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Boats. Here's how to make them. Take two seven-foot bamboo poles. Take two pieces of seven-foot bungee cord. Connect the bungee cord and the bamboo poles so that they form a squarish rectangle with the bungee along the side and the bamboo at both ends. That's it. That's a boat.
Course there's more, there's always more, but that's the basic idea. The
boater in the bow steps inside, faces front and holds the pole somewhere
along the middle. The boater in back stands outside, faces front too and
holds the back pole in much the same manner. Both boaters should step slightly
more apart to give the bungee a bit more stretch - the boat makes more of
a rectangle that way and the tension between the two poles is an important
factor in tuning the boat's whole shape. But that's about it, that's a boat
and now you can go wherever you want.
It helps to see the water though. Boating your way across dry land can
be pretty tiring and it doesn't really do all that much except clean the
barnacles off the bottom of the hull. Some people need this from time to
time, but not all the time or even that often. So it's important to see
the water and go with the current, to keep your eyes peeled for rocks and
seals. And whirlpools. And Pirates. Oh there's lots of stuff to discuss
about the view from the boat and I'll tell you some things in while or two.
First though let's look more closely at the boat and dwell on the details
a bit.
Don't know whether you noticed or not, but on my way back from the facilities I stopped for a chat at that table over there. Her name is Beau Weevil and she sits by herself a lot of the time, drawing out things in that pad of hers. It's hard to describe about boats in words so I asked her to make a few pictures for me. Going to cost me a bit but that's okay, I run up a tab with her now and again till she lets me know that it's time to pay. Here she comes now. She'll sit down there at the end of the table and draw while we talk. Smile her a smile and pour her some tea, only don't expect much company. She don't talk much till she knows you a while, but her drawings will help you see more about how a boat has to be.
See what I mean, this picture here, the one she just drew, it's how you
connect up the poles and the bungee. Gotta use clips and eye bolts for that.
First you drill a hole through each end of the pole and fix in the eye bolts.
If the pole splits a bit don't worry about it, you can use some tape on
the outside end to keep the pole whole. Now the clips, they get tied to
the end of the bungee and click on the eye of the bolt. Makes a real good
connection that way and it's easy to unconnect too. Only thing is, you gotta
keep that nut there twisted on tight. I always check that from time to time
cause when you're out boating it tends to unwind. Take two more clips and
slip one on each of the two bungee cords. They'll move up and down and make
a nice sound as you boat around. They come in handy for other things too,
you'll see what I mean soon enough.
It occurs to me now that you might want to know what makes the boat go.
You. You paddle. Simple as that, but there's lots of different ways. Some
guys do it kayak style, others more like a canoe. Mostly you hold the pole
in the middle, both hands together, though a one-hand paddle comes in handy
if you got other things to do at the time. When the current's strong or
the waves start to rise it's mostly an over the top kind of motion. In calmer
water you can paddle to the side. Whatever works best is the best way to
go, there's plenty of ways to paddle a boat and the more that you do it
the more that there are.
Look, here's another picture that might help some. It's a one section boat seen from the side. That's me in the stern though I can't tell who it is working the bow. Who is it Beau, Boji maybe? Kurtz perhaps? Oh I see now, it's Bartholomew. Interesting Beau, you don't often see us two together. Anyway, that's how boats all work, one in the bow and one in the stern, facing the same single way.
