Trying to go from Florida to Cuba in an outrigger canoe

Tim Anderson write the "Heirloom Technology" column for MAKE magazine. It's one of my favorite parts of the magazine, because Tim travels to remote locations with makeshift equipment and tries to learn how the locals have adapted to harsh conditions. In MAKE Vol. 3 (coming out in a couple of months), Tim writes about his experiences with "swamp technology" as he spends time exploring the Florida Everglades on a solo mission.

In 2003, Tim attempted to solo sail from Florida to Cuba in an outrigger canoe. After his rudder broke, he drifted off course and had a rough time. He started hallucinating -- the sails and the waves began speaking to him, offering useful advice to help him out of his predicament.

By this time I was pretty wiped out. I was seeing personality in everything around me. In my mind I asked the sails what they thought. 


"Well, you could try something different?" they asked.


"Such as?" 


"Moving around?"

I thought that was a little weird because I was already far back on the hull and that wasn't holding the bow up. I sat out on the beam, putting my weight on the outrigger. It made the bow pop up just a little bit and quit hitting the waves so hard. 


"What else have you got for me?" I asked.


"What else is there?" they replied. 


Me: "Two sails and an oar?" 


They: "What can you do with the oar?"


Me: "Pry on it? Watch it bend?"


They: "Just grab it at the thick part. See the difference?"


It was pretty amazing. Flex in the oar shaft was apparently a bad thing. Grabbing the thick part made a huge difference. The canoe went faster and didn't plow as much.


And so on. It worked so well I started paying attention to what the waves were saying too. I learned a bunch of new tricks. I pushed the outrigger down and that somehow popped the bow up. I bounced just before waves, and that popped the bow up. I held the oar at the thick part and worked it at an angle that pushed the stern down and that did the same thing. I worked the oar in time to the waves instead of just holding it steady, and the waves gave me a lot of help. Before long I was flying along toward shore.

His story is online and is a great read. Link