A very unusual Voyage

[boatpoker]

Somewhere around 2005/2006 I was delivering a 570 Carver from Georgian Bay to Toronto. On the Trent Severn system one night I docked next to a fella in a 20' wooden, open boat ... looked kinda like a runabout but very unusual. I struck up a conversation with the fella and got a tour (20 seconds). The boat was homebuilt and powered with a Mazda car engine that he had kitted out with a jet drive. His reason for such a curious power train .... it was all he could afford and it had been assembled from whatever bits he could get his hands on.

He launched the boat in Wind River, Wyoming and apparently had to push her through several miles of shallows. He ran her through the rivers, through the Great Lakes, down the St.Lawrence, around Nova Scotia and down the east coast to the Bahamas. His hope is to reach lower South America.

I just recently heard from him and that prompted this post. His name is Spike Hampson, a fascinating guy and his website is a fascinating read.

 

[Al]

Boatpoker- Started to read this amazing story. You were blessed to have had an opportunity to meet him. I have transferred this to my email account to hold for rainy day reading,
thanks for including.
Al- Ketchikan (Bridge to Nowhere)-Alaska

 

[Daddyo]

Great link, thanks!!

 

[Irdiverdan]

Wow..great story...thanks for posting...

 

[jwnall]

Many thanks for passing that link on. It is refreshing to read something like that.

John

 

[AusCan]

Nice to hear of adventures like this.

I met a fellow who stayed at a guest house we used to run, who canoed with his buddy from Winnipeg, up the Red River system, then down the Mississippi. When they got to the Gulf of Mexico, they picked up a sponsor and continued around the Gulf of Mexico, down to South America. They eventually called it quits near Sao Paulo after getting overturned a few times, and robbed a couple times.

You gotta love adventure seekers like that.

 

[CaptTom]

Many years ago, I was putting down the river in my 16' lapstrake Thompson and saw a guy in a wooden dinghy, rowing. Towed behind him was a +/- 35' sailing catamaran. He had just finished building both boats himself. He was making no progress against the flood tide, so we offered to give him a tow. We asked where he was going. "I don't know. Maybe North, maybe South" was the answer.

He had no engine, no nav lights, no radio, no battery. He had a couple 5-gallon jugs of water and a small amount of food.

I always wondered what happened to that guy. If he survived (and I would have bet against it) he must have some stories to tell.