Reflections on travel
05/01/19 05:16
For years I have used a line that goes something like this: If you find yourself looking for a bigger boat, perhaps you should find a smaller lake. We have an inbuilt urge to go faster and to use bigger and better means of transportation, but there are other ways to think about how we get around. I’ve been paddling on a tiny reservoir in South Dakota for more than two decades, and there is still a lot for me to explore. I know the shoreline of that lake by heart, but there are always new things to see. Because my boats are small, it takes more than an hour to paddle all the way around the shoreline of the lake, tucking into each little cove and inlet. I can and have paddled directly across the lake when the goal is to get to the other side, but when I have time, I prefer to simply explore. The beavers change the shape of the area where the creek flows into the reservoir. The eagles choose different trees in different years. The fish may be rising in one part of the lake one day and another the next.
Boats lend themselves well to going slow. A displacement hull is most efficient traveling at a relatively slow speed. In boats that don’t plane, smaller engines can move them using relatively small amounts of fuel. Of course, for those who want or need speed, boats can be designed to go very fast, but simply adding more horsepower works only up to a certain point. Traveling through water involves tremendous amounts of drag. The solution for speed boats is to get the hull out of the water, reducing drag. The shape of the hull of the boat can make a great difference. Long and narrow boats travel through the water easier than short and wide ones. Racing boats are designed to hydroplane, rising out of the water. Some practically skim across the surface rather than penetrating deep into the water.
My kayaks are very efficient boats. One of my boats is 17 and a half feet long and only about 26 inches wide at its widest point. It paddles with very little effort. It is hard to turn at slow speeds, but it only takes a few paddle strokes to gain enough speed to maneuver. That boat is slightly unstable when sitting still in the water and rolls easily. However, add a bit of speed and it seems to be very stable. The instability is one of the costs of speed. I have another boat that is only 11 feet long and is several inches wider in the cockpit. That boat is nearly impossible to roll. I can lean all the way over and it only tips slightly. It is easy to turn, but a bit slower in straight paddling. The laws of physics place limitations on boats. All boat owners learn to make compromises. Some of us decide that we need more than one boat to satisfy different conditions. I wouldn’t take my sea kayaks down the creek, and my creek boat is only fun to paddle on flat water when I am playing and practicing. It isn’t much good for just straight paddling across the lake.
I think that the most apt comparison for a technique to go slow on land might be a bicycle. The technology gives mechanical advantage to muscle power, but when it comes to practical speeds for bicycles, somewhere less than 30 miles per hour is most efficient. It takes longer to cover a distance, but the slow pace enables you to see more. My mother and brother both made some epic journeys on bicycles. My brother has crossed the United States at least four times by bike. The price of that kind of journey is time, which I’ve never been willing to invest at this point in my life.
We experienced a bit of the trade off earlier this week when we ended up driving the last 400 miles of a trip we had planned to travel by flying. The route of the roads is a bit longer than the distance needed to fly directly, but a car trip takes roughly six hours while the ride in an airliner takes about one hour. Given the amount of time that is required for airport security and travel to and from the airport, the time savings isn’t quite five hours, but it is significant. I suppose that we accomplished less work because we took more time to travel, but those things are a bit hard to measure. Traveling by car gave us time for conversation that we wouldn’t have had if we had flown. And we got to watch the antelope, spot a couple of eagles, enjoy the vistas of Wyoming and see things from a different perspective than we would have looking out of an airline window.
As energy prices climb, a very practical solution for transportation is to travel a bit shorter distance and to go at a slower pace. There re other factors. Large public transportation vehicles that cary many people use less energy per person than small personal vehicles. But the general rule of going slower and traveling shorter distances still applies.
So far, however, I’m unwilling to restrict myself to the short distances. Our son lives 1200 miles away and his three children are our only grandchildren at this time. For now we want to make that trip as often as possible. And he is the closest of our children. Our daughter and her husband live in Japan, over 5,300 miles from our home. When we went to visit them, We drove 1200 miles, took a long airline trip, then traveled on three different trains. The adventure did nothing to make us want to travel less. Given the restraints of time and money, we’ll do it again when we are able.
There are no simple solutions to our consumption of energy. We try to be prudent, but sometimes the urge for extravagances seizes us.
Still, I’m a big fan of small boats. That’s not going to change. My wife, however, has vetoed plans to paddle to Japan. She’s right to do so. I don’t have that many years left in my life.
Boats lend themselves well to going slow. A displacement hull is most efficient traveling at a relatively slow speed. In boats that don’t plane, smaller engines can move them using relatively small amounts of fuel. Of course, for those who want or need speed, boats can be designed to go very fast, but simply adding more horsepower works only up to a certain point. Traveling through water involves tremendous amounts of drag. The solution for speed boats is to get the hull out of the water, reducing drag. The shape of the hull of the boat can make a great difference. Long and narrow boats travel through the water easier than short and wide ones. Racing boats are designed to hydroplane, rising out of the water. Some practically skim across the surface rather than penetrating deep into the water.
My kayaks are very efficient boats. One of my boats is 17 and a half feet long and only about 26 inches wide at its widest point. It paddles with very little effort. It is hard to turn at slow speeds, but it only takes a few paddle strokes to gain enough speed to maneuver. That boat is slightly unstable when sitting still in the water and rolls easily. However, add a bit of speed and it seems to be very stable. The instability is one of the costs of speed. I have another boat that is only 11 feet long and is several inches wider in the cockpit. That boat is nearly impossible to roll. I can lean all the way over and it only tips slightly. It is easy to turn, but a bit slower in straight paddling. The laws of physics place limitations on boats. All boat owners learn to make compromises. Some of us decide that we need more than one boat to satisfy different conditions. I wouldn’t take my sea kayaks down the creek, and my creek boat is only fun to paddle on flat water when I am playing and practicing. It isn’t much good for just straight paddling across the lake.
I think that the most apt comparison for a technique to go slow on land might be a bicycle. The technology gives mechanical advantage to muscle power, but when it comes to practical speeds for bicycles, somewhere less than 30 miles per hour is most efficient. It takes longer to cover a distance, but the slow pace enables you to see more. My mother and brother both made some epic journeys on bicycles. My brother has crossed the United States at least four times by bike. The price of that kind of journey is time, which I’ve never been willing to invest at this point in my life.
We experienced a bit of the trade off earlier this week when we ended up driving the last 400 miles of a trip we had planned to travel by flying. The route of the roads is a bit longer than the distance needed to fly directly, but a car trip takes roughly six hours while the ride in an airliner takes about one hour. Given the amount of time that is required for airport security and travel to and from the airport, the time savings isn’t quite five hours, but it is significant. I suppose that we accomplished less work because we took more time to travel, but those things are a bit hard to measure. Traveling by car gave us time for conversation that we wouldn’t have had if we had flown. And we got to watch the antelope, spot a couple of eagles, enjoy the vistas of Wyoming and see things from a different perspective than we would have looking out of an airline window.
As energy prices climb, a very practical solution for transportation is to travel a bit shorter distance and to go at a slower pace. There re other factors. Large public transportation vehicles that cary many people use less energy per person than small personal vehicles. But the general rule of going slower and traveling shorter distances still applies.
So far, however, I’m unwilling to restrict myself to the short distances. Our son lives 1200 miles away and his three children are our only grandchildren at this time. For now we want to make that trip as often as possible. And he is the closest of our children. Our daughter and her husband live in Japan, over 5,300 miles from our home. When we went to visit them, We drove 1200 miles, took a long airline trip, then traveled on three different trains. The adventure did nothing to make us want to travel less. Given the restraints of time and money, we’ll do it again when we are able.
There are no simple solutions to our consumption of energy. We try to be prudent, but sometimes the urge for extravagances seizes us.
Still, I’m a big fan of small boats. That’s not going to change. My wife, however, has vetoed plans to paddle to Japan. She’s right to do so. I don’t have that many years left in my life.