It rained everyday for five weeks while I camped in my tent at the Tucker Creek campground on the Kanawha River. I finally had two consecutive dry days and used them to fiberglass the edges of four simple 2x2x8 foot plywood pontoons. I then put a deck of plywood over these and hooped cattle panels up to make a covered wagon frame on a 8x16 foot raft. Total construction time was less than three days discounting the long delay.
I launched on a Sunday afternoon and floated calmly for about 40 miles over 4 days. I go very slow because my arm hurts after I paddle a bit. I have now glued up a yuloh (an oriental junk paddle). It allows me to move a tad more quickly.
When I arrived in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, I decided to get a trolling motor to assist me in getting out of the way of towboats and barge pusher boats. There are many of these on the Ohio River.
This took a week as every store I checked had sold out and did not expect to reorder until next year. I finally ordered an electric motor shipped to me by UPS. I then started the process of registering my boat. I needed to do this to obey West Virginia laws which require all boats with motors to have a license.
So far I have been waiting for three weeks at the Point Pleasant Public Boat Launch. The DMV boat desk person, Loren, tells me I should have my registration by midweek.
A gentleman, named Scott Cornell, is giving me a 21 foot long cabin cruiser as a tender. It needs some refurbishing, but seems to be quite solidly made.
Sorry my posts have been so delayed, but I stepped on my Chrome book and can only add to this blog when I get to a library.
A view of the boat in the process of construction and floating will be added soon.
I launched on a Sunday afternoon and floated calmly for about 40 miles over 4 days. I go very slow because my arm hurts after I paddle a bit. I have now glued up a yuloh (an oriental junk paddle). It allows me to move a tad more quickly.
When I arrived in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, I decided to get a trolling motor to assist me in getting out of the way of towboats and barge pusher boats. There are many of these on the Ohio River.
This took a week as every store I checked had sold out and did not expect to reorder until next year. I finally ordered an electric motor shipped to me by UPS. I then started the process of registering my boat. I needed to do this to obey West Virginia laws which require all boats with motors to have a license.
So far I have been waiting for three weeks at the Point Pleasant Public Boat Launch. The DMV boat desk person, Loren, tells me I should have my registration by midweek.
A gentleman, named Scott Cornell, is giving me a 21 foot long cabin cruiser as a tender. It needs some refurbishing, but seems to be quite solidly made.
Sorry my posts have been so delayed, but I stepped on my Chrome book and can only add to this blog when I get to a library.
A view of the boat in the process of construction and floating will be added soon.
