Yesterday was an emotional day for me - Beaufort lost his last puppy canine tooth remaining in his lower jaw, and in doing so marked his first real step into adolescence. Still as active as he has ever been, he still is growing and in testing his limits shows his expanding abilities to try us - and love us.
   He will never be a puppy again. Reality is sometimes difficult to appreciate, as I try to get in as much loving as his life with me will allow. I can't turn back the clock, but I can bask in the memories - and his bright future.
   

 

   So the question is raised as to how a Service Dog and an Arctic Kayaq are connected, especially in this blog?
   Raised on Kodiak Island, the Brown Bear capital of the world, I am often asked what the best bear protection is. Out of several answers from bear spray (pepper spray on steriods) to a very large rifle, my first choice is a good dog. Better companionship, alarm system, and response time. No fumbling - the dog has it down, and it isn't the mean ones that I've found to be the best. You want a confident, loyal friend out there, because when the bear pops out of nowhere (and they are quite good at it) you want your first line of defense on top of his game. When the bear is in full charge is no time for buck fever. 
   And the wonderful thing is, blood is seldom if ever lost over the issue. My dogs have stood down at least two boar brownies, the sow mentioned in the article previous, a blackie that went after my children, and untold aversions cleared along the trail - and each time the bear left without a fight. Upset and noisy, thrashing the woods in frustration on occasion, but never with any injuries. Wildly pulsating coronary arteries, perhaps, but the pup was cool, and everyone came out better than the alternatives... 
   So as the shop expands to accommodate the extra workload, he grows and learns - as we bond together into the team we will need to thrive. The Kayaq's design is configured to accommodate us, supplies pondered, procedures thought out. 
   A work in progress that evolves around the heart of my friends...

  
   

   He grew - fast. In less than two weeks he was pushing over three pounds - and by four weeks he was out in the bush following whatever adventure his nose could find.
   

 

And by ten weeks he was in the Veteran's Hospital in New York helping to heal the wounded.

Jonathan's gift was quickly proving his worth, maturing into the intelligent powerfully motivating companion of service that would build the foundation of healing that drugs and human mistherapy could never provide. Only the heart can reach another heart - and this pup was confirming he had that courage in abundance. 

Little did we realize how much - but we were soon to find out.

Beaufort Arctic Sea - A Service Dog Comes of Age

   One thing the Arctic teaches you is the value of responsible companionship. And as I usually travel alone, my companion is most often a canine friend. I don't know if it's just the influence of my Army years during Vietnam, or the way I was raised, but as an Alaskan at a young age I learned to appreciate the value of a good dog's defense senses, and unswerving loyalty.
   In bear country especially, this holds true - and it isn't the mean dogs I've found to be the most protective. Balou, my 107 lb. Landseer Newfoundland was a teddy bear - until the day we stumbled on a Kodiak Brown bear sow with three yearling cubs. He leaped between her full charge and I, bellowing a roar that I had never heard come from his big chest before. She actually came to a scidding halt - then with his second roar turned and, smacking one of her cubs on the rear, disappeared over the embankment and down the mountainside. There's no doubt in my military mind where I wouldn't be today without him.

So When our big Chessy-Shepherd, Sailor passed in February of last year, I had a hard time with the loss. My Wife was supportive, but it was my friendship in the Arctic with Jonathan Nettelfield that turned the tide for us. He kindly Advised me that when Dougal, his prize Yellow Lab, sired another litter, that I would have the pick of the puppies.

It was a long wait as the appropriate time drew near, but the miracle came to our Mother Earth just four days before my 65th birthday. More like a gerbil than a puppy, Beaufort Arctic Sea was far from looking like the promising dog that we knew would one day be our companion, and my Service Dog - but there he was. Reality could not have been sweeter and more exciting even with his helpless beginning. 

                                                                               

   And with the miracle of his first breath, one of only three to survive, our dreams were born with him. Beaufort Arctic Sea was our new beginning, and our hopes grew with his every dawning day. 
   But even with that joy, we had no idea how special he would prove to be. That gift Beaufort would grant us in his own wonderful way - one glowing day at a time. 
   This is the story of our journey together. And what he's giving me.  - WKD
 

Oaring Engines, Course of Ice

   In the attempt to navigate one's way through a physical barrier some interesting things come to light, especially if you are trying to get around a pack of shifting ice. A small vessel depends more upon your own resources due to it's limitations of size than a larger one with some mass to push it's way through. 
No brainer there, of course.
   Understanding that navigation is in reality the art of utilizing the mathematics in natural phenomenon to reach a given objective, it is still good if the "natural phenomenon" cooperates, at least to some degree. But if it gets stubborn, as it often has a tendency to do, it helps to know that dealing with the unknowns in your direction doesn't require for one to remain lost as an option, especially when working out the more healthy equations of survival. It is, after all, how efficiently you master the use of the knowledge available to you that determines the accuracy of your position.
   And your chances of getting through.

   The method of propulsion with a kayaq is usually the type of paddles you employ, though some have been known to sail with a marginal degree of success, despite the obvious limitations in stability. Recently, however, in getting together with a gentleman from Minnesota, Mike Nesseth (proprietor of EZ-ROW Inc. and the designer of his patented oaring engine <www.ez-row.com> ), I have had the privilege of acquiring a beefed up alternative in his simplified and quite efficient forward facing oaring engine. It operates as would a rowing machine in an exercise gym, but you are propelling the boat forward while facing forward, engaging your whole body in the act of moving your craft versus your upper body only as with paddling a conventional canoe or kayaq. The kayaq has to be designed for the increased beam and corresponding length to beam hull contours, but conventional canoes can utilize the unit as it comes. The advantages are obvious, and this machine, while lightweight, is simpler than any other I've seen available and much stronger.
   Keilidgh Irene will benefit in greater and more efficient use of her lines - and the old war dog will gain an edge that age will appreciate. Everything still works - it's just good to keep everything working together. Harmony in the joints is everything, especially when they are the only team you will have to rely on.
   So as the season of consideration for others comes with some degree of concern across the world, we find in the reminders of our own human limitations how much we really need the peace. The strength we give each other comes back to care for the giver several times over - not a bad investment, really, when one considers how isolated you can quickly become in a field of ice.

  Merry Christmas!
                          - WKD   
      
    

Crystal Daggers...

   A vision now, beneath my arm responds 
                                              to   
   The touches of a caring heart;
   Hand extended, strength imparted 
   Gently, eagerly reaching upward,
                                     Outward
   Expanding into her promised horizons with
   Gathering maturity, 
                              and
                                    Flowing grace.
   Reality the Tempering of her Soul,
                                                  as
                                                      Her
   Responsibility beckons, to where others
                                    tried to go
                                                   and
                                                         did not return...

   The sober realization of why she's been created leaves me pondering the implications of a dream, and the consequences of reality. This brief review video of the first expedition has all of the imperfections you'd expect of an amateur, but it gives a candid portrayal of the frustrations, the lure, and the ice...and what I must ask of her. From the wonders of the caribou amidst the intrusion of man, the Arctic in her purpose still has command...to see the full video, go to <www.youtube.com> , and into "Arctic Lightship - 1997 - 1998 Arctic Passage", or go to <http://youtu.be/c3Dvhi7JNxw> .
   

  
   I have never in all the years of boat design and construction ever regretted that extra effort to do something the best way I can. So every frame, tie, and piece of wood is inspected for alignment, strength and purpose. 
   Never done and never perfect is an admonition, not an excuse.
   So the construction continued, until she was a completed frame, ready for the first rays of the summer sun to bake a well oiled finish into the protective armor she will need before the covering - and an unexpected debut...

   

   

    
                                                                               
   

                                                   
    
   

   

  

   Here she is on display at the Art Gallery in the Calais, Maine Library, surrounded by my wife's paintings. Kim is a very dedicated landscape artist, and her seascapes kept our Kayaq in peaceful and beautiful company.
   And so it begins again...- WKD 

Blood of the Sea

   Beneath my arms she rests, quiet,
  Peaceful in her patience, awaits
  The Life that surrounds her, protects her,
  Gently shaping her majesty to come.

  Creature of the Living Sea, Shaped
  Of Struggle, Chaos brought to law
  of Art and Freedoms, Battles won,
  The whale's Blood not lost in Song
 
  But carried boldly, caring firmly

  A World Unknown to us on Land -

  Perfect in their sphere of Justice,

  Mercy's Sword defending Hand

  Thus gives a Birth anew the Hope

  Of living ever with the Sea

  That molds the Life of things to come

  And Creates the Love She soon will be.

                                     - WKDe Vaney

   Trust that a major surgery can alter the course of one's being, but that being said, it doesn't have to be without it's benefits. So has it been for me - a defective joint about to fail completely, completely removed and replaced. I am jokingly referred to as the "Bionic Boatbuilder" now, as that hip is now Titanium and Cobalt steel. It works better than the original, and has given this old Veteran a new lease on life. So, with that renewed energy, I am back in the shop, to finish what I started. My Wife is pleased, And so am I.

   A lot has been happening, as the work continues with Kielidgh Irene. It would seem odd that a Norwegian designer of over 100 years ago could have led me to an appreciation of the genius behind the design and construction techniques of the People of the Arctic, but such it is. Colin Archer was well know for his sea worthy double enders, and his designs were extensively used for the rescue boats that served Norway during the turn of the last century.

   In John Leather's book "Colin Archer and the Seaworthy Double-ender", Colin's exceptional abilities are explained with the very vessels he designed.

   In review of the reasoning behind his country's considerable sea sense, I couldn't help but refelct on my own experience with the council offered to me by my own mentor, Norwegian Naval Architect Ben F. Jensen. He sent me into the shipyards and boatyards for several years before I began to seriously design, and the process of this experience exposed me to the attributes of many boat characteristics, throughout the world. Ben and Colin brought me into a whole new world of boat design, a fisherman who learned from the masters what a good boat really had to offer.

   So, in this process you learn that design follows function. And that goes for something even as humble as a Kayaq. Especially for the Kayaq, as it 's design and function often determines by the quality of it's build and characteristics, whether the kayaqer lives or dies. Of all, she is exposed to the most uncompromising conditions for her size of any boat out there, and has the greatest demands upon her expectations. Because she is the families' means of survival - if she fails, you starve. If she fails completely, you don't live long enough to starve.

   It's really just that simple.

   Having grown up in that way of life, I can appreciate the qualities that make a subsistence kayaq the unique and beautiful vessel she is. She adapts to the elements as the creature of the sea that she is, and with the creatures she must live with as well. Kielidgh Irene will flow with the whales and the sea lions as her predecessors have before her, those with myself, and with the memories of those ancestors who have gone before us. We can hardly appreciate the difficulties of the life they endured - but can give them the respect through her lines that their experience has imparted through their legacy. I hope to do it well.

   So with heart in the future of her past, She takes shape. And begins to breathe.

   She is shaped from the land, a creation of the material that gives her life.

   The ash ripped down for the frames and paddles is cured, as the pine knee from last fall is brought out for shaping into the critical deck beam for which it was harvested.

   Then, the shaping begins...

  

   

  

   Once the knee is measured and fit to set into the notches created for it's acceptance on the gun'l, then the forward Spruce ridge pole for the deck is set into place, the unit becoming a whole...

   These pictures were taken as the final fitting was being done, after the steam and boiling of the frames into place. That was a chore in itself, as the green ash had to be quarter sawn to allow for the grain to run flat with the bend. Then the steam box was fired up, and once the box itself was operational, as explained in a previous article, they were pulled and bent into place. The bow frames were the most difficult, and had to be boiled to take the additional stress of the more radical bends...

   Once the frames are trimmed and set into place, however, the jungle becomes more civilized, and the work begins to make more sense...

   Here is where the real ingenuity of the People comes out. In the areas where the seaways they had to navigate were choppy and short, twisting their kayaqs' framework against itself, the friction of the frames rubbing against the keel could become a serious problem. The chaffing wood often began to loosen as it pulled itself apart.

   To solve this problem, the ancients would inlay a small piece of polished ivory into the keel, under the frame before they were tied together, thus protecting the secured pieces as the frame rested upon the polished ivory instead of being in direct contact with the keel.

   As a scrimshaw artist legally allowed to work in fossilized ivory, I have on hand the opportunity to incorporate this advantage into Kielidgh Irene as well. So my usual artistic practice

   is challenged in a new and diverse way, as I set into her frame, the symbolic scrimmed ivory of her heritage.

   Once embedded into the notch provided in the keel, the frame is set into place over the 3/4 inch square piece of scrimmed ivory, and then secured as a unit covering the tiny artwork of the boat's practical character.

   The knee supporting the byforcated bow is set into place with treenails, and the entire bow unit lashed together with fresh lashing lines. Here is the one important break from tradition, as I must resort to nylon for this task. Much stronger, however, lasts longer - and doesn't rot. A definite plus.

   With the oak trailboards secured in a like manner into the bow framework, the little kayaq begins to feel the hope of life stirring within her.

   She is ever closer to her destiny, the ice of her progenitors calling her back into the rhythm of the Arctic seas...

  

     - WKD