Paddling itself is, after all, a form of alternative energy. Any, or all, of us could simply switch to some sort of engine other than the human one if we were so inclined. My wife and kids and I cruised on a sailboat for years that was powered by a combination of solar panels and one wind generator (as well as a Volvo diesel that could be hand-cranked to start). Of all those forms the wind generator was by far the most intrusive. The diesel was louder in decibels but would only need to be run an hour to do the same charge as 24 hours of that almost equally noisy wind generator. But the solar panels only needed to be repositioned a few times a day and never interfered with sleep! The hills around here are alive with wind generators.... gigantic things that would meet with a lot of resistance among one's neighbors if you tried to erect one. So I think that the only way we'll get completely distributed power generation is with solar panels. But other forms of generation will need to be in place as well. Yesterday (Sunday) I took the aluminum overcast (my Streamline trailer) up to Jones Bay on Banks Lake; about 60 miles north of Moses Lake for an afternoon of paddling. One nice thing about taking the trailer is that it gives me a private place to change into - and back out of - paddling clothes. Another is that I re-read John Dowd's book on kayaking while I was eating my lunch (and just before my nap). The edition I own is probably not the latest but I was amazed to see how much has changed in kayaking over the past ten years or so. Greenland techniques, for one. Navigation, for another. I suspect we all have GPS units now. Most of us carry some form of communications when we paddle: VHF or cell phone (or both), most likely. Thinking about power comes naturally when paddling around the rocky islands of Banks Lake because it's an integral part of the Grand Coulee Dam system. I was paddling only about 9 miles away from the great dam itself. Interestingly enough, hydroelectric power in this state (Washington) is not considered "green" power. I suspect that it's because we're probably tapped out in dam construction and there is so much of it in place here now that the powers-that-be are probably encouraging other alternatives. So I paddled the F-1 a few miles (lots of work... next time I'm taking the Express) accompanied by my Garmin Colorado GPS and my Apple iPhone (both consuming power) and then I relaxed in the Overcast listening to jazz on the stereo while reading a book on kayaking. I guess I'm not exactly a purist, huh? Anyway, I'm going to put a solar panel on the Overcast and carry one for the kayaks. I remain a big fan of distributed solar because it seems so much easier to be ubiquitous; lots less obtrusive, almost certainly cheaper, and the technology is about to change readically. I'll worry about volcanoes later (Mt. St. Helens is less than 300km WSW from me. Yikes! Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Oct 19 2009 - 09:11:55 PDT
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